Jokers

tenchi-fan

I got a very high ESB bill recently with a letter enclosed explain the increase.

The letter dated 10th November informed me that they are increasing prices effective 1st OCTOBER!

Then today I got a flyer from ESB informing me I could switch to their new tariff and save 9%.

Basically, ESB:
- royally ripped me off in my most recent back-dated bill
- charge extortionate rates so they can pass savings on to their business customers
- Promised me savings of 9% immediately after a hike of 15% and expect me not to notice it's not actually a saving but a 6% net increase
and
- for the privilege expect me to lock in to the tariff and pay them €50 if they hike rates again and introduce a new strings-attached tariff.

EI: Una

Hi Tenchi-fan,

Sorry to read you are unhappy with your experience.

The price increase was announced in the national media a number of weeks before it came into effect - we apologise though for the late notification to you. The price increase is as a result of global energy price rises.

Was your most recent bill amount generated via estimate or meter reading? If you like, I can have a look at your account by private message - I would require the account number, name/address of the account-holder, contact telephone number on the account, date of birth on the account, and confirmation that you are the named account-holder. We would like to reassure you that savings are not passed on to business customers, whose discounts are smaller than those of residential customers, and based on consumption.

Our current price plans offer up to 15% with no contract, with the exception of our ValueSaver 9:9 price plan which has a contract and offers up to 18%. The €50 fee is applicable if the contract is broken before December 2012.

Here are further details regarding the price increase.

We also have a Q&A thread on it here on Boards.ie.

Regards,
Una

tenchi-fan

Thanks Una, but I have my business head on and I'm going with the cheapest supplier.

EI: Una

Hi again Tenchi-fan,

If you would like to do a price comparison between utility providers, Bonkers.ie is a very good facility for this.

Details of our own price plans/discounts are here.

Just to note regarding bill amounts: our colleagues ESB Networks endeavour to carry out a meter reading four times a year, and if a customer would like all bills to be reading-based, they can submit a meter reading via telephone, online or via our meter-reading app. Any over-estimation is always made up for in a subsequent bill.

All the best,
Una

thehound

contacted esb today about so called savings on your esb bills if you don't agree to standing order and to get your bill on line your entitled to nothing.what about the people who don't have internet and pay there bills in post office talk about discrimination ,time for the esb to wake up and give loyal customers the same offers as those with internet.maybe a mass switch to other provider would open there eyes

Electric Ireland: David

Hi thehound,

Thanks for your post.

While our price plans do incentivise paying by direct debit and signing up to online billing, if you are availing for example of the Household Budget scheme to pay your bills weekly, we do have a price plan available for that. To find out more call 1850 50 40 20.

thehound wrote:

time for the esb to wake up and give loyal customers the same offers as those with internet

Our price plans offer a 2% discount for online billing specifically, so if you don't have a reliable internet service and need to receive paper bills, it would still be possible to avail of our best electricity-only offer, with 2% off the full 15% discount.

If you have any other questions please don't hesitate to ask.

Regards,
David