Chiclanagir

[QUOTE=DLC;9539624]The website also can't take meter readings if you're not using IE. If you're using IE8 or 9 then put it into compatibility mode (the broken page icon to the right or inside the address bar).[/QUOTE

What is a broken page icon?

DLC

This is what it looks like in IE8...



And this is what it looks like in IE9...



I can't remember offhand but maybe IE7 also has the option.

EsuriJohn

It also does not like pop-up blockers so you have to hold down control when you open the bill page. Something else that it won't let you do is enter your own readings if you have a two readings meter, as we have there is no facility for a second reading.

Kath Las Colinas

I have tried several times to register for online billing. eventually I was told that they have us down as residents and so when we put the NIE as identity they won't accept it. if we are residents we should have a NIF (which of course we don't have as we are not residents!). only non-residents have an NIE. they don't seem to have any suggestions to correct this.

unfortunately when the account was set up by the agents, Endesa was given the incorrect bank details. by the time i realised there were 5 months bills unpaid. i tried to register online without success. i tried phoning and was told that i could change the bank account details for future bills but could not pay the outstanding bills as the electricity account was in my husband's name (cries of 'but I want to give you some money' went unheeded!). when I next went to Spain the agent phoned Endesa and managed to pay the outstanding bills but Endesa said that we could no longer pay by direct debit but had to go into the office and pay in cash every month. The agent tried to explain that we couldn't do that as we live in England. eventually they agreed that we could pay over the internet; but we can't get online bills so don't know how much to pay and don't have any reference numbers to quote etc.

and that is where we are at the moment - we can't receive any bills so can't pay them. no doubt when we go back in September we will have a number of outstanding bills to pay. Just as long as they haven't cut us off ...

Kath

Chiclanagir

My God what a story of craziness I do hope they don´t cut you off. I still have not managed to get "online" and will need to go in to the office.

snikpoh

I think you are VERY confused.

All resident ex-pats living here should have NIE's (I say should because, for some obtuse reason, some ex-pats don't bother!). For example, my wife, me and our three young children have lived here for 5 years now. As such we all have NIE's - these numbers are also our NIF's.

The 'E' stands for 'extranjeros' or foreigner whilst the 'F' in NIF stands for 'fiscal' or finance/tax.

With regard to your bills - Endessa are just being awkward. Whether you have a resident bank account or a non-resident account is immaterial, you can still pay bills by direct debit. I would take a copy of a bill and ask the bank to set up the direct debit (or ask the agent to do this for you).

Hoping this helps.

EsuriJohn

This is total nonsense from Endesa. All Extranjeros whether non-residents, residents and tax residents are given an NIE. the other catorgories are for companies and citizens of Spain. I do not think that even if you went down the long long road to gain citizenship they would change you to an NIF and in any event the No. does not change it is with you for life.

If you drop the box you will find you have several choices but in your case it will be between Passport and NIE and you must choose the one that corresponds to the one you registered for supply if that was NIE then you must use NIE and as I have said before I seem to remember I had to miss the first first zero off to get registration. I think that brings NIE in line with DNI and CIF.

snikpoh

Oops - Same mistake again! NIE is the same as NIF for us foreigners. For the Spanish, a NIF is their DNI plus one letter!

Quote : "NIF (Número de Identificación Fiscal): This is the tax ID number for all individuals. For Spaniards, it’s the DNI plus one letter; for foreigners, it’s the same number as your NIE. "

EsuriJohn

Did you "carefully" read my post? Seems not.

snikpoh

Obviously I did!

How can they 'change them to a NIF' when they already have one!!

If you ultimately become a citizen then you SHOULD be given a DNI - but I haven't heard from anyone who has ever done this as I can't see them changing you from an NIE to a DNI.

Clearly your post must be confusing for me to misinterpret what you meant.

However, ultimately I agree with you that the OP should try either selecting the NIE or passport option. Failing that, I would suggest getting someone to pop into one of their offices to be shown how to do it!

Kath Las Colinas

it was asking the agent to deal with it in the first place that seems to have started the problems - they set up the direct debit using the bank details from an account that we had closed, rather than the new account set up to pay the mortgage etc. It is also the agent that told us the reason given by Endesa for not being able to register; whether or not it is correct (and given the replies I have received it sounds as if it is not correct). I have tried ringing Endesa myself, to be told that they would use the new bank details for all future bills - which is clearly untrue as they haven't done so. it is difficult to take the bill into the bank as we are currently in England so haven't received the bill; it may be sitting in our letter box but we won't know until we visit again. That's why we want to register with the online service, so that we can receive bills and be able to pay them online. i may have to wait until we go next month, by which time there will be at least one other bill outstanding, and take the bills into the Endesa office. But that doesn't help in paying the future bills which will be due until we are able to visit again. at the moment I feel as if we are going round in circles.

Kath

amideislas

I personally would never, ever enable direct debit from Endesa. We learned that lesson long ago.

When we had direct debit, they repeatedly nicked hundreds of Euros from us through their fantasy "estimado" facturas which consistently every month bill us for 2-5 times our actual meter reading.

We had no choice but to stop direct debit. It was killing us - sometimes more than €600 would be randomly taken from the account - and only afterward after we receive the factura - which is always estimated billing of some astronomical number far above our actual meter reading.

To this day we've never never been able to recover those overcharges, which now amount to nearly €2000. They simply refuse to acknowledge the overcharges taken from our account - and they also claim that because we paid it, then we legally agreed to it, so there is no dispute to settle. Absolute bollocks.

Oh, and they are supposed to read the meter every two months? Well, we've never received a factura that was not estimated. Yes, we live in the campo, but only 3km outside a major city, and right on the main road. They never read the meter. >I< have to read the meter and go to the endesa office every month without fail and file a dispute. It's always estimated at much higher than our actual meter reading.


NEVER give direct debit to Endesa. It's nothing more than a licence to take whatever they want and refuse to give it back.

And read your meter.. compare it with your bills. From what I've read, Endesa is notorious for overbilling. They were recently fined a paltry €900K for it. I bet that was a good laugh for them.

Fred James

We were with Endesa for 8 years before we changed to Iberdrola.

The meter was read every 2 months and we never had an estimated reading and we are in the Campo. The bills arrived about 3 days later and were always correct.

They even gave us a rebate on a couple of bills as we had had some power cuts.

So, not everyone shares your experiences.

amideislas

Well, those are just my experiences and from what I've learned, thousands of others, too.. and it's still going on, every month, without fail, a factura at least double what the meter says. I am still forced to dispute every bill, every month.

The good news is that they can no longer simply extract the overcharge from my account and refuse to refund the difference. I don't pay until I have a factura which reflects the actual consumption. :-)

amideislas

Here's a link you should read about Endesa:

This practice is still widespread. They are making millions from it, and I can't understand why it's impossible to do anything about it. Abogados don't want to touch it - the government is helpless (or simply agnostic). Even town mayors are helpless.

Edit: I block all direct debits from both Telefonica and Endesa out of pure necessity. Last month, my wife paid the phone bill from her account by bar code (we have always used my account to pay the bills manually, on which I've blocked all direct debits).

This month, Telefonica has decided to extract the phone bill from her account, without any authorization to do so whatsoever. And we haven't yet received a factura at all.

These two companies are clearly operating above the law.

Absolutely Scandalous

People having similar problems should also read this:

Problems with Endesa