When a 12 month contract is actually 14

zagmund

I signed up for gas & electricity with Electric Ireland last year - on May 1st.

During the conversation the person on the other end told me that my contract was up at the end of June 2014. I questioned this, since this was a 12 month contract and it should expire on 01MAY2014, not two full months later. As with many call centre experiences the discussion was ultimately fruitless as "the computer says that's when it ends" . . . never mind this was a 12 month contract. I thought there was a possibility that the computer was talking rubbish and it would actually expire on 01MAY this year anyway.

In the end this was the best value deal at the time so I proceeded.

Now, a year later I'm back in the market to look for the best value deal again.

According to bonkers.ie (my underline)

Notes: † as you signed up to Dual Green & Standard Gas (Direct Debit & Online Billing) during May 2013, your discounts will expire on 30 June 2014. This change in discount has been factored into the above calculations. Also, as your plan carries a contract of 12 months, if you exit this plan before 30 June 2014 you may incur a penalty - check with Electric Ireland for details before switching.

So, it seems that the package conditions do in fact indicate that I am tied in to a 12 month contract for 14 months. Which seems a bit bizarre. It's not like there's a billing cycle that has to be fitted in, it's not like they can't accept new customers from other providers any day of the week. I can't see the business or consumer reason for this condition at all.

I'm going to contact Electric Ireland (as suggested by Bonkers) and clarify, but I can't see how they can tie you to a 14 month contract on a product which says it has a 12 month one.

My usage is going to be minimal in the next two months, but my main gripe is that (assuming other providers have this interesting interpretation of "12") I will need to switch on exactly 30JUN this year in order to just get myself a 13 month contract ending at the end of July. If I wait till the next day then my contract won't end until 31AUG.

Do all utility contracts operate like this, or is this an Electric Ireland special? Assuming Electric Ireland stick to their 30JUN contract end date what are the escalation routes? Commissioner for Energy Regulation or someone else?

z

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Possibly to do with the fact that you are billed every 2 months in arrears?

zagmund

I've no problem with being billed two months in arrears, but that should be distinct from the contract period.

Let's say I switched provider on 15MAY - I don't mind whether they send me the final account on 16MAY or 16JUL or any time in between. I don't see the link between contract period & billing period.

z

emeldc

zagmund wrote: »

I've no problem with being billed two months in arrears, but that should be distinct from the contract period.

Let's say I switched provider on 15MAY - I don't mind whether they send me the final account on 16MAY or 16JUL or any time in between. I don't see the link between contract period & billing period.

z

I think I agree with you there. Your final bill should be issued any time after you supply them with final meter readings after your '12 month' contract has expired which is 1st May 2014. When the paper work says 12 months but really means 14 months, surely that makes the contract invalid.

Fred Swanson

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Teagwee

I'm interested in this and how it pans out for you because an ISP has just attempted to pull the same stunt on my neighbour. He renewed his contract with them from 1st February 2013 and was told he was locked into a year's contract, which he agreed to, having first of all been assured that once the 'year' was up he could leave to go to another provider without any further charges.

Roll on to the end of March 2014 (14 months later) and he too then switched to another provider via Bonkers. Luckily, he was ahead of the posse with the original crowd and cancelled the direct debit before asking for a final bill. They then tried to slap 2 further months on to his account, as it was 'ended before the contract period expired'. Do contract years have more than 12 months in them or is this some new interpretation of the calendar? They are still trying to charge him now for every refused direct debit as their bill mounts but he has paid them for what he calculated he owes them from the final bills and has informed them that that's that!

Fred Swanson

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loopymum

Teagwee wrote: »

I'm interested in this and how it pans out for you because an ISP has just attempted to pull the same stunt on my neighbour. He renewed his contract with them from 1st February 2013 and was told he was locked into a year's contract, which he agreed to, having first of all been assured that once the 'year' was up he could leave to go to another provider without any further charges.

Roll on to the end of March 2014 (14 months later) and he too then switched to another provider via Bonkers. Luckily, he was ahead of the posse with the original crowd and cancelled the direct debit before asking for a final bill. They then tried to slap 2 further months on to his account, as it was 'ended before the contract period expired'. Do contract years have more than 12 months in them or is this some new interpretation of the calendar? They are still trying to charge him now for every refused direct debit as their bill mounts but he has paid them for what he calculated he owes them from the final bills and has informed them that that's that!

Eircom received a big slap on the wrists for this kind of behaviour recently

Teagwee

Fred Swanson wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

They were charging 2 months plus. He was told there would be no charge if he was moving to another provider when he renewed, which all went by the board when he actually moved. if he'd left the DD in place they would have just taken the money.

Boards.ie: Niamh

Moved to Electric Ireland forum - their charter now applies.

EI: Una

Hi folks,

If you would like further clarification on this, please see this thread here on our Talk To forum.

Regards,
Una

zagmund

Una - this thread wasn't asking Electric Ireland for information or advice, can you please move it back out of "Talk to" as I have a different thread talking to Electric Ireland - this was looking for information from other posters on the consumer end of things.

z

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

Boards.ie: Niamh

Fred Swanson wrote: »

It seems to be site policy that any post mention the words "electric Ireland" get moved here without discussion.

It's not site policy at all, the op may have gotten more pertinent and correct info in the EI forum but I was not aware that there was a pre-existing thread already in the Electric Ireland forum.

--
Moved back to Consumer Issues now.

skelligs

As 1st of may is already in may and the 2 month cycle has started, then the 12 month anniversary of the next 2 month cycle is what the computer will give it as.

If you signed up on 30th April, the computer would probably give 30th April as the end date.

If you got into a dispute, then 1st of May could be utilised by you.

At the end of the day it would seem it errs on the side of the consumer by going to the end of the cycle after you sign up rather than just to the the date you signed up.

zagmund

skelligs - I don't understand your logic - you say it errs on the side of the consumer, but it errs on the side of the provider in that it makes the contract longer than it needs to be. If it err'd on the side of the consumer then that would mean the consumer could end the contract at 11 months or 10 months or some time before the 12 months have expired.

To take things to the extreme for illustration purposes . . . would you be happy if you bought a product with a 12 month term in February and found that to make things easy they end all such contracts on 31st December each year. By the time 12 months have passed and you are in February you have missed December and have to wait another 10 months (22 in all) for your 1 year contract to end?

z

skelligs

zagmund wrote: »

skelligs - I don't understand your logic - you say it errs on the side of the consumer, but it errs on the side of the provider in that it makes the contract longer than it needs to be. If it err'd on the side of the consumer then that would mean the consumer could end the contract at 11 months or 10 months or some time before the 12 months have expired.

To take things to the extreme for illustration purposes . . . would you be happy if you bought a product with a 12 month term in February and found that to make things easy they end all such contracts on 31st December each year. By the time 12 months have passed and you are in February you have missed December and have to wait another 10 months (22 in all) for your 1 year contract to end?

z

does the discount rate apply til 1st May or 30th june. If til 30th june then the contract favours the customer

At the end of the day, its a computer setting. If you want to change now, you can do so. I don't think companies apply penalties for you to come off a discounted rate.

Reading back the OP, when you were signing up, they told you that the end of contract date is end of June 2014 - obviously by taking supply from them you were agreeing to this condition, even if you queried it.

As this formed part of your T&C's and it was clearly described to you its a bit rich complaining now.

But as I said, if I signed up today and I was told my discounted rate would be until the end of June 2015, I'd be happy as its an extra 6 weeks of discount!

zagmund

I think we'll just have to agree to disagree on this one.

You ask . . . "does the discount rate apply til 1st May or 30th june. If til 30th june then the contract favours the customer" - that's not correct though. Their discounted rate is higher than another provider would charge me, so I would be better off with the other provider but I can't move *after* my 12 months is up. There's a difference between the discount term & the contract term - they can offer the discount for as long as they want - 1 month, 10 months, 20 months. If I'm still a customer at 20 months and happy with their discount then that's just fine, but if I'm unhappy with their discount at 13 or 14 months into an originally agreed (and advertised) 12 month period then I should be able to change.

z

zagmund

Sorry for dragging this back up, but it continues ticking along in the background with me.

I would be interested in talking to anyone (by PM or on thread) who has faced this situation with Electric Ireland specifically - taking out what they believe is a 12 month contract and finding that they either have to pay an early exit fee *after* 12 months or else fight long and hard to get their 12 month contract honoured.

The money involved is minimal, but at this stage there's a consumer principle involved.

z

Mimikyu

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zagmund

Thanks Captain, PM sent.

Anyone else had a fast one pulled on them by Electric Ireland? You can't have something buried in the T&Cs which significantly changes the nature of the contract being offered. You can clarify the contract, etc . . . but you can't sign a contract for a blue car and then have a clause in the T&Cs which says "we only ever supply yellow cars". The T&Cs can say that the shade of blue may vary slightly.

z

goz83

That's an odd one alright. But, nit as bad as mobile phone contracts imo.

I have the Emobile unlimited friends and family deal giving "unlimited" ROI landline and mobile calls and texts, plus "unlimited" date (but actual data is 15GB). That's not bad, as I use less than 5GB, but it is not "unlimited" and is false advertising.

I also have a business mobile contract with Blueface for similar money. The plan is also "unlimited", but I get a pathetic 2.5GB of data. Terrible that they can get away with this. advertising standards must be seeing a few brown envelopes.

zagmund

Latest on this - ASAI replied to me that a genuine error had been made (5 times, by 5 different people, after I explicitly queried the duration each time) and no further action was expected.

On the plus side, they did manage to get Electric Ireland to confirm *in writing* that the contract plans "were for a period of 12 months from the date of sign up"

So, if anyone is having a fight with Electric Ireland over contract duration, or if you have been hit with a €50 early exit fee after your 12 months PM me and I will provide you with the info required to get the issue addressed. You *may* also be entitled to €40 compensation under their Customer Charter.

I had a complaint in with them about "misleading advertising", but it seems that this will not be upheld because their advertising was correct. It was just that every single customer service agent I spoke to was unaware of their advertising & was unaware of my contract expiry date. I guess I was really unlucky :rolleyes:. Maybe if I asked them a 6th time I would have got someone who knew how long a year was.

z

zagmund

<bump>

I'm continuing to follow this through the channels. I'm just checking back in to see if any out there has had a recent discussion with Electric Ireland on this issue?

Anyone been told by Electric Ireland that their 12 month contract is actually longer than 12 months or been charged a €50 early exit fee after 12 months were up?

Please PM me or reply on thread if this applies to you.

z

dudara

@zagmund Please don't bump threads to solicit responses.

dudara

Padraig Mor

zagmund wrote: »

<bump>

I'm continuing to follow this through the channels. I'm just checking back in to see if any out there has had a recent discussion with Electric Ireland on this issue?

Anyone been told by Electric Ireland that their 12 month contract is actually longer than 12 months or been charged a €50 early exit fee after 12 months were up?

Please PM me or reply on thread if this applies to you.

z

Yes, and posted it over in the EI forum. Turns out that the 'extended' period (i.e. 14 months or whatever) is the period of applicability of the price plan. However, your contract is still only 12 months from your sign up date, and you are free to leave then. They don't make this clear AT ALL.

zagmund

I've heard back from the CER and they upheld my complaint against Electric Ireland. I also had a complaint in with the ASAI for misleading advertising and that was upheld some time back also.

Hopefully, this puts to bed once and for all Electric Irelands attempts to enforce a longer term that contracted and their attempts to redefine a year.

If anyone finds themselves in a position of Electric Ireland trying to hold them to contract for anything longer than the 12 months advertised PM me and I will provide the ASAI & CER complaint references for you to quote to them.

z

Fred Swanson

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zagmund

Yep, I know they will likely keep trying. All I can do is let people know the complaints have been upheld.

I'm still pushing CER to get Electric Ireland to officially change their behaviour.

z