Airtricity bill over €1000

brianomc

ted1 wrote: »

That's not proving yet. He needs to check the Meter.
Airtricity have a bad rep for a reason

Airtricity emailed me a few days before every bill was due to ask me to submit a reading myself. I did. I was never overcharged.

I don't work for them and am no longer a customer but only because I got cheaper rates elsewhere. The previous year they offered me a lower rate than anywhere else to renew and I wasn't locked into a new contract. If someone else had a better offer I could leave at any time. I wish I stayed, My current provider are cheaper but have no web login to your account to see bills/submit readings etc

HeidiHeidi

Johngoose wrote: »

I just think for Airtricity to ring me with that news on December 23rd is kind of killing Christmas.Anybody have good experience of other energy provider?

I get my visa bill around the 22nd of December every year - **** happens.

Do you not get your bill around the same time every month (or two months)?

whiskeyman

ted1 wrote: »

That's not proving yet. He needs to check the Meter.
Airtricity have a bad rep for a reason

Tbf, airtricity, and the rest of the utility co.s have a bad rep by people who don't fully understand how their services are billed.
I'm always amazed at the amount of threads started like this. If you sign up and pay for a service, be aware of it!

Kristopherus

Johngoose wrote: »

I just think for Airtricity to ring me with that news on December 23rd is kind of killing Christmas.Anybody have good experience of other energy provider?

They are mostly all the same when there is a big meter reading. Do Airtricity do Level Pay Direct Debit. I'm with Bord Gais and they do it. And will tell you if they see you are not paying enough. Its a good way to avoid the nasty surprise you got.

Johngoose

Kristopherus wrote: »

They are mostly all the same when there is a big meter reading. Do Airtricity do Level Pay Direct Debit. I'm with Bord Gais and they do it. And will tell you if they see you are not paying enough. Its a good way to avoid the nasty surprise you got.

It was a nasty surprise a few days before Christmas,seriously thinking of moving provider.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Johngoose wrote: »

It was a nasty surprise a few days before Christmas,seriously thinking of moving provider.

Why change supplier when you haven't confirmed if you owe that amount or not?. The date they contacted you is immaterial.

Johngoose

Byron Scarce Spectacle wrote: »

Why change supplier when you haven't confirmed if you owe that amount or not?. The date they contacted you is immaterial.

I'm not tempted to go checking a meter in the dark and wet.Tomorrow when there is daylight I'll go out.I have heard of people getting the wrong energy bills with Airtricity. As regards the people who have said the date they rang me is immaterial,the bill isn't due till mid January and they felt the need to ring today.

RentDayBlues

OP you seem to be out to "place blame" here rather than actually checking why this has happened. You need to check if this is an estimate or a reading and proceed from there. As to your posts on not paying, if this is an accurate bill you owe the money.

Every time I get my bill I read the meter. Then I don't get nasty surprises like this. It's not your providers fault.

afkasurfjunkie

Four pages in, and op still hasn't checked the meter. If I recieved a large bill like that I'd be straight out. Plus I'd be trawling through my old bills to check for estimated ones and for comparison.

HeidiHeidi

afkasurfjunkie wrote: »

Four pages in, and op still hasn't checked the meter. If I recieved a large bill like that I'd be straight out. Plus I'd be trawling through my old bills to check for estimated ones and for comparison.

Thats about the tenth time both of those things have been suggested (about five times by me!). He doesn't seem inclined to find out the facts, just vent and bash Airtricity.

As you say, with a bill like that I'd be out with a torch, sharpish.

Johngoose

Are people saying that a big corporation can't make a mistake and that people should never question a bill for anything?That let's say for example a taxi company charges you €50 to go from one end of a street to another, you should simply pay up and not say a word?

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

You don't need to even read the meter right now, OP. Is the current bill based on actual readings? Have previous bills been estimates? Simple questions, asked repeatedly, but no answers forthcoming.


That said, I'd be outside with a torch myself.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Johngoose wrote: »

Are people saying that a big corporation can't make a mistake and that people should never question a bill for anything?That let's say for example a taxi company charges you €50 to go from one end of a street to another, you should simply pay up and not say a word?

Oh come on! You haven't done a thing to prove or disprove an error.

Do the simple stuff first before jumping to conclusions.

HeidiHeidi

Johngoose wrote: »

Are people saying that a big corporation can't make a mistake and that people should never question a bill for anything?That let's say for example a taxi company charges you €50 to go from one end of a street to another, you should simply pay up and not say a word?

No, we're saying that if you're as worried as you profess to be about the HUGE bill that's on its way to you, you'd be out checking the meter, or at least going through previous bills to see what might have happened, instead of badmouthing a company on an internet forum for no apparently good reason.

Chances are fairly high you used that gas, and legitimately owe the money (I'm not completely discounting a mistake on the energy provider's part).

(ETA - assuming you're not trolling, of course.....)

uck51js9zml2yt

Byron Scarce Spectacle wrote: »

Oh come on! You haven't done a thing to prove or disprove an error.

Do the simple stuff first before jumping to conclusions.

Its much easier to jump to conclusions than it is to log into your account and look for the letter "E"* beside the meter reading:rolleyes:



* For the benefit of the OP, "E" refers to an estimated reading.

dudara

OK posters - that's enough. Let's give the OP a chance to check out his meter.

dudara

topmanamillion

OP, When they rang you why didn't you ask any of the questions that have been mentioned here?
Chiefly why am I been charged 4 times my usual bill?
If I got a phone call like that it would last at least a half an hour until I got to the root of it and I'd have all the facts at the end of it.

Johngoose

topmanamillion wrote: »

OP, When they rang you why didn't you ask any of the questions that have been mentioned here?
Chiefly why am I been charged 4 times my usual bill?
If I got a phone call like that it would last at least a half an hour until I got to the root of it and I'd have all the facts at the end of it.

I take your point on the phone I think I was caught off guard,but I do intend on ringing tomorrow to clarify a few details.At present I do think a certain amount were estimated,but not all.i will keep people posted updated.I'll admit I don't have all the facts right now,but I'm sure most will admit that €1200 euro of a bill is on the extreme side.Would the heating have to be on 24/7?

HeidiHeidi

Johngoose wrote: »

I take your point on the phone I think I was caught off guard,but I do intend on ringing tomorrow to clarify a few details.At present I do think a certain amount were estimated,but not all.i will keep people posted updated.I'll admit I don't have all the facts right now,but I'm sure most will admit that €1200 euro of a bill is on the extreme side.Would the heating have to be on 24/7?

If your (monthly) bills for the last year were estimated (and that's not beyond the bounds, I've gone very long periods without an actual reading despite the meter being in the front garden) and were for, say, €100 but you actually used €200-worth of gas, then that's your €1200 right there.

Plus, you said that the €1200 was for gas and electricity, didn't you? So it doesn't even have to be that extreme - a few months on the trot with incorrectly estimated bills and bang, you have a big lump sum to pay all of a sudden.

You can speculate and theorise about skulduggery on Airtricity's part all you like, but until you check the bills and the meter it's all just wasted breath tbh.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Johngoose wrote: »

I take your point on the phone I think I was caught off guard,but I do intend on ringing tomorrow to clarify a few details.At present I do think a certain amount were estimated,but not all.i will keep people posted updated.I'll admit I don't have all the facts right now,but I'm sure most will admit that €1200 euro of a bill is on the extreme side.Would the heating have to be on 24/7?

It you had 3 estimates up to this then the total of 2100 in total is not excessive.

ted1

brianomc wrote: »

Airtricity emailed me a few days before every bill was due to ask me to submit a reading myself. I did. I was never overcharged.

I don't work for them and am no longer a customer but only because I got cheaper rates elsewhere. The previous year they offered me a lower rate than anywhere else to renew and I wasn't locked into a new contract. If someone else had a better offer I could leave at any time. I wish I stayed, My current provider are cheaper but have no web login to your account to see bills/submit readings etc

I work as a energy manager and run bill validation for large multi nationals with bills in excess of 100k a month. I've seen Airtricity mess up bills on several occasions. Bear in mind that the meter records data every 15 minutes and uploads it

ted1

Byron Scarce Spectacle wrote: »

It you had 3 estimates up to this then the total of 2100 in total is not excessive.

It is. My heating bill is 600 for the year. That's with 5 people living in a semi d built in 84

Also if it's estimated then he would have been paying some money towards it

topmanamillion

Johngoose wrote: »

I take your point on the phone I think I was caught off guard,but I do intend on ringing tomorrow to clarify a few details.At present I do think a certain amount were estimated,but not all.i will keep people posted updated.I'll admit I don't have all the facts right now,but I'm sure most will admit that €1200 euro of a bill is on the extreme side.Would the heating have to be on 24/7?

As has been said, Its fairly easy a figure like that could accumulate if you were being estimated for long periods.
The best thing is to ring tomorrow as you've said and find out the story.
If it turns out to be correct I'd look into getting a few euro taken off it (a lot of companies will oblige when an unexpected bill like this appears).
Also, see what you can do to stop a repeat of a similar bill in the future. For instance you could regularly send in your own readings.

slimjimmc

Do Airtricity normally notify customers of their routine bill by phone? Or have you missed any payments?

roadrunner16

Menas wrote: »

You would need to look back at your old bills and see what was estimated and what not. If you have had lots of estimated bills in a row and then they did a reading you could get this nasty suprise.
Or they have estimated something nuts this time around.
Or there is something caputt in your house that is burning electricity. Have a look at the meter with most of your appliances turned off and see if it is spinning madly.
Ultimately the meter never lies.

I've heard that before, My Dad told me a story years ago when he used to do nixers as an electrician, an Old lady called him in to put in some sockets or something like that and mentioned to him while he was there that the bill always seemed to be more than it should, he said the same the meters dont lie.

She went around the house and turned everything off, literally everything, he went outside to check and sure enough the meter was ticking over still counting up,

He looked around and found that and old NTl box was connected on the wrong side of the meter, (I don't now what the box was for or how it worked but it was providing NTl signal to the whole estate and for some reason needed power) anyway he went and told the lady and she wanted him to disconnect it, he said , sorry can't , so he called NTL and explained the situation and was basically told "Get Fcuked that dosent happen", so he went ahead and dissconnected the box, not exactly how it was worked out after that but there was a big settlement for the Little old dear.

dudara

I've deleted a slew of unhelpful and off-topic posts.

Please do not reply further to this thread until (a) the OP returns or (b) you have something new to add to the discussion.

Any further off-topic discussion, speculative or repetitive posts will be deleted and will incur mod action

dudara

wandererz

OP,

I've been hit with Bill shock several times in the past.
Mostly (if not always) its been during or just at the end of the winter.

Part of the problem has related to estimated bills for a long period of time and to me not submitting actual readings.

To remediate this i have taken to:
1) Submitting regular readings
2) Opting for spread billing over the year.

This has worked out fine. I pay €139 per month all year round.

Every quarter i check my meter and the estimated usage as per the bill and update if necessary. Sometimes i've paid slightly more than i have used, but that's ok as it balances out over the year.

This includes running about 50 downlighters, a full size freezer, full size fridge, wine cooler, 55" TV, NTL box and a shed load of computer equipment.
All while keeping the entire place heated at a toasty 19-20 Celsius and all with electricity from Airtricity.

So, do check the meter readings against your bill and if confirmed then get onto a monthly billing plan.

As for Christmas, well, a lot of companies are wrapping up for the Christmas period at the moment. This means that people are finalising what they have to do by year end, sending out the statements they have to etc.

It's the end of the financial year as well for many companies, so if they've billed you, they are owed that money and can include it in their financial statements.

It's not you personally that they're doing this to, they're just tieing up the loose ends.

the groutch

it's always a risk with LevelPay or similar plans where you pay the same estimated amount each month.
they don't take into account higher usage at certain times of year, and this isn't the first (or last) story of high bills because of this.

I wonder though why they rang you rather than post/email the bill.
Are you in arrears?

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

Johngoose

Airtricity has told me that my gas meter has not been checked in the 3 years that I have been living in the rented house. The asked me where my meter was, as in was it hidden away or protected by some vicious dog? The meter is at the front of the house inside the front wall. There are two gates accessing the front lawn that are always open, there is no vicious dog or anything like that. they are admitting that it highly unusual that the meter wouldn't be checked for 3 years. They said that officially it should be checked every 6 month by a meter reader, regardless of estimated bills in between. i feel they have been highly negligent and that they are now royally screwing me over. They are now putting the blame on Gas Networks Ireland,saying they contacted them and that that particular company couldn't find my house. Typical Irish attitude of passing the buck, kicking the can down the road?