HELP!!!! E-on are getting heavy

MUDDY_FOX_2

Hi ,I'm new on this forum.Some advice please.
We have lived in our house ,a 3 bed terraced ,for 19 yrs and have never changed electicity supplier . They however have changed company names .Norweb - Powergen -E'on.
Around 2001 they came and replaced our old spinny meter with a new digital one.We continued to recieve/pay our bills as normal.At the end of '03 we got a bill for around £100. It was christmas time and to aid our budgeting over the festive period i rang to basically defer payment 'til Jan and enquired about a payment plan.The (then powergen )operative said this was no problem ,but she would need the most up to date meter read which I gave her.
This generated a bill of £2500 !!!
She convinced me this must be a mistake and said not to worry . It would be investigated.obviously ,we were worried .
FFWD >>>>>
Almost 12 months later we were told it WAS correct . They'd been undercharging us .From the bills we can see that now.Times were tough .We had just had twins in '99 followed by another one in '01 on top of the eldest one ! ( my fault I suppose ),my wife was struggling with it all , I work full time .We never noticed that they were underbilling ,but agreed to pay " what we could afford ".To their credit powergen sent a letter of apology.In the first year (in dispute) to cover usage and in good faith we paid £40 PCM which was upped to £100 some time later which we have paid ( mostly ) every month since . I say 'mostly ' .Again ,to budget ,we have sometimes missed the odd month in a year ,but have paid IRO £1000 PA and have always told them if we were to pay a little late.This was never said to be a problem at all.
Monthly we have recieved statements detailing the debt which has risen slightly.A generic computer generated copy type thing.
We were phoned 2 yrs ago by collections dept ( now E-on ) chasing a higher payment which I said I would struggle to find which they accepted and have never chased further.
We pay what we can.
Last month for budgeting reasons my wife phoned to say we were struggling to find the £100 and would pay at the end of the month.I was travelling 150 miles round trip to work daily and the petrol cost was crippling + £6.50 parking !! About £30 a day before I've earned a butty.
The customer service dept said this wasnt a problem.Our 'arrangement 'would expire on the 17th ,but we could " just set up another one . No problem ".
When my wife phoned on the 23 rd ( i think ) she was told the arrangement was now £350 + PCM . Like it or lump it.
Which is about where we are now.
E-on are fairly forcing a pre-payment meter on us.I dont want to have punitive charges forced upon me when originally it was their fault.
?? Can the force one on me ?
I have no faith in E-on .Can I leave with arrears of over £2500 ?
E-on have never fully quantified our usage.They say we used IRO 80 units per day at one point to justify the bill.On average ! Are they saying in winter we consumed something like 130 a day ?
Today we use around 12-15 units per day.It's a busy house ,but I cant see it .
Almost everything is Gas. Central htg,Water , Fire.As always .19 yrs.
??Can the electronic meters 'jump' .
We have no more or less appliances than we have ever had in 18 yrs.A few more tellys ,a gamecube ,this infernal laptop .
We dont have an electrically heated swimming pool.

One more thing . dont recommend energywatch.They were contacted 4 yrs ago .I got the immpression it was a bit too tricky for them.We started to pay something ( in good faith ) and it all went quiet. I phoned them last week when it kicked off and they said its 'old news'.'They said 'why have WE let it get to 4 yrs ?"
We're just trying to get through the day /week/life.
A guy at Eon asked was I on the dole ?
There's a thought....

If you've read this far .Thank you .
Tim :mad:

MUDDY_FOX_2

Just one more thing .
The only explanation we had .
The meter reads 5 digits .
They were reading /billing the first 4 only !

How much then should the £100 bill have been ?

Isnt a 5 digit number with the end one knocked off 10% of its original value ?
ie 12345
1234
that's 10%
Should it therefore have been £1000 for a qtr !!! ?

None of it makes sense .
But they seem to have us over a barrell.

TIM

Sol00

I know there was a new legislation whereby the utility companies can't charge more than 12 months back if it is their error. I'm not sure if you would qualify though as you've been in an arrangement for some time before this. Are Energywatch no help? That's the only other body I think you could go to.

Premier_2

So, 3.5 years ago you owed £2.5k as billed

Today you still owe £2.5k

I guess eon have run out of patience with you. They would like that £2.5k back especially since it's effectively been provided to you on an interest free basis for perhaps almost 5 years.

Yes, if as you agree, you've consumed that electricity you will need to pay them.

Yes, they will prevent you from switching until you settle the debt.

Yes, they will almost certainly install a pre-payment meter unless you come to some agreement to pay off what you owe...and stick to it.

Jvic28

I owe a total of £700ish pounds to Eon and am on a payment plan to pay it off through my DMP. I haven't heard anything off Eon to say they agree to the payment plan. I haven't had so much as one letter off them in a couple of months and I have managed to switch electricity suppliers to British Gas. This works out quite well for me as my boyfriend is now paying the bills and I can concentrate on Mortgage and DMP (Including Eon).

Sorry I can't help with the rest of your problem though. Sounds very confusing and worrying.

x

Cardew

Presumably you disputed your bill in 2003/2004 which is why you went to Energywatch????? However you say that 'you can see' that they were undercharging.

If Energywatch did not take up your case, and you agreed to pay off your arrears,(albeit you haven't paid any off) you are going to have great difficulty trying to dispute a 4 or 5 year old bill now.

Also I am not sure what you mean by "EON never quantified our usage" . Your bills, derived from your meter readings, show what you have been using.

If you think something is wrong with your consumption, you really must monitor your meter readings carefully, not surmise that you couldn't have used that much!!

Seems to me that post#4 has hit the nail on the head.

SwanJon

To avoid charges, you will need to agree ther PP meter before they go to court for a warrant.
See if you can get any extra benefits from E-on to help reduce your current spend.
A PP meter will focus the mind on energy efficieny, but see if they can offer you anything to help you reduce your consumption.

You have done remarkably well to put off paying the balance since 2001. See if you can negotiate a low weekly payment, maybe spreading the balance over a couple more years. Think about it. To pay it back in a year will cost you about £50 a week on top of consumption, 3 years £17 a week.