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a letter from Iberdrola

a letter from Iberdrola

Old Dec 18th 2010, 1:29 pm
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Default a letter from Iberdrola

I don't own the apartment that I live in, I rent. The electricity bill is direct debited from my bank account, but it is in the name of the landlord. A week ago I received a letter from Iberdrola (addressed to the landlord) stating that, in accordance with the new law about "liberalization del mercado" of electricity suppliers, he must select a new supplier by the end of the year. Regardless of whether he has done so or not, Iberdrola will stop supplying electricity to the apartment on January 1st.

As you may imagine this put me in quite a state. I got in touch with the immobiliaria through which I rented the place (they are supposed to take care of any problems that arise with the apartment), and they got in touch with the owner and told me that he is taking care of the problem. Knowing how quickly things move in Spain, especially right before the holidays, I am stocking up on candles and will make sure I don't have anything perishable in the fridge on New Year's Eve. Hopefully the lights in my apartment will not go off right after the campanadas, but who knows...

How nice of Iberdrola to wait until 30 days before the cut-off date to warn people that they will be cutting off their electricity. They couldn't have sent a warning 6 or even 3 months ago, so people would have time to switch to a new supplier?

And whose bright idea was it to make the selection of a new electricity supplier an "opt-in" thing? Wouldn't it make 100 times more sense to make it "opt-out", so that if you do not pick a new supplier your contract with your existing supplier just gets renewed? I can see this affecting a lot of expat home owners who do not speak Spanish and who most likely ignore any correspondence in Spanish that they might receive. They would get an very unpleasant surprise at 12 am on January 1st. And what about people with holiday homes who only visit in the summer? They'll come for a vacation and have no idea why they have no electricity. What a fiasco.
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Old Dec 18th 2010, 1:46 pm
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Default Re: a letter from Iberdrola

Are you sure you have read the letter correctly. I haven´t heard anything about this. We are with Endessa and I am sure they wouldn´t just cut everybody off who hadn´t opted in with them on that date. It doesn´t make economic sense.
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Old Dec 18th 2010, 1:52 pm
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Default Re: a letter from Iberdrola

I wonder if this has anything to do with it.

Dear Clients and Friends,

At the beginning of this year, we advised many of you of changes to the
electricity market in Spain and of the new free market. Some of you switched to
a new company within Iberdrola with a new contract number to take advantage of
the savings.

We have now heard from within Iberdrola that if clients remain with Iberdrola
Comercialización de Último Recurso as at the 1st October 2010, their electricity
will increase by 4.8%, whereas if they change to the free market company
(Iberdrola Generación S.A.U.), Ibedrola promise that there will be no price
increase until July 2012. In addition the bills will be bi-monthly with
accurate readings.

We would like to offer to make the change of contract for you with Iberdrola at
a charge of €30 to cover our time and the work involved. The change is
effective 1st October 2010 so please let us know as soon as possible. All we
need from you to do the change of contract is an email and we can make
arrangements for payment to follow separately.

Received this email from our solicitors, has any Forum members received anything similar??

Thanks




Spam post? If so click here to report it
26 Sep 2010 12:14

claire T
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Hi Gedo - I didn't get the email but one of my neighbours did. I think it would be easier and cheaper to phone Iberdrola direct or go to one of their offices, rather than pay someone 30€.


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Old Dec 18th 2010, 2:15 pm
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Default Re: a letter from Iberdrola

Originally Posted by Chiclanagir
Are you sure you have read the letter correctly. I haven´t heard anything about this. We are with Endessa and I am sure they wouldn´t just cut everybody off who hadn´t opted in with them on that date. It doesn´t make economic sense.
This is what the letter said:

"El proximo 31 de diciembre de este año finaliza el periodo transitorio establecido a favor de los consumidores que, como usted, no tienen derecho a la tarifa de ultimo recurso (TUR), pero carecen de un contrato con una comercializadora en mercado libre, en virtud del cual esta siendo suministrado por Iberdrola Comercializacion de Ultimo Recurso, al precio de la TUR mas un 20% de recargo.

Por ello, do no haber establecido un nuevo contrato con una comercializadora en mercado, a partir de 1 de enero de 2011 se consideraria rescindido su contrato con Iberdrola Comercializacion de Ultimo Recurso, y se veria privado del suministro de energia electrica."

Translation:
"On December 31st of this year ends the transition period for customers who, like yourself, do not have a right to the "tarifa de ultimo recurso", but also do not have a contract with a supplier in the free market, due to which you are being charged the rates for the "tarifa de ultimo recurso" plus a 20% surcharge.

Because of this, since you have not made a new contract with a supplier in the market, from January 1st 2011 you contract with Iberdrola will be considered terminated, and we will stop supplying you with electricity."

This is a very rough translation, but I think I have it right. I am not sure what the "tarifa de ultimo recurso" is exactly. It seems from the letter that if you qualify for it, then you do not need to get a new supplier. It looks like my apartment does not qualify. And this thing about the 20% surcharge... I was wondering why my bills this year seemed so high. I guess now I know.
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Old Dec 18th 2010, 2:22 pm
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Default Re: a letter from Iberdrola

Originally Posted by Chiclanagir
I wonder if this has anything to do with it.

Dear Clients and Friends,

At the beginning of this year, we advised many of you of changes to the
electricity market in Spain and of the new free market. Some of you switched to
a new company within Iberdrola with a new contract number to take advantage of
the savings.

We have now heard from within Iberdrola that if clients remain with Iberdrola
Comercialización de Último Recurso as at the 1st October 2010, their electricity
will increase by 4.8%, whereas if they change to the free market company
(Iberdrola Generación S.A.U.), Ibedrola promise that there will be no price
increase until July 2012. In addition the bills will be bi-monthly with
accurate readings.

We would like to offer to make the change of contract for you with Iberdrola at
a charge of €30 to cover our time and the work involved. The change is
effective 1st October 2010 so please let us know as soon as possible. All we
need from you to do the change of contract is an email and we can make
arrangements for payment to follow separately.

Received this email from our solicitors, has any Forum members received anything similar??

Thanks

Claire
The way I read this, it looks like it is addressed to people who have already switched to a new contract due to the changes in the electricity market, and it is just offering to switch them to a cheaper rate (for a price, of course). If people have already switched to a new contract they don't have to worry about getting their electricity cut off.
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Old Dec 18th 2010, 3:35 pm
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Default Re: a letter from Iberdrola

It sounds like you have a contract that it outside the TUR tariff - usually because it is 3 phase and over 10kw.

These contracts were advised over a year ago that they had to change to a "free market" supplier and if they did not the price would increase significantly over the following 12 months and at the end of that period the contract would be terminated.

I was in this situation at the start of this year and duly changed to a free market contract.

It sounds like your landlord has chosen to ignore all these warnings, and yes, unless he does something pretty quick, you may well be cut off.
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Old Dec 18th 2010, 7:42 pm
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Default Re: a letter from Iberdrola

Originally Posted by Fred James
It sounds like you have a contract that it outside the TUR tariff - usually because it is 3 phase and over 10kw.

These contracts were advised over a year ago that they had to change to a "free market" supplier and if they did not the price would increase significantly over the following 12 months and at the end of that period the contract would be terminated.

I was in this situation at the start of this year and duly changed to a free market contract.

It sounds like your landlord has chosen to ignore all these warnings, and yes, unless he does something pretty quick, you may well be cut off.
I had heard about the free market changes but didn't really know any details (especially not the part about getting your electricity cut off after a year). We've had people ringing our doorbell throughout the year trying to get us to sign up with various electricity suppliers, but since we don't own the place we could not do anything about it. I had assumed that the landlord would take care of any changes of supplier at the same time he got the electricity supplier for his own home sorted out.

All we can hope for now is that he can move fast enough to prevent us getting cut off. If not, there's nothing we can do about it. We're stocked up on candles, have taken out all the heavy blankets, and we've got a public library nearby where we can get on to the internet so we can keep in touch with the rest of the world. All that remains is to keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best
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Old Dec 19th 2010, 8:28 pm
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Default Re: a letter from Iberdrola

Originally Posted by NadiaN
I don't own the apartment that I live in, I rent. The electricity bill is direct debited from my bank account, but it is in the name of the landlord. A week ago I received a letter from Iberdrola (addressed to the landlord) stating that, in accordance with the new law about "liberalization del mercado" of electricity suppliers, he must select a new supplier by the end of the year. Regardless of whether he has done so or not, Iberdrola will stop supplying electricity to the apartment on January 1st.

As you may imagine this put me in quite a state. I got in touch with the immobiliaria through which I rented the place (they are supposed to take care of any problems that arise with the apartment), and they got in touch with the owner and told me that he is taking care of the problem. Knowing how quickly things move in Spain, especially right before the holidays, I am stocking up on candles and will make sure I don't have anything perishable in the fridge on New Year's Eve. Hopefully the lights in my apartment will not go off right after the campanadas, but who knows...

How nice of Iberdrola to wait until 30 days before the cut-off date to warn people that they will be cutting off their electricity. They couldn't have sent a warning 6 or even 3 months ago, so people would have time to switch to a new supplier?

And whose bright idea was it to make the selection of a new electricity supplier an "opt-in" thing? Wouldn't it make 100 times more sense to make it "opt-out", so that if you do not pick a new supplier your contract with your existing supplier just gets renewed? I can see this affecting a lot of expat home owners who do not speak Spanish and who most likely ignore any correspondence in Spanish that they might receive. They would get an very unpleasant surprise at 12 am on January 1st. And what about people with holiday homes who only visit in the summer? They'll come for a vacation and have no idea why they have no electricity. What a fiasco.
If you recved a letter in your name, then I would have thought that Iberdrola excepts you to do something about changing/confirming the supply you want. if that is the case and if I was you I would be running around trying to contact a supply ASAP
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Old Dec 20th 2010, 3:43 pm
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Default Re: a letter from Iberdrola

Originally Posted by Casa Santo Estevo
If you recved a letter in your name, then I would have thought that Iberdrola excepts you to do something about changing/confirming the supply you want. if that is the case and if I was you I would be running around trying to contact a supply ASAP
Unfortunately the letter (as well as the bills) is in the landlord's name, so I can't do anything about selecting a new supplier. The landlord did say that he's taking care of it. Hopefully he will manage to sort things out on time and I won't have my power go out at midnight on New Year's Eve.
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Old Dec 20th 2010, 4:57 pm
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Default Re: a letter from Iberdrola

Originally Posted by NadiaN
Unfortunately the letter (as well as the bills) is in the landlord's name, so I can't do anything about selecting a new supplier. The landlord did say that he's taking care of it. Hopefully he will manage to sort things out on time and I won't have my power go out at midnight on New Year's Eve.
Tell him if they cut it off you will have to go to an Hotel and bill him.
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Old Dec 21st 2010, 6:02 am
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Default Re: a letter from Iberdrola

Originally Posted by NadiaN
Unfortunately the letter (as well as the bills) is in the landlord's name, so I can't do anything about selecting a new supplier. The landlord did say that he's taking care of it. Hopefully he will manage to sort things out on time and I won't have my power go out at midnight on New Year's Eve.
Just a note of warning, the Spanish take it VERY seriously if you open someone else's mail.

We had an issue recently when a tenant left but we still kept getting a lot of mail for him. We opened one letter to see if there was an address to inform them that he's moved as he hadn't left a forwarding address - none. We took all the letters to the post office and got into BIG trouble for opening one!

All we wanted to do was to try and help!
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Old Dec 21st 2010, 2:12 pm
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Default Re: a letter from Iberdrola

Originally Posted by snikpoh
Just a note of warning, the Spanish take it VERY seriously if you open someone else's mail.

We had an issue recently when a tenant left but we still kept getting a lot of mail for him. We opened one letter to see if there was an address to inform them that he's moved as he hadn't left a forwarding address - none. We took all the letters to the post office and got into BIG trouble for opening one!

All we wanted to do was to try and help!
I'm sure you've heard this before: no good deed goes unpunished

In our case these are bills and letters from utilities companies such as Iberdrola and Gas Natural. If I don't open them how would I know that they haven't screwed up the readings and are not charging me 10 times more than they should? This is the second apartment that I have rented here, and there has never been an issue raised by a landlord about opening letters and bills from utilities companies. Obviously personal mail is something completely different. We did get a few letters addressed to the previous tenants at first, and we just passed them onto the landlord.
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Old Jan 6th 2011, 8:45 am
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Default Re: a letter from Iberdrola

Originally Posted by NadiaN
will stop supplying electricity to the apartment on January 1st.
My electrics went off this morning while I was in the shower and this thread was the first thing that came into my head - though I haven't seen a letter like yours.

Fortunately it seems to be just a consequence of having the milk heater and the coffee maker on at the same time.
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Old Jan 6th 2011, 11:08 pm
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Default Re: a letter from Iberdrola

Originally Posted by rachelk
My electrics went off this morning while I was in the shower and this thread was the first thing that came into my head - though I haven't seen a letter like yours.

Fortunately it seems to be just a consequence of having the milk heater and the coffee maker on at the same time.


That must have been an... *interesting* experience, showering in the dark.

Our landlord came through in the end, and we didn't lose power at all. Of course, at first I wasn't sure if we still had power because the landlord took care of the problem or because the Iberdrola people who were supposed to turn it off were too busy celebrating. But after the first 3 days I figured we were safe
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