It took many email exchanges and more communications. All this to determine a mathematical calculation that proved the Adico legal office right and, above all, allowed the Simar company from Mira to avoid a drain of around 7,700 euros in gas and electricity bills.
The legal battle
«The story» explains Adico, a consumer association «is now well known and concerns the modification of the tariffs applied by Enel Energia after the expiry of the previous offer. Simar sas also fell victim to this highly questionable commercial practice.”
The Adico office summarizes it in these terms: «The user enjoyed a promotion that had expired and found himself with electricity and gas prices more than quadrupling».
The Association continues: «The legal battle, which in Adico it involves around 200 users, for now there is a battle over communication times. Enel, in fact, claims to have sent the message to announce the tariff change but, not having the obligation to do so via certified e-mail or registered letter with return receipt, it is not easy to prove that it was sent. To the many complaints drawn up by the association, the supplier responded by indicating the date of sending the message, a message that all the people followed by Adico believe they never received”.
Times not respected
«In the case in question, and in other cases in which refunds were recognised, the customer’s “victory” is recognized only because the communication did not take place within the time required by law: 90 days plus ten days for reading the notification» .
For the Simar This is exactly what happened, as can be read in the motivation with which Enel confirms the bill recalculations, announcing the reimbursement of two invoices.
“We refer to your communication received on May 29, 2024″ we read in the letter sent by Enel to Adico’s legal office -. «Apologizing for what happened, we confirm that we have restored the previous economic conditions valid until 31 March 2024 for both supplies. For this reason, we have carried out a recalculation of consumption, applying the fees in force at the time the communication was sent”.
In fact, the company (which is now no longer with Enel) was credited back around 7,700 euros, as part of an affair that turned out to be anything but simple.
«Given that for now everything is based on the communication of the change in tariffs» explains Carlo Garofolini, president of Adico «our association has written to Enel several times precisely to reiterate, calculator in hand, that the message had been sent beyond the deadline expected. After several email exchanges, the company acknowledged the timing error, apologized for what happened and acknowledged the refund of the amount paid. For us this is a great victory, but we would like all the users who were victims of the sensational increase, especially of gas, and who turned to us, to be reimbursed because they believe they never received communication of these increases. We are continuing our battle also in front of Arera, waiting for the Antitrust, in mid-July, to have its say on this commercial practice which in our opinion is decidedly incorrect”.
