Iresa Limited Reviews 1,267

Absolute bunch of cowboys , took me 6 months to get a refund . My account was £200 in credit and finally I got a measly £37 refund of my own money as they said my account needed to be in credit at all times . So why only £37 ?? This was 2 months ago as we are a low energy household , still paying our direct debits per month . Got an email to say we've gone from £200 in credit to £200 in debit in 2months in the summer ???? C'mon seriously?? I mean £70 gas per month for one of the hottest periods for years ?? Sun going down at 1030pm ?? Get a grip

This company goes from bad to worse. I have reviewed previously where I have given 1 star unfortunately Trustpilot doesn't allow negative ratings as I think -5 would still be too high.

Back in March we made application to transfer supplier which was blocked by Iresa who stated that we had a debit balance on the account (this was a small debit which was covered by the direct debit payment they had taken prior to the transfer request which they state they were waiting to clear and the extra payment they had taken well in excess of the debit).

I challenged this and was inforned that the objection had been removed but I later learned that a further objection had been lodged preventing the transfer.

Having raised customer reslution tickets which in the main have all gone unanswered I contacted their customer service department and was informed that the transfer would go through on 4th June 2018, some 3 months after the transfer request and having been placed on a higher tariff due to my current contract having expired.

All meter readings were sumbitted and confimration of the gas account being transferred was received.

On 1st July having received no confirmation of the electric account having been transferred and seeking reimbursement of the credit on the account I raised a customer ticket again whch to date has not been responded.

This morning (14th July) I contacted the Customer Service Department where I have received the most ineffective and patronising service I have ever ecountered.

Ashley who I have lodged my compliant with kept stating they are doing their best to improve customer service, sorry but if this is your best I would hate to see you at your worst.

Ths company are absolutely awful and I would urge anyone looking to use their services to look elsewhere.

No fuss sign up. Consistently the cheapest electricty supplier going. Great website, it does everything you need. Many other smaller suppliers have very poor websites with virtually no functionality except to give meter reads. Dead easy to renew at end of contract.

I have needed to change my banking details three times and IRESA changed them very quickly and faultlessly. I have also requested a change to the date of my direct debit and IRESA changed these very quickly and painlessly. I have done this online and have never needed to telephone them.

I am in credit on my electricity account, by choice. IRESA actually pay me interest on my positive balance, I'm not sure what the interest rate is but it's vastly more than the interest rate on my Santander Everyday Saver account.

Summary: I cannot recommend IRESA enough.

An absolute nightmare of a company to deal with! I'm not sure where to start with the endless issues! They close tickets without resolving them, can't answer calls and when they do they're reading off scripts so don't actually answer complaints, unable to speak to the complaints department as they email only! the smart meters aren't actually smart, they haven't put my final reading in from my old meter that was changed in April, they took a one off payment of £140 in addition to the usual £90 after they got banned for changing direct debits or taking one off payments in March.

Thanks to Michael in the complaints department I will be taking the matter to the ombudsman because your half hearted apology and £20 for hours spent on the phone and numerous emails over the past 8 weeks doesn't cut it.

I still didn't received my final bill. Iresa saying that they didn't received meter readings from my current supplier but they have sent it, and also I have, as requested by Iresa, send the first bill from my new supplier and now Iresa saying that it is not valid and they have to escalate it to their operations team AGAIN!!! I am waiting 3 months to get it resolved, but they always have some problems... I wonder what they will come up with now!!!

I have previously written a review of IRESA which for whatever reason goes 100% the opposite direction to most other reviews (As previously stated).

SSE nearly broke me both emotionally and financially, ending the saga of their incompetence 7 months AFTER I switched to IRESA.

I've been with IRESA now for over 2 years. They increased my tarrif on renewal of my plan. The price went up, obviously. It wen't up by 77p A MONTH. It is still 30% or so less than SSE, and I have never, ever had to contact them about anything other than to tell them my meter readings.

So, again I say Thank You IRESA. I have no concept of why nobody else is having the same joyful experience at paying a bill as I am.

Hopefully this company will be soon closed down - having no phone number to call them on should be a flashing red warning sign. I have had a long running dispute about them misappling my opening meter reading - which I ended up giving up over and paying the extra - now they have added their own extras on to my latest meter reading. I am hugely in credit - but i don't trust that they will ever give me a refund so I have cancelled the direct debit - will run off the credit and then switch supplier. Avoid at all costs!!

Re Martin's comment below - the "contacts' section of your website when logged into your account makes no mention of Iresa phone number anywhere - or on the bill. You have already referred yourself to OFGEM over the handling of my account as you still have an outstanding issue from August 2017!!! There is no way you are getting any more direct debits from me - you are in breach of the direct debit code.

I am not even a customer with this "company", the previous tenant was. It seems that they have left an unpaid bill or something to that effect so the supplier transfer I arranged prior to moving in has been rejected.

My supplier send me a letter, saying they have tried and Iresa have refused, so after 30 minutes of trying to find out who the current supplier was, I got told that I need to make an account, have an active direct debit and be with them for 21 days before I can switch - which is rather funny seeing as they are BANNED from accepting new customers under an OFGEM Provision!

During the supposed setting up of this new account, there were no regulatory statements, no mention of the direct debit guarantee or even the name of the tariff I am on - so thinking back on it, I feel like I just gave my details to fred in a shed rather than a company, so I will be damned if I am paying anything out of my pocket on that basis!

Literally forced into making an account to leave, absolute joke! Anyone with issues I would just go straight to Citizens Advice as suggested below, I have no faith in their complaints team replying in a timely manner!

EDIT: Following the below reply from Martin, I have now had my account confirmed at least so I am able to view details. He has replied quicker than their complaints team, and where credit is due, has been helpful.

Been on and on with this company for getting a refund since MARCH 2017 due to a wrong meter reading sent by our previous supplier npower and still no resolvment from iresa and now we have moved to another supplier AND STILL NO REFUND on the previous complaint AND no refund from the final bill from 3/5/18 please avoid this company unless you love stress, upset and being robbed in broad day light, i hope this company gets shut down as it doesnt deserve the custome!

I had an account with Iresa. For a year I did everything required ie sent them meter readings on time each month and paid them the required fixed amount on time each month. It is now 9 weeks since I closed my account, and needless to say, despite several requests they have not provided a final account nor a refund of my three figure credit balance. I am a pensioner and can ill afford this disgraceful treatment.

Despite leaving this awful company in October and at the time receiving my final bill some three months later in January. By total surprise an Iresa person called "Williams" re-opened a past support ticket this May (Some six months after switching) stating that I now owed them £26.80. Having spoken to a customer service person by the name of Thomas and then a Manager named James for a a total of an hour none of them could really explain why this charge was made other than to say they were having billing problems last year and that he would put this issue in writing and escalate it to someone higher than a Manager. None of this so called problem of billing was ever told to me at the time or was it posted on their website so to now try and back bill based on this information, where I have never actually received a breakdown of these charges is senseless. It was random and totally unexpected too. You would not expect the likes of Curry's to ring you up six months down the line to say their TV's have gone up so now you need to pay more. I took my complaint to Citizens Advice Bureau as my online support message back to them was ignored. Iresa agreed with the Citizens Advice Extra Help Unit to wipe this balance and close my account but fell short as to when it would do so. Fast forward eight weeks from that time and I receive a further email from Iresa stating that I owe them £26.80. Despite complaints and notices from Ofgem against them they still continuing to disregard people, causing undue stress and anxiety for the smallest of issues. Iresa seem above any enforcement and reading through the complaints their customers are still having to go into public forums as Trustpilot to voice concerns, it really does says it all. Ofgem should just revoke their licence period instead of procrastinating as it is clear they just can not deliver on promise and unlikely they ever will. I have now been forced to take this complaint to the Ombudsman in the final hope that this company will adhere to its promises and stop harassing me for payments which were a direct result of their blatant inefficiency. Let this be a lesson to anyone looking to these type of energy companies in the future its been the most distressing two years of my life and it will be yours too.

So many bad reviews. My experience was completely different.

I had managed to build up a considerable credit balance with Iresa and wanted it returned to me.

I emailed Martin at customer support, got a reply the following day confirming that the refund would be processed and within 3 days the refund was in my bank.

Not only that but Martin looked at our usage and reduced the direct debit as well.

Great customer service.

I like many others on here have been stuck in the clutches of Iresa.
Like many others I have been.....
Shafted with extra charges over and above my monthly DD.
Hours on the phone and I do mean hours
Countless Emails and tickets
Blocked from switching
Getting refunds of your own money (not their money) the list goes on...
It took me from the 22 Feb to the 26 June to rid myself of these troublesome pests, so I,ve learned a bit and this is what anyone stuck with them should do.
By all means generate a complaint with Ofgem but this will take time you will have to wait 28 days to reach a deadlock situation, then they have 28 days to respond, so your looking two months down the line before any action. But do that anyway as it adds pressure on Iresa.
Phone Citizens Advice with your complaint, just make your bullet points and if your lucky you will be put through to a specialist team they have set up to specifically deal with Iresa, but more than likely they will call you back within five working days.
CA have a dedicated line to Iresa and they have clout.
Action is pretty much immediate, I got my switch unblocked and a £30 refund for cost of phone calls.
But Iresa never give up and although I got my switch back in March I never received my refund.
I didn't realise this till June, so I opened up another complaint with Ofgem and Emailed Citizens Advice to open my case again as countless calls to Iresa fell on deaf ears.
Citizens Advice had been a bit slow to respond so I complained on Trust Pilot with my customer ID which prompted a response from Iresa with a promise of my refund which I duly received, so Trust Pilot is also good to get action.
Just as I thought that was the end of it Citizens Advice got back to me apologising for the delay in responding citing complaints to Iresa was overwhelming their team, but they had sent my complaint about my refund to them. Both Citizens Advice and I received an instant apology from Iresa and I got £20 compensation for my trouble
So if your stuck with Iresa get onto Citizens Advice they are brilliant.
It has taken months for me to get to this point but armed with this knowledge maybe your grief will be shortened.

The worst company I have done business with ever. They have now objected to a total of 7 requests to switch services to a new supplier. On each occassion I have been promised that the next switch request will go through.

Terrible with payments too. My direct debit payments have not been reflected on my account! As a result, their systems show me as being in debt and they then use this as an excuse to stop my switch.

Yes, they are one of the cheapest. But you get what you pay for. Avoid.

There really should be an option to give zero stars. They don't deserve one star.

Iresa have done their utmost to stop me from leaving. Now, despite already having transferred to a new supplier, they are refusing to close my account and refund my credit claiming they have not had the final reading from my new supplier. My new supplier has double checked and the readings were sent to Iresa. I'm now stuck in limbo and can see the Energy Ombudsman as the only body that can resolve this. I'll never go back to Iresa and suspect they probably won't be around for too much longer as a company anyway. Disgraceful company as can be seen from their reviews on this website.

This company told me they had passed on my complaint to the umbudsman and the ombudsman would now act on behalf of Iresa.

I did not believe this and rang the ombudsman who confirmed this is not how it works. Iresa must give customers a deadlock letter after a complaint has been open for more than 8 weeks. The customer is the only person who can raise a complaint with the ombudsman.

They are useless at responding to emails, useless at communicating things internally between departments and take months to do anything.

I started my first query with them about two months after I joined them (March 2017-ish). They didn’t respond until I was about to move home. They did, however, attempt to almost double my monthly direct debit without any discussion and deduct a “one off payment” of around £200. This was based on an incorrect meter reading - this was what I queried with them initially and what they never responded to.

I am now no longer with them (thankfully), but can’t close my account properly because my final bill is still wrong - they are trying to charge me for a two week period when I’d left the property and had no access to it. They had originally confirmed they would note my leaving date and adjust my bill accordingly. Obviously they haven’t done that, so once again I’m sat here waiting for a response to my ticket, waiting for the day I’m going to have to call them and spend an hour on hold before flagging their error to them and helping them sort it. Until very recently their call centres were only open office hours, so people had no choice but to take time out of their work days to sit in a queue for an hour at a time. They should really be offering some sort of compensation for time lost, but of course they won’t because their senior management aren’t interested in their customers at all, just making profits apparently, not that they’ve any good at that either by the looks of things.

One positive about Iresa is when you finally get through to someone, they are very nice and do take the time to listen to you - they must take a lot of flack and they seem to manage it very well.

Overall it’s an awful, awful company that just either needs to quit before it gets worse, or start again with a new senior team.

Also it’s hilarious that writing a review on here is the only guaranteed way you’ll get a response to something. They have a strong comms strategy at least!

The most pathetically useless company I have ever dealt with. I have wasted so much time on the phone and writing messages to them because they have not cleared my final payment, which was paid 31st May 2018. I didn't even choose to go with them. The previous tenants in my house used them and when I tried to switch to my supplier, it didn't happen because unbeknownst to me I was supposed to open an account with them in my name in order to make the switch (that's what they've told me). Huh? This is absurd practise. Now I have sold the property and the new owners are unable to switch because a) Iresa is saying the account balance is outstanding and b) the new owners need to open an account. Utterly ridiculous, Iresa should taken to court.

I have spent months trying to get through to this ailing organisation. Total cowboys. OFGEM all over them. Read all the other reviews we can't all be wrong.

Installed a smart meter for gas and electric on 20 March 18. Electricity validated ok, but have to ring them every month to manually validate my gas reading to produce what I hope is an accurate bill every month since installation. Fed up with this. Despite numerous calls and complaints, no alternative but to go to Ombudsman. They produced a bill for over £1500.00 one month. When I looked, all readings had been duplicated! Last week gas was £73.00 in debit as try to keep it within sensible parameters. Two days ago, there was a £901.00 CREDIT on my gas account. The following day my account had a £243.00 DEBIT on it and they could not explain why. This had been backdated to 26 October 2017. I make one off payments in addition to my D/D to avoid debt. I feel they are trying to make extra money from customers over the summer months when usage is traditionally low. Please avoid this company at all costs. The sooner they are closed down, the better. Internal tickets Do NOT generate a response and no one tells you what they are doing with your account. Some of the staff are not well trained. Complaints go unanswered. WHY HAS MY ACCOUNT GONE TO £260.00 DEBIT, IRESA FROM £73.00, ACCOUNTING FOR MY JUNE FIGURE VALIDATING BY HAVING TO RING YOU AGAIN. PLEASE ANSWER. THIS!