Electric Ireland (Billing Call)

martinamcl

It is 6.25pm in the evening, while myself, my husband and my children where settling down after dinner, my husbands phone rings. I answer it to be told that it was Electric Ireland calling and wanted to know "When are you going to pay the balance of your bill" I was asked.

Is this normal practice for Electric Ireland, myself and my husband have been a customer of the ESB (Electric Ireland) for over 20 years and NEVER in my life have i ever had a telephone call asking when my bill is going to be paid - let alone if I can't give a date that I will be receiving more calls to find out when!

In this current climate when families are struggling to put food on their tables is it now common practice to put added pressure on them when they ACTUALLY PAY THEIR BILLS to find out when you are going to get your remaining balance! Was it not enforced that Banks, Lenders, Credit Card Companies & Other Bodies where not allowed to HARASS their customers to find out when they where getting paid! WHAT makes you so different.

I am disgusted with this new code of practice. To be clear we have NEVER owed Electric Ireland "anything" we have always paid our bill on time, and this one time that we staggered out our payment we are now being HARASSED in this manner. Especially when the next bill is not due until January 2013.

Let it be known that our bill arrived late October and we decided to stagger our payments over the month of November, that is ONE MONTH or 4 WEEKS to manage our finances.

If we ever receive a call like that again we will switch to Bord Gais. How dare you treat your customers in this fashion. You ought to be ashamed of yourselves.

optimus1

So you were in fact late with payment?

iPearly

Even if she was- they have no right. They should send a bill for a remainder - as a reminder-and not make any phone calls!

I only switched to them last month and already had problems with their proffesionalism too. might come to regret it sooner then i think

complain to their head office - don't let it go

EI: Una

Hi Martina,

We are sorry to read that you are unhappy with your experience.

If a customer is not in a position to pay their bill in full by the due date, we would urge them to let us know, so that we can set up an arrangement for them. This lets the system know when payment will be made, and eliminates reminders.

If you are a named account-holder, do private message me the Electric Ireland account number, your name/address in full as they appear on your account, and the contact telephone number on your account or your date of birth. Once I have those details I will input to the system when you will have the bill cleared. As you say, it will only be a short period after the current due date, so it is no problem for me to do that.

I will also advise the relevant department that you are unhappy with how the call was made.

Regards,
Una

Azra19

I have some issue regarding the bill payment as well. I just noticed that my bank account was insufficient at the time I was suppose to pay them as I am currently not in Ireland. Even though after my account is already sufficient, but Electric Ireland still hasn't deduct it yet when I recheck my bank account. Plus, it also stated in my electric bill account of the returned payment fee of 6 euro. What is it for? Is it a penalty for the late payment? 

EI: Aoife O

Hi Azra19,

To advise you about this we'd need to take a look at your account. Could you please PM us with your Electric Ireland account number, full name, address and contact number? Please also confirm if you are you the account holder, and we'll certainly look into this for you.

Kind regards,
Aoife

ukoda

so let me get this right... you used their service? they billed you for it? you didn't bother to/or couldn't pay for it? they called you to ask you when you'd be paying for it? .....and you're offended?  they have every right to call you. you have no right to decide not to pay.

sur why don't you go off down to Tesco and load up your trolley with 2 months worth of groceries and take them home without paying, tell them you'll sort them out later. i mean you've probably shopped in Tesco for 20 years too? so they should be cool with that, right?

:rolleyes:

if you think Bord Gais or Airtricty will be willing to let you do the same thing too.......you're living in a dreamland


Pay your bills when they are due. if you can't, call the company and ask them to help you with an arrangement. and stop being so self entitled.