Airtricity calling letting agency?

Amara22

Hi everyone,

Bit of a strange one and it's not a huge deal just want to see if this is normal?

I moved into a house in Dec. and registered with Airtricity for my electricity supply. Gave them all my details and decided to pay in the post office with the card.
Have been paying a bit every week sometime 80 or 100 sometimes 20 but always something and thought I was keeping on top of it. Didn't get any letters or anything to say otherwise.
Got a missed call today from Airtricity when I was at work and then an email from my letting agency informing me that Airtricity was trying to contact me so they gave them my number.
I changed my number a few months ago when I switched to 48 so they obviously didn't have the new number.
I panicked then thinking maybe I haven't been keeping on top of my bill as well as I thought, I called them and they informed me there was 60 euro overdue. 60 bloody euro and they called my letting agency? They obviously didn't discuss my account with them but them calling will make my letting agency think I am in huge arrears and possibly ruin a chance of reference.

My questions are:

How did Airtricity even know who my letting agency was?
Are they allowed to call and ask for my number from a third party?
Are my letting agency allowed to give out my number and address to anyone calling claiming to be from Airtricity? What about privacy?
And finally why go through so much for so little? When I did ring them I said I would have it paid off in a week or 2 and they said grand.

foggy_lad

I'd have told them you are moving supplier and signed up with another supplier straight after the call to them. That is a scummy way to treat customers but it is the business model many companies like airtricity prefer to use. many companies in the UK also bully their customers like this.

Eldarion

...Do you pay all your usage-related bills like that? You just take a wild stab at what you think you might owe and hope it's enough?

To answer some of your questions though.

1. Chances are Airtricity knew of the letting agent from the previous registered account to the address.
2. Yes they can call and ask.
3. No, the letting agency should not have given your details out.
4. It's someone's job to do so.

The_Morrigan

Amara22 wrote: »

Hi everyone,

Bit of a strange one and it's not a huge deal just want to see if this is normal?

I moved into a house in Dec. and registered with Airtricity for my electricity supply. Gave them all my details and decided to pay in the post office with the card.
Have been paying a bit every week sometime 80 or 100 sometimes 20 but always something and thought I was keeping on top of it. Didn't get any letters or anything to say otherwise.
Got a missed call today from Airtricity when I was at work and then an email from my letting agency informing me that Airtricity was trying to contact me so they gave them my number.
I changed my number a few months ago when I switched to 48 so they obviously didn't have the new number.
I panicked then thinking maybe I haven't been keeping on top of my bill as well as I thought, I called them and they informed me there was 60 euro overdue. 60 bloody euro and they called my letting agency? They obviously didn't discuss my account with them but them calling will make my letting agency think I am in huge arrears and possibly ruin a chance of reference.

My questions are:

How did Airtricity even know who my letting agency was?
Are they allowed to call and ask for my number from a third party?
Are my letting agency allowed to give out my number and address to anyone calling claiming to be from Airtricity? What about privacy?
And finally why go through so much for so little? When I did ring them I said I would have it paid off in a week or 2 and they said grand.

You've been in the house since December and you've not received any bills from airtricity?

I would be reporting the letting agent to the data commissioner and their own regulator for breach of data protection.

Amara22

Eldarion wrote: »

...Do you pay all your usage-related bills like that? You just take a wild stab at what you think you might owe and hope it's enough?

To answer some of your questions though.

1. Chances are Airtricity knew of the letting agent from the previous registered account to the address.
2. Yes they can call and ask.
3. No, the letting agency should not have given your details out.
4. It's someone's job to do so.

Actually I don't have any other usage related bills. It wasn't just a wild guess, Airtricity advised me before on my average monthly usage when I was enquiring about direct debit before so I tried to reach or surpass that every month. Obviously some months must have been more than that.

I understand that it is someone's job to do but it would seem to me like that would be a last ditch attempt to contact a bill dodger. All they had to do was send me a letter and I would have sorted it. No need to give a bad impression of me to my letting agency.

Amara22

The_Morrigan wrote: »

You've been in the house since December and you've not received any bills from airtricity?

I would be reporting the letting agent to the data commissioner and their own regulator for breach of data protection.

I'm signed up for online bills, was getting them the first 2 months but then they stopped. Found out today someone misspelled my name (which is in my email address) when updating my account so they stopped getting through.

Mrs OBumble

Amara22 wrote: »

I'm signed up for online bills, was getting them the first 2 months but then they stopped. Found out today someone misspelled my name (which is in my email address) when updating my account so they stopped getting through.

Putting it all together:
Emails bouncing (admittedly their fault)
Customer's phone no longer working
Erratic payments history
Starting to build up arrears

I'd say you've probably triggered enough warning factors (or whatever they call 'em) to have earned the "aggressive case management" approach to debt recovery.

Yes, they should have sent a letter to your physical address. But their experience is probably that such letters don't work very well.

You'd be well within your rights to report your letting agency to the Data Commissioner. But that might be buying a fight with them that you don't really need, especially if you're worried about whether they'd give you a reference.

Most likely the Airtricity call won't have worried your letting agent too much, unless you have rent-arrears as well.