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macman

I recontracted to another year (from Flex 4 to Flex 5) a week ago. Prior to that I'd finally got my £300 account credit reduced to about £100 by a one-off refund, a process that took just under 8 weeks. My billing is up to date and correct to year end 2017. So I thought I'd finally got Iresa sorted.
Lo and behold, on Saturday I got an email informing me that that my DD was being increased from £75 to £91 due to 'increased consumption' (I'm actually using less than a year ago, following a new boiler install). The tariff increase is about 5%, so how this justifies a DD hike of 20% is beyond me.
So now I'll be starting the whole complaint cycle again....

footyguy

macman wrote: »

I recontracted to another year (from Flex 4 to Flex 5) a week ago. Prior to that I'd finally got my £300 account credit reduced to about £100 by a one-off refund, a process that took just under 8 weeks. My billing is up to date and correct to year end 2017. So I thought I'd finally got Iresa sorted.
Lo and behold, on Saturday I got an email informing me that that my DD was being increased from £75 to £91 due to 'increased consumption' (I'm actually using less than a year ago, following a new boiler install). The tariff increase is about 5%, so how this justifies a DD hike of 20% is beyond me.
So now I'll be starting the whole complaint cycle again....

Currently, I think its best to give them a call. Not only can they revert the DD amount there and then (you can see it on the online account) but they don't seem to be responding to any form of written complaint ... even when it's written by one off their own.

So call, and make sure you get the action you need whilst on the phone.

If you don't call, then chances are any written message won't be actioned before the third party DD collector acts (if the message is actioned at all)

In my case, they have now added a comment to my support log saying that the current balance as shown on the first page is absolutely correct for all consumption according to the meter reading I gave on 31 Dec

A shame it isn't, but if that is what they want to declare, then I'm prepared to forego interest they owe me for the consumption they have have not billed. I'll let them find the error, but it's glaringly obvious if they look at the transactions page (a copy of which I have downloaded today)

219169

IRESA - WARNING!!!
Hello everyone,
I never wrote on any forum before but to help others I will advise all to not switch to IRESA.
I have been with them for 1 year and it was not a good experience at all. Expect following:

• long waiting time on calls (1hr+)
• no reply on emails
• will play with your bills
• will not allow you to switch easily
• fraud in your credit
• no communication
• one of payment email
• rubbish customer service
• not easy to get overpayments

So be careful. The new supplier can not help you and other firms would ask you to deal with them personally.
Tc

Flt._Lt._Biggles

219169 wrote: »

...The new supplier can not help you and other firms would ask you to deal with them personally.
Tc

Welcome to MSE, but I fear your ire is directed in entirely the wrong direction.

As I understand it, if you switch supplier, it is the full responsibilty of that new supplier to manage the switch. If you have experienced any issues here, it is therefore the error of the new supplier you have appointed and not Iresa who you are leaving.

Contact your newly appointed supplier, and follow their complaint procedure if necessary.

pm12345

Be careful of this supplier.
I gave them my expected usage when I started my contract with them a year ago and they set up a fixed direct debit. Now, a year later I have discovered that the direct debit has never been enough and they are about to take a huge sum from me at the end of this month. They should have set up a higher direct debit in the beginning!
When I spoke to customer services this morning, they confirmed my usage (which is still the same as expected) and the monthly cost of it. They informed me of an increase in my direct debit, but the new direct debit is still not enough, so if I don't do anything about it I will have another huge bill in a year's time.

I think they charge a small monthly amount just to get customers to sign up and then slap them with a huge bill. This is not fair!
I'm not a happy customer!

Farway

pm12345 wrote: »

Be careful of this supplier.
I gave them my expected usage when I started my contract with them a year ago and they set up a fixed direct debit. Now, a year later I have discovered that the direct debit has never been enough and they are about to take a huge sum from me at the end of this month. They should have set up a higher direct debit in the beginning!
When I spoke to customer services this morning, they confirmed my usage (which is still the same as expected) and the monthly cost of it. They informed me of an increase in my direct debit, but the new direct debit is still not enough, so if I don't do anything about it I will have another huge bill in a year's time.

I think they charge a small monthly amount just to get customers to sign up and then slap them with a huge bill. This is not fair!
I'm not a happy customer!

Your experience does not mirror mine
I gave them my real annual usage, in KW, the monthly DD was as I had already worked out, and so far, 11 months in, it has remained static and covers my use as I anticipated, and my account is in credit of one months DD as expected

I take and submit monthly readings and monitor the monthly bills, are you not doing the same?

FullForce

pm12345 wrote: »

Be careful of this supplier.
I gave them my expected usage when I started my contract with them a year ago and they set up a fixed direct debit. Now, a year later I have discovered that the direct debit has never been enough and they are about to take a huge sum from me at the end of this month. They should have set up a higher direct debit in the beginning!
When I spoke to customer services this morning, they confirmed my usage (which is still the same as expected) and the monthly cost of it. They informed me of an increase in my direct debit, but the new direct debit is still not enough, so if I don't do anything about it I will have another huge bill in a year's time.

I think they charge a small monthly amount just to get customers to sign up and then slap them with a huge bill. This is not fair!
I'm not a happy customer!

At best, I think you are totally mistaken.

How do you work out my fixed payment amount?

First we calculate your consumption charge by multiplying the unit rate by the annual consumption you provide.

• Consumption Charge = Unit rate * AnnualConsumption

Then we calculate the standing charge by multiplying the daily rate by the average number of days in a year (365)

• Standing Charge = Daily rate * 365 days

The Consumption Charge is then added to the Standing Charge to give a total charge before tax

• Total Charge before Tax = Consumption Charge + Standing Charge

After this, we apply the tax at a rate of 5% to get the VAT Tax.

• VAT Tax = 5% * Total Charge before Tax

Finally we add the total before tax to the VAT Tax to get the Total Charge after tax.

• Total after Tax = Total Charge before Tax + VAT Tax.

This amount is the value in the Estimated Annual Cost for the tariff
For the monthly cost, we divide the Estimated Annual Cost by 12.

• Monthly Cost = Estimated Annual Cost/ 12

http://www.iresa.co.uk/frequently-asked-questions/

pm12345

I give them regular electric readings, but my gas meter is in an inaccessible place, so I can't access it often. Both are wrong however, even though I DID give them actual consumption in the beginning.
I trusted that they would have calculated the correct amount for the DD, but obviously they didn't.
My usage is still the same.
I didn't monitor the bills regularly which I will do going forward.

Even today the customer services person admitted my DD is not enough for the year going forward. Had I not queried this I would have been in the same situation in another few months..

pm12345

I know how they calculate the bill, but they did not take the correct usage at the beginning.
Over the weekend I was on a comparison website and they said my DD should be £110 per month.
Iresa have just increased it to £72 with the same usage!
How can both be correct?
Today customer services confirmed my usage and agreed my current DD is too low. If I had not queried this I would be in the same situation again in a few months time.

Methusela

I have been with IRESA for almost a year and for the first 9 months, having set my Direct Debit much too low, they failed to produce any bills, in spite of my providing monthly meter readings. They blamed this on the lack of contract start readings, saying they were waiting for these from the previous supplier. When I finally contacted that previous supplier I was informed that it was IRESA's responsibility to provide THEM with the start readings and that they had not done so, even though I had provided them to both companies.
The end result was that by month ten IRESA notified me of a significant increase in my Direct Debit; but that alone was not enough and they have now sent me an email saying they intend to take an additional mid-month Direct Debit payment for the full amount outstanding so as to clear the previous underpayment. I thought this would contravene the Direct Debit regulations but my bank tells me that is not the case and it is perfectly legitimate. In all the years of my using many different companies I have never known any other provider to use such tactics.
I am now guessing they have done this with a large number of customers because when I phoned this morning to complain I was number 121 in the queue. I tried again several times but was well above 100th in the queue on every occasion.
It leads me to wonder if IRESA is about to go the way of the late GB Energy and so are trying to recover every penny they can before they go bust.