TWO MAJOR ENERGY suppliers have apologised for billing errors affecting some of their customers. 

Bord Gáis has apologised after some of its customers were charged double the direct debit payment on their bills due to a banking “error”, while Electric Ireland has failed to send out bills to thousands of its customers.

The Bord Gáis issue arose after numerous customers reported the double charge yesterday, which the supplier said it was investigating alongside bank AIB. 

“Due to an error with the banking system, some of our direct debit customers have experienced a double direct debit taken from their account today,” Bord Gáis said in a statement.

“We apologise for this error and are investigating with AIB the cause so as to avoid any recurrence in the future. In some cases, this error has already been reversed.”

It is not known how many customers were affected by the error for Bord Gáis, which has over 730,000 residential and business customers throughout the country.

It added that it was working closely with AIB to ensure the error is “reversed for all customers as soon as possible” so that the payment be returned to their accounts. The bank has been contacted for comment.

Electric Ireland error

Electric Ireland, which has around 1.1 million customers, said its billing glitch saw “less than 1%” of its electricity customers affected by an “incorrect discount rate” being applied to some customers

The company told The Journal: “We are working hard to resolve this as quickly as possible, and corrections to those impacted customers will issue as credit on their bills in due course – current indications are that the average correction is likely to be in the order of €20.

“We apologise for the inconvenience that this may cause and want to reassure those customers affected that we will contact them and make any necessary amends as quickly as possible.”

Additional reporting by Muiris O’Cearbhaill