ESB Experience

Toiletroll

Hi all,

I have been an ESB customer now for 8 months. I live in an apartment along with 2 other people. I didn’t want to set up a direct debit with the ESB so they wanted me to pay a €300 deposit for the privilege. I didn’t want to pay this so I have just been paying the bills off, leaving the direct debit amount of €300 outstanding on the account. I got a new bill in March, though I was out of the country for this period and came back in April. I called them to make a payment on it (total was just over €600). I asked the agent if I could pay €300 before I went to Portugal and then the remainder when I came back 2 weeks later. They agreed that this would be fine.

I went to Portugal and when I came back two weeks later the electricity was cut off. This is where the nightmare begins -

1. I called ESB 13/05/2008 5:45PM asking why it’s been cut off. I was adv that it was due to an overdue payment. I tried explaining what had happened and that I had agreed to pay €300 a two weeks earlier in order to keep it active and that I had agreed to finalise payment when I returned from Portugal. They said well in order to re-activate it I would need to pay 50% of the amount due. I agreed to do this on my credit card but they said they don’t take credit cards. I paid the previous two bills on my credit card and I had my Visa statement in front of me with the 2 payments on it. They more or less called me a liar and said I couldn’t do that. I ended the call in order to organise myself and get my laser details.
2. I called ESB 13/05/2008 7.30PM. I said I was ready to pay the 100% of the previous bill (not the 50% previously stated) AND set up a direct debit in order to re-activate my electricity. The agent said that this was not suffice. I referred to what the previous agent said at 5.45PM the same day “I only had to pay 50% of the bill to re-activate my electricity” and now I am calling to pay 100% and its still not suffice?. The agent replied that I must pay the full amount of the previous bill along with the full amount of a new bill that had just been issued a couple of days prior. I did not receive this bill yet so it was not even due! I said ok I don’t care at this stage so I paid the remainder of the €600 bill ALONG with this new bill which I had not yet received. The agent said that I must pay this entire amount to ensure that the electricity would be connected within 48 hours.

I left it for 24 hours and nothing. I called ESB on the 15/05/08 to follow up with the re-connection. I was then advised that I needed to call the ESB networks. The agent gave me the number for them. I did this and to my horror they informed me that NO reconnection order had been placed on my behalf – I didn’t even have an MPI number! I then had to call ESB Customer care again and ask why no re-connection had been applied for and I asked for the balance of my account. Again to my horror not only did they NOT apply for a re-connection they ALSO overcharged my laser card by €76 euros (Fraud!). I am now in credit with them for the past 3 days and no electricity. I then finally got a re-connection order put through and was given the MPI number. I was adv 48 hours. I tried to argue that I had already waited 48 hours after fully paying my bill and that it should be connected at that day. The Networks agent said they would check with my local office and call me back as it was engaged when they tried calling them while I was on the phone. Five hours later and nothing. I called them back and got through to someone called Yvonne.

Conversation with Yvonne went as

I said to Yvonne that I have now been waiting for 48 hours already and that I had paid my bill in full 48 hours ago. I asked could the electricity be put back on that day (this was at 9AM so they had plenty of time to organise it) I started going into a bit of detail about what had happened in relation to payment and she interrupted me and said that her dept and the customer care are completely different. I then said I know you are nothing to do with them and that I am not having a go at her. I then stated that in my opinion the customer ‘care’ are not competent at their jobs based on my experience from the past few days as each person I talked to gave me conflicting information, overcharged me and did nothing to re-connect my electricity even though I was assured that the re-connection order had been put through. Yvonne then went on to contradict herself and raised her voice (even though my voice had been completely calm throughout as I have been working in a call centre for the past 2 years and know how to deal with customer service effectively) and said ‘I will not be spoken to in that manner’ I was shocked to say the least considering I had stated at the start of the sentence that I was not directing the comment at her or anyone on her ‘networks’ dept. She then stated in defence that well we are all the same ESB. I couldn’t get another sentence in as she got very stroppy with me. This situation was escalated by the agent and not by me and this is one of the most fundamental errors any customer service agent could make. I then. The call ended with me asking Yvonne to try and get the service connected that day and she said with no sincerity at all that she would try.

That day ended with me still having no electricity.

Today 16/05/2008
I called the networks section again at 9AM to confirm that my electricity is to be turned on at some point today (72 hours now). They put me on hold to check with a supervisor that it would be connected again. The supervisor was not present and the agent assured me that I would get a call back within an hour at most as the supervisor is due in within 45 minutes. Its now almost 11AM and again I have heard absolutely nothing from them. I fear that I will have no electricity for the weekend as well.

I should not have been disconnected in the first place. All of this happened due to the fact that I made a payment of €300 euros and was assured that everything would be fine until I came back from Portugal 2 weeks later to make the rest of the payment. If I was advised correctly I would have paid it in full to avoid any disconnections. It may or may not have been something to do with the extortionate €300 euro request for a non direct debit account but all of this is neither here or there due to the fact that payment was made in full and they never bothered re-connecting me.

1. I have lost about €300 euros worth of food which was in the fridge & freezer.
2. I run my own business separate from my day job which is a web development company and I am loosing a lot of money because of this.
3. I now have to travel 1 hour to work from my parent’s house and 1 hour back in order to wash and live. This is costing me more money and not helping the environment in any way.

Now I ask, what would I do if I had children? How would I feed them? How would I bath them? How would I do anything?

On top of all this – I called into my apartment today and on the kitchen table was an opened letter from the ESB confirming that my direct debit had been set up. One of my flatmates opened it as they are obviously anxious to get the electric back on. In this letter my entire back account information was printed in bold black writing including account number and sort code. There was no ‘private’ or anything like that on the envelope and when I put the letter back in the envelope and held it against the light you can clearly see my financial information. Is this allowed? I cannot believe that it is and I now have to go into my bank and try to change my account number etc because I do not have the peace of mind that it has fallen into the wrong hands. In my opinion this is totally unacceptable and I am devastated at the entire experience, I would not wish this on my worst enemy.

I will also have to pay €127 PLUS VAT for the disconnection and reconnection.

If I had a choice I would never deal with the ESB again. The information their customer service give out seems to be random and conflicting with one another. This has left me in quite a serious situation and I feel that I have not been dealt with in a fair or reasonable manner.

Update – I just had a call from the ESB local office to confirm that the electricity should be turned on at about 2PM today. Fingers crossed.

What should I do? Would I be entitled to some sort of compensation? I at least would not expect to have to pay for the re-connection fee.