EON and UDS Utility Debt Services

Hi

We recently moved out of our house and had a closing bill from EON for £253.28. We wrote and explained that we could not pay this as our limited company had gone into liquidation, my husband had been made redundant and we had no money basically. We are now in receipt of state benefits. We sent them a CASHflow forecast substantiated by National Debtline to pay £1 per month token payments. Our accompanying letter also requested their sort code and account number to which our credits could be made. No response from EON until three weeks later when a letter arrived saying they were disappointed we had not been in touch, cleared the balance on our account despite formal requests etc etc, in other words, ignoring our (recorded delivery) CASHflow letter. We responded to this letter, referring them to our earlier correspondence and again requested sort code and account number. Yesterday, a letter arrives from UDS saying all sorts of nonsense like we had not been in touch with EON despite repeated requests for payment. Letter then goes on to threaten all manner of ridiculous things against us. What do we do with these people, does anybody know if an EON rep still patrols these forums, a friend seemed to think that was still the case.
Any advice gratefully received, thanks.
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Comments

  • E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena
    E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena Posts: 2,359
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    Organisation Representative
    edited 13 October 2010 at 1:09PM
    Hi Tabitha T,

    I am sorry about the difficulties you are having at the moment, do you remember what address you have sent the letters to?

    Have you called E.ON as well to discuss final payment?

    E.ON normally require final bills to be cleared within 3 months, but in some circumstances this can be stretched to offer a bit of help to customers.

    We need to establish why your letters have not been replied to first of all, this then may need to go down the complaints procedure.

    But keep talking to E.ON, let me know if you need any more info.

    Helena
    Official Company Representative
    I am an official company representative of E.ON. MSE has given permission for me to post in response to queries about the company, so that I can help solve issues. You can see my name on the companies with permission to post list. I am not allowed to tout for business at all. If you believe I am please report it to forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com This does NOT imply any form of approval of my company or its products by MSE"
  • Tabitha_T
    Tabitha_T Posts: 240 Forumite
    Helena

    Thank you for your response. The letters were both sent to Customer Service, E.ON, PO Box 7750, Nottingham, NG1 6WR. The second one was sent in response to a threatening letter from Ian Smedley in Customer Service, same address. The sort code I have been able to find is 60-80-09 and the account number is 36166103.
    Are these correct as I wish to make a token payment to my account....?

    The advice from National Debtline is to deal with our creditors in writing only. We have no means of paying this bill in full as has been
    explained to Customer Service. Further to the global recession and the resultant demise of our limited company, we are now unemployed with no property and no assets. From our state benefits we have £21.40 available per month to be divided between our creditors as our CASHflow forecast explains.

    Obviously the initial letter must have been received as it was sent recorded delivery??? What do you suggest we do? We have written to UDS and referred them to the previous correspondence to EON and that of course we have been in touch and are trying to make payments, if they would just give us the bank information.

    Hope to hear from you further, thank you.
  • E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena
    E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena Posts: 2,359
    Name Dropper Photogenic First Post First Anniversary
    Organisation Representative
    Hi Tabitha T,

    I am unsure as why you have not received a response to the letters, the only way to know this would be to contact E.ON again and ask why.

    However, I do understand your reluctance to phone after the advice you have received.

    Can I respectfully ask, as you quoted "creditors" in your response, if you have been declared bankrupt? if you have, is the E.ON bill included in the bankruptcy or is this separate? The answer to this will determine what action to take next, as different rules apply in this situation. (sorry if I’ve got this wrong :o)

    Helena
    Official Company Representative
    I am an official company representative of E.ON. MSE has given permission for me to post in response to queries about the company, so that I can help solve issues. You can see my name on the companies with permission to post list. I am not allowed to tout for business at all. If you believe I am please report it to forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com This does NOT imply any form of approval of my company or its products by MSE"
  • Tabitha_T
    Tabitha_T Posts: 240 Forumite
    Dear Helena

    No, we have not been declared bankrupt, nor are we in an IVA arrangement. At this stage, we are offering token monthly
    payments to our non-priority creditors as per advice received from Business Debtline and National Debtline. So, the outstanding bill to EON relates to a household account and is not related to our ill-fated business. Do you suggest a third letter to Mr Smedley at EON?

    The letter from UDS debt collection agency is really very unpleasant, threatening some ridiculous measures which I am
    assured by NDL are just not legally possible for them to do. I'm sure you can imagine that it is not a nice thing to receive, especially as we have kept EON updated with our circumstances. My husband is in a fragile state and I have to keep on top of this for both of us and our 7 year old son's sake.

    I do find it deeply disturbing that creditors continually claim not to have received letters when obviously that is just not true. If I need to go to the bother of finding out who signed for the letter at EON then clearly that can be done through the post office. The whole point of sending recorded delivery mail is to ensure that mail is received and a company cannot claim to have not done so.

    What about the bank account for making payments, are you able to confirm the details I gave you please?

    Thank you.
  • E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena
    E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena Posts: 2,359
    Name Dropper Photogenic First Post First Anniversary
    Organisation Representative
    Hi Tabitha T,

    Ok, thank you for explaining the situation, as I say I am unsure why you have not received a response to your letters, all letters should be responded to, as I am unable to see the account I can't explain this. The only thing I can think of, is if they may have gone to the property you have moved out of and they have not been forwarded on to you.

    They only way to stop further debt collection is to set up an agreed payment arrangement with E.ON, final bills normally have to be paid within 3 months, but some circumstances we may offer longer, but £1 per month is highly unlikely to be accepted.

    I understand you have made this payment offer, but an actual agreement needs to be set up on your closed account to stop further action.

    I can see why you don't want to call E.ON, but you need to find out why you have not received a response to your letters and discuss payment asap.

    The bank details you have are correct, however, making £1 per month payments will not stop the debt collection. I can see from your post the debt has already been passed to UDS.

    Helena
    Official Company Representative
    I am an official company representative of E.ON. MSE has given permission for me to post in response to queries about the company, so that I can help solve issues. You can see my name on the companies with permission to post list. I am not allowed to tout for business at all. If you believe I am please report it to forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com This does NOT imply any form of approval of my company or its products by MSE"
  • Dear Helena

    I appreciate your response but I feel we are in a loop here, nothing appears forthcoming by way of support.

    Any letters sent from EON via my old address would have been redirected, as have the two threatening letters discussed previously, namely, one from Ian Smedley in EON's Customer Service and the other from UDS.

    As EON's company representative, I don't understand why you are
    unable to view our account? Is not the point of your involvement to act as an intermediary? If you have no access to our account, how are you able to help people in need without viewing their account history?

    Basically the problem that I have is as follows:

    I have sent EON a recorded delivery proposal for a repayment arrangement and they have failed to respond. Why?

    I have sent EON a reminder asking why they have failed to respond. Why have they also not responded to this communication?

    I have received a threatening letter from UDS, I have explained to you how this has upset my family yet you have not even mentioned their involvement in your feedback and how you are able to assist in stopping this action.

    Have I got this wrong but I thought the point of having your involvement was to assist clients with genuine concerns, I don't appear to have received any tangible support here, you have not addressed my concerns, nor promised to look into the matter further when you are presumably more than well placed to do so.

    I fail to see why I should send a THIRD letter to EON's customer service when we both know full well that they have received previous communications sent by recorded delivery but chosen to ignore the contents.

    What is the point of further communication? I shall continue to make my monthly token payments of £1, that is all that my family can afford, quite simply, there is no more money. At the end of the day, contrary to what your debt collection agency would have us think, we are not criminals, but, like so many others, we are victims of circumstance - unfortunate victims of the banking moguls' greed.

    Tabitha
  • E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena
    E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena Posts: 2,359
    Name Dropper Photogenic First Post First Anniversary
    Organisation Representative
    As EON's company representative, I don't understand why you are
    unable to view our account? Is not the point of your involvement to act as an intermediary? If you have no access to our account, how are you able to help people in need without viewing their account history?

    Hi Tabitha,

    As this is a public forum, we are here to give general advice to our customers.

    We are more than happy to help with individual cases but I am unable to view your account as I do not have any of your account details, you can use the email address in my profile page if you would like me to look specifically at your account.
    I have received a threatening letter from UDS, I have explained to you how this has upset my family yet you have not even mentioned their involvement in your feedback and how you are able to assist in stopping this action.

    In my previous post, I advised the only way to stop further debt collection is to set up an agreed payment arrangement with E.ON, as I have not seen your account as yet, you may need to set up the arrangement with UDS.
    What is the point of further communication? I shall continue to make my monthly token payments of £1, that is all that my family can afford, quite simply, there is no more money. At the end of the day, contrary to what your debt collection agency would have us think, we are not criminals, but, like so many others, we are victims of circumstance - unfortunate victims of the banking moguls' greed.

    I really do understand the difficulties customers are experiencing at the moment, especially in this climate and we want to try to help as much as we can.

    Malc and I are here to help in a general way, by posting advice and information (regarding E.ON) that may be beneficial to many.

    As I say, you can use the email address in my profile page.

    Helena
    Official Company Representative
    I am an official company representative of E.ON. MSE has given permission for me to post in response to queries about the company, so that I can help solve issues. You can see my name on the companies with permission to post list. I am not allowed to tout for business at all. If you believe I am please report it to forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com This does NOT imply any form of approval of my company or its products by MSE"
  • jbpage
    jbpage Posts: 5 Forumite
    Just to add to this thread, we moved out of our house on 14th March and received a final bill from E.On. It was dated 16th March, but was sent to our old address (doh!) and was then forwarded to us in France. I paid the bill the same day that I received it on 26th March.

    Guess what, today I get a letter from the above mentioned Ian Smedley threatening to "pass your account to an external Debt Collection Agency"! This might be acceptable three months after non-payment, but only ten days after sending a bill to the wrong address, when the bill has actually been paid - I don't think so!

    This is unspeakable arrogance and highly insulting. Needless to say, Smedley does not provide any contact details so that I can give him a piece of my mind. 0/10 for customer relations, I think.
  • jalexa
    jalexa Posts: 3,448 Forumite
    jbpage wrote: »
    we moved out of our house on 14th March and received a final bill from E.On. It was dated 16th March, but was sent to our old address (doh!)

    When you provided the house move reading were you asked to provide a billing forwarding address and what was your response?

    Welcome to the forum BTW.
  • jbpage
    jbpage Posts: 5 Forumite
    Hi, Jalexa, thanks.

    Yes, new address provided. But it's not the delay in getting the bill that annoyed me, that's why I set up mail redirection with the Post Office to handle that situation.

    Frankly, although the redirection added perhaps a couple of days to the delivery process, the bill was dated 16 March and I suspect that E.On themselves did not post the bill for a few days as it only reached me here on 26th.

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