Warning to all PAYG meter owners!

padyjoe

It's the second place in my town which started charging me on a top up. 50 cents for every top up. And everyone are washing their hands. It's not even worth to complain because the company looking after the POS, it's their discretion to charge or not to charge. And they rather do charge! 
50 euro used up in 2 weeks time and not wasting much gas, using it for cooking and heating.
I'm losing 1 cent per unit compared to bill pay, must go to the shop, pay the top up, pay the charge. And the system won't let me to put more than 50 euro on the card in one go.
€200 for a bill pay meter if one wants to change(unfortunately I must use payg.). Nice little catch there!

Saying this knowing nothing will change. If someone not wise enough on bill pay, those will be worse on payg.

So have that 50 cents at hand next time, don't get caught short!

EI: Aoife

Hi padyjoe,

We are sorry to read this.

Electric Ireland ask that retailers do not apply a surcharge to Pay As You Go top-ups. Have you tried another shop in the area? You can find a list of all Payzone retailers here.

Can you send us a private message?

We will require the following information:

• Your full name
• Your account number
• The first line of your address
• Your contact number or date of birth
• Confirmation you are the account holder (a sentence stating this is sufficient)
• The name and address of the shop

We can then look into this further for you.

Thanks,
Aoife

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padyjoe

Thanks for getting back Aoife! I think whether I give you details or not, nothing will be changed. We pay for the services in advance and I guess the payg system run by a different company, so there will be always a middleman and they can charge for their services.

What does boggle my mind why an earth is there no direct, online top up available on your website cutting the middlemen out?? Why the payg gas users are forced to go to the shop? Someone must be getting millions for having the system set up like this. What I do is get an electronic data put on my card in the shop which is transferred to the meter and the meter must be wired in to EI. So it'd be easy I assume.
Best would be having a notes and coin operated meter, no fuss.

I'm not angry at you EI Reps just letting you know, the charge for topping up is happening out there. And you know what's wrong with it? I can't even prove it because no receipt is given bar the slip stating €x amount of top up but the total is always €x.5 please what I have to pay. Strange!

EI: Aoife

Hi again padyjoe.

We are sorry to read of your unhappiness with the gas Pay As You Go top-up system.

All gas Pay As You Go meters will require the card to be presented in a shop and then inserted into the meter. It is not currently possible for Electric Ireland to offer an online top-up service. The Pay As You Go system is the same regardless of gas supplier. The gas network and all gas meters are maintained by Gas Networks Ireland. You can find their contact details here.

Please let us know if you have any other questions.

Thanks,
Aoife

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