Underestimated Reading

keith16

My last three bills look to have been substantially underestimated.

I submitted an updated meter reading this morning but it now looks like I'm going to be hit with an approx. €500 bill.

Some questions:

Why was the reading under-estimated by so much? I have been a customer for years, surely by now you can calculate my average usage and apply that to the bill?

Do you think it's fair to expect people to pay one-off amounts like this when Electric Ireland (or any business worth their salt) themselves wouldn't accept a similar billing practice from their vendors?

I am not complaining about the money, but this practice of billing seems unacceptable to me. Should I now submit a reading every month to avoid this happening again?

EI: Una

Hi Keith,

Sorry to read of this situation - do private message me your Electric Ireland account number and your name/address in full as they appear on your account, as well as the contact telephone number on your account. We will then check to see what your usage was for the equivalent billing period last year. If you could also just include a note confirming that you are the named account-holder, we will then be able to proceed immediately.

ESB Networks endeavours to read a residential customer's meter four times per year, with the remaining bills being based on estimates. Where is your meter located? Would there have been any issue with accessing it, for example is it in a meter shed?

With regards to your query about submitting a reading for each bill, we do recommend customers send in their own reading after receiving an estimated bill, but we also set up payment plans for customers who receive a reading bill following a bill or bills based on under-estimation.

Regards,
Una

keith16

Electric Ireland: Una wrote: »

Hi Keith,

Sorry to read of this situation - do private message me your Electric Ireland account number and your name/address in full as they appear on your account, as well as the contact telephone number on your account. We will then check to see what your usage was for the equivalent billing period last year. If you could also just include a note confirming that you are the named account-holder, we will then be able to proceed immediately.

ESB Networks endeavours to read a residential customer's meter four times per year, with the remaining bills being based on estimates. Where is your meter located? Would there have been any issue with accessing it, for example is it in a meter shed?

With regards to your query about submitting a reading for each bill, we do recommend customers send in their own reading after receiving an estimated bill, but we also set up payment plans for customers who receive a reading bill following a bill or bills based on under-estimation.

Regards,
Una

Thank you Una,

I'm not sure what the point is in checking my usage for the same period last year? I've submitted my reading.

All of my bills have been estimated this year. My meter is located in a room where the door can be locked but so what? There is no reason you can't access it with the prior arrangement of the management company and during the day, it's often open anyway.

It's all well and good saying that you endeavour to read the meter the reality in this case is that it hasn't been read once in 9 months.

I know people are going to be reading this thinking "FFS just submit your reading and be done with it" but this hasn't happened to me before and I pay little attention to bills as they all come out automatically and that's the way I like it, so this is the first time I've been made aware that I need to play an active role in submitting this data.

Anyway, I don't particularly need a payment plan, but I just want to say that I think it's very poor practice on your behalf and very unfair for people who aren't particularly savvy (like me evidently) when it comes to bills - payment plan or not.

EI: Una

Hi again Keith,

We regret that you are unhappy with your customer experience. We suggested that we would check usage for the same billing periods last year, in order to confirm that your usage then was similar to the estimates on which your bills have been based this year, as this can be the criteria used for generating estimated bills.

In regards to why your meter was not read for that length of time, we can understand why you are wondering about this. ESB Networks looks after meter-reading and operates separately to Electric Ireland. They are not on Boards.ie but here is their contact details page and they are also on Twitter. If it is relevant in your case, we would recommend checking with your property management agency to see whether ESB Networks always has access to the meter.

If you have any account queries, do let us know. We are here until 6pm.

Regards,
Una

keith16

Actually yeah, one other query. I have been reading through this forum and noticed something else.

For all of those bills, I have been hit with a low usage charge. Based on the start reading when I moved in, and the reading I submitted today, the total units used is 2806. From the start billing period to today, that's a total of 241 days = 11.6 units per day! Well in excess of the low usage units of 2/day.

So I assume these charges will be refunded?


My actual usage was 2806 units YTD vs. electric ireland or networks or whatever organisation reads (or doesn't read) the meter estimated 170 units. So you have mis-underestimated my usage to the tune of 96% 

EI: Una

Hi again Keith,

Yes, low usage standing charges on under-estimated bills are refunded on a bill based on an actual reading, once the correct daily average unit consumption exceeds that to which the low usage standing charge would apply.

Regards,
Una