Many of the 90,000 former customers of Welkom Energie were again shocked today. After it appeared on Wednesday that Eneco charges sky-high rates, they received their new installment amount today. Pieter Omtzigt demands clarification from the Cabinet about the state of affairs regarding Welcome Energy.
Radio 1 presenter Lara Rense came out on Twitter as an ex-customer of Welkom Energie. In the email she shows, it appears that she will pay 631 euros per month. ‘Help, our installment amount at Welkom Energie was 182.06…’, she added. Tom Huyskens goes from 186 euros a month under Welcome Energy to 479 euros under Eneco. “What can we collectively do about this?”
Rense’s monthly payment may be an extreme example, but countless other customers also report exorbitant increases in their monthly payments. For example, Peter Renkema emails this site that his monthly advance will increase from 275 euros to 418 euros. Mr Verhoef sees his advance going from 119 euros to 266 euros. He calculates that he has already lost 1500 euros more on gas on an annual basis.
weird story
Harmen tweets that he now has to pay 335 euros from 175 euros per month. Heleen Nagelmakers: ‘Hupsakee from 106 to 306 euros.’ However, there are also customers where the damage is not so bad. Dirk Gerards, for example, paid 191 euros a month at Welkom Energie and his new installment amount at Eneco is 236 euros. Weird story, he says. “Had expected around 450 myself, so they didn’t calculate correctly.”
To be clear: the monthly advance that customers receive is not the amount that they pay definitively. It is an amount that should be based on the average known usage of customers. Ultimately, what has been paid in excess will be refunded. If the advance is too low, an additional assessment will follow.
Nevertheless, Eneco does automatically debit the e-mailed installment amount, which has a significant impact on many. Several furious customers are switching immediately, even though there is a 30-day notice period this month.
Clarification Omtzigt
Rob Dohmen immediately closed a new deal with Vattenfall after he received his new monthly amount. Jay – he went from 229 at Welkom to 420 under Eneco – switches to EnergieDirect, where he will pay 320 euros per month. ‘I will immediately withdraw the collection from Eneco, so that they can see that they get their money, I never said ‘yes’.’
While the customers are reacting furiously, Pieter Omtzigt asked the cabinet for clarification this afternoon in a series of questions about the state of affairs regarding Welcome Energy. The parliamentarian doubts whether the supervisory authority of the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) has put the interests of the 90,000 customers first.
Timeline
He points to the timeline surrounding the bankruptcy, in which the ailing Welkom Energie first concluded a deal with Eneco for the acquisition of the 90,000 customers. Only later did the approval of the regulator ACM follow, followed by the withdrawal of the Welkom Energies supply license and the bankruptcy.
Omtzigt has serious doubts about this state of affairs, especially now that Eneco does not respect the existing contracts of customers with Welkom Energie despite the takeover. ‘Can you indicate whether this is a preconceived course, whereby ACM, Eneco and Welkom Energie decided together to follow this sequence?’, he wants to know from Minister Stef Blok (Economic Affairs & Climate) and State Secretary Dilan Yeşilgöz -Zegerius.
Importance of customers
In addition, he poses another 18 parliamentary questions. For example, he wants to know whether, and if so why, Eneco is not obliged to honor the original contracts. Then the 90,000 customers would have kept their old, cheaper rates. ‘The takeover came about before the bankruptcy.’
He also wants to know whether the State indirectly benefits from the bankruptcy now that GasTerra refuses to release to the trustee a batch of gas that Welkom Energie bought months ago at much lower prices. News that this site brought earlier this week.
All in all, the Member of Parliament doubts whether ACM has acted in the interests of the customers affected. Especially now that the price that Eneco charges seems particularly high. In concrete terms, the energy company will ask 1.80 euros per cubic meter of gas and 49 euro cents per kilowatt hour of electricity in the coming months. Hardly any other supplier is more expensive.
Omtzigt demands further insight into the financial situation of Welkom Energie prior to the bankruptcy. Finally, he asks a series of questions about how much more expensive an average customer is now due to bankruptcy. “Is the 400 euros energy compensation that the cabinet offers only to some extent sufficient for the customers of Welkom Energie?”
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Energy tax
The former CDA member of parliament previously submitted a motion in which he asked the cabinet to investigate whether the ACM indeed checks strictly enough. He also asked to see whether the customers could be compensated. However, according to State Secretary Dilan Yeşilgöz-Zegerius (Economic Affairs & Climate), this is too complicated and time-consuming, she wrote Monday evening.
The VVD minister points out that the cabinet recently set aside more than 3 billion euros to reduce the energy tax. ‘The reduction in taxes will help the victims of Welkom Energie in the short term, just like many other households in the Netherlands.’ In concrete terms, this will reduce the energy bill by 400 euros per household.
Yeşilgöz-Zegerius further said that he wants to ‘dispel the impression that the former customers of Welkom Energie will not receive a reasonable offer from Eneco at the end of next week.’ The latter is disputed by the customers. Many are shocked or angry on social media about the rates announced by Eneco.
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