Ebico energy reviews: Give your feedback

hehoho wrote: »

Still having problems with Ebico Zero's admin.

The company does not accept cheques.

That isn't an 'admin' problem though. It is just that they do not accept cheque payments - like a lot of organisations these days.

If you don't want to pay by direct debit or debit card thenyou can still pay by cash either at a Post Office or Paypoint. That way you'll save yourself the cost of a stamp.

hehoho wrote: »

The October bill was estimated despite my having submitted readings.
Same again in December, when the estimate was for 150% of my annual consumption.

I am about to start on a battle to get my money back.

It shouldn't be a battle. If they have sent you an estimated bill and it is more than you've used then call them, give them your readings and ask for a refund. I've done that before and a new bill was issued immediately.

Personally I'd have done that the moment the bill arrived, rather than paying the bill and then complaining.

footyguy wrote: »

I agree it should not be a battle, but it seems it can be now RHE are running the show.
I disagreed with an estimated reading the supplier elected to use - they changed the one I provided, but still registered it as my reading, which I denied,
They eventually accepted it was not the reading I provided, and agreed they changed it because they did not believe the reading I provided.

When I asked them to use the reading I provided, they refused. I refused to pay the bill they produced saying it was based on wrong readings (a higher reading than the meter actually read even when I complained)

In the end, they agreed to send a meter reader. Only then, and with a further nudge, did they agree to rebill me correctly.

But they destroyed all the history in doing so, making it seem there was never an issue in the first place. However, I make a habit of downloading everything, so if it then changes, I can see ...

So even if it does become a battle, it is a battle that is eventually won

To be fair to Ebico and RHE, they are not the only energy company to have problems with billing and certainly won't be the last. It appears to me that certain energy companies boost their short-term profits by falsely estimating bills which are blatantly too high.

However some of us did warn about the possibility of customer service issues following the start of the new partnership with RHE: Where that came from was that Ebico's excellent customer service record was achieved while they were in partnership with SSE where it was SSE which responded to issues. That warning about RHE's customer service for Ebico customers is now becoming justified in the light of current reports.

I'm afraid I'm another one to add a voice to the shambles Ebico has now become.

It worked really well when operated via SSE. I recommended them to colleagues that were in the middle of billing chaos with other suppliers. Bills were usually accurate, well presented, easy to pay, estimates were pretty close and I'm sure the meter was read at least every 6 months if not more.

When I try to submit a meter read online it gets rejected and I'm told I have to submit it via telephone. Basically they don't believe my low electricity consumption as it is lower than one of their previous estimates. SSE never rejected any of my reads - even when it was lower than a previous estimate.

I've already switched my gas away to a cheaper supplier, after going through a long winded dead end of trying to switch my gas to Ebico Prime Fixed but keeping my electricity on Ebico Zero - a question I specifically put to Ebico by email about whether this was possible and told yes, but has to waste at least half an hour of my life on the phone trying to arrange this to then at the last minute be told this wasn't possible. Grr.

They didn't automatically adjust my monthly direct debit after my gas was transferred and kept taking the same amount each month.

SSE simply wouldn't have been this shambolic. But then again, SSE have pulled the plug on ex-Equipower customers that didn't transfer over, so I guess us low-use electricity customers can't expect decent customer service if we're too tight to pay a standing charge.

I loved SSE-powered Ebico because they just billed properly, didn't make any mistakes, total flexibility on how to pay - I was originally paying on quarterly bills paying for what I'd used following a previous bad experience based on a previous shambles with another supplier who refused to believe my reads and ended up in credit in excess of my annual consumption. I opted into monthly DD with SEE-powered Ebico because they'd proved their billing system was reliable and my monthly direct debit was pretty accurate.

I might even choose to forego the 1% direct debit discount and demand quarterly billing on my Zero account if they can't sort out my account soon.

I am expecting a price rise on Zero any week now. It was only guaranteed at the advertised price to the end of 2017.

EachPenny wrote: »

No need to forego anything. Ebico give the DD discount even if you opt to pay quarterly. How many energy suppliers do that, and don't have standing charges?

To clarify, you only get the Direct Debit discounted tariff if you pay by Direct Debit, either monthly or quarterly

If you opt for quarterly billing using any other payment type, then you do forego the discount.

I suspect what Stuart_W is thinking of is not paying by direct debit at all, so that the bill is not paid unless and until he agrees it, based on the correct meter reading ... even when it is lower than a previous estimated meter reading

The issues with readings being rejected seem to mainly feature with very low users. Its most likely RHE's systems are set to reject readings at too high a level for the sorts of customers that Ebico have brought to them. The test of customer service is not that there are no teething problems but that the teething problems are cured. If this sort of thing is still happening after a year then there is reason to complain.

For myself, a low user instead of a very low user, I have had faultless service.



Darren