EON and UDS Utility Debt Services

jalexa · 2 April 2012 at 1:30PM

jbpage wrote: »

Yes, new address provided.

To get an insulting and threatening letter... dated, at the very most, 10 days after they sent the final bill is ridiculous and quite uncalled for.

On "debt management" E.ON are renowned for their hair trigger.

On the falure to manage your address update stick a complaint on them and require a "distress and inconvenience" payment in settlement. Otherwise the Energy Ombudsman.

Trust you are enjoying France.

macman · 2 April 2012 at 1:34PM

Talking of which, do EDF use 'My Account' for their French residential customers?
If so, how does that work, given that they must have millions more customers in France than the UK?
Was the IT system written in French and badly translated?
Je ne sais quoi...

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc · 2 April 2012 at 1:55PM

Hi jbpage

I'm sorry we sent a letter chasing an amount you had already paid. I suspect this is a timing issue.

Following a final bill, if no payment has been received after approx 10 days, the account is flagged up and an automated letter is sent.

This is to remind the customer of the outstanding balance and outline what may happen if the account remains unpaid.

Payments hit accounts at various times depending on the method used to pay. For instance, credit/debit card payments usually hit accounts within approx 24 hours of payment. Cheques can take much longer.

It looks as though your payment hit the account too late to prevent the letter being sent.

These letters are supposed to be a gentle reminder. However, not everyone settles their accounts as quickly as you did and, as I mentioned above, we have a duty to outline the possible consequences of non-payment.

I'll happily feed your comments back to Ian Smedley and apologies for the upset caused.

Malc

jalexa · 2 April 2012 at 2:17PM

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc wrote: »

It looks as though your payment hit the account too late to prevent the letter being sent.

If you are going to use the forum to "massage" problems could we please have some comment about the alleged failure to update the billing address on a house move. Which appears to be the causal problem here.:(

jbpage · 3 April 2012 at 8:18AM

Malc,

Thanks for your post, but I must take issue with your comment. Here is what the letter, dated 26 March, said:

Payment in full of £XXX.00 is due immediately.

We've not received payment of £XXX.00 for the energy you've used.

If your payment is not received by 2 April 2012 we'll pass your account to an external Debt Collection Agency, who will contact you to collect what you owe us on our behalf. This could result in an administration fee of up to 23% of your outstanding balance being added to your account to cover our cost.

We also share information about your payment behaviour with a Credit Reference Agency which may affect your ability to obtain credit in the future.

This is not how I understand the meaning of "gentle reminder". I read this letter as highly aggressive and threatening. Perhaps this might be acceptable behaviour after several months of non-payment and non-communication, but to write in this way to someone who has been a good customer will certainly make me think twice about ever dealing with this company again.

This may be a computer-initiated letter but it is Smedley's signature on the letter and someone senior in E.On needs to slap his wrists.

jbpage · 3 April 2012 at 9:19AM

Macman,

macman wrote: »

Talking of which, do EDF use 'My Account' for their French residential customers?
If so, how does that work, given that they must have millions more customers in France than the UK?

EDF in France have an organisation called Bleu Ciel which seems to deal with customer meter readings and bill payment. They have a website at bleuciel.edf.com which allows customers to access their accounts - look for "Mon espace client". There is an English version, but unfortunately the 'Espace Client' is only in French once you have logged in. Having said that, it's quite easy to use to provide meter readings.

There is also an English-speaking service (EDF Pro En Ligne) which you can contact through their email at [EMAIL="simpleenergywithedf@edf.fr"]simpleenergywithedf@edf.fr[/EMAIL] . I have found them to be very helpful in dealing with things like change of addresses and any discussion about payment plans.

I hope this helps.

jalexa · 3 April 2012 at 10:00AM

jbpage wrote: »

We've not received payment of £XXX.00 for the energy you've used.

This may be a slightly technical point but it illustrates the inept customer focus permeating the organisation, though not half as well as "Re-set" as it applies to Direct Debit.

Given you paid on the 26th, and commonly payments are now "Faster Payments", while it is "possible" your account hadn't been credited, the letter says "we've not received", so even on the day that may have been a false remark. Further given that correspondence is not "deemed received" for a legislated number of days, it was certainly not a true remark on first delivery. Did you get a letter saying "sorry we sent a premature threatening letter which turned out not to be true?":D Thought not.

Anyway, and apologies for jumping on your thread (but it's an open forum), the E.ON company reps engage better than all other companies put together but I can't help noticing Malc was silent on "change of address" and ignored my bump on the issue. Shame Malc, this is not Direct Debit "Re-set" to be ignored.

E.ON_Company_Rep_Chris · 3 April 2012 at 12:24PM

Hi jbpage

Thank you for providing further details of the content of the letter you received from us.

You’re quite right, this isn’t the standard reminder letter that Malc was referring to. It suggests that there was a balance outstanding from a previous bill that’s included in the amount you paid on 26 March. The tone and content of these letters does change the longer a balance remains unpaid

If this isn’t the case then I’m sorry but something has gone wrong and I’ll be happy to raise a complaint and look into this further for you so that I can give you the answers you need. (Including why we failed to update your new address which hasn't helped the situation at all)

Please send an email to the address on my profile and I’ll be happy to help.

Amanda

jalexa · 3 April 2012 at 12:32PM

E.ON_Company_Rep_Amanda wrote: »

(Including why we failed to update your new address which hasn't helped the situation at all)

Thank you, though that is probably the causal issue.

Surely a D&I compensation issue if there has been E.ON process failure.

jbpage · 4 April 2012 at 8:56AM

Amanda,

Thanks for your reply. For the record, I received my previous bill on 6th Jan and settled it in full on 9th Jan, so there was certainly no sum outstanding.

I suspect that the address change problem may be linked to my move to France. I had attempted to enter my new address on the E.On website, but it rejected my French address (invalid postcode!). I therefore phoned your call centre to advise that I was moving and to give the date of ending the account and I gave my new address. However, the person who I spoke to did not seem very interested and may not have recorded my new address. I gave the final meter reading via the website on the 16th March as soon as I arrived in France and had internet access again.

I would suggest that E.On fix their website so that it will accept overseas addresses so that this problem does not occur again.

Personally, I am not looking for compensation and having received an apology, I am happy to consider the matter closed.

EON and UDS Utility Debt Services

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