Beware new electricity billing system

I don't know if the other electricity companies are guilty of this, but in case those in the clutches of Endesa-Sevillana haven't noticed, here is what they are up to:

In December they changed their billing system to one whereby they bill you monthly, with an estimated bill every other month. The first of these in our area was December and we were a bit puzzled that the estimates on both our houses were so low as to be almost non-existent compared with normal consumption.

On 1st January the increased tarif came in.

We have now received the first of our January bills, with a meter reading of 14th Jan, for one of our properties. The reading brought the total consumption to more or less what we might have expected over the two months. HOWEVER, we have been hit with a 'recargo exceso consumo' on 25% of the units, because it takes the reading (since the estimate) over a norm that is applied, PLUS of course this bill, being a much higher reading than normal because of the previous low one, has a much higher proportion at the new prices than we actually used during that period.

To me this whole thing appears nothing short of fraud and tomorrow I am off to our local offices to make a big stink!!

Hi Jane

There's threads on another forum talking about similar (as I understand it, anyway), with another electricity company,  Iberdrola. People have been complaining to the company. We're with HCEnergia & ours seems ok, for now. 

Sevillana-Endesa have just extracted 540Euros from our account for the latest billing period. We have not as yet had the paper bill; that always seems to arrive about 7-10 days after the D/D is paid out.

We are just waiting to see what the paper bill has to say before we query it.

This being a winter bill we were expecting it to be somewaht high but this is ridiculous!

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Have a look and see if you got anything charged in December for an estimated reading, Foxbat.  It may be that you had a very low one then, which enables them to slap a huge 'recargo exceso consumo' on the second bill which should be a real reading.  For the house we actually live in we had a measly bill for €18 in December so I anticipate a real whopper in January because they are levying the excess charge on each monthly 'reading' rather than applying it once every two months when they actually do a proper reading.

In UK the ombusman would be on this like a flash...

We got a bill from Endesa in December for €26 and one this month for €25. Barclays in Mojacar told us they were going to bill monthly, but I don't know . We got our paper bill to the UK last Wednesday and our direct debit is due tomorrow.

Mark

Jane Hi;

I posted something about this in the thread concerning Iberdrola.

The bill that came out in December was for one months standing charge only and amounted to 9.82Euros which they extracted on 25/12/08.

I thought at the time that this was their  way of balancing the books so that as from January 09 they could go over to monthly billing without a problem.

Im pretty sure that the standing charge is made in advance and that the actual consumption charge made after the event so to speak.

Did you get a copy of their explanatory pamphlet?

For those who didnt ive posted a copy below

Thanks for that, Foxbat.

I didn't receive this communication for either house. Obviously I wouldn't have expected it for the one where they have still not managed to send me a bill, but for the other one we didn't get one either.  It certainly explains why we were charged only €18 in December for the bill-less house but not why we had a bill for 330 units for the other one!

I have contacted them via the website for an explanation and given what they say about the new system not affecting the amount you should pay I shall be interested in the response!

Markfish can you tell me how you have managed to get them to send you a bill over to your UK address as we were over in Spain last week trying to sort our a few problems and asked Endesor if we could  have the bill sent to the UK and they said it wasnt possible as it  had to go to the house in Spain

It would be really usefull to be able to do this if possible so that we can keep track on the bills as there is still no mail going to the house we have as there is no street name because it is a new complex.

Many thanks for any information

When we had the application forms for the supply, there was an area for the supply address and an area for the billing address. This was a form that was sent out by the builder, so not sure if it was standard or not? We obviously filled out the box in Span for the supply and our UK address for all correspondence. We get it all in the UK now, offers for storage heaters, air conditioning, etc. We also registered for Endesa online, where I think you can also change your correspondence address.

HTH

Mark

You are doing pretty well Mark considering that they haven't managed to send us a bill for our new house in the two years we have been connected and we live HERE!!!

What can I say? They must like me  (at least someone out there does )

Mark

Spain's shocking power scandal
See link below

http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_19839.shtml

Sunnyside,

I have heard this news on Spanish radio on the way to work. I hope Junta de Andalucia are harsh on Endesa and give our money back. It is outrageous!!

Ana

Sunnyside,

I have heard this news on Spanish radio on the way to work. I hope Junta de Andalucia are harsh on Endesa and give our money back. It is outrageous!!

Ana

Hi Folks

Thanks for that link, Sunnyside, I am passing it on to all our friends - should make for an interesting situation in our (not very large) local offices!  

Good news
Just received my latest bill from Sevillana-Endesa, with a circular informing us that they are going to re-calculate everyone's bills and properly allocate the units used over the periods between real readings so that the consumption falls equally. If on revision the amount that has been paid is in excess of what it should have been they will credit against the next bill.

POWER TO THE PEOPLE!!!

I have scanned the doc and if anyone would like a copy as they won't get one because they don't get paper bills or they get sent to Spain and they are in UK or whatever, just send me a pm with your email address.

Wonderful news!

Further to the previous post by Jane, I am happy to report that today I received my leccy bill, and it included a refund for the amount incorrectly charged when they switched over to monthly billing.

So, in the end, they have kept their promise to put the matter right quickly, and have egg all over their faces and have no doubt cost themselves millions by trying to pull a fast one in the first place. What a result for us humble consumers.

If anyone cares to join me in celebrating this momentous occassion, I'll be out tonight blowing my 0.52 cents refund.

If anyone cares to join me in celebrating this momentous occassion, I'll be out tonight blowing my 0.52 cents refund.

Now dont you go spending it all at once!

But its still bigger than my BAe pension increase of...26 pence...

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