putting your customer onto the best discount / tarriff

Xterminator

Hi

i signed up with electric ireland about a year and a half ago. (both gas and electricity). As i understand it i was given a discount for the 1st year. but once that year ended i was paying the normal rate. There was no nofication of this period ending.

ESB have a  Dual ValueReward Price Plan for existing customers that would have saved me money, but i was not contacted to highlight this.  A letter in the door or a phone call to say, hey this option exists and you can take advantage if you like would have been welcome. 

Instead you collected the full bill, and i assume, make a little more profit. 

I am a literate and informed customer, but some of your customers are not. I think it is a very sharp business practise to charge the unsuspecting customer more than they need pay. I think it is not fair. So i did what common sense dictates; and i have switched provider to one of my choice. 

But i want to make it clear, i was happy with electric ireland's service. And if i felt they had my best interests protected, then i would have stayed with the provider - even if a competitor slightly undercut them, or had a special offer. 

But that loyalty should be a 2 way street. For the reason above i do not believe that is the case. you were not fair with me, and I have no reason to be loyal to you.

Can you pass this on, to the relevant people in Electric ireland please? 

Electric Ireland: Una

Hi Xterminator,

Thank you for getting in touch. We are glad to read that you were happy with our service when you were an Electric Ireland customer - thank you for this. We are very sorry however that you chose to change supplier.

New Electric Ireland customers are provided with the terms and conditions of their savings offering on sign-up, and these terms and conditions include the date of when the offering will expire the following year, with the advice given that their savings will no longer be in effect after this point, and will automatically be removed. There is also a cooling-off period if a customer changes their mind shortly after sign-up.

However, we understand it would be more convenient not to have to keep getting in contact every year, so, since 18th of May last, a new approach has been introduced which requires new customers and customers already with a savings plan in place to contact Electric Ireland again when their contract expires, if they would like to sign up to another savings offering - however, after this, they will not have to contact Electric Ireland again; savings will remain on their account indefinitely/on a rolling basis. They are also then no longer in a contract - contract terms only apply the first year; after that, the customer can avail of the "rolling" offering.

Customers who are with Electric Ireland already and do not have a savings offering just need to contact us once to opt in, and after that, the same as above will apply - no need to get in touch again, savings will always remain on the customer's account, and no contract.

More information here on our website and if you have any further queries, we are on Boards and our other Social Media channels until 6pm.

Kind regards,
Una