Airtiricity - anyone else confused by their billing system

Hi

Apologies in advance if this is an inappropriate post or a duplicate post

Anyone else confused about how airtricity calculating ESB bill

Moved to them last year

In May when i got my bill from them(this was not my 1st bill), they had worked the bill out in such as way that they had gone back and re-calculated the bill from the initial reading when i joined them

They had debits and credits on the bill and it was a real mess and It took several calls with them to try to get understandning of what they had done and why they had done this and to be honest i still dont understand why they did this as i was with each bill phoning them in actual readings before the arrival of the bill or if i got bill which was estimated

I gave them an actual reading at this time in May when we were going through all this hassle trying to sort out what they did and why and asked them to send me an actual bill reflecting this reading so that everything would be clear cut and in order for next bill and there would be no confusion. The nice lady said that their billing system didnt allow them to do this but to rest assured that everything would be fine in my next bill

Im also signed up for text alerts with them to get text when i have bill due to take meter reading and send it into them. I never get these text alerts and have had several calls with them re this too. They tell me that im signed up for alerts and should be getting them. Initially they told me they were having teething problems with the text alert system and it would be sorted. Now they tell me that they will follow up with IT dept and get back to me - I never hear back from them despite multiple calls - very frustrating

Last time i spoke to them re this, the nice lady told me when my next bill was due and to put a note on my calendare for full days before that to remind myself to phone them in an acutal reading

I did this at end of June and phoned in an actual up to date reading. 3 days later i got my bill onlione and they had ignored my actual reading and supplied their own estimated reading - about 20 units higher than my actual reading.

Comparing my airtricity bills with my ESB bills from this time last year - i seem to be paying more to airtricity than when i was with ESB even though im supposed to be on 12% saving plan with Airtiricity

Anyone else experiencing similiar issues like this. Im considering going back to ESB

What are others experiences?

Are people having problems with
Bills they are getting
Getting text alerts to phone in actual readings
Bills ignoring your actual phoned in reading
Messing around with how they are calculating customer bills
Anyone with them and moved back to ESB or move to Bord Gais

Thannks

I agree that it is hard to understand their billing system, I am still confused but I
think I get most of it.

This explanation may help you.

They take an initial reading and based on the information they have, they estimate the bill for the next year, based on your last years usage.
They divide this by 12 and bill you the same amount every month. This may explain why your bill is higher at the moment - its summer, your actual usage is lower than the average, but in winter your bills should be lower than before.

They only read the meter twice a year.
I am billed 77 a month so after 6 months, I have €462 credit. They do a meter reading, and calculate that I used €450 worth of electricity. I now have €12 credit, and the cycle starts again.

This is why the bill has strange amounts of credit on it at times.

In my case, they only recalculated the bill after a year and I got a new average bill for the next year.
If you find it too confusing, you might want to move back, but my bills are lower for the year, and I am not bothered that each bill does not reflect my actual usage that month, so I am OK with it.

Thanks for the reply
However they are not estimating my bills on last year usage

They mentioned moving over to this in January and that if i did i would get an additional 1% discount i think

However at the time it was the really bad weather and I felt that moving over to that system then wouldnt give accurate reflection of usage. The customer service rep agreed with me

So i dont think its that. Also, i am phoning in actual readings to them and they are accepting them and no mention of them estimating based on last year usage

What are others experiences?

Thanks