Written Communications with Energy Company

IsThisOneFree

Hi All

Two weeks ago I took ownership of an apartment and had to pay to get both gas and electricity turned back on. So far, not an issue. Last week, I got quiet a substantial bill through from the energy provider, so I contacted them via e-mail. They said that there were unpaid bills from prior to the date I contacted them 2 weeks ago, and that the start date on my account was sometime last year .... clearly incorrect as I had never contacted them until March this year.

I have advised them that they need to rectify the situation immediately and re-issue a new bill for the correct amount. So far they haven't responded to my second e-mail to them, and likewise the bill is showing that a payment is due within the next week. So my questions are:

1. Is e-mail communication sufficient, or should I start mailing them instead ? What about if I need to take this to the ombuds man, would printed mail be better than e-mail ?

2. While I do accept that I owe the energy company money (about €75 for reconnection fee), I have told them that I do not plan to pay them any money until they rectify the situation. Am I at risk of getting my supply cut off (and having to pay more money to get it reconnected again) ? Or given that I am disputing the bill, do they have to continue my supply ? If I pay them the €75 but no more, would this change anything (ie, could they still cut me off)

FYI - the €75 would represent less than 10% of the total bill that they have sent me

234

IsThisOneFree wrote: »

Hi All

Two weeks ago I took ownership of an apartment and had to pay to get both gas and electricity turned back on. So far, not an issue. Last week, I got quiet a substantial bill through from the energy provider, so I contacted them via e-mail. They said that there were unpaid bills from prior to the date I contacted them 2 weeks ago, and that the start date on my account was sometime last year .... clearly incorrect as I had never contacted them until March this year.

I have advised them that they need to rectify the situation immediately and re-issue a new bill for the correct amount. So far they haven't responded to my second e-mail to them, and likewise the bill is showing that a payment is due within the next week. So my questions are:

1. Is e-mail communication sufficient, or should I start mailing them instead ? What about if I need to take this to the ombuds man, would printed mail be better than e-mail ?

2. While I do accept that I owe the energy company money (about €75 for reconnection fee), I have told them that I do not plan to pay them any money until they rectify the situation. Am I at risk of getting my supply cut off (and having to pay more money to get it reconnected again) ? Or given that I am disputing the bill, do they have to continue my supply ? If I pay them the €75 but no more, would this change anything (ie, could they still cut me off)

FYI - the €75 would represent less than 10% of the total bill that they have sent me

Emails are a very inefficient way to deal with energy service providers, especially if it is sent to a group inbox rather than a individual.

The most efficient thing would be call them. Don't let the person in the call centre fob you off, keep pressing and insist on logging some kind of query/complaint on the account. This will usually mean that it will go to the relevant dept for investigation. Ask them to freeze any debt collection procedure on the account while this is being resolved.

Once you get some kind of outcome you can either accept it or make a complaint to the CER. But you do need to exhaust the internal procedures before the CER will entertain you.

The most important thing is to engage with the energy company. If you just say "I'm not paying until this is resolved", they may not even look into and would let their normal debt-collection and disconnection procedures take place.

Good luck.

Peregrinus

Belt and braces: Send them correspondence through the post. But before you send it scan it, and then e-mail them a scan just after posting. If nothing else, they'll realise that you're serious about creating a paper trail, and this will signal to them that you are shaping up to elevate this to a formal dispute, if required.

Pay what you acknowledge that you owe. It shows good faith, and indicate that you're not "manufacturing" a dispute in order to buy yourself time.

Have they threatened to cut you off? If not, make no reference to the possibility yourself. You want the error corrected, not escalated. If they have made that threat, ask for immediate confirmation that this will not happen while before your allegation of an error has been investigated fully, and the dispute resolved.

IsThisOneFree

Thanks for the replies guys. Yea, my feeling was the same about e-mail (generic e-mail address) - I checked the complaints procedure on the providers website, but from reading through it, I suspect that complaints go to the same generic e-mail address. So I think I'll start to send printed mail instead.

My thinking was that if I paid them any money (even the €75 I owe them) that I might be giving them less incentive to resolve the issue. Although if I did get to the stage where they're threatening cut off (they haven't so far), I guess it would work in my favour that I had paid them what I beleived was owed. And I'll end up paying that anyway, so might as well just pay it now I guess :-)

Thanks again for the replies.

234

Unless you are a business customer and the amount in dispute runs into the thousands, they have no incentive to process your complaint any faster or slower than usual. Paying the amount which you acknowledge that you owe would likely have no effect on how they deal with the issue.

Peregrinus

But, equally, witholding payment is not going to make them deal with it any faster or take it any more seriously. The point of paying what you owe is to make them think twice before cutting you off, and/or to position yourself better as a person acting in the utmost good faith for when you bring your complaing to the energy ombudsman.

IsThisOneFree

Hi Guys

Well, I paid the €75 that I owe on the bill and wrote a strongly worded letter which I mailed to the energy provider this afternoon. Then out of the blue, I got a call from them. In short, they acknowledged their mistake, explained to me how it happened, and offered me a small refund as a gesture of good will. So, all's well that ends well :-) But thanks for the replies, always good to know for again !!