Additional Electric Ireland Bill

Man007

Hi

I checked my bank account today and realised that there is a payment of €167 to electric ireland which I was surprised at as I only paid a bill of €128 a month ago.


I submitted my own meter reading this month which must be the reason however in the past the additional charge has been charged when my next bill is due not a month early.

I have looked at your terms and conditions and it clearly states I will receive 6 bills a year one every 2 months and also there was no mention when submitting the meter readings that I would be charged before my next bill.

Also I never received a paper bill so the first time I became aware of this problem was when the money left my account.
I registered online to submit the reading but was not aware I would not be receiving paper bills anymore.

EI: Una

Hi Man007,

At certain stages of the billing cycle, a meter reading submission is automatically taken by the system to be a request for an interim bill. If it were very close to a standard bill, it would not generate an interim one as there would be no point, but a month before a bill is a sufficient window.

The system only issues a bill at certain points and based on certain factors, such as: sufficient difference between units used.

This facility exists for situations such as: a person moving out of a house-share and needing to know how much is owed up to the date they leave or as close to it as possible.

The one time an interim/ad-hoc bill is guaranteed to generate immediately is when someone does a move-out - i.e. closes their account for a particular address.

Online billing is a substitute for paper billing. Customers can avail of a 2% discount for it also, because of the savings as a result of no paper.

If the payment has not gone through yet and you would like to set up an arrangement for it, do forward me your Electric Ireland account number and your name/address in full as they appear on your account, as well as your date of birth or the contact telephone number on your account.

Regards,
Una

Man007

Electric Ireland: Una wrote: »

Hi Man007,

At certain stages of the billing cycle, a meter reading submission is automatically taken by the system to be a request for an interim bill. If it were very close to a standard bill, it would not generate an interim one as there would be no point, but a month before a bill is a sufficient window.

The system only issues a bill at certain points and based on certain factors, such as: sufficient difference between units used.

This facility exists for situations such as: a person moving out of a house-share and needing to know how much is owed up to the date they leave or as close to it as possible.

The one time an interim/ad-hoc bill is guaranteed to generate immediately is when someone does a move-out - i.e. closes their account for a particular address.

Online billing is a substitute for paper billing. Customers can avail of a 2% discount for it also, because of the savings as a result of no paper.

If the payment has not gone through yet and you would like to set up an arrangement for it, do forward me your Electric Ireland account number and your name/address in full as they appear on your account, as well as your date of birth or the contact telephone number on your account.

Regards,
Una

I'm sorry but where on the site does it identify that by submitting a reading an interim bill will be generated if so I would not have done it the week before Christmas there doesn't seem to be transparency as to the process also I don't see a 2% credit on my bill for online billing

EI: Una

Hi again Man007,

Man007 wrote: »

where on the site does it identify that by submitting a reading an interim bill will be generated

It is a standard facility that is in place for customers to correct an estimated bill or have a bill issued if the meter-reader was unable to access their meter. Link re submitting a meter reading here.
If a customer submits a reading just to find out the amount but not wanting a bill though, doing so a maximum of two weeks before a due bill will not generate an interim one, because it is too close to the billing date.
A bill will not be generated either if the difference since the last bill in terms of units used is too insignificant.

also I don't see a 2% credit on my bill for online billing

Did you contact us to have a price-plan set up at any stage since April 2011? If so, it would have expired, and we can apply a new price-plan. It is necessary that we be contacted though, as there are terms and conditions to agree to: namely that this is a contract. It expires on 31st December 2013 and if a customer has it set up and changes supplier before the above date, a €50 exit fee applies.
If you are agreeable to these terms and conditions, I could have the price-plan set up for you, and there is also a 4% discount for direct debit. To set this up for you, I require, by private message, your Electric Ireland account number, your name/address in full as they appear on your account, and your date of birth.

Regards,
Una

LifeBeginsAt40

I had exactly the same issue last month, a bill issued 21 days early.

I thought I would keep track of my electricity usage so submitted my own meter readings online. WRONG!!

Surprise surprise a bill was generated out of sequence, resulting in Una here having to do some cancelling / blocking of bills to get everything back on track.

I agree, the Electric Ireland website is not at all clear and very user unfriendly when it comes to the meter reading section.

In the UK you can amend your meter readings when you like, the billing period is never changed, just the bill amount. Pretty simple idea when you think about it.

EI: Una

Hi there,

Meter readings generating bills is a requirement so that those who wish to correct an over-estimated bill can have an accurate bill generated instead when they submit a reading to cancel the estimate, or if someone is moving out of a house-share and wishes to have a bill for the exact amount the day they move out.

If a meter reading is submitted to us two weeks before the customer's billing time though, it will not generate an automated bill, because this is too close to the scheduled bill.

Regards,
Una

LifeBeginsAt40

Electric Ireland: Una wrote: »

Hi there,

Meter readings generating bills is a requirement so that those who wish to correct an over-estimated bill can have an accurate bill generated instead when they submit a reading to cancel the estimate, or if someone is moving out of a house-share and wishes to have a bill for the exact amount the day they move out.

If a meter reading is submitted to us two weeks before the customer's billing time though, it will not generate an automated bill, because this is too close to the scheduled bill.

Regards,
Una

Still doesn't explain why other utility companies across the water, can accept meter readings and the software is clever enough to work out if a bill needs to be issued or not. I appreciate you are not involved in the IT, but it's hardly a user friendly system is it?

Cheap software = more work for you when we submit readings and you have to then correct bills / cancel bills.

The reason I submit monthly meter readings is to get a rough idea of my monthly consumption, so the bi-monthly bill isn't a huge shock to the bank account.

Also your online appliance calculator is hard work and near on impossible to use with Google Chrome.

So the simple answer was for me to submit meter readings once a month and see instantly my consumption on your Electric Ireland account screen.

Why is that made so difficult to do by Electric Ireland?

EI: Una

LifeBeginsAt40 wrote: »

Still doesn't explain why other utility companies across the water, can accept meter readings and the software is clever enough to work out if a bill needs to be issued or not.

A customer requiring an ad hoc utility bill as proof of address is another example of when a reading is required to generate one, so there is a number of scenarios that it is required for.

I have passed your feedback on to our I.T. department.

Regards,
Una