Unpaid direct debit-when do you try again?

sunbeam

I recently entered a meter reading for my bill a week before it was due and ended up with two Electric Ireland bills issued to me a week apart-which your customer service department had assured me would not happen. Upon inspection of the second bill it appeared that the first bill had been rolled into it.

The first bill was due to come out of my account on the 22nd, the second one today. I contacted customer services again to clarify this, confirm that the two bills were being rolled into one and that I would not be charged twice. The customer service rep I spoke too was clueless to say the least and kept trying to get me to set up a payment plan. I tried to explain that I just wanted to know when the bills would be coming out of my account and asked to speak with a supervisor. None was available. In the end he agreed that the entire two bills would be taken out of my account today. I asked to receive confirmation of this in writing. I got nothing.

After this I put a hold on the next presentation of the direct debit to my acount as I was still not convinced that the first bill would not be taken out on the 22nd. I am on Disability Allowance and a tight budget and could not afford to pay this bill twice. I assumed that this was only valid for the 22nd and did not realise that this hold would prevent the direct debit from being taken out today. When I saw that it had not gone out by the early hours of this morning I tried to reverse the process, but the bank has told me that this takes at least a working day and it will not be taken today.

I rang your customer services today and tried to explain the situation again. I realise that this was my mistake and I will be charged a fee but I simply want to know the date upon which you will try to take the direct debit again. The rep suggested that I could just pay it, but I've done so in the past and ended up paying it twice when it was taken again. I cannot afford to so this. I asked to speak to a supervisor. Nobody was available. Eventually I was told it would be taken in about ten days but the rep would not confirm a date for me. My previous experience is that a letter would be sent out confirming the next date and that this would be in two weeks of the first attempt to take the dd. This seems to be what has been advised to other customers on this forum. The rep could not confirm that this would happen.


I am now asking you to confirm to me the date upon which Electric Ireland will next attempt to take direct debit again and am sending a pm with my personal details linking this post to all of your reps here on boards. I would really appreciate your assistance with this.

Electric Ireland: Una

Hi sunbeam,

We are sorry to read of this customer experience.

We can advise that if a customer receives an estimate and a bill based on a meter-reading, they will not be charged the two amounts in full. They will either be charged the corrected bill only, or they will be charged the estimate plus or less the difference generated by the meter-reading. Whether the bill is issued as one, or two (i.e. the total broken into two parts) depends on timing.

Until a direct debit is returned, we cannot say what the exact date of the second collection will be. We can confirm however that it will be approximately two weeks/10 working days from the first collection date.

If you pay it manually immediately when it is returned unpaid, it will not be taken a second time, as this only happens if the customer pays it manually less than five or six working days before the due date (as the direct debit instruction is sent to the bank at that point).

We will respond to your private message now.

Best regards,
Una

sunbeam

Hi Una,

My direct debit has been returned so I rang customer services today to ask when Electric Ireland will try to take it again. Once again I spoke to another customer service rep who could not seem to understand what I was asking them. Really the standard to personnel in the Electric Ireland call center has deteriorated dramatically.

I'd be grateful if you could help me out with this and will pm you my details.

Electric Ireland: Una

Hi sunbeam,

Very sorry to read it. I have replied to your private message to assist you in this matter.

Best regards,
Una