Help! eon are taking me to court!!

laurenjs88

Hi,

Im in desperate need of some advice here!
I switched from Eon to EDF a few months ago & i got a bill through from eon for £231.25 pounds but ive been paying them by direct debit every month.

I was only with eon from feb 2008 - Oct 2008 paying £25 a month

so thats: £225 ive paid them, i cant understand how they think a single mum & 1 child has used nearly £500 of elec in 9 months??? considering im only staying at the house 3days a week!

They havnt read my meter either this is an estimated bill!

Ive tried ringing to querie this but i am either left on the system charging me 5p a min to talk to them untill i hang up or the one time the phone was picked up i was hung up on straight away.

I keep getting really snotty letters about it & ive just had a letter from the UDS (utility debt services) saying that they are taking me to court if i dont pay in the next 7 days!

Im trying so hard to get out of debt at the moment and i cant afford to have anything else bad put on my credit file!

what should i do??

Thanks Lauren

Cardew

Are you sure it is an estimated bill?

The end date for EON and start date for EDF should be the same.

It doesn't matter how much electricity you believe you have used, it is the reading on the meter that counts. £500 for electricity in 9 months is low if you heat with electricty - but high if you use gas.

You say you switched a few months ago, yet paid them a direct debit until last month?

Also for a bill from EON for Oct, it seems very quick for the debt to already be in the hands of a Debt Collecting Agency? Are you sure the debt is not from an earlier period?

notbritishgas

Hi Lauren, you say you switched to EDF some months ago, do I take it it was before the date of the EoN bill of October 08?
The final bill from EoN should have the same meter reading as the opening bill from EDF. If the estimate you say was on the bill was not the same as EDF opening then you have to query it again.
You can try this freephone number to get through to EoN 0800363363 ( not free from a mobile)

real1314

Get all your phone bills together showing that you made calls to eon. They will be useful in court.

as for the amount of elec, althought you say the bill is estimated, you must have supplied readings to switch, so you must have an accurate figure for useage?
£25 a month would be low if the elec includes heating and cooking imo.

laurenjs88

No sorry i made a mistake, i last paid Eon on the 1st august & switched supplier on the 27th august.

Eon last read my meter on the 30th july 2008.

I recieved an overdue bill on the 4th october for £231.35 since then its been snotty letters & final notices but whenever i try to ring them funnily enough you cant get through??

I cant understand how it can be this high??

laurenjs88

real1314 wrote: »

Get all your phone bills together showing that you made calls to eon. They will be useful in court.

as for the amount of elec, althought you say the bill is estimated, you must have supplied readings to switch, so you must have an accurate figure for useage?
£25 a month would be low if the elec includes heating and cooking imo.

This is what p*ssed me the most, this is the first flat i've had im a young single parent on benefits ive got no idea how much it costs to run a flat on elec, i asked what i should be paying and was told that £25 was probably ok.

If i owe them that much then fine but they cant have it all in one payment thats nearly 3weeks off my benefit.

Totality

laurenjs88 wrote: »

ive got no idea how much it costs to run a flat on elec, i asked what i should be paying and was told that £25 was probably ok.

Same thing happened to us when we moved house a few years ago. We moved to a bigger place so probably should have realised, but back then we had no idea about running costs etc., so when BG told us to continue paying the same amount we were in our old place, we got a huge shock - not just after the first quarter (as I just paid the same amount each month and didn't pay much attention to bills when they came through) but for the first few.

It wasn't until BG "reviewed" our account after 8/9 months and we'd racked up some fairly high arrears that we realised. It ended up with energywatch and has been a pain to deal with them ever since. Luckily (and after some persistence), we agreed a monthly fee without the need to go to court.

(Not that they would have won! )

Cardew

Lauren,

Leaving aside your personal circumstances, it appears probable, from what you, say that the bill is genuine and will need to be paid.

If your flat is all electric then £25 a month is just far too low - £100 will be nearer the mark.

If a DCA are now chasing you, I suspect EON are no longer interested as they have passed the debt to UDS and you will have to deal with them.