Board Gais Smells Bad

foreignobserver

After writing the whole lot below I actually find it amusing now, in a way.


I have rang 1850 632 632 and talked with BORD GAIS advisors around
1 pm on 7 Dec 2007

My query was

How much do I owe Board Gas for gas supply for past months?
The supply started on the 23 of September and the meter reading was taken by Board Gais staff on the 22 of November.
I have not seen any bills yet.

Summary of what I was told over the phone:

Board Gas did not issue a bill and refuses to issue a bill for my gas supply for period 23/09 - 22/11. Board Gas representative insisted that I paid 130 Euro towards Board Gas which was his estimate/calculation of costs without them producing a bill. I insisted on that the bill should be issued. Representative hung up.

Details:

Operator 1:

She told me first she had no information about a bill unless I could give her a number of that bill (LOL). After checking with someone
she told me that my bill would be issued on 26 January for months of November and December. When queried about October I was told there was no charge for use of gas in October. (??) This qualifies as general nonsense considering the both house and water are heated by gas. I asked (twice) to be transferred to someone who might actually *know* answers to my questions.

Operator 2:

Did not give his name, but *appeared* much more professional and mentioned his was working with "accounts". He was helpful enough to check gas use and calculate it into money due. I was told I am being charged 130 Euros for period between 23/09 and 22/11. He mentioned it is not actually what is showing on the bill but that's what is due (?) When I asked about it he said no bill was issued (??) then he put me on hold, got back to me 30 seconds later, said he "briefly talked with 4 departments (???) and can confirm that in case a bill was not issued it won't be issued (????) and suggested I pay the bill (no not "bill", amount) now before it builds up to 400 Euros after Xmas (?????). As for the bill that was not issued he explained the situation as follows:

"oh well, it happens every now and then you know..."

I said I can't pay a bill if no bill is issued. I asked adviser to understand my position and insisted that the bill should be issued and sent to me. I could hear adviser tapping on keyboard for a few seconds then he hung up.

machiavellianme

Have you received a gas bill yet? I'm in the same position (with the same dates) and havent received a bill since September.

marktsang

simply dont pay it - i wouldnt pay anything that wasnt on the bill

foggy_lad

are they guestimating usage between 23/09 and 22/11? was there some problem with their recording of usage between those dates? ask for your bill to be fully itemised showing the readings and the breakdown of how the units are converted to Kwh then to €

Rebeller

machiavellianme wrote: »

Have you received a gas bill yet? I'm in the same position (with the same dates) and havent received a bill since September.

Very interesting! I'm in exactly the same position. No bill since September either. Sounds to me like Bord Gais experienced some sort of billing systems failure during the affected period.

MOH

I got a bill yesterday showing an unpaid amount from previous bill of 148, and that my account is overdue. The billing period for the current bill is start Nov - start Jan. So the previous bill would have been start Sept - start Nov.

It is possible I forgot to pay the previous bill, but looking at my bank details I made a payment the start of October, which presumably would have been for a bill received end of September. So that dates don't seem to match up, there's a month overlapping or missing.

Normally I wouldn't think twice and assume I had forgotten to pay the bill, but if other people are having issues maybe something's up.

If any of you do get a bill, could you post back how the September period is treated? Is it shown as a separate figure, and what is it labelled as?

K_2008

I got a bill yesterday for approx 400 Euro also stating that payment was overdue. I rang the customer helpline and they said a bill had previously been issued (which I never received - 99 % certain).
I was told to phone the accounts dept on monday and maybe a payment plan could be arranged (great, thanks Bord Gais...)
Anyway in short I will not be paying for the previously unissued bill as there seems to have been a messup on their part.