‘Distress’ for elderly couple with big bills as Flogas fails to implement budget plan

‘I am writing to ask for your advice regarding a very distressing situation involving Flogas and my elderly parents, who are both in their late 80s and in poor health,” begins a letter from a reader who we will call Con.“In March I telephoned Flogas with my mother beside me and spoke on her behalf. My parents’ gas and electricity bills had become extremely high,” he says. How high? It was more than €1,000 in January “because their illnesses mean they need to keep their home consistently warm”.Con says he and his mother asked Flogas to set up a budget plan covering their gas and electricity accounts. “The representative confirmed that this could be done, and we agreed on a monthly payment of €325. The direct debit was arranged, everything was signed off, and we believed the plan was fully in place. My parents were enormously relieved.”READ MOREHe says there were then “gaps in their billing, and payments were not being collected as expected. They subsequently received a bill for almost €800 and have now been told that they are approximately €1,300 in arrears.”He contacted the provider and says they “admitted that the error was on their side and that the original representative had given us incorrect information, as the budget plan we agreed apparently could not be set up. Flogas has applied a €100 credit to the account, but this falls far short of addressing the arrears and considerable distress caused by its admitted mistake.”He adds that when he asked to speak to a manager he was told that managers do not provide callbacks and that the complaints process can take up to 21 days. “Flogas has said it will pause further action while I contact its credit control team to arrange a payment plan. I tried to do this today, but after holding for a considerable time, the call was disconnected. This has caused a huge amount of stress for my parents and for our family. I have had to take time off work to deal with the matter and review their bank accounts to ensure that no other essential bills were missed while unexpected large payments were being taken.”Con points out that if he and his parents had been told in March that the proposed arrangement was not possible they could have made an alternative plan. “Instead, my parents reasonably believed that their energy costs were being managed through the agreed monthly payment. They are now facing substantial arrears through no fault of their own, and the matter remains unresolved. We have no wish to avoid paying for the energy they used, but we do believe Flogas should take meaningful responsibility for the arrears and distress caused by its error.”We contacted the company and received the following statement. “While this issue has now been successfully resolved with the customer, we are reviewing the level of service this customer received, including the wait times they experienced. We are in direct contact with the family to ensure their concerns are fully addressed, and the customer was also contacted by senior management to personally apologise on behalf of Flogas. “A budget plan was successfully set up on the gas account in March and has been running as agreed since. Unfortunately, due to the customer’s electricity meter type, we are unable to set up a similar budget plan for the customer’s electricity account. This should have been clearly communicated with the customer at the time, and we apologise for any lack of clarity from our side.“We have now agreed a payment arrangement with the customer to clear the electricity arrears in a manageable way.“We would also like to remind customers that additional supports, including our priority services register and payment flexibility for those in vulnerable circumstances, are available to anyone who may need them.”We had a second, perhaps less serious story involving Flogas but one that highlights how different standards can be applied – or, to use the words of a reader called Pat, it highlights “a glaring corporate double standard that I suspect a lot of your readers run into without realising it”.Pat writes to say he “was sitting at home on a quiet afternoon when Flogas rang my mobile out of the blue to discuss renewing my energy contract. Knowing how quickly tariff rates shift and how easily verbal promises evaporate the moment a bill arrives, I decided to keep a record,” he says. “I answered and tapped ‘Record’ on my phone. Before either of us could even say hello, my phone’s automated voice chimed in over the speaker: ‘This call is now being recorded.’”Pat says that “just to be polite, I verbally confirmed: ‘Just so you know, I’m recording these calls.’ I expected a standard, ‘No problem, let’s look at your renewal options.’ Instead, I witnessed a full-blown operational breakdown.”He says the “sales pitch instantly vanished. The representative panicked, his tone shifting from polite telesales to openly hostile as he raised an immediate objection, claiming he had a personal ‘right to privacy in the workplace.’ When I asked him the obvious question: ‘Are you not recording my side of this call?’ he admitted Flogas was indeed recording me, before delivering a line that deserves a spot in the corporate double-standard hall of fame: ‘Yeah, but I work here.’”Pat points out that when “a multimillion-euro utility company” dials a private citizen on their personal phone, their recording systems running in the background are just “standard administrative policy. But the moment a customer’s phone plays the exact same disclaimer back to them, it’s treated like an aggressive invasion of privacy.”Pat says he “pointed out the obvious irony” but after that “his tone grew even more defensive. He scrambled, claiming he “didn’t get the chance” to tell me they were recording before my phone system beat him to the draw. He then compared my smartphone keeping an audio note to someone barging into his physical workplace with a camera, refused to engage any further and abruptly ended the call. The sheer hypocrisy would be funny if it didn’t leave me in a ridiculous position: Flogas rang me to negotiate a contract, got hostile because I was keeping a receipt of the pitch, and walked away without ever telling me what the offer actually was.”​What Pat wants to know is “why are utility companies allowed to hoard audio recordings of us ‘for quality and training purposes’ but the second a customer holds a digital carbon copy, reps throw a tantrum and refuse service?”Flogas started its response by thanking this customer for bringing this to its attention and said it had addressed it directly with its sales agents and team leaders.“Flogas records calls for training and quality purposes, and this is disclosed to customers at the outset of any call, in line with standard practice across the sector.“Customers are of course entitled to record calls they are a party to, and there is no basis on which a customer should be made to feel uncomfortable for doing so. The agent’s response in this instance did not reflect the standard of service we expect.“We would welcome the opportunity to discuss the contract renewal and their experience with the customer, and to ensure any offer is put to him in full and in writing so he has a clear record of it.”We had a third story about energy providers although this one was about Electric Ireland. “I’m hoping that you might be able to help sort out the following on my sister’s behalf,” begins the mail from Agnes. “I have been acting on her behalf some of the time when it gets too much for her but the saga continues. Agnes’s sister changed over to Electric Ireland in March 2026 as she was out of contract with Energia. “She had been with Electric Ireland three years previously and had an online account then,” our reader explains. “This time round, she was registered for a paper bill. In April she decided to have solar panels installed [and they] were duly installed in early May.”However, when she tried to switch to a different Electric Ireland rate, “she was informed that she needed an online account and was sent a link to reactivate her old account, using her email address. That’s when the fun started,” Agnes says. “When she entered her email address she was informed that she’d had a “business” account previously and could not access it. However, she never had a business, nor ever signed up for a business account.”At this point Agnes and her sister tried to contact the company over the phone. “We have been ringing Electric Ireland since mid May trying to get this sorted. The technical department could only delete the business account and/or remove her email address, we were informed. It would be sorted within 10 days, the agent informed us and she’d get a call confirming it was sorted.”That did not happen. “Ten days have come and gone, indeed multiple 10 days have come and gone but no phone call from Electric Ireland! She and I have called again, and again and again ... It was in hand, said the agent(s). Then in one phone call she was informed it would take 40 days! Needless to say the 40 days have come and gone and still nothing has changed.”Agnes says her sister “has been ringing Electric Ireland about every 10 days since May, spoken to various agents and supervisors, who escalated the case with the tech department but nothing has changed! Promises of a callback are never kept. Some agents are genuinely sympathetic and do their best but then she gets transferred.”Agnes says we are “now coming into autumn and winter and it is critical that she gets the EV rate as all this beautiful sunshine will be gone. She needs the EV rate to top up her battery on bad solar days.In response to our query, Electric Ireland said it could “confirm that we have contacted the customer directly, resolved the account access issue and confirm that the customer can now access the online portal. We have apologised for the inconvenience caused and are pleased the customer is satisfied that the matter has now been resolved.”