'Low Usage Standing Charge'

davesangel

I have recently moved to a small one-bed apartment. I am the sole occupant, and despite submitting an accurate reading to your customer representative upon setting up a direct debit account, I was charged 160 euros for a 2-month period, which is insane given that I only used 60 units of electricity in this time.

After much hassle on my part (which should never have been necessary given that your 'customer representative' should have listened when I told her I only used 60 units in a 2-month period and she should have recorded this) I finally got a new bill issued. However, despite being informed by a different member of your staff that the usual tariff is 17 cents per unit, my bill is approx 43 euros. Whilst this may not seem like a lot of money, it does not match the price of 60 units at 17 cents per unit. Upon further investigation I have discovered that I am being charged a 'low usage standing charge'.

I think it is absolutely outrageous that you are actually charging people for using less electricity to keep their costs down in the current economic climate. Furthermore I was not advised of this when I phoned up to set up an account. It's scandalous that you just go ahead and charge people this money without informing them - and had I not signed up to electronic billing, I would not have noticed your ridiculous overcharging me of 160 euros until it was too late. I will be looking into my legal rights regarding this because you should not be allowed to charge customers for using low amounts of electricity - especially if you don't bother telling them you will be applying this charge when they sign up.

EI: Una

Hi davesangel,

Sorry to read you are unhappy with your customer experience. If you would like us to investigate why your first bill was an estimate instead of based on the meter-reading you provided, do private message us your Electric Ireland account number, your name, address and telephone number.

Here is all the information on our website regarding the Low Usage Standing Charge. It is applied to accounts where usage is under two units per day in a billing period, for connection costs/maintenance of the electricity network.
The charge is also outlined in each electricity section of our price-plan page for customers interested in discounts.

Regards,
Una

Chance The Fapper

If you're actually using incredibly low accounts every month you might be better off going prepay