Airtricity Issue

Igzeebihir

I recordeded the following last friday when I got home from work, like a bull...original intention was to put up a website (im a web developer and could put it up in about five minutes) with this as the content called: www.airtricity-customerservice-sucks.com ...i've since calmed down some and decided it might get me in more trouble than its worth...I even checked to ensure that the domain was available I was so angry...this was edited for this post but the gist is the same...


My story starts in November 2013. A sales representative from Airtricity called to my front door to sell me their services. I had been considering changing suppliers anyway and their offer of a budget plan with the cost of my energy usage spread over the year was attractive along with the discounts they were offering. The amount to pay on the budget plan is determined by examining past usage and an amount is set. The amount is reviewed three times per year (every four months) and adjustments may be made based on actual usage after each four month period. One stipulation was, that to receive their discounted rates, I had to sign up to pay by direct debit. I generally like to pay my bills as soon as I get paid (15th of the month) so I asked the sales rep if it was okay to make manual payments ahead of the direct debit. She said yes and explained that any payments made in advance of the direct debit would be deducted and the direct debit would be for the reduced amount.

I signed up. A week or so later I received their welcome pack and saw that my monthly payments were set at E204 per month for the first four months. This seemed reasonable to me.

I got my first bill in December and paid it in advance of the direct debit as was the original intention. I then received my bill in early January. I paid the full amount (E204) in advance of the direct debit again, on the 16th of January. On the 22nd of January, (4 working days later...not the 6 as stated on their site) the direct debit for the full amount (204) was taken from my account. I wasn't too upset about it as I knew that transactions took some time to process with banks. I contacted Airtricity and requested a refund of either the manual payment or the direct debit as at this stage my bill had been paid twice. I was told that the refund would be returned to my account within two days.

When the refund did not appear in my account, I again called Airtricity and was speaking to one of their staff. I could hear someone in the background giving the person on the other end of the phone instructions on what to say. It sounded almost like an echo on the phone. I asked the lady I was speaking to if I could speak to the person that was giving her instructions. It turned out that the lady was on her first day. It must have been difficult for her to deal with a complex query regarding a refund on her first day (no sarcasm intended). I wound up speaking to another lady who had more knowledge of Airtricity's systems. I must admit I was irate at this stage but the lady I spoke with seemed experienced and knowledgeable. I explained my situation and although there was some restrained confrontation, the lady did her best to help and was sympathetic to my cause. She got in touch with the billing department and assured me that a refund would be forthcoming.

The next day I received a call from said lady and was told that my refund had been rejected by the billing department as there had not been a recent meter reading for my account. After a lengthy conversation I ended up at the conclusion that I was probably better off not pursuing the matter and agreed that it was probably easier to just leave the double payment to carry over to the following month even though the money had been allocated in my budget to another bill. I actually said on the phone that I could use my credit card to pay the other bill. They also applied a E30 “Good Will Gesture” to my account (which I appreciated).

Later that day I was printing bills from my Airtricity account for an entirely different matter (proof of address for a lease agreement) and noted that there had been a reading submitted on my meter on January 7th (by Bord Gais). This was a day before my bill had been issued. On seeing this I decided that I would pursue the full refund the following day as I was told that there had not been a recent meter reading on my account.

I rang Airtricity again and asked to speak to the lady that had been helpful previously (she had said to ask for her if there were any further issues). I asked about the meter reading and was told that for them to issue a refund, my bill would have to be re-issued, taking into account the meter reading on the 7th of January. I had used more energy than they had predicted I would and there were additional monies owed. I was in work at the time, (as I had been for all of these conversations as they only take these type of calls in “business hours”) and couldn't continue the conversation further but told her that I would like to escalate the issue and wanted to make a formal complaint. I would call her again the following day.

Well, I called her again this morning, 31 Jan 2014. She was unavailable and I arranged for her to call me back. When she called She informed me that a manager was on the case and was going to speak to the manager from the billing department and they were hoping to resolve the problem and issue me with a full refund that day. I acquiesced and did not insist on complaining (why would I when it seemed that the issue would be resolved in my favour). She called me around 3.45 and informed me that they had re-issued my bill, with the meter reading from 7th January taken into consideration and were in a position to grant me a refund of 182 Euro. I enquired about the “good will gesture” of E30 that had been applied to my account and was told that it was included in the refund offer but had been consumed by the amount of energy I had used. At this stage I had paid the bill amount of E204 twice...

I had enough at this stage and politely told her that the offer was not accepted and that I wanted to escalate the matter and make a formal complaint. I was forwarded to the escalation department where I spoke to a guy who was initially like a stone wall...repeating that we have offered you a refund of 182 and that’s all we can offer. As my bill had been re-issued with the meter reading from Jan 7th taken into consideration, I would get the refund but would have to pay 227 for the following four months rather than the 204 that had been initially specified because they had to re-issue my bill?

I argued with him and he finally advised me that under the new SEPA arrangements with the European financial institutions I could re-call the direct debit by dealing directly with my bank but that my subsequent bills would be for the higher amount of 227. When I asked if I had not paid twice, how much would I have to pay for my next bill, he confirmed that I would have had to pay 204, but because I was looking for a refund for a bill I had paid twice, their systems would not allow them to do anything else. I also suggested that, had my bill been allowed to continue at E204 for the following two months, my consumption of energy would have reduced due to the longer evenings and warmer days as spring progressed when I would not be using as much electricity and gas which was th point of the budget scheme. I suggested to him that the fault was with their systems but he did not agree.

So that was where I left it with Airtricity. I will now go to my bank on Monday, 3rd of February and start the process of applying for a refund of a bill I have paid twice, through my bank (as suggested by the escalation guy) rather than through the service provider. I am currently in the process of changing energy suppliers and will never deal with airtricity again (I encourage anyone that reads this to never deal with them either.)

mazdaroy

Igzeebihir wrote: »

<SNIP>

Now I am very confused, why set up a budget account (to spread the cost) then go to pay the bill in full and then complain that they took the agreed amount?

Igzeebihir

The budget amount was 204 p/m. That is the amount I paid. And the amount that was taken by DD. And I'm not complaining that it was taken. I'm complaining that they made it very difficult to get back and then adjusted the predetermined amount of 204 to 227 because I requested a refund. Before this I was not aware of the SEPA arrangements where a DD can be re-called. I went to the bank on Monday and re-called my DD. Just wanted to let people know how airtricity deal with such things.

mazdaroy

Igzeebihir wrote: »

The budget amount was 204 p/m. That is the amount I paid. And the amount that was taken by DD. And I'm not complaining that it was taken. I'm complaining that they made it very difficult to get back and then adjusted the predetermined amount of 204 to 227 because I requested a refund. Before this I was not aware of the SEPA arrangements where a DD can be re-called. I went to the bank on Monday and re-called my DD. Just wanted to let people know how airtricity deal with such things.

But as you said you agreed to pay by DD, why make a further payment? I am sure AT or any company are not mind readers. They would also have to wait for the DD payment to be fully cleared and not reclaimed before doing a refund as someone (not saying you) could do the same ask for a refund get it and also reclaim the DD, thus meaning the company would be out money.

Igzeebihir

I signed up for DD to get the discounted rate. I'm in the habit of paying my bills as soon as I get paid as with 4 kids its sometimes difficult to ensure there is enough left in my acc at the end of the month to pay everything. I'm fine with waiting for the DD to clear and then be issued with a refund but that wasn't the case. In this instance, the Credit Union are waiting for my monthly installment on my loan. I'm now in arrears on my CU loan, which will affect my credit rating, simply because AT refused to give a refund on the bill that was paid twice without first re-issuing the bill and consuming some of the refund in the process.

dudara

I've split out your post from the original thread as it is slightly different to the original topic.

dudara

melekalikimaka

Igzeebihir wrote: »

<SNIP>

I think you misunderstood the way in which the plan works, nothing wrong on their part apart from maybe not explaining the system clearer to you

dudara

Posters - please don't "blanket quote" the entire original post. Use some discretion when quoting, or don't quote at all.

dudara

D3PO

OP no idea why your complaining at all. Its your own fault if you set up a DD and then push through a manual payment a few days before your asking for trouble.

as for the offer to refund based on your actual usage sounds perfectly reasonable behaviour by airtricty in my book and they even left you keep the goodwill gesture even though this is 100% your fault.

rather than setting up a website about airtricity maybe spend the time on reading up on the product you have purschased and the also how direct debits work.

Igzeebihir

As I said in the OP, I wasn't really that put out by the DD going from my acc. I understand how DD's work. My issue is the hassle it took to get a refund. It should have been a simple matter of one phone call with clear advice on how to proceed. I went to the bank on Monday this week and re-called the DD. It was in my account yesterday. Thats two days. Not the two weeks I spent trying to get some kind of clarity from these <SNIP>. Also, I didn't mention it in my OP, but one of the times I called, the person on the other end of the phone was asking my details for fraud prevention etc and she actually called out my email address to me over the phone for me to confirm rather than have me spell it out for her. I believe this is in breach of the data protection act? I've learned a valuable lesson. As I said, I want people to know how these guys work so that they don't fall into the same situation I did.

lala88

mazdaroy wrote: »

But as you said you agreed to pay by DD, why make a further payment? I am sure AT or any company are not mind readers. They would also have to wait for the DD payment to be fully cleared and not reclaimed before doing a refund as someone (not saying you) could do the same ask for a refund get it and also reclaim the DD, thus meaning the company would be out money.

Quite a few on here seem to think they are

TireeTerror

A lot of screaming and complaining about nothing at all.

You were on a budget plan which spreads the costs out over 12 months, to equalise payments to avoid large winter bills. If you sign up for Direct Debit, dont go and pay it manually unless you do it in the first one or two days after the bill was issued. Any later than that and you run the risk of double payments.

You managed to obtain €30 of free energy, you should be delighted. BTW you press RIGHT ALT + 4 for the € symbol. Thats another freebie for you!

Heroditas

Gotta agree with a lot of the replies here.
Level payment plan + DD means you don't do anything! It really screws up billing systems when unscheduled refunds, rebills, adjustments etc have to be made.
The sales rep possibly should have explained it better but most of them barely last a wet weekend and haven't a clue about the products they're allegedly selling.
Hate to say it but it always pays to read the T&Cs

Igzeebihir

As I said, the post is here to make people aware that if they apply for a refund, its not cut and dry, and Airtricity will re-issue your bill, its easier to just go to the bank and recall the direct debit. And thanks for the great free tip on the Euro sign! Fantastic! You learn something new every day! This thread will be here for people to see...that's all I wanted to achieve. You can be as sarcastic as you like but the thread is here...

muffler

Igzeebihir wrote: »

its easier to just go to the bank and recall the direct debit.

I would have thought it would have been a lot easier to stick with what you agreed to at the outset. When you move the goalposts you can expect the ball to go wide.

Igzeebihir wrote: »

This thread will be here for people to see...that's all I wanted to achieve. You can be as sarcastic as you like but the thread is here...

If I was you I would ask for it to be removed as it hasnt shown you in a good light at all despite your attempt to bad mouth Airtricity over your own failures.

Igzeebihir

The thread stays

lala88

muffler wrote: »

I would have thought it would have been a lot easier to stick with what you agreed to at the outset. When you move the goalposts you can expect the ball to go wide.


If I was you I would ask for it to be removed as it hasnt shown you in a good light at all despite your attempt to bad mouth Airtricity over your own failures.

If they did that what would they have to complain about then?