ESB Energy (Now part of So Energy) Reviews 4,249

4 debits for 1 transaction! 1 correct, 2 eventually returned 1 remaining of £30 owed to me. Promises of action but none. Clearly no intention of refunding and fraudulent trading. I have reported them.

I used ESB chargers a couple of times when borrowing an EV in Birmingham. 9 months after using the charger I was randomly charged £20 despite not giving any instructions for ESB to take the money. I am struggling to get the money back and ESB have said the refund ‘will take some time’ with no explanation as to why. I have had to cancel my card for fear of more money being taken out. I’d recommend using a virtual/temporary card when using ESB as they cannot be trusted with your card details. Or try to use another charge point!

Signed up for charging in Ireland. App didn’t recognise their own chargers, others could not be initiated. They too £20 upfront for no service and will not respond to requests for a refund. To be avoided at all costs!

It sounds like dealing with some criminals They charged me for attempting to charge my car, the charging point did not work they still charged me, I called them first time the person said I will get refund in the next few days, you will receive an email soon to confirm, then 2weeks later I called them and told them neither the money nor the email came through. This time the person on the other side of the line said we did not charge you, your bank has your money not us, even though the fact is printed on statement
“ESB EV SOLUTIONS EV CH”

I got my bank working on this matter!
Advise for everyone use your credit card always it is best I believe when dealing with this kind of issues!

Never again, not even look at their charging points!

A horrible network Consistently going down in Cork. They have been fleecing us for bills for years now yet the service remains the same. Something has to change. They fix one area and then another goes out. Never seems to happen in the well-off areas.

Such a disgusting company!!! Charging for nothing and thinking it’s ok to just take money from my account like you own it!!!

You really should start looking at an ethical way of doing business!!!

Yet again smart meter website cannot provide readings. It always seems to run several days late then has to be "undergoing routine maintenance" and comes back even worse
Heads should roll!

ESB Energy has provided an appalling and substandard level of service throughout my interactions with them, marked by delays, inadequate responses, and a blatant disregard for my rights as a disabled customer.

Their financial mismanagement has been astonishing. I was overcharged multiple times due to their defective pre-authorisation process for one EV charging session. It took a month for them to calculate and refund the amount owed.

As someone with disabilities that affect my communication and cognition, I made clear and explicit requests for communication adjustments in line with the Equality Act 2010. These requests were ignored in the initial interactions, with the company sending unstructured and confusing emails that only added to the stress caused by their mistakes.

Their customer service was similarly unacceptable. During a phone call, one of their agents, Niall, was dismissive and rude and responded immaturely when I challenged his unprofessionalism. ESB Energy’s response to my complaint about this call handler was disturbingly generic, offering vague assurances of “training” and issuing disingenuous apologies for how I felt about things, ultimately failing to address the gravity of the situation or demonstrate any real accountability.

Adding to these failings, their privacy policy listed an invalid email address for complaints, which was incompetent and potentially a breach of data protection legislation.

Overall, ESB Energy has shown shocking incompetence and a complete lack of respect for its customers. They cannot be trusted to handle finances correctly, respect customer rights, or deliver even basic service levels. This is a company to avoid at all costs.

Moved from ESB to another supplier and was immediately charged £247......rang to complain about this figure as it seemed excessive and was given the usual BS from the fella on the line. Accepted this as I thought it would be the last time I would have to deal with this company.....Alas I was wrong, two weeks later they took another £127 from my account. They are a shambles of a company who appear to be milking every penny from this energy 'crisis'. No real answer from number when I xall to complain, just get passed from one disinterested buffoon to another. Avoid this company at all costs

I tried to make a sign up to taxi pack without success I tried 6 times a message said that my bank card was not recognised (I have been using it for 20 years) then I saw that each attempt was charged £1 = £6 I called the customer service the attendant named Cris or kreys was highly rude saying it was not her problem and hung up the phone. If the company says it makes the recordings for training they could listen it from 04/17/24 at 10:23 am. The treatment to customers or potential new customers.
Need a good customer services training

Regular user, sadly charging speeds never ever near quoted rapid 48kw regardless of charger, yet charge stays at same rate even if slow charging. Its like the great broadband speed swindle, quoted speeds never achieved.

Some chsrging stations poorly placed in 1 way streets so cable cannot reach depending on where charge point is on car?!
Customer service a bit ropey, do not acknowledge slow speeds, touch tone keypad on helpline does not work, and cannot leave message so often simply cut off after being in hold for ages. 3 stars is flattering them.

The duration was 00:50:32 and the energy consumed was 10.803.

The cost for the energy was £14.48. In addition, a £8.00 overstay fee was applied.)

We just spent £30 to charge my father in law's car in Birmingham, what a rip off its £1.66 a kw. Seriously what a rip off...

If I could give zero points I would.

I spent just over an hour at their rapid charge point and got 29% charge. I used 4.9KW and was charged £11.63 to use the charger.
I spoke to customer service who literally dismissed me and said it was my car battery why I did not get a better charge and that their is no appeals process.

The worse EV charging provider company, They per-charge you and even if the car isn't charging for their charger error, they do not refund. I contacted them 3 times and all 3 times they promised to refund me but unfortunately, I had no refund from them. Don't trust them, don't charge to their EV points.

So unreliable, we have seen more and more power cuts lately. Profit margin are higher than ever but they just don't invest to make it more reliable. They say the future is greener going electric,how can you change your electric car when you have no power, I would say it's darker with out lights....

Reliability should be top priority for public charging infrastructure.
I wanted to use ESB public charge points for my EV powered holiday in Eire recently.
Unfortunately only 50/50 success rate with charge points working. The helpline are responsive, but seem to have limited tools to resolve issues remotely. So I am left with a bunch of pre-paid credits on my ESB access card and nowhere to use them.
I'm afraid I'll be sticking with Ionity from now on.

Without any explanation, they charged me an £8 overstay penalty for charging me car. First time I've used them. Bit of a surprise to get the additional penalty without any information in advance (considering their rates are already really high).
I emailed them and just got the usual pushback that it's in the T&Cs...which they subsequently emailed to me.
I'll not use again.

We bought a house and the previous owner had disconnected the gas supply for fewer than 20 days. It is taking more than 14 days to get someone to turn the gas back on, meaning 14 days without warm water, where we need to shower outside the apartment - take a 25 min trip each time we want to take a shower at a friend's house. I have no idea in which universe they think it's okay to a) not hire more people b.) let people only work Mo-Fr c.) charge an extortionate disconnection fee and "threaten" to charge even more if not home. 14 days without warm water in a first world country. Unbelievable!

I used to charge my car at Esb energy charging point for £0.45/kWh now it is almost double £0.74/KWh. It is very disappointing I will never charge my car again at ESb many charging point are cheaper then Esb.