A reader called Aileen moved house recently and there were some changes to her energy supply as a result. “I was with Bord Gáis Energy for my electricity supply and was on Level Pay which means each month I was paying an average of the last 12 months. This is reviewed, I think, twice a year and I got a small discount for that.”
He ex-partner was staying in the house but switching to an alternative provider that offered a prepay meter.
“We discovered the Bord Gáis Energy account was €1,500 in credit. The €600 Government credits had been applied to the account but all that happened was the amount of credit on the account increased,” she writes.
She reckons her monthly direct debit should have decreased “but it increased twice and decreased only once. I got the credits on paper but not in actuality.”
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Aileen says she did not need more than two months credit at this time of year so instead of having €1500 on credit with the company it should have been €400.
“I rang and closed the account on April 14th as I no longer live there. I have been made to wait a 14-days cooling off period even though I’m not switching providers, I’m closing the account. Bord Gáis Energy did this because my ex had started the ball rolling with Prepay Power a few days before I rang them.”
She says she downloaded all her bills for the last two years on April 14th and got her final bill on April 26th. “I’m still waiting for a further 10 working days for a refund to hit my bank account. I’m in retail and ecommerce, I know it only takes 3 days but I had no other option but to agree to a 14-day cooling off period and a 21-day wait for a refund.”
She points out that this is “penalising customers for leaving and deliberately being awkward by delaying processing a refund. I wonder am I the only person this is happening to? Are people like me, on Bord Gáis Level Pay accounts, aware that their energy accounts could be in credit to the tune of thousands? Is Bord Gáis aware that this is extremely unfair? Do they get interest on what is a substantial amount of money? It adds up quickly.”
We contacted Bord Gáis Energy and within 24 hours heard back from our reader to say the refund was being processed. We also heard back from the company. “We offer a range of payment methods [and] ... in all cases, account balances, whether credit or debit, will be clearly visible on a customer’s bill.”
He said that if a customer has a credit balance “and wishes this to be transferred to them rather than be used to clear future bills, this can be requested at any time.”
He said that our reader is (or was) a Level Pay customer. “Any credit or debit on their account is always clearly visible on their bill(s) and Level Pay customers can request a review of their account at any time and can also request a refund.”
He said such customers “automatically undergo an annual review and to help customers on Level Pay, we’ve also recently commenced a process to proactively review every Level Pay account with more than €10 credit. This is in advance of the automatic annual review and this process is already under way.”
He said the issue with our reader is “resolved” and he apologised “for any inconvenience”.
