4 Comments on Endesa and the ICP letter

C.R. Hall on Thu, 3rd Mar 2011 11:19 pm


I feel very sorry for any non-Spanish speaking person trying to get some sense out of Endesa. Then again, what more can you expect ? The very first two letters of the name Endesa, EN, says it all, Empresa Nacional or State owned company as it was or partly is now.

For the last four years I have being paying the bills of Endesa through my bank account as the occupier although the contract is in the name of the owner of the house. As they have always refused to speak to me directly and to save bothering the owner with queries, he suggested I change the contract to my name. I called Endesa, gave all the details and was told the contract had now been changed and there was no need to do any more. The operator said it was not necessary to contact the owner of the house.

That was on 22 Feb. Today I called to enquire about the ICP and once again they would not speak to me as “the contract is not in your name” I protested and was told that my application had been refused because my Residence Permit number was not identifiable. As I have only had this Residence Permit for the last 45 years, that’s it, 45 years! I was then told to go top the nearest Endesa office with my rental contract and they would put it right. Fine and I asked where the nearest Endesa office is. Marbella being such an insignificant place in Spain (?) apparently, according to the operator, does not have the luxury of one of their offices. I should go to Málaga only 50+ kms from Marbella. I said thank you and hung up.

Calling again tonight, I spoke to a different operator who told me to call “Comercial” in the morning and they would sort it out by phone.

Now I have no problems speaking or understanding Spanish, even the local accents but what about any one of the tens of thousands of foreigners who live on the Costa del Sol whose command of Spanish is very small if at all?

Rgds

C.R. Hall

admin on Fri, 4th Mar 2011 8:39 am


There are the English speaking operators with Endesa but they limited powers as to what they can actually help you with and the whole ICP issues are just a fiasco. My neighbour is now paying a monthly fine as he does not have a box. I’m not because my mistake….I ticked the box that said I had one fitted. I’ve had no more letters from Endesa since requesting or demanding I get an ICP fitted.
Yesterday I tried to pay my Endesa bill by telephone and the rules have now changed in that I can only pay if the contract is changed to my name, it is currently in the name of my husband. The thought of trying to get the contract changed and the hoops that will involve means that today I’m going to the bank to withdraw some funds and I’ll pay at the post office. What you have said about the contract issues makes me think I made the right decision…..Hope you manage to get the contract resolved, though a 50km trip from Marbella makes me think that it could be unlikely.

Chris Mellon on Tue, 4th Oct 2011 5:44 pm


After being verbally told by Endesa that the ICP installation would cost nothing but 6 cents per month, and that it would be obligatory to sign up for 10.8Kw service because we are in a finca (later I found out that anything above 10Kw is outside governmental regulation, and they can charge whatever they want).

Nonetheless, Endesa verbally assured us that they would not increase the tariff or add any other charges, and that it was only a formality. We agreed, and immediately following the installation were billed over €300 just for permission to have 10.8Kw+ €340 for the “free” installation of the ICP, and we now pay a tariff of just over double what we previously paid, plus we pay about €20 per month for said “permission”, plus 14c per day for the ICP rental.

After spending one year and almost €1000 sorting out / fighting the ICP/tariff issue, I have just been told by a reputable local certified chief electrician that the ICP law was “quietly” abolished in 2010, and that Endesa or other energy companies no longer have any legal right to threaten or charge a higher tariff for not installing an ICP. He says we should have simply ignored them in the first place – it would have cost significantly less.

Nonetheless, it’s clear that Endesa and other energy companies continue to openly (and illegally) add tariffs and threaten customers with doubling their tariffs if they do not install the ICP, and add illegal charges to the bill for those who refuse.

We have been further advised that we have no legal obligation whatsoever to accept a 10.8Kw mandatory service contract, which puts us entirely at Endesa’s mercy, which so far, they have exhibited none whatsoever. They charge whatever tariff they want, never read the meter, and “estimado” every factura at at least twice our actual consumption, which requires that I am forced to file a dispute with every factura. We were forced to stop direct debit because Endesa was draining our account with their overcharges. To date, we have never received a single refund. Endesa claims that they have no legal obligation to refund anything if we do not allow direct debit.

As our final stand, we have hired the aforementioned electrician to create a boletin stating that the house is “safe” to downgrade the power to 5Kw service (more than what we need). The problem is that Endesa is demanding another €565 to “downgrade” our service to 5Kw.

Ironically, all of this is on paper. No one has touched or even looked at our electrical system, and never will. It is entirely about money.

Someone with resources should expose these criminals.

admin on Tue, 4th Oct 2011 7:03 pm


Endesa are a monopoly and the Government need to sort it out soon as they are a complete law to themselves. We know someone who is trying to open up a fish and chip shop in Marbella and Endesa have said it will take up to 4 months to switch their electricity onto a different tariff. So they cannot open, cannot pay their staff and a business which would inject money into an area suffering with the recession like everywhere is stuck because of a mediocre company. I’m so sorry that this has cost you so much money….so unfair.

Tell me what you're thinking...
and oh, if you want a pic to show with your comment, go get a gravatar!

Name

Email Address

Website

Speak your mind