Flogas admits ‘error’ as direct debits taken from customers twice in the same day

The company, which supplies electricity and gas to households, took out two direct debit payments on the same day, pushing some customers into the red on their current accounts. A total of 1,233 customers were affected by the billing blunder.

One customer said: “Flogas has somehow taken a second direct debit from my account this morning. I made my monthly payment on June 4. But this morning, the same amount came out again. My account has gone into debit so I was really annoyed.”

Asked what happened, Flogas said: “On June 6, a second monthly direct debit payment was taken in error from 1,233 Flogas customers.

“The error was noted very soon after it occurred, and every attempt was made to reverse the payments. Flogas has contacted the affected customers to apologise and to let them know that they do not need to do anything.”

Flogas said the customers’ banks would process the refunds within 24 to 48 hours.

This is just the latest blunder where energy firms have made mistakes withcustomer bills.

In March, SSE Airtricity admitted thousands of its customers were sent incorrect bills, with some customers overcharged and others charged too little. The supplier was forced to refund any money overcharged and made a small goodwill payment to the 17,000 customers affected.

One electricity customer was incorrectly told he owed €287 and was sent an estimated bill even though he has a smart meter.

He said: “Our energy provider is SSE Airtricity and last week we received a weird backdated electricity bill where SSE was retrospectively charging us from May 2023 to December 2023, even though we pay bi-monthly by direct debit and have a smart meter, so no estimated bills. The bill was for €287.”

When he rang customer support, he was told there had been a billing error.

“If we had not noticed the error, the money would have automatically left our account in March.

“Now we have received a new email from SSE claiming they undercharged us on some of our electricity units but we would be receiving a credit on our bill,” he said

Last October, it emerged the country’s largest energy supplier, Electric Ireland, breached conditions of its ­licences by overcharging 48,000 customers around €1.1m. It also issued delayed bills to another 25,000 customers.

The regulator, the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities (CRU), said at the time that Electric Ireland customers, as well as some former customers, had been overcharged by an average of €23 over a 12-month period up to August last year. All customers who were overcharged were refunded, while those overcharged by more than €40 also received some compensation.

The errors come at a time when electricity bills here are currently around 70pc to 80pc above pre-energy crisis levels.

This country has some of the most expensive electricity costs in Europe.

The CRU is proposing that the levy that subsidises renewable energy operators should be raised to €225m next year.

This is in contrast to this year, when the public service obligation (PSO) levy on electricity bills was set at zero.

It has produced a consultation paper proposing that from October, a sum of €2.98 a month will be levied on each consumer’s electricity bill. Over a year, this works out at €35.76.