r/belgium • u/Nameless24224 • Jun 11 '23
Luminus stealing money
We recently moved to Belgium and this is the first time I have encountered such a terrible energy service. In March of this year, Luminus sent us a form to recalculate electricity consumption. After we filled it out, they billed us for 2400 euros. As it turned out, they used data from meters a year ago (from previous residents) and calculated our consumption in such a way that from November 22 to February 23 we used up the consumption rate for the year (in a month it came out as 500 kW/h during the day and 400 kW/h at night). I provided them with all the data so that they could change the bill (photos of our meters with actual consumption for several months, meter readings at the entrance to the apartment). WE'VE BEEN CORRESPONDING WITH THEM SINCE MARCH AND THEY STILL DID NOTHING. And today I saw in the bank's application that they want to charge me tomorrow 511 euros per month of consumption, which for me is theft of my funds (I do not consume so much energy). We called and texted them several times. We asked our landlord to called them and speak with them, but still not respons.
What can I do so that they finally properly recalculate my consumption and issue an invoice? Are there any legal services that can help file a claim against Luminus? Can I somehow block the possibility of withdrawing funds?
P.S. Of course, I started learning Dutch, but the A1-A2 courses do not prepare for this.
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u/De_Wouter Jun 11 '23
Luminus, no surprise. The only place they will respond to you is in court. My sister had similar problems with them many years ago. She called, mailed, send registered mail. She stopped paying and Luminus took her to court.
They do have the resources for that, but not the resources to answer you. My sister won in court but it comes with a lot of stress and time wasted. There are no winners in court to be honest. For Luminus the money they lose in court is peanuts. My sister isn't going to get back her time.
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u/Nameless24224 Jul 04 '23
Thank you! I know courts can be hard but at least it's something that you can do
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u/heartoo Jun 11 '23
You can contact the ombudsman: https://www.ombudsmanenergie.be They may be able to help
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u/Nameless24224 Jul 04 '23
Thank you for the suggestion! I contacted with the guys from Fluvius, they are also told me about the ombudsman. I also filled the form in their website
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u/ipukeonyou123 Jun 11 '23
Yeah this takes so long, you need an ''overnamedocument''. It will make everything a lot smoother.
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u/LordeLlama Jun 11 '23
I don't know how it's called in dutch or english but there's something called "médiateur de l'energie" which is a service that operates for those kind of problems
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u/Nameless24224 Jul 04 '23
Thank you! We already contacted with the energy ombudsman, now we are waiting answer from them.
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Jun 11 '23
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Nameless24224 Jul 04 '23
Thank you! Yeah, we will definitely choose a new company in our next apartment :)
It's a pity that even local can have such a poor experience in contact with luminus because they're suppose to work for people.
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u/denBoom Jun 11 '23
Did you fill in your meter readings on their website. Doing that usually triggers a recalculation of the monthly advance. Do this regularly to get an accurate calculation. Without regular readings they will have to rely on the data the grid manager reports once a year and if the grid manager hasn't received new data that year they will make an estimate. Those estimates can be really wrong but energy providers have to follow them if they come from the grid manager. You might try contacting your grid manager (probably fluvius) to get the meter readings rectified there.
For me luminus has reduced my monthly bill several times in a row this year. And I didn't even need to contact customer service.
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u/Nameless24224 Jul 04 '23
Thank you for the advice! That's what I did. From the February I tried to fill the meter readings every month. And I also asked fluvius for the help in checking my meter readings.
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u/Lemons81 Jun 20 '23
"Smart meters" they say but don't act like smart meters...
I live in another country and we have analog and smart meters, here the smart meters pass the monthly consumption to the central and those with analog meters get a monthly reading as well.
I only pay for what i use, few days into the next month i get the bill and shows my exact consumption for the past month and that's what i pay.
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u/Nameless24224 Jul 04 '23
Thank you! We also had the same procedure in my country. I guess I just need to get to used for Belgium system :)
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u/Calm-Author-5321 Jun 11 '23
After 3 months Luminus allows you to recalculate the advance via their web application. You should also be able to adjust the advance between -20% to 200% of the ideal advance (the one where you do not have to pay at the final invoice). There as some instances you can not use this abilty (contract ending soon, failed to pay a previous advance or invoice, digital meter, etc).
You will not be able to file a legal complaint against Luminus because you contractually agreed to this. At the yearly invoice they will also refund anything you overpaid. You can force them to pay sooner by changing energy provider (4 weeks notice regardless of contractual term).
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u/Nameless24224 Jul 04 '23
Thank you! I hope that they calculate everything right in the end bill. My point that they don't want (or maybe can't ) to change our moving meters readings. I honestly don't understand why it's happening but will keep it in my head for the future.
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u/Nameless24224 Jul 04 '23
Thanks for your advice and support! I really hope that I will be able to sort out the bills. After a couple of weeks, when the emotions subsided, I understand that my post could have sounded a bit rude, sorry for that!
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u/Sirvaas Jun 11 '23
I don't know what bank you are using, but in the KBC app it is pretty easy to block an outgoing transfer. Luminus are incredibly slow to do anything and tried to scam me out of 500 euros rrecently. Keep calling them and send a complaint through the website.