Bord Gais not charging for electricity

KevinK

Moved into a rental apartment last year. Signed up for electricity and gas with Bord Gais. They offered a a service called level pay direct debit where a fixed amount of money comes out of your account by direct debit each month.

Fast forward 18 months and conversation about how much we are paying comes up, we go online to check and it appears we are not actually paying for electricity at all. The direct debit every month seems to only cover gas

Basically our account for electricity shows about 700 was owed in June, then there has been no bill since but another one is due on Monday, I really don’t understand what is going on and how this could be- but we clearly haven’t being paying for electricity but presume we will owe it back to bord gais.

KevinK

Just bumping this to see if anyone has any advice...

Basically signed up with Bord Gais 18 months ago and just realized they haven’t being taking the direct debit all this time and now we owe them over €1000.

punisher5112

Contact them?


Work out a payment plan, you will have to pay either way.

Mrcaramelchoc

It's their fault and you'll end up paying for it. Tell them you can only afford 2 euro a week for the next 500 weeks.

Happyhouse22

It’s clearly their fault, but you will end up paying for it.

I wonder is there any chance they would offer some sort of discount as an apology?

They have been sending invoices although they may not have been getting to you (as you already received one in June and its an automated process). Check your spam folder on email.

Why did you not do something when you noticed the bill had reached €700 in June?

Contact them and arrange a payment plan as suggested. They won't have been cutting people off during a pandemic, but that might change


Edit. €2 per week wont be accepted.

Just thought... how have they been reading the meter? Is it communal access externally or internally? They might not be getting access to your meter. If they have not been able to get access they will leave a note at the time and will calculate based on estimate.

Check your recent bill to see if based on estimate or actual. If estimate the €1,000 may not be correct (for good or bad). If your bills were based on estimate it was up to you to provide customer readings.

KevinK

definitely lots of fault on our part, not sure how we missed it. Direct debit has come out every month but we now realize that the amount is just for gas and electricity has gone unpaid.

The weirdest part is that our contract was up in May and they rang to say we would get a price reduction if we stayed with them etc. No mention of the fact we hadn't payed anything

Look it's not the biggest problem in the world we can afford to pay it. Just a bit annoying that we make a mistake but they have arguably made a bigger one and we are the one's who will have to pay- presume there is no point in asking for 20% off the bill for the inconvenience. I definitely feel like making a complaint somewhere

Izy

Read your own meter and you can easily work out what you owe.

If you are out of contract tell them that you are switching suppliers ( Electric Ireland has a €350 switching bonus if you move electricity and gas ) and that should cover some of your costs, they might offer to write off a certain amount if you stayed with them.

irishgeo

Izy wrote: »

Read your own meter and you can easily work out what you owe.

If you are out of contract tell them that you are switching suppliers ( Electric Ireland has a €350 switching bonus if you move electricity and gas ) and that should cover some of your costs, they might offer to write off a certain amount if you stayed with them.

They won't allow to switch unless you settle your bill first.

The J Stands for Jay

KevinK wrote: »

definitely lots of fault on our part, not sure how we missed it. Direct debit has come out every month but we now realize that the amount is just for gas and electricity has gone unpaid.

The weirdest part is that our contract was up in May and they rang to say we would get a price reduction if we stayed with them etc. No mention of the fact we hadn't payed anything

Look it's not the biggest problem in the world we can afford to pay it. Just a bit annoying that we make a mistake but they have arguably made a bigger one and we are the one's who will have to pay- presume there is no point in asking for 20% off the bill for the inconvenience. I definitely feel like making a complaint somewhere

What's the issue here? You'll just have to pay for what you used, and you've benefited from free credit. They won't give you a discount, they could look for some sort of late payment charhe, depending on who's fault the nonpayment is

KevinK

The meter is being read, well at least it was as recently as June- so that's not the problem.

(Actually as an aside is there a reason why we wouldn't have gotten a bill since June-very weird- but the online system say another one due tomorrow, so wait and see I guess).

from may 2019, to june 2020 we got bills as normal -the direct debit was just never taken and neither them or us noticed.
Not sure how we didnt notice but the fact that the gas bill came out and this level pay which means the bill amount and direct debit amount aren't the same certainly didn't help. Weird system

KevinK

McGaggs wrote: »

What's the issue here? You'll just have to pay for what you used, and you've benefited from free credit. They won't give you a discount, they could look for some sort of late payment charhe, depending on who's fault the nonpayment is

I guess it's just a bit annoying to find out that they never set up the direct debit and now we have to pay this money:p I would have thought they would have some sort of check in their system to flag this up...

Ya I guess from the free credit angle they were doing us a favour... but one we didn't ask for. Like I said not a big issue but seems a bit mad, mostly posed the questions to see if anyone has experienced anything similar

Happyhouse22

KevinK wrote: »

I guess it's just a bit annoying to find out that they never set up the direct debit and now we have to pay this money:p I would have thought they would have some sort of check in their system to flag this up...

Ya I guess from the free credit angle they were doing us a favour... but one we didn't ask for. Like I said not a big issue but seems a bit mad, mostly posed the questions to see if anyone has experienced anything similar

Haha, hope you enjoyed the free credit

Degag

OP, if they didn't set up the Direct Debit correct and haven't billed you since June they are at fault. You will still have to pay but should get some compensation. Have a look at their Customer Charter.

Darc19

BTW, by not checking what you are paying and what the best deals are on the market, you are probably paying at least 20% more than you should.