petew

I have just received an estimated electricity bill which was much too high. Of course, by the time I knew about it, it was debited to my bank account. I have sent them an e-mail on their "virtual office", but no response so far. Has anybody any experience of dealing with Iberdrola. What is their 'phone helpline like?

I have now registered for their service which sends you an e mail if they haven't been able to read the meter and tells you how much the bill will be. Hopefully this will avoid a recurrence of the problem.

petew

Excuse my typing I meant Iberdrola ( 2 "r's")

poshnbucks

Hi Pete

You have a month to return the bill and the bank will return the money taken.Then take a true reading to your local Iberdola office or e-mail them or better still ask the lazy sods to come and read it.You will then get a bill for the true reading. Not all of the folks on this site can afford a large bill to be taken from their account and then let it roll over until the company read the meter. I can afford to let it roll over but after they took 700 euros out of my account for a 180 euro true reading I was cross and cancelled the payment. The banks here leave your account like an open cheque thats why they give you a month to cancel payment. It pays to use internet banking and check once a day in order you are aware of monies taken,You can then take action quickly to retrieve your cash. Best of luck

Fred James

If you have registered with them you can submit your meter readings online.

barbara preston

How do I ask them to send an email as you have mentioned?

bokeh

Why do people sign up for these direct debits? Just get a bill every 2 months, check it, and if it's correct then pay it. I do it online. It costs nothing.

andyrich666

I tell you why, ( I know its not what you said but)y ou can have a card and pay something and thats it - its down to the payee to stop the re-occuring payments, with a direct debit you have the bank on yourside, again with online transfers people do make human mistakes which can take an age to sort out, DD is by far other than Cheque the safest option.

for me I would do what you say but not really pay online unless it was a lot less hassle, I know cheques are not the done thing in Spain

I would stress never to pay re-occuring payments by card becuase you really have limited protection.

lcortez

Is there an option to have a pre pay meter in Spain,I know there more exspensive but at least you know where you are!

bokeh

I'm not talking about recurring credit card payments. Iberdrola sends me the electric bill (by email). I check the reading and if it is wrong request a corrected bill. Then on, or just before, the payment date (about a month after the issue date) I connect to my bank account online, enter the code from the bill and the money leaves my account. I pay my electric, telephone, water, ibi, rubbish collection, car tax, etc. by this method.

andyrich666

In my OP I said quite clearly I knew you was not talking about CC payments, however I decided to reply with that as an added extra as others might do.

I see you have cut that bit out of the quote, have you clearly done this to make me look stupid ??

This was the first few words from my post, just to be clear

tell you why, ( I know its not what you said but)

I have bolded the obvious which you decided to cut !!

My main answer was to your one sided question as to Why do people sign up for these direct debits?

what is good for you might not be the same for everyone else

bokeh

Wow, some people are so touchy. Does my post really make you look stupid? You said: My post just explains the method by which I pay letting anyone reading the post decide on the "hassle" factor.

andyrich666

Yes I beleive so because you deliberatley chose what to quote and what not to, Im not saying it makes me look stupid, just you have chosen to try and make it look that way. There was no need for you to bang on about credit card re-occuring payments as I had allready made it very clear that you was not talking about that.

The question You asked why do people pay direct debit I explained why and the benefits of it, and you chose not to harp on about it in both this and your last post

petew

Thanks poshnbucks thats really helpful, I will go and see my bank. I didn't actually realise that I could ask the bank to return the money taken. I guess I've been lucky - this is the first time I have had this sort of problem.

The difficulty is that the meter is inside the house which is unoccupied. Previous estimated bills had been reasonable. I did in fact e mail them pointing out the true reading and the extent of the overestimate but I was too late to stop them debiting my account. I have now registered for e mail bills and for the service where they (supposedly?) notify you by e mail if they haven't been able to read the meter and give the amount of the forthcoming bill - so at least I will get more warning if it happens again. I do use internet banking and check my account frequently but it didn't help me this time.

Ps would you say my post has been hi-jacked??

petew

Go into the Iberdrola website - register for the "Virtual Office" - and it's one of the options.

andyrich666

No Not Hijacked as its still on topic, one thing baffles me if you was that bothered about it why you did not ring them yourself ???

I would not email any firm when it comes to money, I would be straight on the phone to the bank, CC or Utility people, I would not be able to sit there patientley waiting for a reply, you ask what are peoples experience of customer service, they only know because they phoned themselves... so..why couldnt you, if its a language difficulty then fair enough and maybe you should have pointed that out ?

Id have lost a load of dosh like that id be fuming !!