Airtricity customers beware

hoyden

Electricity bills are not the most exciting things to read, but my husband noticed recently that our Airtricity rates seemed to be quite high compared to the ESB despite all the advertising to the contrary. We went online, logged into our own account and the tariff information there did not align at all to what was being charged on our bill. There is no information regarding any other tariff plans on the site.

The rate on our bill went down from the 1st May 2009 (which is aligned to the timing of when they brought out new rates resulting in up to 13% savings versus the ESB), so I thought we were on the new tariffs. After much toing and froing with customer care, it transpires that old (read loyal) customers are being charged up to 30% more than new customer per KWH. They have offered to move me onto the new tariff (from 15.57c per KWH to 12c or so), so existing customers can move if you want to - you just need to tell them rather than being stupid like me and thinking that if a company advertises one set of rates, that's what you are charged as a customer.

I rang the Consumer Advice crowd and to be honest, they may as well have been working for Airtricity for all the help/understanding they provided.

wmpdd3

hoyden wrote: »

Electricity bills are not the most exciting things to read, but my husband noticed recently that our Airtricity rates seemed to be quite high compared to the ESB despite all the advertising to the contrary. We went online, logged into our own account and the tariff information there did not align at all to what was being charged on our bill. There is no information regarding any other tariff plans on the site.

The rate on our bill went down from the 1st May 2009 (which is aligned to the timing of when they brought out new rates resulting in up to 13% savings versus the ESB), so I thought we were on the new tariffs. After much toing and froing with customer care, it transpires that old (read loyal) customers are being charged up to 30% more than new customer per KWH. They have offered to move me onto the new tariff (from 15.57c per KWH to 12c or so), so existing customers can move if you want to - you just need to tell them rather than being stupid like me and thinking that if a company advertises one set of rates, that's what you are charged as a customer.

I rang the Consumer Advice crowd and to be honest, they may as well have been working for Airtricity for all the help/understanding they provided.

I'm afraid you answered your own question, "Electricity bills are not the most exciting things to read,"

The rate NTL are offering for broadband is less than I am paying but I don't want the 12 month contract.

You could threaten closing your account in a bid for a refund of the difference in the two tarrifs.

ash2020

anybody else having prolems trying to LOG into their online account over the last 3 days??

click on the logo "Log into your online account" and Nothing hapens, yet everything else on theire site seems working fine

http://www.airtricity.ie/ireland/

eman66

Yep, it's broked alright.