Hi there,

I recently closed my Electric Ireland account as I left the property I was renting. I today received a bill with a €50 exit fee added. 

I started my bills with Electric Ireland on 9th of April 2016 and closed it on the 8th of April 2017. I did not realise there was an early exit fee for leaving before the 12 months was up and considering I was one day short I feel it was harsh in the extreme to apply this charge. If I had know there would be this charge I would have hung on the extra day. I was not notified of the extra charge over the phone. 

If you could contact me with regards this it would be appreciated.


Jof.

09/04/16 - 08/04/17 is a year

Hi Jofspring,

Thank you for getting in touch.

If you send us a private message confirming the relevant Electric Ireland account number, stating that you are the account-holder and your name, address and date of birth, we will review your query as soon as possible.

Thanks,
Una

________

PM Sent.

Hate reviving an old thread, but I switched my electricity from electric Ireland during the week , about 4 weeks out of contract  and same as the time that I was switching gas last year, they've charged me 50 exit fee yet again .... Are you sneaking this through on customers hoping that they won't challenge it? 

Hi there, 

We are very sorry to read you have been charged the fee in error.

We would like to review your account and find out why it was applied. 

Can you please send us the following details via private message and we will look into this? 

• Your full name
• Your account number
• The first line of your address
• Your contact number
• Confirmation you are the account holder (Yes/No)
  

Thanks, 
Aoife

I have also been hit with a €50 exit fee despite being out of contract for six weeks when I moved to another supplier. Some very shady practice going on here. I've been switching companies every year between your competitors and have never had this issue. How can they get it right but electric Ireland are failing to solve this problem? Probably because they don't want to solve it. Outrageous. 

Hi Davey Devil, 

We're very sorry to read this.

We would like to investigate this. Please send us a private message

For account security, we need you to please confirm the following details for us:

- Your full name
- Your account number
- The first line of your address
- Your contact number
- Confirmation you are the account holder (Yes/No)

We can then look into your query for you.

Kind regards,
Aoife

I had this sorted in under 2 mins on the online chat. He sorted it so quickly that it seems like this is something he has to do often.

I tell you what you can do Aoife. You can escalate this to the highest level in your company. Its an absolute disgrace that Electric Ireland are attempting to get away with this charge in the hope that people don't notice. My account was out of contract for six weeks and I was charged an early exit fee. This should be impossible with automated systems.

I've found threads going back years with the same problem so its obvious to me that no attempt has been made to rectify this.

Absolutely shamefull, I'll never give Electric Ireland another cent of my money.

Hi Davey Devil, 

We are very sorry that this happened and we are glad to read it has been resolved for you. 

We appreciate your feedback. We have already shared your posts with the relevant department.

We would appreciate if you could provide your details by private message as this could help our colleagues investigate the matter further.

Kind regards, 
Aoife

Just want to add that I also had to contact Electric Ireland today as they applied "in error" the exact same 50 Euro exit fee to my account, even though i was out of contract by a week - and had called them before I switched to have them confirm I was free to leave.  

It is such a coincidence - a cynical person might think that this is even something they do by design in the assumption that people, when leaving and closing their accounts, will not check the direct debits coming out of their accounts.  Luckily I don't believe such things.  

I have all the screen grabs etc so will be making a complaint to Electric Ireland so they can give this a robust and full investigation, and then following it up with the folks in the Commission for Regulation of Utilities.

FYI - the Electric Ireland complaints policy is here if you need it - https://www.electricireland.ie/docs/code-of-practice-complaint-handling-2015/electric-ireland-complaint-charter.pdf?sfvrsn=ddcaa20d_18

Hi Arciphel,

We are very sorry to read this.

If you would like us to look into this, please send a private message with your account details.

For account security, we will require the following details:

• Your name as it appeared on your Electric Ireland account
• The first line of your address
• Your contact number
• Confirmation you were the account holder (Yes/No)
  

Kind regards,
Aoife

This happened to me as well today.  I got my final bill and there was a €50 exit fee added on even though I had been out of contract for a week before I switched.  I rang their customer service and they removed it and said it had been applied 'in error'. There are bound to be people paying this fee that don't check their online bills and don't know that they have been charged it.

Hi Cait04, yes it seems to be pretty systematic doesn't it?  Hopefully if people keep posting in here when it happens then if other people search online they will find this thread about it.

Hi all,

We are so sorry about this. We can assure that it is an error.

We have escalated it to our senior colleagues.

Kind regards,
Una