£3400 debt to EON...advice please.

scabbers

For approx 6 years I have been getting letters from eon (electric suppliers) saying how much I've used but that I don't have to do anything ie pay. So I haven't paid in all that time. Now they have said to me I owe them over £3000 and they want it! Although I realise I should have done something before it got to this (I bury my head a lot!) I think they should take some of the blame...after all they never asked for money or threatened to cut my supply off. Of course I'm willing to pay back on a regular basis but I someone said to me yesterday that I shouldn't have to pay back any more than 2 years bckdated? Any thoughts from anyone?

cleo1299

They're not allowed to demand payment for energy which has been used but for which they've never billed, if it's more than 1 or 2 years ago (can't remember which).

Unfortunately in your case apparently they did bill for it.

Where they said that you don't have to do anything -- that's what they say to customers whose bills are paid by direct debit. They don't mean you don't have to pay, they mean the money will be taken from your account automatically. In your case, it sounds like they thought you were paying via direct debit but you weren't. If so that's a stupid mistake for them to have made.

It's a case of both parties being in the wrong to some extent, so maybe you can negotiate some reduction on that basis. This is where it's useful to have somebody to argue on your behalf. I would write to one of the "consumer problems" columns in a newspaper or magazine (don't bother with tv as all they are interested in is dramatic encounters). Failing that, contact Consumer Direct.

RadoJo

I would say - if you know that you owe them money, then pay it!
You confirm that you have received a service, you know you hadn't been paying for it (and for six years? That's burying your head to a worrying extent) and now you have been asked to pay what you owe. I'm sure if you call them and ask for a reasonable repayment plan, they will agree one with you, but you should pay them what you owe them regardless of their mistake, as you also made a mistake in not making an effort to pay for your electricity, and have benefitted from having that money in your account for the last 6 years rather than theirs.

Apart from anything, if you don't pay for your electricity, who will? My guess would be everyone else who they supply - people who have been paying for their electricity as they should while you've been getting yours for free. Is that fair?

cleo1299

However, it's in all our interests that energy suppliers should suffer some penalty when they are so careless about direct debits. When it costs them money, that's when they pay attention to correcting errors in their systems.

RadoJo

I agree, but unfortunately when it costs the energy companies I imagine that those costs are passed on pretty directly to their other customers. I don't deny the energy company's fault in this matter, but I personally think the fact that the OP knew they weren't paying for their electricity but did nothing about it is in some ways a larger fault. It was deliberate omission on the part of the OP, whereas the energy company was guilty of an oversight.
That's not to say it's not worth asking for a reduction in the total owed OP, but I think pursuing any line which denies responsibility for any more than two years' worth of debt might jeaordise your chances of receiving a goodwill gesture. (Unless someone can confirm that there is a sound legal position for this?).

Anihilator

The OP doesnt deserve a reduction. They owed the money and didnt pay it despite knowing it was due and not being paid. They should count themselves EON are asking for interest and fees too.

cleo1299

RadoJo wrote: »

I agree, but unfortunately when it costs the energy companies I imagine that those costs are passed on pretty directly to their other customers. I don't deny the energy company's fault in this matter, but I personally think the fact that the OP knew they weren't paying for their electricity but did nothing about it is in some ways a larger fault. It was deliberate omission on the part of the OP, whereas the energy company was guilty of an oversight.
That's not to say it's not worth asking for a reduction in the total owed OP, but I think pursuing any line which denies responsibility for any more than two years' worth of debt might jeaordise your chances of receiving a goodwill gesture. (Unless someone can confirm that there is a sound legal position for this?).

I think we're saying basically the same thing -- the OP might be able to obtain some reduction in what's owed. If so, I don't think it will be due to "goodwill", although it might be called that. It'll be due to the supplier well knowing that they shouldn't have let these bills run on uncollected for so long.

As far as I know, the OP can't use the provision about not paying for energy more than 1 or 2 years late because, as I said, that's only if the supplier failed to bill. They used to do that a lot, and being presented with a huge bill causes such big problems to consumers that the law was changed so that unbilled back usage couldn't be collected for -- even though in those cases it was equally true that the consumers knew they were using energy and not paying for it.

ihatecaptcha

scabbers wrote: »

For approx 6 years I have been getting letters from eon (electric suppliers) saying how much I've used but that I don't have to do anything ie pay. So I haven't paid in all that time. Now they have said to me I owe them over £3000 and they want it!

Interestingly, after 6 years the Statute of Limitations applies.

It seems an odd coincidence that they picked up on their error just in time.