Airtricity - Big mistake!!!

dudara

@All Posters -enough of the squabbling (which is what this is). Stick to the question asked - which is advising the OP on how to best manage the debt (which they acknowledge) they owe to Airtricity.

dudara

foggy_lad

sendit wrote: »

As i said in another post you know your going to get a bill every 2 months and if you dont and wait 6 months before you do anything what do you think is going to happen? Airtricity should be sending there bills etc on time yes but its up to the person to highlight a mistake as soon as they think something is up

But with the direct debit and online billing there is no bill every two months and if the company tell you they will take funds every 2 months to cover your bills why should you not trust them unless they are total incompetants?

If I set up a direct debit I check every month, in fact I have several set up on my account and I know when each is due and have calculated roughly how much some will be as the others are set amounts.

If I notice a problem I contact the bank and get them to do a chargeback immediately as the amount is disputed, or if there is nothing taken I wait a few days before contacting the company, If they dont respond in writing with an apology and written undertaking that they will in future act in accordance with the direct debit guarantee I just cancel the direct debit and pay in the post office.

Bord gais have tried to charge me a deposit untill I reminded them that they failed to abide by the guarantee they signed up to when they accepted my direct debits as payment.

drBill

rameire wrote: »

Just to let you know, you can revise your bill when you are on dd.
I have been able to do it with the ESB, BG, and Flogas,
anytime I get an estimated bill I contact the firm and advise of the correct reading and they then amend my bill and the direct debit.

Ok, valid point. Yes as long as you see the bill on time and get the correct reading in before the DD is taken from your account you should be ok. But you really have to stay vigilant about your DDs.

Thanks.

Dublin_Gunner

Technically, if they do not provide you with a bill (by either post or email) and take the DD's on schedule (both of which would have been provisions of the contract you signed with them) they are in breach of that contract and you are under no obligation to pay.

Now, saying that, if it went to court there would certainly be no argument that the money is owed for the services provided, but they would certainly have to accept some form of payment plan to pay it off.

I'm also with Airtricity (not that long) and they DD's about €300 from my account without providing a bill of any sort. I'm going to wait until my next one is due before calling them with my meter reading and ensuring they send me bills in future or I'll be cancelling my DD and moving to ESB.

To think in this day and age that a supposedly large company cannot even bill their customers properly is beyond a joke TBH.

sendit

foggy_lad wrote: »

But with the direct debit and online billing there is no bill every two months and if the company tell you they will take funds every 2 months to cover your bills why should you not trust them unless they are total incompetants?

If I set up a direct debit I check every month, in fact I have several set up on my account and I know when each is due and have calculated roughly how much some will be as the others are set amounts.

If I notice a problem I contact the bank and get them to do a chargeback immediately as the amount is disputed, or if there is nothing taken I wait a few days before contacting the company, If they dont respond in writing with an apology and written undertaking that they will in future act in accordance with the direct debit guarantee I just cancel the direct debit and pay in the post office.

Bord gais have tried to charge me a deposit untill I reminded them that they failed to abide by the guarantee they signed up to when they accepted my direct debits as payment.

With the online bill you dont get sent a bill in the post but you do by email and you do get a bill in the post if you pay by DD same as ESB or anyone ealse.

What im saying is if you notice money not coming out of your account when it should then you should let them know yourself as soon as you notice it insteed of waiting 6 months and having a huge bill

CraftDaft

well seabre
I guess people cant read or they just want something to give out about. I am amazed at the response that you have received. I am worried now as i made the same change and have received only one bill but i do have a DD with them. Of course i should have known it was too good to be true.
Im off to check this out. Hope you have success with this. I agreed that they should contact me by post. If such basic procedures are a problem for them then I am really worried.
Regards

CJhaughey

I was with ESB and signed up to Airtricity early 2010, I was in a very similar situation to the OP except I didn't have quite as big a bill.
But the continued nuisance of having to call CS and explain that the payment had been taken refused because it had been taken early or late and the €300 deposit after 2 failed DD attempts soured the deal for me.
I can't say that I like the way they do business. It might work for some but for me it was actually a lot more hassle then just paying the ESB online every 2 mths.
I changed back recently to the ESB and find it much easier. They send a bill, and if it is not accurate you ring them and they send an updated bill the next day. Easy.

foggy_lad

sendit wrote: »

With the online bill you dont get sent a bill in the post but you do by email and you do get a bill in the post if you pay by DD same as ESB or anyone ealse.

What im saying is if you notice money not coming out of your account when it should then you should let them know yourself as soon as you notice it insteed of waiting 6 months and having a huge bill

some people would not notice money not going out of their account as easily as they would with an incorrect amount, so the months can easily build up.

Anyway the best way to handle this for the op is to write to the company detailing the issues and correspondance to date, they should then propose a payment method and schedule so maybe €5/week or €40/bi-monthly paid in the post office. they should also start to pay the proposed amount weekly or bi-monthly.

I would also request that the company only contact you in writing regarding this issue and provide a written statement after each payment recieved.

The company may not accept your proposed plan but by rejecting it they are putting themselves at risk of being seen as unreasonable in any court proceedings they initiate to recover the money owed.

Shosh

I also was told i owe 780 euro and i offered to pay 20 euro a month off it and they refused and said i could pay 69 euro a month or nothing!

galwaygirl2

I think some people are being v hard on the op. Like some of the more helpful posts say pay what you can when you can. I also joined airtricity in April 2010 with a rep who came to the door. He wrote a lot of my information down incorrectly including my email address so I couldnt register my account for a while but once that was sorted I was v happy with airtricity. Until last month when i logged on to see what my bill would be ( I also get e-bills & pay by DD) it said that I didnt have a bill due until June but I knew that was wrong it was due in May. I rang up and they said give them a reading I did but I will still be paying for 3 months instead of 2 next week. Have to monitor account very closely in my experience.
Also my mother in law paid money into her account using the easy pay card had the total paid but they still took the full amount by DD so she had to pay twice for it and they couldnt refund her only take it off her next bill. So she left them. Im still with them but one more mistake and il be going elsewhere. Good luck with it op.

Dublin_Gunner

galwaygirl2 wrote: »

I think some people are being v hard on the op. Like some of the more helpful posts say pay what you can when you can. I also joined airtricity in April 2010 with a rep who came to the door. He wrote a lot of my information down incorrectly including my email address so I couldnt register my account for a while but once that was sorted I was v happy with airtricity. .......

Must have been the same guy that called to my door. I would have assumed basic reading / writing / comprehension would be a pre-requisite for the job.

galwaygirl2

Dublin_Gunner wrote: »

Must have been the same guy that called to my door. I would have assumed basic reading / writing / comprehension would be a pre-requisite for the job.

LOL you would think so!

dudara

We are not going to discuss Airtricity reps here - there is a specific Consumer Issue under discussion. Stick to that please.

dudara

seabre

Just to update any interested parties - The NCA referred me to CER.ie who were very helpful and not at all surprised to hear my saga.

They asked me to send all correspondence and fill in an online form which I did and they said they will contact Airtricity for me to sort this out and told me not to worry or feel threatened by the "Legal Proceedings" Airtricity were threatening.

I had to contact Airtricity to get a complaint no for the form and one they heard I was dealing with cer they immediatley asked could we not try to sort the situation out without a 3rd party. I told them I'd really like to have it sorted out (I have enough going on in my life at the min and it would be one less worry) Anyway they said they could put a payment schedule in place for me straightaway and asked what I could pay monthly. I offered 20 per month and they put me on hold to see if this was viable. I waited 10 full mins only for him to come back and say they wouldn't accept anything less than 40 per month. I explained that I currently am on an extremely tight budget monthly and literally would not be confident of having 40 left over every month to pay them - I offered 25 - was put on hold for a further 10 mins only to be told this still wasn't acceptable! I asked was he seriously going to refuse my offer of repayment in favour of a long drawn out process and possibly court case and he said "yes"!

I give up! I'll keep all posted on any developments!

booboo88

foggy_lad wrote: »

You should really read the last post from the op,

If this went to court any judge would agree that the debt is owed. That is not in question!

Because the company were so incompetant as to not seek payment for monies owed by direct debit which they had not just agreed upon but in most cases insist on then any reasonable rational judge would now side with the customer on how that debt is to be repaid, as the company have had ample opportunity to collect on the debt.

I would offer tham €5/month.

you're kidding right? 5eur per month?
10 years to pay a bill?

booboo88

galwaygirl2 wrote: »

I think some people are being v hard on the op. Like some of the more helpful posts say pay what you can when you can. I also joined airtricity in April 2010 with a rep who came to the door. He wrote a lot of my information down incorrectly including my email address so I couldnt register my account for a while but once that was sorted I was v happy with airtricity. Until last month when i logged on to see what my bill would be ( I also get e-bills & pay by DD) it said that I didnt have a bill due until June but I knew that was wrong it was due in May. I rang up and they said give them a reading I did but I will still be paying for 3 months instead of 2 next week. Have to monitor account very closely in my experience.
Also my mother in law paid money into her account using the easy pay card had the total paid but they still took the full amount by DD so she had to pay twice for it and they couldnt refund her only take it off her next bill. So she left them. Im still with them but one more mistake and il be going elsewhere. Good luck with it op.

they need to notify bank 5 working days they are collecting payment, so if it was paid after it went in, its too late to stop the payment going through

the groutch

I have an inkling that they might be leaving the Irish market soon enough, which would explain why they wouldnt want to get involved in long, drawn out payment plans

charlemont

Id pay them nothing, Seeing as your not even with them anymore, Airtricity have the most useless billing ever, and even if you rang them to enquire about bill, you would have a job getting a customer service person to speak to on the phone, Also they dont respond to e mail either so stuff em, Its their loss...

Sizzler

Good god, what a poorly run operation, one of THE worst I've had the misfortune to deal with.

Their so called self regulated meter reading is a shambles. Ive been with them since last year and despite acting upon their sms "reminders" for meter readings I still dont see a bill for anywhere between and 4-6 wks after which means I get a DD for a bill around every 3 mths, frankly doesnt suit me, would rather have one every 2 months as they are supposed to be!

The best yet,sick of their random billing so cancelled my DD and they sent me a letter asking for €300 "security deposit"...HILARIOUS. Despite me owing them nothing...WTF!

booboo88

foggy_lad wrote: »

If a company refuses or forgets to collect payment for services or products for 6months then they are left having to collect that debt. If they try to collect several hundred or thousand Euro after such a long time, especially when the whole mess is their own fault it would be wholly unreasonable to expect any individual to repay such an accumulated sum in one payment.

If the company has agreed/insisted beforehand to collect paymet by means such as direct debit rather than have the customer offer payment then it is up to the company to take funds at the agreed times by direct debit and if they fail to do this then it is up to them to negotiate a different method and schedule of payments with the customer bearing in mind that the breach of the first payment method most likely voided any contract the company had with the customer.

the supplier is at fault, if they werent sending out a bill, but why wait 6 months?
they agree agree a payment schedule, but by no means are they obligated to offer a discount.
the service was used, they may do it as a gesture of goodwill but nothing else.

seabre

Sounds like I'm not on my own here - just as I suspected they are clearly inept when it comes to admin etc!

Anyway my case is with the CER now - will update when I know more - nut could be a while - up to 12 weeks I was advised!!!:eek:

booboo88

seabre wrote: »

Sounds like I'm not on my own here - just as I suspected they are clearly inept when it comes to admin etc!

Anyway my case is with the CER now - will update when I know more - nut could be a while - up to 12 weeks I was advised!!!:eek:

make sure they put a lock on your acc in the mean time to stop letters going out and it going to an external agency

seabre

Thanks - Yeah I have done - CER advised me to do that too.

Sizzler

Their "security deposit" request despite me owing them nothing nor having ever missed a payment after a year with them was enough to send me packing.

Asking for a security deposit AFTER you take a customer on board...clever :rolleyes:

Bye

booboo88

Sizzler wrote: »

Their "security deposit" request despite me owing them nothing nor having ever missed a payment after a year with them was enough to send me packing.

Asking for a security deposit AFTER you take a customer on board...clever :rolleyes:

Bye

you mean you had an open acc with them and all of a sudden they asked for a dep?

Sizzler

booboo88 wrote: »

you mean you had an open acc with them and all of a sudden they asked for a dep?

Yup, thats exactly it. Jokers.

Cancelled my DD and it would appear they just try and "bill" you for €300 once you do that for "security"...classic.

Credit management for dummies volume 1.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Just to be clear. Are you saying you were on DD and cancelled it, and then they looked for a deposit? If so, they were quite correct as the DD was in lieu of a security deposit. Such deposits are held for more than a year.

lmfao4eva

Switch to esb- no random billing.they send you the correct bills every 61 days.

Sizzler

Kelsey Hot Gladiator wrote: »

Just to be clear. Are you saying you were on DD and cancelled it, and then they looked for a deposit? If so, they were quite correct as the DD was in lieu of a security deposit. Such deposits are held for more than a year.

Yes. Who said DD was in lieu of a security deposit? Dont remember that flashing up or being mentioned at any stage of their sales process. If thats how they run their business best of luck to them but dont peddle "may ways to pay" strapline if you are going to try and ride your customer retrospectively for 6 months worth of juice under the guise of a security deposit :rolleyes: For what its worth I could understand it if I wasnt paying them at all, I pay them by EFT on time, no issues. I cancelled the DD due to their lucky dip billing system, the security deposit farce merely made my mind up to get rid. Some context!

lmfao4eva wrote: »

Switch to esb- no random billing.they send you the correct bills every 61 days.

Done and it felt good

sendit

All company's have a security deposit if you dont pay by DD