{"id":549032,"date":"2026-07-14T10:36:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T10:36:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/549032\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T10:36:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T10:36:16","slug":"out-of-sheer-desperation-i-contacted-the-director-a-widows-distressing-experience-with-flogas-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/549032\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Out of sheer desperation I contacted the director\u2019: A widow\u2019s distressing experience with Flogas \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A recently bereaved reader had a most distressing time dealing with Flogas<\/a> when she tried to change the name on the account from that of her husband, who had passed away suddenly in the spring, to her own name. <\/p>\n

Our reader contacted Flogas on May 20th \u201cthrough their customer service email as there was no specific bereavement process available when I searched their website,\u201d she begins. It was just three weeks after her husband had died and she was trying, insofar as possible, to keep on top of things. <\/p>\n

\u201cNo one responded to my email so I had to follow up again five days later,\u201d she continues. <\/p>\n

\u201cWith a lot of forward and back on email and waiting days in between for a response, I was eventually asked for a final meter reading and to call the sales team to set up the new account,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n

She repeatedly said she was not looking to set up a new account but to change the name on the existing account that was in her late husband\u2019s name. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey kept insisting I needed to set up a new account with new tariffs. I emailed through the meter reading and then made the call to the sales team. I really had to build myself up to make this call, it\u2019s very difficult to speak on the phone at the moment and say the words out loud about what happened,\u201d she writes.<\/p>\n

She spent an hour on the phone to Flogas and was put through to three different teams incorrectly and had to repeat her story each time. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was harrowing, both on me and on the Flogas employees. Not once did anyone say that they would call me back at a more convenient time. After one hour nothing was sorted so I had to end the call,\u201d she writes.<\/p>\n

She then spent the next 40 minutes trying to find the contact details of the managing director of Flogas. <\/p>\n

\u201cI eventually found them and sent him an email to beg him to set up a bereavement process to protect other customers and his employees from this experience. I have emailed twice and both times got his Out Of Office \u2013 once for holidays and another for an event he was at. I understand he is a busy man but as a human being, surely he could have contacted his team and asked them to call me?\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Dublin house prices are slipping. What is going on?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

To make things worse, our reader adds that \u201cduring this time, my late husband is now receiving both late charges and letters in the post to let him know he has an unpaid bill, both dated after I first made contact with Flogas so internally they are not speaking to each other. It\u2019s hard enough to still receive post for him but to then read that it\u2019s from a company which I\u2019ve been dealing with already makes it even more difficult. The late payment charge is \u20ac12.30.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the time of writing, she says the emails between her and the Flogas customer service team were still continuing \u201cand they continue to ask me to call which I now refuse to do so and ask for someone to call me, unsurprisingly no one does.\u201d<\/p>\n

She adds that \u201cout of sheer desperation\u201d she tracked down the email address of a director who put her in contact with a senior customer service agent \u201cwho asked me for all the same details that I have already sent through, death cert, phone number, availability and yet again asked me to call their sales team. Incredibly this agent told me she\u2019d been trying to call the number \u2018on file\u2019, which turns out to be my husband\u2019s number, even though I have given my own mobile repeatedly.\u201d <\/p>\n

After reading her story, Pricewatch contacted Flogas and within hours the problem was resolved.<\/p>\n

\"PricewatchPricewatch contacted Flogas, and within hours the problem was resolved. <\/p>\n

Our reader says that her \u201cname is now on our original electricity account which is what I asked from the beginning. This started on May 20th and ended on June 30th. I am dealing with a lot of financial institutions in relation to my husband\u2019s estate and not one of them has made it as difficult as Flogas so I do not want anyone else to go through this. It should be a legal requirement to have a bereavement process for customers where you deal with one person from beginning to end. I have spent the last few weeks in a constant panic that the electricity is going to be cut off as I had no trust that Flogas knew what they were doing. Not something you want to have to think about at a time like this. What I wonder is, had you not got involved, where would this have ended up? I currently feel very vulnerable and exposed, having lost my husband and there\u2019s a sense of being taken advantage of, this feeling has been compounded by Flogas.\u201d<\/p>\n

The company subsequently sent us a statement. This is what it said in full.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been in contact directly with this customer to apologise for the experience they have had, which fell short of our standards. We have now confirmed to her that her late husband\u2019s account has been closed, with a new account established in her own name on the same contractual terms. The final bill on the old account will be cancelled. <\/p>\n

\u201cChanging the name on a customer\u2019s account for any reason unfortunately requires a process known as a Change of Legal Entity and while this process involves a number of necessary steps, including setting up a new account, and closing the old account, our internal handling of this particular case did not move quickly enough. We are reviewing how we can reduce timelines for requests like this, specifically in the circumstances surrounding a bereavement in future.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Are you a fool to pay full price? From paint to phones, buying second-hand can slash your costsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A recently bereaved reader had a most distressing time dealing with Flogas when she tried to change the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":549033,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,943,35196,61,60,9825],"class_list":["post-549032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-cost-of-living","tag-flogas","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-pricewatch"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=549032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549032\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/549033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}