Bord Gais direct debit system taking money not owed

csirl

Im a Bord Gais customer for both electricity and gas (wont be soon!)

This morning an unauthorised direct debit was taken by them from my bank account. All bills paid up to date, no money owed and not due another bill for several weeks. The amount of the dd also doesnt match any previous bills. Was several hundred euro.

Contacted BG. They said that they are having major issues with their banking/payments system and they havent resolved it so they cannot do anything about the dd right now.

Contacted the Energy Regulator. They said they"ve received a number of complaints about BG customers having money not owed being taken from their accounts by dd.

If your a BG customer, watch out for this.

Its disgraceful that BG hasnt put out a press release or communicated with customers.

apache

I see they took out a double direct debit from me as well. I got an email saying it would be back in my account overnight.

Citrus_8

If they admitted the error and will get this rectified soon, I see no reason to leave them. Not professional, but mistakes happen...

erlichbachman

Agreed, caught the issue early but just takes a bit of time to rectify, no biggie

csirl

Wasnt a doublle direct debit - no dd was due and amount doesnt match any recent bill (all paid) which is worrying.

I see they admitted to running double dds for AIB bank account holders. Im not with AIB.

Random amount of cash, no dd due and not an AIB customer suggests the problem is much bigger than they are admitting. No communication to date with non- AIB customers. Had to ring them and they said ...."could take up to 2 weeks to fix....."

NewbridgeIR

Under SEPA you are entitled to get a refund of an unauthorised direct debit up to 8 weeks after presentation.

Just contact your bank and they will process it.

Or avoid the problem altogether by not signing up for unnecessary direct debits. Instead just set the utility up as payee on internet banking and pay them manually every 2 months.

csirl

+1 will never do DD again for gas/elec.

Discovered where I think they got the amount - it looks like a double run of a DD that successfully went out in March.

Shauna677

They lifted a double DD from my ptsb account too today. It isnt as if the bills werent high enough, how many.people would have been pushed into the red by this fiasco today, probadly thousands. A right mess.

Shauna677

Ptsb open 24 down today, scheduled updates they say, in the middle of the morning. Ridiculous. Wonder has it anything to do with Bord Gais double lifting of direct debits yesterday.

apache

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120524370#Comment_120524370

The money was back in my account this morning. I'm with ptsb.

Shauna677

I cant access their app at all today, impossible to get through to them too.

HeidiHeidi

I got the following response on twitter

"we are experiencing intermittent technical difficulties involving our mobile banking app and our open24 online banking website at present. Apologies for the inconvenience, we are working hard to restore the services. Please try again at a later time. Thanks, MS."

I thought a "scheduled upgrade", which is their excuse on the app, was a bit unlikely on a business day!

Not too much intermittent about it either.

Shauna677

Payments cant be approved online either. This is costing busunesses alot today. Does anyone know if the ATMs are working

mondeoman72

Dear bank. Account 3333434343 name adijfajdoifj sort code 6565656

Under the terms of the DD system, I wish to recall the Gas DD dated XXX for a value of YYY. It is unauthorised.

Many thanks

Signed - Johnny.

Drop that into your branch. That is all that is to it. I had this crap and that is all you have to do.

leandrolorenzi

Unfortunately, due to an error with our banking partner's system, some of our direct debit customers experienced a double direct debit taken from their bank accounts on 26 April. 

Bord Gáis Energy’s banking partner has confirmed that the affected customers should see the money returned to their bank account by 27 April.

Both AIB and Bord Gáis Energy will continue to monitor the situation in case any delays are experienced by customers. Bord Gáis Energy has acted as swiftly as possible in conjunction with AIB to reverse the error.

We understand the inconvenience and frustration this error may have caused and we sincerely apologise for this. We want to assure customers that we are investigating the root cause of this issue with AIB to avoid any recurrence in the future.