CONOR POPEanswers readers' queries

Gas estimates come back to haunt couple after they paid the bill

A COUPLE OF years ago, a reader called Damien and his partner Rebecca opened a gas and electricity account with Airtricity.

“We have never had many problems with them and always met our repayments promptly,” he writes. “Our usual bill every two months is roughly €250-€350 for both utilities.”

However, at the end of March they got a bill for €509.07. “Clearly, we were shocked. On looking closer, the electricity bill was normal – however, the gas was €371.83. Rebecca phoned Airtricity and was told that during the winter of 2011 our bills had been estimated lower than usual. We accepted this and paid the bill in two parts, with the understanding that we had a fresh slate with 2012 re our estimations.”

There was worse to come in their next bill. Late last month they got a bill for €707.85, with the gas amounting to €550.43.

“We were very worried, as you can understand that is a huge payment for any family in today’s climate – especially as we live in a small three-bed.

“Rebecca phoned Airtricity immediately and was told that she would be called back straight away.”

When the call came, she was told during 2011, the technical team had calculated the couple’s gas bill wrong every month and “even though we sent in meter readings, their computers were not set up properly for the gas calculations, hence the large bill. Once off the phone to the sales team, we wondered how Airtricity could come after us for last year’s payments after we had already paid one set of bills? And also why were we not informed about these ‘technical difficulties’.

“Rebecca asked if the latest bill was the last of the ‘catch-ups’; she was told that they didn’t know yet.”

Our reader is, as you can imagine, “extremely confused about the situation and in particular, how we are paying for their mistakes.

“Also, the direct debit for this bill is going to be taken on June 4th and we are very unsure as to what to do about repayments.”

At the very least, this story reflects badly on the company’s ability to bill properly – a prerequisite of any utility company – and its ability to communicate in a timely and clear way with its customers.

We contacted the company which disputed some elements of our readers query.

In a statement the company said that as with all other suppliers, gas prices increased last October and this increase is reflected in higher charges on Damien and Rebecca’s bills for the most recent winter in comparison to the previous winter.

The spokesman said that as a result of a conflict between the couple’s submitted reads and information from Bord Gáis Networks over the winter, the couple had been billed for longer periods than is normally the case.

“We have spoken with Rebecca, we explained how the bill was calculated, and we have offered them a six-month payment arrangement to help them manage this bill over the summer months.

“We have also confirmed to them that as a result of our recent upgrade that all of their future gas bills will be issued every two months in line with their electricity bill – this is due to the fact that our upgrade to our billing system now allows us to issue gas bills up to the bill issue date based on an estimate even when we have not received an actual read.”

The prices are only Amazon

TRACEY KELLY was recently browsing books on amazon.co.uk and out of curiosity she looked up the price of an e-book. "I was sent to the .com site, which gave me a price, but when my husband went directly to amazon

.com he got a lower price for the same e-book.

"It appears that you are given different prices depending on whether you enter the site directly or are pushed to the site from another Amazon site.

Is this really the case?"

Yes. Yes it is.

Bombshell bill for four days' mobile usage

A READER called Caroline recently returned home from Thailand to a €2,800 bill from Meteor for four days' usage of the internet. "Basically I had assumed I was using the hotel's Wi-Fi. However, according to my bill, I wasn't. I called Meteor customer service to discuss this and they advised that sometimes when the Wi-Fi signal is weak, my own internet will be used," she writes.

"Some of the staff were very sympathetic to me but at the same time not at all helpful, and the rest of the staff lacked professionalism, any standard of customer service, and just passed me from one person to the next, doing anything they could not to deal with me," she says.

"Eventually, I got my matter referred to a supervisor, who after a week and a half waiting on a return call, was an absolute nightmare to talk to. He was ignorant, blunt and to the point, basically telling me the charges stand – end of story – that the matter won't go any further in the department, that he was as high a staff member that I would get to speak to, so to pay up or the debt would be passed to a third-party debt collector. After reaching the end of my tether with Meteor's atrocious customer service, emotionally charged and highly stressed out, I sought help from Comreg , who are at the moment looking after the matter."

Last weekend, she went into a Meteor store to pay money off what she believes she owes for calls, texts and her monthly tariff, with VAT included, and explained the situation to the Meteor store member. "They said I would be mad to pay that bill and gave me a free meteor SIM card just in case I was cut off.

"I am now receiving calls from Meteor's credit control dept seeking payment of this bill. I advised them I would be paying my tariff and calls and texts but that's about it. Their response was that paying only this amount would mean that in a week or two my services would be suspended and I would be cut off. They said I should be paying this bill in four-six weeks max. I can't understand how someone can expect you to pay this amount of money and in that time-frame."

She says she has been a Meteor customer for 10 years and has never missed a bill payment or been in any disagreement. "I am appalled that a company can charge its customers like this. I am on a monthly €40 tariff; the bill is nearly six times my yearly tariff. How a company can allow its customers to run up bills like that is beyond me. My account should have been cut off or suspended or at least I should have been notified that the charges were being incurred."

She points out that her bank card only allows her withdraw €150 a day abroad, "so I can't see how a communications company can allow customers to run up a bill of over €500 a day. I'm not denying I used the internet, my argument is I wasn't aware I was using my own internet service. If I had known, I would not have used it. I thought once I was connected via Wi-Fi that all would be fine. There's no way I can afford to pay this bill, but I can't afford to have debt collectors chasing me for money. I have never been in any debt before."

We contacted Meteor and a spokeswoman said: "This issue has been escalated internally and we have contacted our customer in order to put in place a suitable arrangement." No further details were given.