# ESB low user surcharge - check your bill



## Mystic Oil (15 Mar 2012)

The new low user surcharge from the ESB is now in effect, and reflected in recent bills. Check yours for accuracy!

My "eBill" arrived for the most recent billing period, and I noticed that they had charged me a higher daily rate "Standing Charge Low Usage" of €0.5227 (vs. €0.3857) for 42 of the 61 days.

It appears that this situation arose due to their over-estimate of my consumption in the previous billing period, which took my apparent consumption for the recent bill below the threshold 2 units per day.

I'll spare you the gory details of the 29 min 45 sec phone call. In summary, they tried to fob me off - however, I insisted that they invoke the complaints procedure. It took persistance, but they did eventually agree to credit my account with the overcharge, which amounted to 19%.

I was away in January when the previous estimate was generated, so was unable to provide the on-line system with a customer reading.  My long-term consumption is fairly consistent and predictable, so I have to wonder about the algorithm that they use to generate estimates.


----------



## Sarn (29 Sep 2012)

This has happened to me as well. I am currently in contact with Electric Ireland trying to get this resolved. 

Similarly, a large overestimation of a previous bill followed by an actual reading resulted in the low usage charge being applied. Given that my apartment runs solely on electricity the only was this charge would be applied is if my home is vacant for a prolonged period, which has not been the case. Normally I don't have a problem receiving an unusually large bill as it evens out in the end. However, with the implementation of this low usage charge it's something to be aware of.

It highlights the importance of submitting your own readings periodically (if you can get access to your meter!).


----------



## pudds (29 Sep 2012)

1. Does this low usage charge apply per billing period, (2 Months)  
2. If charged this on an over estimated bill do they not refund you on the next meter reading.


Energy suppliers are becoming more like mobile phone companies, and seem to be deliberately trying to confuse their customers with their breakdowns of pricing policies.

Do FáS do a solicitors course


----------



## Laramie (29 Sep 2012)

I would not have used much electricity over the summer months. All our cooking is on gas. I will certainly make up for it though over the winter. I would hate to think that I am going to be billed for under usage in the summer but not credited for over usage in the winter.


----------



## Mystic Oil (2 Oct 2012)

pudds said:


> 1. Does this low usage charge apply per billing period, (2 Months)
> 2. If charged this on an over estimated bill do they not refund you on the next meter reading.



1. Yes

2. No. They don't charge on an over-estimated bill (unless they estimate the consumption to be less than 2 units per day). In this case, the charge kicked in for the subsequent bill, as the consumption appeared to drop below the threshold for the new billing period.


----------



## Sarn (16 Oct 2012)

I just thought I'd give an update. The first response from Electric Ireland didn't provide satisfaction, so I sent in a detailed follow up, finishing with a request for a complaint reference number. This resulted in a good will gesture (cash) that I was happy with.

Their site acknowledges that there can be issues with how the charge is applied, however they only present a situation where the low usage charge occurs as a result of an estimated bill during that billing period. Unfortunately when the charge occurs as a historical estimation there is no way to correct the error.


----------



## Bessa (16 Oct 2012)

Hi I contacted Electric Ireland months back about the Low usage charge on rental properties, and they told me that they had to levy this on LLs with vacant properties. I told them this was robbery ( paying for power I did not use ) their excuse was that otherwise they would have to increase the bills for every account holder in the country. I am waiting for the next campaign I see them running to conserve energy, and I will make them eat their words. My question is are you all Landlords, or are they charging private customers now for a low usage account. It has cost me a fortune in the last eight months on four Apartments. Luckily now they are rented again. How can this be legalised robbery by Electric Ireland.


----------



## Leo (17 Oct 2012)

It's all in their terms and conditions, so it's not robbery. 

The charge is in place so they recoup costs from very low (<2kWh/day) users. Without this charge, the rest of their customer base would have to subsidise such low power users. 

The point of this thread is about non-low users getting caught through estimated readings, so please keep this on-topic. If you want to have a rant, head over to Letting Off Steam.


----------



## Mystic Oil (24 Jul 2013)

Electric Ireland have done it again. My latest e-bill is based on their estimate* of my usage, which has once again fallen below the "low user" threshold (according to them) despite the fact that my power consumption has never fallen below the 2kWh/day figure.

Tomorrow, I'm calling my bank to cancel the direct debit mandate. From now on they can whistle for payment when they overcharge. I'm sick of this.

*The meter reader must have called when I was out. Normally he leaves a card but not on this occasion.


----------



## Laramie (25 Jul 2013)

Interesting. My father is in a nursing home and his property is vacant. Is he being charged a surcharge because of the low amount of electricity being used?
Unfortunately I do not deal with his various bills so I never see them and the person who does just "pays" everything that comes in to the house.


----------



## Clohass (25 Jul 2013)

Maybe if the other suppliers don't charge this it might be worthwhile switching to Bord Gais or Eirtricity? I had a quick look and didn't see a reference to it being charged by these suppliers. Maybe someone can confirm this?


----------



## Mystic Oil (25 Jul 2013)

A quick update to this (following 24 min 45sec call to EI)...

It seems to me that the call centre staff are so pre-programmed to take a defensive position on this surcharge scheme that they don't listen to the customer properly. It took over 20 minutes of wrangling to get them to understand that their billing system is flawed.

Once the matter was escalated to a supervisor, the errant bill was credited and a new bill issued, or so I was assured.

In the conversation that ensued with the supervisor, one little gem of information was gleaned - *this may be important to EI customers who consume approximately 3 kWh per day* (50% above their "low user" trigger point).

If a meter reader calls and is unable to get a reading, their billing system generates an estimate almost immediately. If the customer submits a reading (online) which differs with the estimate by less than 100 units, the customer reading will be rejected and the bill will issue on the estimated reading.

The advice (from the supervisor) was to call and speak to a customer service representative if you notice this. Quite how the customer is supposed to know what figure EI have come up with in advance of the bill being issued wasn't readily apparent.


----------



## Mystic Oil (25 Jul 2013)

Laramie said:


> Interesting. My father is in a nursing home and his property is vacant. Is he being charged a surcharge because of the low amount of electricity being used?
> Unfortunately I do not deal with his various bills so I never see them and the person who does just "pays" everything that comes in to the house.



If the readings (or estimated readings) show a consumption of less than 2kWh (2 "units") per day in the billing period, they will charge the higher rate for the daily tariff.


----------



## STEINER (25 Jul 2013)

Mystic Oil said:


> If the readings (or estimated readings) show a consumption of less than 2kWh (2 "units") per day in the billing period, they will charge the higher rate for the daily tariff.



My relative is in a nursing home too and the house is vacant.  So what exactly is the higher charge per day and the base rate for EI?


----------



## Mystic Oil (25 Jul 2013)

STEINER said:


> My relative is in a nursing home too and the house is vacant.  So what exactly is the higher charge per day and the base rate for EI?




The surcharge amounts to € 56.76 p.a. at present.


----------



## Mystic Oil (25 Jul 2013)

Clohass said:


> Maybe if the other suppliers don't charge this it might be worthwhile switching to Bord Gais or Eirtricity?



Good point. Up to now I wouldn't have bothered moving suppliers, but the hassle of dealing with this may help me to change my mind.

I was digging through the regulator's website earlier, and noticed that they've given their official blessing to two cost-comparison websites, namely uswitch.ie and bonkers.ie

In the interests of science, I entered fictitious figures for a basic electricity-only household using 400kWh annually (i.e. well below the Electric Ireland surcharge trigger point), and both sites returned a normal annual standing charge for all suppliers, Electric Ireland included.

That doesn't answer your question, but it serves to demonstrate that the figures from those two "officially approved" comparison websites are not to be trusted.


----------



## Time (25 Jul 2013)

Mystic Oil said:


> A quick update to this (following 24 min 45sec call to EI)...
> 
> It seems to me that the call centre staff are so pre-programmed to take a defensive position on this surcharge scheme that they don't listen to the customer properly. It took over 20 minutes of wrangling to get them to understand that their billing system is flawed.
> 
> ...



I always knew that giving your own reading was always a waste of time. If you don't phone it in before the meter reader docks his machine, it will be rejected and the estimate will issue. It is ESB Networks that calculates these not the end billers.


----------



## Mrmr (25 Jul 2013)

This may help some.... if you sign up for EI ebilling and use of the web site, you can read and enter your own measurements as frequently as you like.
So you can enter a reading every 2 wks and then the scheduled bill has a record of accurate readings.


----------



## pudds (25 Jul 2013)

Mrmr said:


> This may help some....* if you sign up for EI ebilling and use of the web site,* you can read and enter your own measurements as frequently as you like.
> So you can enter a reading every 2 wks and then the scheduled bill has a record of accurate readings.




I've been giving my meter readings this way for a long time now just when 58-60 days since last bill are up and have no problems.  

Cant see them calculating weekly meter reading inputs.... are you sure about this.


----------



## Mrmr (26 Jul 2013)

What I mean is that the readings clock up, not that bills issue more frequently. I find it helps keep all our bills in order.


----------



## pudds (27 Jul 2013)

Mrmr said:


> What I mean is *that the readings clock up*, not that bills issue more frequently. I find it helps keep all our bills in order.



Yeah that's what I meant, but does their system allow for clocking up, I doubt it very much, haven't seen it advertised either, not doubting you just curious.


----------



## Tintagel (28 Jul 2013)

cashier said:


> hi, i have vacant house in Ireland and i am billed 22.03 by bord gais every 51 days. i am charged 33.50 cents a day standing charge and 16.28 cent for 24 hour units and a pso levy of 2.32. there is no mention of a low usage surcharge.



Am I right in thinking that you have a choice of a standing day charge or higher priced units without standing day charge?


----------

