E-on misread meter

freelife

I only have electricity in my property, but for the past 2 years since being with E-on they have apparently incorrectly read my meter - on a gas tarrif; the consequence of which means that they have undercharged me more than half of what they should have. They have now sent me a bill of £1,607.51 to pay, with no apology or explanation at the time, of the error they had made. I was totally shocked to say the least to receive this. They have said I can pay this off over a 2 year period, but even so...! After kicking up a fuss, they have agreed to knock off one year's worth 'as a goodwill gesture' but quite cross about this as I have just noticed a response from an E:on's Company Representative to another E-on's complaint that they are only allowed to back bill for 12 months anyway! So there is in fact no 'goodwill' at all. I have spent countless hours trying to sort this out, not to mention time off work as a supply teacher so don't get paid, visiting the CAB with this problem. I personally do not feel that I should have to pay anything for their mess-up. Can anyone advise please? Thank you. :mad:

obprestige

Hi There sorry to jump on your thread but I am in a similar position. Having not had a meter reading since i moved into the flat over 2 years ago I noticed a feature on the Scottish Power web site to enter you meter reading which i did. This came back with a mind blowing figure that was owed.

The question that I have is about the 12 month period that you mentioned that they are allowed to back bill for. Do you know where i can find more information about this?

Joyful

The rule for back billing is only if you have never received a bill so both of you do not fall under this criteria. You should have your meter read within 2 years though. Best advice is the customer is responsible for checking their bills against the meter reads themselves.

Freelife
I would certainly ask how they can bill you on a Gas tariff for Electric. Do you mean they used your gas readings for electric in error? It is good that they have taken a chunk off your bill. They are also allowing you to repay over longer. It comes down to the fact that if you used the energy you need to pay for it.

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Hi freelife

I am sorry you have been wrongly billed in this way. You certainly should have received an apology before this.

From what you are saying it sounds as though the meter was read ok but the tariff used to charge for the units was wrong.

The billing code prevents us from back billing for more than 12 months where specific criteria have not been met. Each case is looked at individually and sometimes, although mistakes have been made, we are still able to charge.

Certain cases meet some but not all the criteria needed to qualify for the billing code. In these cases sometimes a goodwill gesture will be made. It depends on the individual circumstances.

Where we have made mistakes we are always willing to set up payment arrangements to spread amounts owed over a similar period to the time taken to fix the fault.

Hope this makes the billing code a little clearer.

Malc

Premier_2

freelife wrote: »

... After kicking up a fuss, they have agreed to knock off one year's worth 'as a goodwill gesture' but quite cross about this as I have just noticed a response from an E:on's Company Representative to another E-on's complaint that they are only allowed to back bill for 12 months anyway! So there is in fact no 'goodwill' at all. ...

I think the two situations are probably quite different.

The 12 month backbilling rule only applies in certain circumstances and places a partial responsibility on the customer. e.g if you had checked the billed amounts against your own meter readings, you would have dicovered the error yourself and could have co-operated with the supplier to attempt to obtain a corrected bill.

If you have had a reduction offered by the supplier, I would consider this a goodwill gesture in the circumstances you describe.

Premier_2

obprestige wrote: »

...The question that I have is about the 12 month period that you mentioned that they are allowed to back bill for. Do you know where i can find more information about this?

Again, there is a partial requirement for the customer to co-operate in the billing process.

Why have SP not billed you for 2 years? Did you contact them when you moved into the property to take over the account? If not, the 12 month backbilling rule probably doesn't apply.

...The Supplier is completely within its rights to bill in full for any energy consumed where it can demonstrate that;

a) use of supply has been made by a Customer but that no attempt has been made by a Customer to contact a Supplier to make or arrange payment...

http://www.energy-retail.org.uk/documents/BillingCodeFAQs15Oct08.pdf

freelife

Premier wrote: »

I think the two situations are probably quite different.

The 12 month backbilling rule only applies in certain circumstances and places a partial responsibility on the customer. e.g if you had checked the billed amounts against your own meter readings, you would have dicovered the error yourself and could have co-operated with the supplier to attempt to obtain a corrected bill.

If you have had a reduction offered by the supplier, I would consider this a goodwill gesture in the circumstances you describe.

Thank you for your comments, but I do check my readings on the bills against the meter readings. In fact it is I who contact E:on to inform them of my readings before they even ask for them, so I go out of my way to 'co-operate'. I really didn't think I would need (or indeed it is my responsibility) to check the cost of each unit against each one as to be perfectly honest I don't even know what each unit costs. Each bill I have ever received clearly says 'Electricity bill' on the top and nothing whatsoever is mentioned about gas. If it said 'Gas bill' I would have known there was a problem, and then - and only then - it may just occur to me that I was being charged at a gas rate. I guess I just naively assumed E:on were sensible enough to charge me at the correct rate; that being the electric rate. It would never occur to me that they would charge me at a gas rate.

Premier_2

So what you are saying is not that Eon incorrectly read the meter, but simply that you were charged a gas unit charge rate rather than an electricity unit charge rate?

That's an interesting scenario as a general E.on customer service employee does not have the access rights to vary the unit charges on anyones bill as this thread confirms:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1481689

In the circumstances you describe, I would say that the spirit of the 12 month back-billing rule should apply, but as E.On don't even do so willingly for PPMs (where they have charged at the incorrect rate) against the recomendation of Ofgem, I wouldn't expect them to in your case either.
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1498733

freelife

Thanks for understanding my predicament... just as I thought... but I am fighting my corner!

Sorry if I appeared a bit heavy - just SO FRUSTRATED!

Will let you know outcome...

stewie_griffin

I've worked in the energy industry for 4 years and I've never come accross an occasion where electricity is charged at gas unit rates or vice versa so this really puzzles me. What are the unit prices on your old bills that you have been told were incorrect?

ukclarkkent

i switched to eon in mar 08 and it took them til dec 08 to bill me as they said they had 2 night rates down for me rather than 1 day and 1 night. not happy and will be switching back probably.