Add your feedback on energy supplier Iresa

molerat

thelight wrote: »

I initially contacted Iresa using the Support Ticket system on 18 December 2017 with a query about something which I thought appeared to be incorrect on my bill. At that point, I did not consider myself to be complaining as such, just wanting to check something that looked wrong. I added an a message to the same ticket on 11 January 2018 telling Iresa that I wanted to make a formal complaint, both because of customer service and that the original query about my bill was still outstanding.

It might be that because I did not use the word complaint in my original message to Iresa that the clock didn't start ticking until January, in which case I will wait and re-submit to the Ombudsman once the eight weeks have passed. If, because the complaint was about the original query the eight week clock should have passed now, I will contact the Ombudsman about this now.

I have been speaking with the ombudsman today and they are taking my case even though "a complaint" has not been raised but I have made more than reasonable efforts to reach a conclusion with Iresa. Originally asked for refund of excess credit 6 Dec 17, bugged them 3 Jan 18 then 11 Jan, 18 Jan, 26 Jan, then at the 8 week point on 5 Feb and took it to the ombudsman.

MKennedy007

Iresa has been my energy supplier for a year and my experience has been good. I have just renewed my fixed rate 12 month deal at rates below those quoted on the Cheap Energy Club comparison site.

System

MKennedy007 wrote: »

Iresa has been my energy supplier for a year and my experience has been good. I have just renewed my fixed rate 12 month deal at rates below those quoted on the Cheap Energy Club comparison site.

Hi - welcome to the forum. For the benefit of other MSErs, can you provide more information on the tariff that you have secured?

philng

Seems a suspicious 1st post to me. Will be interesting to see what 'tariff' they have secured that is not available to everyone.

molerat

Unit & SC prices are probably around 5% cheaper on the website than on CEC

Gambler

Boxman wrote: »

As previously posted it is now about 20 weeks since the switch date from Iresa to my current supplier and there is still no sign of a final bill or refund of my credit balance. Have just had an e-mail from Iresa (first communication since 9th January):

So apparently it's all my fault for nagging them to get it sorted! Bet the next delaying tactic is to say that they cannot return MY MONEY because I had the temerity to cancel their direct debit mandate when they tried to take a payment after the switch and despite my account being significantly in credit.

Pathetic.

Thanks for the post. Not great news.


My switch to Avro completed on 12-Feb.


Still waiting for final bills but charges are on my account for gas with the correct meter reading supplied to Avro.


No charges for Electricity.


Account is £100 in credit but they still took a further direct debit payment yesterday for the normal monthly amount of £100.


They've been a disaster from Day 1 and contacting them is a joke.


Can I claim yesterday's payment back from my bank under the direct debit guarantee?

nigelbb

Gambler wrote: »

Thanks for the post. Not great news.


My switch to Avro completed on 12-Feb.


Still waiting for final bills but charges are on my account for gas with the correct meter reading supplied to Avro.


No charges for Electricity.


Account is £100 in credit but they still took a further direct debit payment yesterday for the normal monthly amount of £100.


They've been a disaster from Day 1 and contacting them is a joke.


Can I claim yesterday's payment back from my bank under the direct debit guarantee?

Yes, contact your bank ASAP to reclaim the unauthorised DD. Personally I would have cancelled the DD as soon as the switch occurred & I was out of the clutches of Iresa (if not before).

Biscuit_Tin

nigelbb wrote: »

Yes, contact your bank ASAP to reclaim the unauthorised DD. Personally I would have cancelled the DD as soon as the switch occurred & I was out of the clutches of Iresa (if not before).

On what basis would you advise the bank the payment was "unauthorised"?

Probably not a question Gambler wants to hear asked, but better to clarify it now rather than be embarrassed when making this allegation at the bank

Woodsplitter

Switch went well,
Billing every month.
On checking latest bill, I can not read it at all.
Checked a pervious bill and I can read that one.
Website very slow.
Emails to say they were taking DD every month.

BUT,
despite sending in monthly readings, getting emails confirming they had received them, on checking my billing I still had estimated readings!!!"
One month sent in the usual gas and electricity readings,
gas reading was used, electricity reading was estimated lower than the actual reading I had sent in and was showing in my account.

Raised a support query. still open 8days after sending.
Leaving soon.

Jez54

As a counterpoint to all the negative comments, I have been with Iresa for 5 months, and it is fair to say that my experience as a customer with them has been equally good as with any other energy company and better than many. And of course, Iresa are still the cheapest supplier out there (for me, anyway). I have moved house 6 times and switched suppliers 12 times in the last 18 years, so I think I have a good breadth of experience of both big six and small startup energy providers from which to make an impartial judgement. The initial switching meter readings I supplied were validated on the 15th calendar day after submission (Iresa say it can take up to 15 days). All my subsequent meter readings have been validated and have appeared on my account within 5 - 10 working days. Iresa email an invitation once a month to submit my own meter readings. From my readings they estimate forward readings to the last day of the month for the monthly bill, just like other energy providers. The bill appears in my online account on the 10th working day of the following month. I quickly realised the email inviting me to submit meter readings was arriving too late to allow Iresa to make their month-end estimation, because their (external, third-party) validation agency is taking most of the allotted time to validate readings. Simple solution - I now submit my readings uninvited on or before 20th instead. Bingo - problem solved. In 5 months I have had just one issue, which was entirely of my own making. In December I submitted my meter readings on 17th and then submitted a second set of readings a week later when I got Iresas email. Iresa issued my December bill correctly based on my first set of validated readings. But when the second set of readings were also validated, Iresa deducted a second set of charges for December from my account by mistake. I noticed my account balance had changed when I submitted my next meter readings. I used Iresas online Support Ticket system to raise a Complaint, at 11:25 am on Saturday 20th January. The duplicate charges were removed and the Support Ticket was resolved with a written answer to my complaint, at 5:11 pm on Tuesday 23rd January. In my experience that is almost certainly the best and fastest response I have ever had from any energy company ever. Well done, Iresa! When my January bill was issued it was completely correct, without any evidence of the mix-up which I had caused. Well done again, Iresa! The three key pieces of advice that I would give anyone who is considering Iresa as a supplier are as follows: (1) Do not be tempted to try it on by giving Iresa unrealistically (or untruthfully) low estimates of annual consumption when switching, or low (or incorrect) monthly meter readings thereafter, perhaps imagining that somehow you will save money. It will all come out in the wash sooner or later, and will inevitably bite you in the bum. In the meantime you will almost certainly experience months of non-validated meter readings, re-calculated direct debits and other extremely unwelcome and frustrating account chaos, none of which will be Iresas fault, and all of which would also happen with any other energy provider when faced with the same input. (2) Do be prepared to work within Iresas regular monthly framework of activities, and do be aware that meter reading validation is not done by Iresa (or by any energy provider for that matter) but by an independent external third-party agency who operate within their own time frames and service levels. Perhaps other energy providers pay a higher fee to get quicker validations, who knows? But Iresa clearly say within 15 days, and within 15 days is how long the third-party agency takes. In my experience, meter readings that are correct and submitted online 10 days before month end have always resulted in correct bills at each month end. (3) Do not be faint-hearted or unnecessarily put off by all the negativity. In my experience, treated with courtesy, respect, honesty and common sense, Iresa have performed equally as well, if not better, than any of the 8 other providers I have used before (Shell, British Gas, Eon, Npower, Scottish Power, EDF, Ovo, and Green Network Energy, since you ask).