Labour councillor Harry Barrett is advising current ESB customers that they must contact the ESB directly to get a cheaper rate that is now on offer. Cllr Barrett has labelled this situation as “shoddy”, as the ESB announced recently that existing customers would have to make contact with the company in order to make the savings.
At the beginning of April, the ESB announced a range of discounted rates of up to 17 per cent, which it said were aimed at stopping the flow of customers to Bord Gáis Energy and Airtricity.
The ESB said it would not automatically switch existing customers on to the cheaper rates and said they would have to make contact with the company directly and ask to be switched to its rewards package in order to make the savings. The excuse given from the ESB is that it wants to “incentivise customers to make contact so they would opt in to direct-debit plans and register for online billing, moves that would save the company significant amounts of money”.
Cllr Barrett said: “The company is punishing all of the customers who stayed with them in the face of competition from rivals. The savings should have applied to all customers. They could have done it straight away.” He accused the ESB of poor customer service.
