Power to the people
You think I am a cantankerous old bastard?
Hah!
Let me hand you over to TheZAP for a little guest postâ¦â¦
–oOo–
This began as a rant in my own head, developed into a tongue lashing for a paid operative on the phone lines of a Semi-State company, and matured into a warning for home owners all over this Potato Republic of ours.
While the poor girl on the phone is still reeling, I thought I’d share this facts with you. If like me, you receive regular bills from our Electricity Supply Board, (or whatever they are calling themselves now), then you probably get their invoices regularly, have a look at the bottom line and wonder how you used so much electricity in the two month period. Well, here is the rub. You didn’t.
An invoice, like your ESB bill, is sent to you by a provider of a product or service to you, the purchaser. The invoice establishes an obligation on the part of the purchaser to pay, creating an account receivable. So, the ESB offer you electricity on demand, and you pay for it as you use it, right. ?
Wrong. !!!
By way of explanation, let me detail an ESB bill received in this neighbourhood recently, because the devil is in the detail. The actual property is a vacant cottage in East Cork that is falling down, so the total amount is only â¬27.77 for the two months, during which time, there was not a single visit to this distressed pile. Nobody switched on a light nor plugged in an appliance. One can only assume that there is an “electricity leak” somewhere, but I digress.
What is most interesting though, is that it leaked â¬1.78 of actual electricity. or 6% of the amount demanded by the ESB on this bill. If you didn’t get that, I’ll repeat it. Six per cent of the invoice from the electricity supplier is for electricity. !! So, 94% of this bill, is ahâ¦.. not for electricity from the Electricity Supply Board. The guy who reads the meter didn’t do the garden, nor paint the exterior because the meter was not read at all. Aha ! you say, it was just an overestimate then. Well no. This over-estimated amount of â¬6.37 was credited on the next bill when the owner read the meter and informed the ESB. So, what in Jesus name, was 94% of the bill for, you must be thinking.
Well, there’s a standing charge for 57 days at â¬0.2893 per day. A “Standing Charge”, they say. Our forefathers paid for the ESB infrastructure years ago, including the generating stations, telegraph poles and all of the salaries at the time. The cottage is standing, barely, the meter man never came out and stood there, so that can’t be it. Nobody in the recent past has had to stand up in the cottage and switch on a light either. So what in God’s name, is this charge for. I neither ordered anything nor got anything, and all I want from the bastards is some electricity when I need it. But, when I don’t need it, I don’t want a bill either. I want them to fuck off and leave me alone. I have the same relationship with shops.
There’s a “Men’s Outfitters” in town and once or twice a year, I pop in there for ten minutes and stock up on everything new I will need to wear for next year. They don’t send me a standing charge every two months in the meantime for just being there, do they. ? But, the ESB bill get’s better. Are you sitting down. ? There is another item entitled “Standing Charge Low Usage”. This takes the biscuit altogether. In these times when we are being urged to cut down on omissions, the ESB are penalizing me for not getting them to burn enough fossil fuels to make electricity for me. I kid you not. I disappointed the bastards and didn’t burn enough electricity, so they fined me for it. And, they intend to fine each time I disappoint them too.
So, when you factor in the standing charge, the penalty for not helping to destroy the planet and the contribution to the CEO’s pension plan I suppose, 94% of the bill, is for fuck all. And of course, the Government wants a further 23% on top of that fuck all, for doing fuck all for me also. I’m paying to get fucked. !! A sort of reverse engineering of prostitution, only I’m the innocent party.
So, I urge you all. The next time you get a “utility bill”, particularly if it comes from the fucking ESB, check the detail. They are a bunch of scam artists and deserve no respect from us at all, the bastards. Like ‘Eircom’, the Telecoms provider, with their fixed line rental charge, they are doing it because they believe they can get away with it. ! And they do, because you are paying it, you fucking ejits. !
–oOo–
Just as a little footnote, and to cheer TheZAP up a bit, Eirtricity are now adding a surcharge onto their bills. Why? The price rises are due to a significant increase in costs related to recovering debt.
In other words, those who pay their bills on time are being penalised simply because they pay on time.
Fucking marvellous.
GD
And, as long as we carry on paying regardless, they will carry on billing regardless.
Simples tsk!
Incredible … just another way of the establishment shafting the common man. You put it so tactfully in the end … up the revolution .. not so – we’ve been conditioned to expect and so it’s hardly likely to happen
Just a thought – Could one avoid paying carbon taxes on religious grounds? i.e. A devout non-believer in global warming?
Well put Zap. Doesn’t it just piss you off. They’ve got us paying a surcharge for a new nuclear power station before they even break ground on it. Nationalise the cunts I say.
I’m sorry TheZAP, but your rant doesn’t make any sense. Except from the âStanding Charge Low Usageâ Â part – this is truly ridiculous. But otherwise, your reasoning, however entertaining, is entirely flawed.
The comparison to Men’s Outfitters shop just shows where you miss the point: you go there, you buy your socks, nightcup and tuxedo and you leave. The cost of their rent, staff salaries and their income is included in the price of aformentioned garments. You are not connected to them all year round by a pneumatic pipe which has to be maintained and through which you can receive whatever you order at any time.Â
For the same reason the nice bit about forefathers doesn’t make sense either. They built all the shit, yes, but all the shit has to be maintained. By people who have to be paid. Who use petrol to travel to forgotten parts of Black Valley to fix a wire after another gale.
So you keep your unused house connected to the grid and you expect this to be free? You want to be able to show up there and just have all the conveniences ready whenever you wish – for free? Sorry, that’s just not being able to understand the basics.Â
Jedzej,
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The salaries, travel costs and maintenance of the ESB are all added to the unit price of electricity and anticipated rising costs are added as needed. It is how the pay-as-use system works and ensures the the electricity is “always on”. Indeed, I heard an ESB official proudly claim one morning on radio, that they factor in a charge into the unit price for future developments. This is to ensure that money is available when needed and these funds are kept separate as capital investments. You see, the ESB is not supposed to make a profit per se.Â
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To give you an example, there is the famous story of the single Telecoms operator here, back in the early 60’s. They had a need for capital for some large development and the head accountant was given the task of raising it. He came up with the brilliant idea of “Line Rental” and when the scam began, the charge was for one penny on each bill. It was a fabrication of course, but once in place, they decided to continue with it and kept putting it up also until today, it is a substantial figure.
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Today, the salary for the CEO of the ESB is over â¬400,000 a year and the Board are equally well paid. The workers are unionized and their salaries are guaranteed by the “Croke Park” agreement. A friend of mine who worked there was an alcoholic and the company repeatedly paid for drying out sessions for him at institutions around the country and paid somebody to do his job while he was away. Money like this comes from you, the customer.Â
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The unit cost of electricity in Ireland is the second highest in Europe and I repeat, there is no need at all for an added standing charge other than greed and because they can get away with it. Many times in the past, the price has gone up as the oil price internationally rises, but it never comes back down again. This low usage charge is a cheeky bid to get even more money just in case. And I did mention that when I asked them about having the supply cut to the cottage, they told me it would be â¬79.00 and something similar to have it re-connected. This is a two minute job by a lineman who incidentally, is in the same town and only minutes away.Â
I suspect in Poland this kind of thing would bring the people onto the streets, but as Grandad often says, we Irish are Sheeple.
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“The unit cost of electricity in Ireland is the second highest in Europe”.
This is true, all The ESB costs to produce, maintain, and repair are covered. It also includes future development, the procurement of new sites and technology.
It also includes the massive salaries their top execs are on and the staff increases they get when all else are being laid off or having their salaries butchered.
They have the best paid workforce in the country.
Are we next expected to pay for their holidays in the sun, their kiddies birthday parties, their golf club memberships, their subs to internet porn, Â the jax roll in their bogs?