Wendy WilliamsA RETIRED Nerja couple have been shocked after receiving a bill from Sevillana-Endesa for a staggering 7,264 euros for just two months.
The couple, both in their 70s, said the bill usually comes to between just 100 and 120 euros.
Homeowner Antonio Ramirez said: “It must be a mistake since this is a normal house, not a factory.”
But Endesa, who recommended an electrician check the system, insist the bill is correct and the couple must pay.
yea thats endesa …..you must pay because we are the great endesa and it is not possible we make a mistake…. next step your cut off … next step meter removed …. next step we need a boletin then next step youre house is illegal so you cant have a supply…… next step you pay the bloody bill……and majically you get you electric back been there done it read the book seen the film got the teeshirt …. advise just pay it save yourself from grief…
And the Spanish housing minister pleads for the Brits to come back and buy all these unsold Spanish houss. All I would say to her is put your house in order first and stop all these mistakes regarding bills, planning laws, corrupt council officials, corrupt lawyers, retrospective planning, oh i’ve lost the will to go on.
This has happened befire in Nerja, I recall. An old lady was handed a ten thousand euro bill (or something equally ludicrous) for a months supply, and it turned out she was lighting up the whole Balcon de Europa every time she flicked the dining room switch.
Endesa are an incompetant scam-ridden entity whose activities border on the criminal. They may be owned buy an Italian company, but they quickly adopt the “Spanish way” as it helps boost their profits whilst giving the absolute worst customer service. Of course, Italy is not much better when it comes to scams – they are like two peas in pod.
The mad thing is that if you read about this case, Endesa first offered the customer a “flexible payment plan” (100 years or something) to pay back the amount, rather than immediately saying they had obviously made a mistake and were totally incompetant. Spain, in a nutshell.
When we moved from Galicia to Andalucia and being outdoor people went walking in the countryside, almost immediately we were offered land to build a house.
Most would be sellers shrugged their shoulders when we asked if their land was legal to build on, some actually admitted that it would be illegal to build but ‘nobody would mind’.
Many plots that we were offered beside the road from Guadix to Benelua were eventually bought by Spanish people.
What we could never understand is – as these houses were known by everyone to have been built illegaly – how was it possible to be connected with both water and electricity – of course the supplier of water were the local councils – Guadix and Benelua and the electricity was supplied by Endesa.
one day we will return to Guadix – just for the craic and see what has happened to all the illegal builds, who has been prosecuted and who has’nt, indeed if anyone has been prosecuted at all – should make for an interesting visit.
Does,not surprise me at all ,after a feria bar opened next door a couple of years ago I got a bill for a thousamd,one woman living alone .I complained of course ,no luck ,they said my meter said that so pay up ,I negociated to stage payments ,as God knows what the next one would be .Can nothing be done about these criminals
Mary, I must say you are really encouraging your potential housebuyers with your statement lol. You are right though, they are criminals. Of course, criminals florish in places where the underlying system is corrupt and inefficient and where there is no proper recourse and nobody in authority gives a hoot what happens… Spain needs to get on top of these issues as it is becoming more and more like a banana republic every day.
A terrible company who appear to have a monopoly. Any advice as to an alternative ie switching?
Anyone have any news on the legality of the ICP Endessa are trying to force people to have?
I had a quote some years agoto make my Cortijo completley solar powered. 200,000 euros was the quote and half an acre of solar panels were required. Still might do it, just to see if it works. Might take some time to pay for itself though…
Every household has a limiter on their electricity only allowing so much power to be used. The question is if you ran at full power for a month what would the bill be ? In the case of this poor Nerja couple I doubt it could actually reach 7,000 euros a month, mind you try telling that to Endesa !
ENDESA ARE THE MOST CORRUPT , CHEATING , LYING , THIEVING ,CRIMINAL COMPANY IN SPAIN , PROBABLY THE ENTIRE WORLD .THESE ARROGANT CRIMINALS EXTORT WITH IMPUNITY , BECAUSE SPAIN IS CORRUPT . AVOID SPAIN AT ALL COSTS .
SPAIN IS A CORRUPT BANANA REPUBLIC .AVOID THIS CORRUPT SH*THOLE
We are in a constant ongoing fight with Endesa. In another country, they would NEVER get away with what they do. But this is spain…
Without fail, Endesa overcharges us every month, sometimes to the extent of 10x our meter reading.
The only effective recourse so far have been the following:
a) Cancel direct debit. If they get the money first, getting back the overcharges is difficult, if not impossible. We have overpaid thousands.. but never received one refund – all claims are either ignored or declined.
b) Register dispute every factura (presuming it is over-billed, as ours are every month). This usually means waiting in a queue at the local endesa office for hours. Bring the reading from your meter and the factura. Tell them you want it corrected. They will usually issue a new factura with the corrected numbers in a week or so.
Item (b) above worked for us for a while. But now Endesa simply refuses to acknowledge any overcharges (despite our proof in black and white) and sends a nice letter telling us they have chosen reject our dispute. They simply re-issue an identical over-charged factura, followed by a disconnect notice, which we are forced to pay.
Endesa has also sent us a letter stating that unless we re-instate direct debit, they refuse to refund the money the owe us (which they oddly admit to). Since we’ve never received even one refund in 4 years, I have no illusions that reconnecting direct debit will result in any refunds.
We have been trying to find a suitable abogado to take them to court, but none of them seem to be interested in fighting Endesa. I suppose it’s fear of getting ripped to shreds by the Endesa legal team.
Geoff, why not change supplier and give that a try? You’ll never get a refund and the legal system is next to useless here. Get online real-time billing; that allows you to keep an eye on usage as it happens and other suppliers offer that service as standard now.
Does anyone know whether it is possible to directly denounce a Co. like Endessa, Vodafon Spain, Moviestar ….. etc etc in Brussels ?
E.G. my local Eroski is offering at least half of its produce without information re.: origin, date of packaging, sell by date ….. not so bad keeps me from buying there and there is enough much better alternatives around but not really EU standard.
What gets me is, Eroski funnily enough brings out a consumer protection magazine ???
anywhere in N. Europe there just is no way they would get away with breaking basic consumer laws – on the contrary they would be fined big time also by Brussels !
Re. Fred’s comment of simply changing supplier – don’t know with utilities ? With mobile phone providers, WHY BOTHER – FROM BAD TO BAD TO WORSE AND BACK ALL THE SAME CRAP.
Surely there must be a way to get minimal consumer rights in a EU country ?
Kunta, I change supplier away from Endesa as they were essentially scam artists. My new electricity supplier offer more services for monitoring usage online. Only time will tell if they are any better than Endesa. Escaping Endesa was my priority, but I agree with you that all the suppliers are bound to operate in similar ways, depressingly.
lol if you want consumer rights in Spain, best move to a properly run EU country like Holland, Germany, France etc.
Fred,
Well, you know, some forms of extortion are legal in Spain. :-)
I understand from many of the people I know around here who have switched, that all of the energy companies are the same. They all overbill, and all try to force you to have direct debit so that they can extract from your account whatever they see fit, and all make it very difficult to receive refunds or credit, if not flatly refusing refunds or credit.
In many articles I’ve read, apparently it’s quite easy for them to get away with it, since they have the politicians in their pockets. Endesa was fined a laughable €900K last year. I’m sure they have profited orders of magnitude more than that.
Just for grins:
My ongoing battle this month includes having been double-billed (again) for 2 months this spring. The first factura fully paid (using real meter readings), the other re-issued with exactly the same (real) meter readings and for the same dates, but at a higher tariff (yet, nothing changed in those months).
The FIRST factura was paid in full. The SECOND factura was issued months later, for exactly the same dates and meter readings, but at a slightly higher tarif. I refused to pay the second factura because I’d already paid the first one (I submitted a dispute to Endesa with indisputable proof of payment from the bank). But they rejected my dispute and then cut off my power because I refused to pay the bill twice.
Endesa’s rationale is that the first factura that was paid is a different factura number, and therefore payable separately (despite them both being for exactly the same dates and meter readings, but the latter for slightly more money, since they decided months after-the-fact to increase the tarif slightly on those two months).
So, I had to pay AGAIN for the same dates and meter readings to get my power restored. This was the only way I could avoid being without power for weeks or months while it is being sorted (or buy a generator, which I am seriously considering now).
I have been informed in writing from Endesa that Endesa have no obligation to refund or credit anything because I previously canceled direct debit to avoid Endesa draining my account with their consistent massive overcharges and double-billing.
THAT, my friends, is nothing less than LEGAL extortion.
Pure and simple.
Hi, i have 2 problems with ENDESA.
1. I lived in an apartment in Barcelona from may 2009 untill december 2011 and i payed all the bills i have received. In december 2011 i’ve received a bill of 1800 euros. They say this is the real reading of my consumption of 21000 KW from july 2009 till december 2011. I looked at the bills that i keep only since june 2011 and i can see in the bills say ESTIMATED consumption up to 9000KW so far, so i have to pay the difference for 12000KW which is with the taxes around 1800 euros. If they have estimated that i consumed only 9000KW since 2009 this means my bills should have been around 30 euros per month but the bills they have been sending me were like 70-80-100-65 euros. And is it posiible ENDESA not to check the real numbers on the meter for 2 and a half years? I am going tomorrow to one of their offices and ask them to print out all my bills since may 2009.
Problem number 2- I have moved to a new appartment on the 1Th of december 2011 and the first bill i have received for electricity from ENDESA was 157 euros. I made a compaint in their office, they sent an electrician, she checked the meter and said there is nothing wrong, left and then ENDESA sent me a 60 euros bill for the work of that electrician. I made an experiment in the apartment, I switched off everything and left on only a light(60W), TV and laptop(200W) and an electrical heater(400W). You may know 1KW equals 1000Watts. This means that these devices sum up 660W per hr. I read the meter every 15-30 minutes and i see that the meter moves 1KW more every 40-50 minutes which means it runs faster than it should.
If anyone had similar problems please reply to me or if you have any suggestions or advise, I will appreciate.
Thank you.
I have been told that most of Endesa’s meters are faulty in one way or another, and my experience seems to testify to that.
My neighbour had a meter that refused to measure between peak and off-peak consumption. Endesa refused to change the meter for over 2 years, during that time he paid peak rates for all his electricity even though he had a peak/off-peak contract. Endesa refused to offer any compensation for it, and charged him €240 to replace the meter with a fancy new digital meter.
We recently (finally) had our meter replaced after 4 years of over-counting (costing me several thousand Euros over 4 years).
On the suggestion of a friend who had previously been through the same exercise, I hired a professional licenced electrician to conduct a calibration test on the meter, which proved that it was measuring more than we were using.
Like my neighbour, after submitting the test results, it took Endesa over one year to replace the meter following a lengthy battle and only with the final threat of a civil lawsuit, they replaced it and also charged me €240, and so far refused any compensation for past over charges as a result of their improperly calibrated meter.
Not to be declared as “finished”, one resulting scam is that the new digital meter also acts as an ICP, so the ICP which I bought and paid €175 for, and which Endesa charges me 10c per day in rental fees – is no longer neccessary.
But I still have to pay 10c per day for the rental of this unneccesary equipment which I own outright. All of my requests to have this charge removed have been ignored so far.
Energy in Spain is a despicable scam which the government is fully complicit. I wonder how many millions (billions?) all these various electricity scams add up to. I’m have to believe it’s not insignificant.
I’m only just getting to see the corruption in Endesa and am also amazed.
However, after being disconnected once (because my landlord was not paying the bills) … Endesa removed the meter wihtout warning. So my landlord got a “mate” in … twisted the remaining wires together and closed the meter door … free electricity!!
… I wouldn’t suggest you try this at home folks (it may kill you!!) .. but now my landlord offers free electricity … no hassles or incorrect meter readings.
I’m interested. After 4 years of rubbish builders electricity we finally have Endesa. They’ve fitted a new meter and we’ve had our first bill. The basic rate seems to be around 1.49cents per KW/Hour but by the time you add it all up and add the VAT, it comes to an amazingly high 22.4cents per KW/H – I’m not sure how they do it.
We have a tariff which states a maximum use of 5.5Kw/hour and as I don’t speak or read Spanish yet, I really don’t follow the breakdown of the bill. Does anyone for example know what happens if you EXCEET the 5.5Kw/hour for a short period of time – is there a penalty? Could that account for the difference between the basic rate and the overall bill divided down?
If you exceed your potentia, in theory your supply should trip. However, a large fine is probably the reality (or both).
Here is an interesting experience for everyone to contemplate.I frequently return to the UK for 2-3 months at a time.During my last absence of on the day of my departure I took a meter reading and again on my return to find that although I had switched everything off at the mains the meter (a digital one) had clocked up 215 units!!Their reading was for 366 units for just one month!Since my return of just over a month I have checked the meter . The usage has been 117 units. I reported this to Endesa suggesting the meter must be faulty.They won’t come on the grounds that this isn’t sufficient extra usage to warrant someone to come and check the meter.I have asked an electrician to check if there is any wiring from next door that might be connected to my meter. Nothing!! Anyone have any idea how this is possible?
No wonder people are not buying property in Spain – the word is getting round that the country is totally corrupt. Frankly they deserve to go bust (why should anyone want to bail them out?) If it’s just the sunshine that people want to escape to – there are are far more civilized countries such as Barbados. We used to live in Spain, but I would rather put up with rain and cold than go back.
hello. we also have a new digital meter.. they use power to operate, REGARDLESS of whether you are using power! easy money for the power companies… 25 million users in spain… all will have the new ‘smart’ meters by 2016.
It’s not the power used by digital meter that they get you with.
The standing charges alone without using one watt of power is enough to make a company profitable by itself.
And in our case, having to pay 10c per day “rental” of the ICP, which I bought and own outright, and even worse, the ICP isn’t even needed – the digital meter acts as the ICP now, so I am paying “rent” for something that I own outright, and is completely unnecessary, yet is “required” by law…
Legal extortion. No other way to describe it.
I live near Granada and Endesa cut off my supply 3 years ago after 7 years without any problems. Now they have just cut the power again because they would not debit my account and you can only use a Spanish card to pay by their online system. The first bill I never paid for 1,200 euros was the reason they cut me off the first time, this was a bill that was an estimate. When questioned Endesa said I could not challenge it as too much time had elapsed. My neighbour took photographs of the local council tapping into my supply to build the neighbouring playground. No-one was interested. Hoping to get a new contract (third time lucky) but I hear Ibredrola are worth a try…
where do i start we had dispute with endesa had to pay for electric to house even though we had a fire in the garden and we were cut off for saftey reasons they issued us with a bill for period no electric. We decided to pay so we could get reconnection and would challenge this once we reconnected. that was in april 2013 we have since applied 8 times for reconnection and each tim e is a differant excuse ie you need safety cert from electrician we gotit then you need to apply for new meter reapply then gave us wrong contract details reapply and last one was its over 10 weeks since first application they have to check we have not used any electricity how can we we have no meter. we still have no electricity cant firnd an end to this any one got any ideas. Have used lawyer she has hit a dead end as well.
Pauline, why not ask the OP to take up your case? Spanish companies tend to sit up and listen when their awful customer service is given some press coverage lol. Using a lawyer is next to useless here, as you may have found out, Spain is not run by any coherant rule of law.
Please please can anyone help me towards the right direction for help?
The Ayuntamiento employed electrician fitted an icp two years ago and I called Endesa (via a Spanish friend) to say this had been done. From September 2012 to date I have received penalties from Endesa amounting to 125 EU plus IVA for NOT HAVING AN ICP FITTED. I have complained to Endesa both on the ‘phone and I completed a complaints form online. Nothing…..and I am still receiving the penalty.
HELP!
Queridos amigos.
Un consejo: en España se habla español. Si queréis dirigiros a Endesa hacedlo en este idioma y si no lo conocéis recurrid a un intérprete/traductor.
La soberbia inglesa es ampliamente conocida. Lo queréis todo y barato. Si no estáis a gusto en España siempre os podéis ir a otros países o colonias inglesas.
Antes que vinieran los “expat” también vivíamos los españoles, con más o menos dinero. Noto en vuestros comentarios bastantes prejuicios y no termináis de entender a este país.
España nunca ha sido colonia de nadie, salvo del Imperio Romano, y eso es algo que los británicos no terminan de entender debido a su soberbia.
Sin acritud, a modo de “feeback”.
Siempre podéis volver a vuestro querido, educado y legal país.
Saludos.
@español ¿estas hablando de soberbia? Nadie aquí esta hablando de colonias, solo los derechos de consumidores, y la corrupción endémica. Pienso que tienes un grand “chip on your shoulder”. Oh, and the word you were looking for was “feedback”. Please note the letter “d”.
Saludos.
By the way, this is a newspaper for English speakers in Spain. If you want to complain about the arrogance of Brits in Spanish might I suggest guirilandia.com or forolondres.com.
Español
I´m a compatriot of You, But I think , that is a lack of respect that in a publication wrote in another lenguaje, and to a group of persons that are making comentaries in that lenguaje , you´ll write to them in Spanish.
Probably You are the only person in all Spain that thinks that Endesa and the other companies treat well to their customers.
I think that absolutely all the reviews in the comentaries are true, or well intentioned, except yours.
The expats are good for Spain in many aspects, and I am sure that you´ll be aware that tourism is one of the principal incomes of our country.
Amazes me that you´ll be angry with people that consider that they have no defense when they are defrauded by Endesa, or mistreated by another compañies.
Do you think that is good that big companies abuses of their customers ?
I think that Endesa haven´t read the counter during many months during which she sent bills too low. Finally Endesa have read the counter and …. …Surprise!
welcome to the world of internet based forums! they are full of ignorant and arrogant ‘trolls’ who seem to get a kick out of being rude to people on the forums.. they are most likely inadequate little people who wouldn’t dare to be so rude face to face with a person.
p.s. one point though.. ex-pats aren’t tourists!
hb.
”lighting up the whole Balcon de Europa every time she flicked the dining room switch.”
think about this one, it sounds like an urban myth… firstly how would the dining room switch be linked to the balcon’s lighting ciruit? secondly, such a load would blow the potentia or other device in the house [or the wirong would catch fire!].
@steve, are you and harvey clones? lol
Querido Anselmo.
Coincido contigo en muchos de tus comentarios pero lo que quiero transmitir es que en Endesa no tienen el “deber” de escuchar al cliente en inglés y muchos de los problemas vienen por una “mala comunicación”.
Yo también “sufro” a Endesa de vez en cuando pero no nos olvidemos que muchas de las quejas si tienen como origen al cliente aunque éste desconozca que el problema está en la parte interna de su red eléctrica.
Mi crítica va dirigida a personas como “Fred”, “Willian Ross”,”David Hamlim”, “David Harris” y et cetera que tiran de prejuicios respecto a España. A estos ciudadanos británicos les recuerdo que pueden salir de España cuando deseen. Hay otras opciones como Portugal, Marruecos, Túnez, Grecia o Italia.
Pero cuidado, donde vayan seguirán siendo invitados del país que los acoge…igual que cuando el resto de europeos van al Reino Unido. Ni más ni menos.
Saludos.
Harvey
I don´t think that expats are tourists, but I think that they are good for the Spanish economy, and that there are common caracteritiques between the tourist and the expats.
To Joan Foster:
See this link:
http://www.endesaonline.es/ES/Hogares/te-asesoramos/como-reclamar/consideraciones-previas/index.asp
The problem you have is that your electrician does not regularize the installation of icp with Endesa. It takes a licensed electrician legally by the region of residence.
Fácil si recurres a la gente adecuado y no a “chapucillas” aunque trabajen en el Ayuntamiento.
Saludos.
huh?
have you thouhgt of contacting http://www.facua.org
Español, very rare it is to see someone defending Endesa. I think they are FACUA’s number one most hated company in Spain (there are so many). So, with your logic people have to “leave the country” if they are fed up with the treatment by Endesa lol. Please, employ some intellect, and please read some forums and blogs about life in Spain and the ongoing scam that is Endesa.
Español
I fear that globalization is bringing problems like those that motivated your intervention. People with mentality and with customs of their own country, live elsewhere. And, when they have troubles, they encounter the problem of not be fluent in the language, and not be familiar with customs of the host country .
If we are not able to solve this problem, the European Union will not sucess
Since it is impossible to expect that all Europeans learn all the languages ??of the Union, including languages ??like Catalan or Basque. I think the only solution would be to force everyone to master a language Esperanto type, that could be dominated in a few months of study.