Add your feedback on energy supplier Iresa

Stratus · 4 July 2018 at 1:31PM

What prices have you renewed at compared to the old rates ?

Unit prices are up 5.8% from 11.0p to 11.64p
Standing charge remains the same at 13.43p per day

itchyfeet123 · 4 July 2018 at 3:10PM

I just had an email from the Ombudsman. In one (of many) complaints, the investigator found Iresa had several customer service failures and ordered a payment in line with Iresa's own service standards plus a goodwill gesture. In his findings, the investigator noted Iresa had failed to submit documentation. Now, two weeks after the investigator released findings and issued a proposal, Iresa is challenging the investigation.

I am almost annoyed enough with these clowns to switch. I'm hesitant because I have a substantial credit (they haven't managed a single bill in more than a year) and I note the recent posts saying current customer credit is protected in the event of insolvency but leavers awaiting refunds are not.

geoffW · 13 July 2018 at 10:08PM

Stratus wrote: »

Just renewed my contract with Iresa. My experiences have been entirely positive and I have no grounds to look elsewhere.

I have never contacted customer services because everything has been straightforward. I have had no issues with bills or direct debits.

I am sent an email reminder each month to submit meter readings and a bill is generated a couple of weeks later.

The website account page is quite comprehensive with the information it carries. There is certainly more data available there than that offered by some other small providers.

The only slight niggle might have been early on in the contract with some of their over optimistic estimates between meter reads and end of month billing but recently these have been much more proportionate to the consumption in the previous periods so this is no longer an issue.

My account is usually in credit by about £20 - £30 after each monthly bill. This is the smallest credit balance I have had held by any energy supplier when on an annual direct debit contract.

Clearly some people have had issues as illustrated on this forum but for the sake of balance I just wanted to post that I am someone who has had only positive experiences with Iresa.

It probably helps that I have long term historical data that allows me to accurately estimate my consumption and this stays pretty steady throughout the year.

From my perspective I hope they continue in the market and are allowed to grow as no one else comes close on price.

Just renewed my contract, checked Cheap Energy Club and only one company cheaper by £12 pa.
I haven't had to get in touch with them at all, in fact one of the best companies I've been with and I've been with many. If they do go bust it would be a shame but I can live with that as I was with GB Energy when they crashed and that went OK.

moneysavinmonkey · 20 July 2018 at 5:42PM

Anyone want to hazard a guess where the offgen/iresa situation will leave us... background is:

We changed suppliers to iresa a little under a year ago, initially had some difficulties in obtaining a first bill from them (they set up direct debit but seemed to not issue an actual bill for ages).
Few months after we switched suppliers we started cryptocurrency mining. Not on a massive scale but a dozen+ graphic card miners, enough to create a significant increase in our energy consumption. We regularly submitted meter readings online, but these were ignored and instead the bills were generated based on estimated readings. We suspected that the readings seems too far out of line to our previous/normal domestic usage and were being rejected by the computer.
After a couple bills like this we tried contacting Iresa but had extreme difficulties getting through to anyone. Eventually we were able to speak to someone and explain the reason behind our readings and gave a reading over the phone (there seemed to be no option to have an official meter reader come out to the property). This had the undesired effect that Iresa stopped issuing bills on our account but continued to take our direct debit at the same amount. (this coincided with the ofgem order coming into force so perhaps they were unable to increase our direct debit or issue us a bill for a one off payment to make up the balance, although we were unaware at the time of this). We continue to submit meter readings and occasionally would attempt to contact them unsuccessfully.

Fast forward to now and we are in the process of selling our house and will be closing our account with Iresa, likely within the next month. By our calculations we owe them around 2k. If they are still unable to issue bills for one off amounts then how can this be settled, or will they leave our account open and keep taking direct debits until the amount is cleared...but without an actual bill/invoice this seems highly irregular. There is also the question of where this leaves our buyer, when they take posession of the house they inherit the energy supplier but technically Iresa aren't allowed to take on new customers sooo.....

I'm guessing the answer is hassle, uncertainity and a big bill at the end of it all, but small part of me wonders if we could benefit massively if they are unable to collect on our debt and/or charge our buyer for their electricity!

TLDR: what happens if you move house and owe Iresa an unbilled amount.

Michael#123 · 22 July 2018 at 2:10PM

I managed to switch away from Iresa in February this year, my switch was not blocked because my account was in credit.
However getting a refund of my £170+ credit was a massive struggle.
First of all there was always a long queue when trying to phone their customer service line so I posted tickets on my online account (Iresa's messaging system), these went unanswered, so I emailed their complaints address all I received was their automated reply and nothing else.

After two months with no success I went to the Ombudsman Service and raised a case against Iresa with them.

However I did not leave it there I managed to get through to Iresa on the phone in May (they had been forced by OFGEM to reduce their customer services response times) and then what I discovered later to be ''Bulls**t'' responses started.

''We have not got your final meter readings from your new supplier''

''We have not received your final electricity meter reading but we have your gas meter reading''

''We have not received your reading through the official data flow channel please ask your new supplier to resubmit it''.

After talking to my new supplier and the nice lady from customer services telling me the final electricity meter reading was visible on the data base, I decided to do some research on the subject.
This is the result of my research.
Just dealing with standard meters (non-smart meters ) for the time being.
There are two companies in the UK which are responsible for the metering and settlement services for gas and electricity.
GAS:- Xoserve Limited
ELECTRICITY:- Elexon Limited
These two companies respectively are responsible for THE NATIONAL GAS AND ELECTRICITY DATABASES.
Along with data on energy flow, metering and settlement they hold data on every individual gas and electricty meter in the UK i.e. your gas and electricity meter readings. THESE DATABASES ARE ONLY OPEN TO LICENSED ENERGY SUPPLIERS AND IT IS THE DATA FLOWS FROM THESE TWO COMPANIES THAT YOUR ENERGY SUPPLIERS GET THEIR INFORMATION AND WITHOUT THEM THEY COULD NOT OPERATE IN THE BUYING AND SELLING ENERGY MARKET.
NOW THE GOOD BIT !!!!
Your Electricity and Gas meters are unique to you because they have serial numbers and supply numbers. You can therefore be identified by your energy meters. This data is therefore deemed personal data. You have the right to ''Subject Access under The General Data Protection Regulations'' .

I subsequently made a ''Subject Access Request'' to Elexon Limited for details of my data concerning my verified final electricity meter readings held on their data base (subject indicator code through the 'Elexon Portal' being ''D0086s'').
I also sent a copy of my request to the Ombudsman service to keep them up-to-date.
Result timescale was as follows:-
11/06/2018 subject access request to Elexon and copy to the Ombudsman service.
15/06/2018 email from Iresa they have got my final meter readings and have issued a refund also email from the Ombudsman Early Resolution Team??? to say they had been in contact with Iresa.
17/06/2018 Refund is in my bank!!!!!!!
Finally on 11/07/2018 received result of my subject access request from Elexon a print out from their database showing the D0086s the final verified electricity meter readings completed and available at 13:58 on 06/03/2018.

I WONDER WHO WAS LYING?

Hope this information helps others in some way.

Al_Ross · 22 July 2018 at 4:03PM

[FONT=&quot]I had the same problem with Iresa,saying not got final electricity reading from my new Supplier "Pure Planet”, they said they sent them.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]8 weeks later, just as I was about to contact the Ombudsman it suddenly appeared.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]I made sure my account was only just in credit when I left them.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]
[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Pure Planet Energy have been great,no complaints at all with them:T
[/FONT]

gadgetmind · 22 July 2018 at 4:18PM

Final/initial readings have to go through quite a dance to get to the old/new suppliers with a lot of industry data flows and checks by 3rd parties.

Michael#123 · 23 July 2018 at 8:50AM

Yes quite right, and on average the whole validation process involving third party validation takes two to three weeks.

Iresa were pushing the boundaries when they expected me to believe they had taken four months.

The data base print out proved me right.

System · 26 July 2018 at 9:21PM

I think that Iresa must have the auditors in. Last weekend, I got an e-mail to say that my DD had not been used in 13 months so they were cancelling it. I hadn!!!8217;t the heart to tell them that I cancelled the mandate with my Bank 14 months ago when I left them. Tonight, I find that I have an unexpected windfall. Iresa has just notified me that they are crediting my account with £0.33. I do recall that my sums didn!!!8217;t quite match what was on the Final Bill but I was so pleased to get out of their clutches, I just couldn!!!8217;t be bothered to make a fuss.

ASavvyBuyer · 26 July 2018 at 9:45PM

Hengus wrote: »

I think that Iresa must have the auditors in. Last weekend, I got an e-mail to say that my DD had not been used in 13 months so they were cancelling it. I hadn!!!8217;t the heart to tell them that I cancelled the mandate with my Bank 14 months ago when I left them. Tonight, I find that I have an unexpected windfall. Iresa has just notified me that they are crediting my account with £0.33. I do recall that my sums didn!!!8217;t quite match what was on the Final Bill but I was so pleased to get out of their clutches, I just couldn!!!8217;t be bothered to make a fuss.

I'm still waiting for a final bill of about £30 from Iresa after we left them in February and cancelled the DD a couple of months later. I keep checking the account and they have the final reading, but they don't seem to be capable of producing a final bill.

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