Appealing an ESB Bill

giftgrub

Got a whopper of an electricity bill today...760 euro, for three people living in a rented house

Now we've always paid our bills by direct debit, they average around 100 euro

Phoned them up, they said the bill was correct, as we'd been billed on estimates up to now, and the meter reading we had last week brought us up to date.

They said we should have filled out the meter cards they posted to us, we only got one in the last year.

and when the guy came to read the meter he had a problem with his machine before it would work.

Fark this....who can i go to?

gibo_ie

you should have really checked the estimate to see if it was close.
Not much you can do TBH.
Pay up and make sure you check your estimates, my normal is 90 for a 2 bed appt with 2 people so 3 bed house is going to be a lot more than the estimated 100.
Hard luck

Dub13

This happend to me a year or two ago with Board Gas,its a pain but you cant do anything about it.

dudara

You pretty much owe it. ESB have switched to a policy of reading the meters far less than they used to, and instead now use estimates for the most part. It's really up to you to send in corrected readings anytime you get an estimated bill. You can do this by ringing them, or entering the readings online. It's the only way to keep on top of it.

parsi

Their estimates are fairly spot on (based on a sample of one). We got our bill the other day and I thought it was a bit high. The start point was from the last reading and the end was estimated. The bill covered july/august and we were away for 3 weeks. So out I went and read the meter and lo and behold it was a few units over the estimated figure. I was sort of impressed that they must use period-for-period data for their estimates.

What you could do is go and read your meter and see is it much the same as their reading. But you know rented houses often run up massive bills - the 'auld forgetting to turn off the imeersion usually plays havoc...

Guy:Incognito

you can phone up each mointh and key in the exact reading on your metre so that your bill is accurate. It means no mad adjustment when the metre is read.

eth0_

760 for two months? That cannot be right, unless you all leave computers/tvs/immersion on 24/7!

My bill in a 2 bed apartment was under 100 euro every 2 months. And that was with a flatmate who never turned things off.

pH

Well check your meter against the reading on your bill. If the meter has been read incorrectly then you will be able to get the ESB to change the bill.

If not then you have been using more electric than they have been estimating, and do indeed owe them the money. They may allow you pay off the large bill over a couple of payments.

dudara

I think the ESB offer some arrangement where you can pay the bill in installments.

Paddy20

So how are you supposed to read a meter that is in a box on the wall outside, for which only the ESB has ever had a key Here in Donegal, about 3 months back the ESB sneakily introduced a variety of new charges and the FIRST people new about it was when they got a new type of bill which was estimated and laid out on the page in a very confusing manner !.

There was a public uproar, and the ESB went on radio etc, stating that 'Meter readings' had now been contracted out to a 'PRIVATE' company who could not get around quickly enough to read all meters on time. Another Rip-off scam.

I have lost track of the number of new charges and price increases, and another price hike has apparently already been approved.

Do we live in RIP-OFF Ireland, or do we live in Rip-off Ireland version 2005.

P. :cool:

is_that_so

Paddy20 wrote:

So how are you supposed to read a meter that is in a box on the wall outside, for which only the ESB has ever had a key

You can buy a key in any hardware shop. It's your bill. I had an experience with them myself whereby they were charging me off the wrong meter. I called them and it was resolved. I agree about estimated bills, they tend to be pretty accurate. Even where they are not you can ring up within five days and get it corrected and they'll reissue the bill.

Paddy20

is_that_so wrote:

You can buy a key in any hardware shop. It's your bill.

Never knew that ?, I always believed 'the meter box' and wall cabinet was the private property of the ESB, and they certainly have not gone out of their way to inform people, that they could purchase a key in a hardware shop !, that sure is a revelation to me, or am I just plain stupid .

P. :cool:

is_that_so

Yes the meter is theirs but you do have a right to check your bill and so no reason why you can't buy a key. Many houses have the meter inside.

Idleater

Paddy20 wrote:

Never knew that ?, I always believed 'the meter box' and wall cabinet was the private property of the ESB, and they certainly have not gone out of their way to inform people, that they could purchase a key in a hardware shop !, that sure is a revelation to me, or am I just plain stupid .
P. :cool:

Not only that, but the ESB posted me out a key when I said that there was none in the house and that I didn't want to mess up their nice triangular bolt with a set of pliers!
Mind you, I still used the pliers because I wanted to check the meter reading anyhow.

Back on topic, I think that the with the reduced ESB physical reading of the meter, it is in everyone's own interest to compare the actual meter reading with the estimate. If left unchecked, it could rise to €750 over the period of a year as demonstrated by the OP.

BigCon

It works both ways - our a/c was credited with €165 after they got our meter reading...

parsi

Paddy20 wrote:

Never knew that ?, I always believed 'the meter box' and wall cabinet was the private property of the ESB, and they certainly have not gone out of their way to inform people, that they could purchase a key in a hardware shop !, that sure is a revelation to me, or am I just plain stupid .

P. :cool:

Bord gais will post out a key no problem.

Paddy20

BigCon wrote:

It works both ways - our a/c was credited with €165 after they got our meter reading...

So, Where is my interest earned ?...

P.

giftgrub

Sorry I didnt get around to this update earlier...

Anyhoo we rang them back and it looks like we have to pay up.

Seemingly they'd been UNDERESTIMATING us for the last year, one of our bills was for only 64 euro...over Christmas!

The good news is that we dont have to cough up the whole lot at once, we've worked out a payment plan over a couple of months.

So the moral of this tale is.....dont share a house with 2 women who think that electricity is free!!!!

is_that_so

giftgrub wrote:

So the moral of this tale is.....dont share a house with 2 women who think that electricity is free!!!!

Once shared with a woman who used to leave electric storage heaters on when she went on holidays. £150 a month at the time !! Took to switching off her heater in her room. Needless to say the flatshare didn't last long .

stonecipher

The best places to complain about the ESB are the Commission for Energy Regulation (CER) www.cer.ie Phone 01-4000800

and ESB Customer Complaints Arbitrator (ELCOM)

ESB Customer Complaints
Arbitrator
39 Merrion Square
Dublin 2

Tel:1850 321 325
http://www.electricitycomplaints.ie/

TempestSabre

What are these meter cards? I've never seen one.

eth0_

You can ask to have a card based meter installed in your house. Sometimes the ESB will install it for you if you're very bad at paying their bills. You'd see them a lot in council houses too.

coffee_cake

giftgrub wrote:

Got a whopper of an electricity bill today...760 euro, for three people living in a rented house

Now we've always paid our bills by direct debit, they average around 100 euro

Phoned them up, they said the bill was correct, as we'd been billed on estimates up to now, and the meter reading we had last week brought us up to date.

They said we should have filled out the meter cards they posted to us, we only got one in the last year.

and when the guy came to read the meter he had a problem with his machine before it would work.

Fark this....who can i go to?

That's been happening to us! - was over 600euro last time. Except we've NOT been going off estimates - they're just upping our electricity bill for no apparent reason. It's gone over triple what it used to be and we're using a hell of a lot less electricity.

Anyone got any advice for me? =/
We've tried turning everything off and checking the usage of each item and nothing seems to be going up too much. Though since our electrics go funny sometimes when next door use theirs, we're convinced there's a power drain somewhere.

TempestSabre

I suppose an electrican would be able to tell if you have everything off and theres still a drain?

coffee_cake

TempestSabre wrote:

I suppose an electrican would be able to tell if you have everything off and theres still a drain?

Yeah if they'd stop hitting us with the bills and we could hire one we will =/ seems to be the only option I guess.

Alun

No need for an electrician for that. Surely all you need to do is switch everything off in the house, and go and see if the meter is still registering anything.

ublinia2

Can anybody explain how the electricity leaks or drains away exactly?