2023-05-25

15:31

We had a little dispute with the electricity supplier B”#¤a where I, on principle, contested part of the January 2023 invoice which was the last one before we terminated the electricity contract prematurely.

I had set up a very nice evaluation of their false marketing they had on their website with their graphs and beautiful text (that disappeared about a month after they received my email) – simply put, they had an electricity contract where half was fixed and half was variable, and during “electricity price peaks” you could cut the cost by around 40%.

Sounded attractive as a hedge against soaring electricity prices this winter and according to their own statement, “they sat every day buying as cheap electricity as they could during dips,” and September or October 2022 was dirt cheap so they certainly had “bought cheap electricity” all along.

The truth was that they were stuck in very long contracts they had bought when electricity was at its most expensive (I managed to figure that out) and the customers had to pay very dearly for this – up to 3-4 times the monthly average price some months between October 2022 – January 2023.

And in December 2022 they were a few öre cheaper than the competitors at that price peak they showed in their graphs – I think 18 öre cheaper, no 40% there.

They sent the invoice directly to Debt Collection without sending a reminder even though I had followed the rules for disputing the invoice with them.

Debt Collection sent the invoice as soon as they could to the Enforcement Authority, I got a reminder saying “pay as soon as possible” and then a week later to the enforcement officer.

Now I was bobbing in the shark-infested waters somewhere in Africa so I realized the risk that I would miss something was imminent and 13,000 SEK was not worth fighting over.

We had reported to the National Board for Consumer Disputes and I only asked B”#¤a for a deferment until they had come with their statement and then that we would respect it. I had contested part of the invoice in a very neat calculation.

A district heating salesman was over at our place before we left who was part of the same group as B”#¤a and I brought up the subject of what absolute thieves they were. He was even more pissed off than me because both he and his elderly mother had been tricked into the same contract and had the same soaring electricity bills.

I took away that the system is against you and that the easiest thing is probably to be more careful when entering into different contracts instead 😀

The Enforcement Authority, however, was exemplary, quick to respond and very clear that I could dispute with them as well so it went back to Debt Collection – they were in no way the mafia organization that B”#¤a was, as Debt Collection turned out to be their extended arm.

Then one should warn the country’s citizens about that mafia organization, many elderly who were tricked into this contract with them that simply crashed both financially and mentally and the chirping sales department turned into demons as soon as you disputed the invoice. They did not hesitate to use outright lies and borderline threats.

15:31

Well, that turned into a strange post but I have been stewing about them for a while.