Add your feedback on energy supplier Iresa

Norman_Castle wrote: »

Why do people now need constant and instant conformation about their energy bills?

Perhaps it's as simple as it being that for many people their energy bills are their single biggest monthly expenditure and they therefore need the closest attention and customers have a right to expect the bills to be both timely, accurate and most importantly correctly calculated?

Experience also shows that some of these newer energy companies have been granted Operators Licenses by Ofgem to supply energy to the British public without them actually having the faintest clue about what the regulations actually requires them to do or having the necessary resources or fully functioning and tested systems in place to allow them to do that.

Granted the regulations are very complex but unfortunately ignorance is no excuse and customers don't expect to have to pay for the 'schoolboy' errors some of these energy suppliers make while they learn what is required.

Don't you think that if the Multiplier as used by Iresa actually worked the bigger energy suppliers with far more resources and technical know how at their disposal would already be doing it that way?

In the end I decided to leave my electric with Iresa based on cost as hopefully there's not much they can do wrong with the billing for that but yesterday I made the sensible decision and started a switch to Zog for my gas. For me £10 per year is not a lot to pay for the peace of mind.

I now need to start a formal complaint with Iresa regarding their CV/Multiplier calculation error and other areas of non-compliance with the regulations on their bills and as previously requested by Ofgem I need to provide them with a copy of my gas bill for them to use as evidence of Iresa's non-compliance in the case they're building against them.

I recently signed up under recommendation from MSE Energy Club.
Switch has gone fine. The only gripe I had was in regard to the opening meter reading I sent them, which obviously was the closing reading they had to provide to my out-going supplier. When I received my closing bill the closing reading was not what I had submitted. Before I phoned to challenge them, I decided to check with IRESA to ask what info they had passed to my previous supplier. This is where the gripe comes in. It took me 1 whole hour to get from caller no. 31 to being dealt with by their agent. (The meter reading issue was resolved so I could contact my old supplier), but I did say to the IRESA agent, "I am sure others have told you that a one hour wait to have your call answered is not acceptable"? He replied that they were looking to deal with it. We will see how things progress, but on the bright side, I am still receiving energy through the metres and paying less than before. I would go with it.

Roger

ASavvyBuyer wrote: »

We seem to be the lucky ones that don't need any hand holding. We transferred our electric to Iresa last year and have not had any problems, so no need to contact them by phone. Any queries we have sent them by email or the on-line facility and waited for a response (which although not instant, has been within a reasonable time). The changeover went smoothly and was happy enough to recommend them to a relative when their e-on collective tariff came to an end.
Received the message the other day that the bill was ready to download; logged in OK and there it was, with correct readings and calculations. Same for the relative. Seems like it is gas they possibly can't get right.
Have done a comparison today and we are still on the best available tariff for electric; so unlike a lot of other people, we are happy we signed up with them.

I suspect I'm going to get flamed for this, but you seem a lone voice in the sea of complaints I read on this and related threads.

So may I request to join you as another "lucky" customer?

I applied to join Iresa about 3 weeks ago. I had read some of the complaints, but most seem to have appeared in the last 2 weeks. Anyway I was preparing myself for the worst.

I applied to join Iresa via their website, having been enticed by their low prices, but wary of the complaints people had posted, I also checked their terms carefully. I knew they are a relatively new supplier, so perhaps I was expecting some teething issues...

Anyway within 24 hrs of application, we had received confirmation and acknowledgment of my application to switch.
It gave us all the expected timings, and so far they have been as good as their word.

They set up the direct debit with out bank, and took the first payment as they said they would (they even sent another email to remind us just before they collected) last week.

That reminder came as our cooling off period ended, and that is also when they gave us access to the online account.

Having checked the online account, I could see there was no meter details set up, as many people seem to be complaining about, meaning there was no way to enter meter readings.

But there was access to the online messaging system, and I noticed one of the pre-defined titles was about meter readings, so I decided I could use that if necessary.

I checked again when my DD was taken, and was upset that my online account was not showing teh credit. But then I noticed it said it could take up to 4 working days for credits to show on my account.

Today, 5 days before the actual switching date, I have just checked my online account again.

First thing I spotted was that my DD payment was now credited, well within the 4 working days they say to allow.

Then I checked the meter details, and they too are now loaded, and the facility to enter meter readings up and running for me. It seems they only made this available this from the time the window opened to allow acceptable meter readings to be submitted, but I will enter them on the actual switching day next week

So, so far, I have had no need to contact Iresa, apart from making the application to switch to them via their website.

If I search really hard to find something to complain about, I suppose some may find the following a little irritating:

a) We have E7, and I was expecting two fields to enter day and night readings. On the Iresa site, you have to tab to another page to enter the second registry entry. Strangely, it even allows for different dates for each registery reading. :huh:

b) Credits are not shown immediately via the online account

c) The tariff detail loaded was not what I was expecting, but then realised all prices were shown excluding VAT

But I think I can live with these small quirks of the Iresa online account - some small suppliers do not even provide you with online account access at all, and I managed to survive without it before the internet existed.

Looking forward to a year of cheap electricity now :money: