Bord Gais

gerrycollins

Still raging.

A few weeks ago we got a letter in from Bord Gais saying that we were late paying our bill. it was 4 days after the date required to pay.

Now we pay our bill in two installments each month as we are paid. We have never carried over a bill into the next and we are not in arrears. Even when we were unemployed it was the one bill we paid up every time.

Now we get a letter stating that we are going to be cut off for arrears of €47.

I was raging and I rang them to be told the letter was system generated and I was over my 14 days(fair enough I know) but we are never in arrears with them. I told them it was not on and unfair and it was paramount to bullying.

Bord Gais are entering a stage where they are now bullying people with these threats which even though they carry no current weight, its no less than bullying.

Diziet

I am not sure what you mean by two instalments each month. If you are paying after the date it is required, then you would be in arrears.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

While I fully understand the situation and see your point of view on this, I think your calling them Bullies, and saying their behaviour is bullying, is disengenous. Accounts not paid by the due date are in arrears and any company is entitled to follow up as laid down in their terms & conditions. I also think calling this bullying is unfair to those who genuinely suffer at the hands of bullies.

gerrycollins

Diziet wrote: »

I am not sure what you mean by two instalments each month. If you are paying after the date it is required, then you would be in arrears.

sorry, one installment each month. While I acknowledge that I am over due with my bill versus the due date they can see from their records that I never let a bill spill into the next one and owe them nothing other than my current bill.

Even the customer service agent I called said I wouldnt be cut off however I think their tactics on their good(If you can call me that) customers are very strong armed to say the least.

keithclancy

gerrycollins wrote: »

sorry, one installment each month. While I acknowledge that I am over due with my bill versus the due date they can see from their records that I never let a bill spill into the next one and owe them nothing other than my current bill.

Even the customer service agent I called said I wouldnt be cut off however I think their tactics on their good(If you can call me that) customers are very strong armed to say the least.

If you pay your bill after the 'due date' you are in arrears.

Simple as.

Standard practise, you don't pay our bill, you recieve a letter advising you may be disconnected etc.

gerrycollins

keithclancy wrote: »

If you pay your bill after the 'due date' you are in arrears.

Simple as.

Standard practise, you don't pay our bill, you recieve a letter advising you may be disconnected etc.

have been paying the same method for 2 years or more and this is the first time I've been sent letters.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

gerrycollins wrote: »

have been paying the same method for 2 years or more and this is the first time I've been sent letters.

Times are getting tougher, even for large utility companies. They need
cashflow and you are blocking it. Stands to reason they will pursue outstanding accounts more rigorously nowadays.

MitchKoobski

gerrycollins wrote: »

Still raging.

A few weeks ago we got a letter in from Bord Gais saying that we were late paying our bill. it was 4 days after the date required to pay.

Now we pay our bill in two installments each month as we are paid. We have never carried over a bill into the next and we are not in arrears. Even when we were unemployed it was the one bill we paid up every time.

Now we get a letter stating that we are going to be cut off for arrears of €47.

I was raging and I rang them to be told the letter was system generated and I was over my 14 days(fair enough I know) but we are never in arrears with them. I told them it was not on and unfair and it was paramount to bullying.

Bord Gais are entering a stage where they are now bullying people with these threats which even though they carry no current weight, its no less than bullying.

It was automatically generated by the system. No one made the decision to look at your account and go "hahaha we'll send him an arrears letter!". You were over your 14 days anyway. It doesn't matter if you were never in arrears before. You didn't have it paid by the 14 days so the system automatically generated and sent you an arrears letter. You're not being bullied.
Tbh for you to give out on the phone to some poor soul in a call centre about an automatic system that they can't do anything about, then you're the bully.

maxer68

To be fair to Bord Gais, they seem to have been extremely lenient on many people who could not pay their bills due to unemployment and other reasons. They also adopted a policy of no cut offs in last winters weather where many a private company would not have done.

They have also written off parts of bills to help many genuine hardship cases. (I've seen it first hand with some volunteer work i did recently)

As has been said, these are purely computer generated letters and if you have everything in train, you can simply ignore them and not let the letters affect you.

But for calling them bullies, I think its very very wide off the mark.

dudara

I've edited the thread title to remove your strong reference - as I do feel that it was uncalled for.

dudara

Priori

Perhaps everything should be based on pay-as-you-go (in terms of residential energy usage) and then people might actually realise that the system currently in place is quite generous, when compared to, say, how you're expected to pay your broadband/digital tv bills.

Bord Gáis can hardly be considered bullies for pursuing money they need to keep afloat.

Carlos Purring Scallop wrote:

Times are getting tougher, even for large utility companies. They need
cashflow and you are blocking it. Stands to reason they will pursue outstanding accounts more rigorously nowadays.

Exactly.

sendit

gerrycollins wrote: »

Still raging.

A few weeks ago we got a letter in from Bord Gais saying that we were late paying our bill. it was 4 days after the date required to pay.

Now we pay our bill in two installments each month as we are paid. We have never carried over a bill into the next and we are not in arrears. Even when we were unemployed it was the one bill we paid up every time.

Now we get a letter stating that we are going to be cut off for arrears of €47.

I was raging and I rang them to be told the letter was system generated and I was over my 14 days(fair enough I know) but we are never in arrears with them. I told them it was not on and unfair and it was paramount to bullying.

Bord Gais are entering a stage where they are now bullying people with these threats which even though they carry no current weight, its no less than bullying.

How are they bulling people? You didn't pay your bill on time so what did you think would happen? Just because you've paid on time before doesn't make you any different if you have an over due payment.

Once again someone making an issue out of noting

syklops

gerrycollins wrote: »

sorry, one installment each month. While I acknowledge that I am over due with my bill versus the due date they can see from their records that I never let a bill spill into the next one and owe them nothing other than my current bill.

Even the customer service agent I called said I wouldnt be cut off however I think their tactics on their good(If you can call me that) customers are very strong armed to say the least.

A human might read that, but I bet their computers can not read that, hence the system generated letter.

Dont engage, dont ring them, dont give out. Just continue with your system if it works for you. Life is too short.

jiggerypokery

Computer generated letter, what a load of cobblers. The "system" decided 14 days was enough before threatening to cut off. As for cash flow nearly 2.5 million pre tax profits a day. The op is paying his way but the utility companies are piling on pressure making sure they get paid before anyone else