Hello all,

I have been having a discussion with my energey provider, Romandie Energy for a couple of months now. This began when I queryied a bill and found out they were charging an average of 4 bills from the last year, as they apparently could not meter read over the covid period.

When I told them that I was away from the home for a long period of the bill, they provided potential options which were not ideal, but not coming down to do a reading themselves. Subsequently they have agreed to pause until they can read, or at least I think this is what they have done.

During this period however, a bill was due and due to the discussions, I would have expected not to be charged an overdue fee. I have been, but this is not the worst, they have now charged me 4 times (4x15) for a bill that was paid (the bill in question to re-read for accuracy and overpaying).

Has anyone had any similar experiences where they have had to deal with this?

Thankyou

No, but call them and ask them to remove the late fee.
Honestly I dont understand why they didnt just ask you to communicate the meter standing over the phone.
Any mistakes would be found out once they start doing it themselves again, so no risk.

Not everybody has access to the meter. I know I don't (apartment building).

I have a bunch of bills from Romandie Energy that I have never received, called them last week and they said I should get everything by the end of June (next meter reading).

Do you have a concierge?

Yes. But Romande Energie won't accept anything that it's not written down by them.

I guess it's easier for them to have all apartments in one go.

Not too bad though, I got the down payments for both years, so it shouldn't be (too) much

Thanks Sigh

They are not willing to acknowledge or admit that the fist charge was during the period we were querying the bill (during which they did not disclose we would be fined). Now we have 3 on top.

Is it worth raising with the canton, is there a responsible minister? It seems like having additional 15fr fines on top of the first is not only unreasonable (100% markup) but is just money printing/ gouging.

Not quite correct

"In order to reduce the impact on the environment caused by the travel by car of our employees, we have set up an online form for the transmission of your consumption indexes (figures shown on your meter). Available in your Customer Area, this form considerably reduces the ecological footprint of these statements."

https://www.romande-energie.ch/parti...et-facturation

You could try the Vaud consumer protection https://www.frc.ch/
Also please see my previous post regarding the Romand Energie client space.

Good to know. I called last week and they told me it wasn’t possible.

Thanks Sigh - they have come around and have removed the fines, after i requested contacts for the formal head of the operational business and cantonal head to write to on the matter.

Consumer protection noted!

Well done for pursuing this.

So many people on this forum, when replying to anything related to bills just write "Pay up - it's easier".

No wonder so many companies take people for a ride.