Eon are ridiculous

Annoyed23

When my boyfriend moved into his rented property he registered with eon for gas & electricity combined.

Recently he has been receiving letters for somebody else from eon so he has just been returning them back unopened. An engineer came round to check his electricity meter a couple of months ago and my boyfriend gave him one of these letters & told the engineer he keeps receiving them, the engineer asked if we knew who the woman was but we said no and he took the letter with him.

The other day we received another letter for this woman but I noticed it was from Bailiffs so I opened it. It was regarding an unpaid eon bill for nearly £800.00 so i e-mailed the legal representatives who had sent the letter and they requested a copy of his tenancy agreement. I was in the process of sending them the tenancy agreement when another letter came saying someone from the legal representative had called but no one was home so they were now issuing a warrant to enter the property to switch the supply off.

My boyfriend rang eon & it turns out his gas was never registered & the bill is in fact for him. He had been receiving bills from eon which we thought was for electricity & gas together.

I'm absolutely furious that:

a) my boyfriend registered & it was never done at their end.

b) It has been noticed 4 years later, why didn't they realise the gas was being used & chased it up sooner?

Does anyone have any advice on this matter, any at all would really help.

Joyful

Surely in all that time he was receiving bills? These would have shown he was only paying for one supply.

Although he called the supplier to advise he should have made sure he was then getting bills covering both utilities so it is his responsibility. They should rebill it in his name then allow him to pay back over 12 months( possibly more). Get him to call and set up a payment arrangement to cover the bill and ongoing usage.

Also the billing code will not apply as bills were produced. Rather than sending the bills in the wrong name back he should have called to ask why they were coming to his property. £800 for 4 years seems very low. Is it possible they have only billed for part of it?

Annoyed23

I'm not saying it's entirely their fault but if you register for your gas you expect it to be done. And why it's taken 4 years for them to actually do anything about it is beyond me.

Like you said £800.00 seems cheap for four years as it only comes to around £16-£17 a month. We aren't even sure if he ever received a bill for the gas as the letters for this other person have only been arriving in the past few months. Maybe it's worth asking them for copies of everything they have sent but I'm unsure whether they would do that.

dogshome

Well this is interesting one - Whilst it's not wise just to get a bill and pay it without checking the detail, posts on this site show that is just what a lot of people do every day and £800 over four years is £16.66 a month - not a hugely significent sum, particularly if it's a missingitem on a bill.
Sure enough EON were producing bills, but these have been addressed to someone else and legally the boy friend has no right to open them, and, they have only been arriving recently after he has been in occupancy for 4 years !
The fact that he rang EON to register his occupancy on moving in is not in dispute, what is in dispute is as to whether or not he registered his gas at the same time. It would be strange indeed to be organised enough to register with a distributor immediately on moving in, and yet forget to mention the Gas. - The balance of probabilities is that EON Service Desk person screwed the registration up ( It has happened before, and not just with EON).
I reckon he stands a good chance of invoking the no back billing beyond 12 months rule and should stand his ground, but even then, there is question of just what meter readings the year he will have to pay for, will be based on - A letter demanding copies of the years meter readings must be sent to EON

Annoyed23

Thanks Dogshome, I will definately ask them for previous bills.

I have sent the company director an e-mail of complaint but am just waiting on him to get back to me at the moment.

WASHER

Eon are ridicolous, I totally agree with this statement.

My home is a new build, I wanted to EON to be my gas and electricity supplier, no problems with the transfer etc etc.

I was receiving bills for both (so I thought - as it said duel fuel on the top of the statement), however a little while later I noticed I wasn't being charged for gas, the meter reading was always the same on each bill, you will not believe the problems I have had trying to get EON to produce a bill for my gas, it has taken months, endless phone calls etc.

I did eventually receive bills for my gas, and paid this by DD, no problems, however after a while I noticed that I was being charge a lot of money for my gas, the statement said the meter was read by them, so I didn't question this.

I changed over to British Gas a little while later, I got a phone call from British Gas fraud team who asked me to give them a meter reading as the meter reading given by EON didn't seem to make any sense, I did this and was told on the phone that EON had been charging me for gas that I hadn't even used, the final bill in July of this year (again read by EON) stated 7865, British gas sent a representative to look at my meter and the meter reading by them just last month was 7125.

I am trying to get a refund from EON regarding this, but they are useless, they fob you off, and when you state you will take the matter further, they say you have to give us time to sort this issue, how much time do they need, its almost 5 months!

OP, get all your bills and write a letter of complaint and send by recorded delivery, where did you find the directors email, I could do it with!

Annoyed23

It sounds like they have no idea what they are doing if you ask me!

I meant to say customer services director, not company director, my mistake!

I was wondering whether they will take ages to actually come to some kind of soloution, which I'm guessing they will as they have done with you. The customers seem to all be paying for E-ons mistakes!

WASHER

My gas transporter is not Transco, and this seems to be the problem as EON have mentioned on more than one occassion, I mentioned its not the supply of gas I have an issue with, but you charging me for gas I haven't even used over a period of a couple of years. I just don't know how it could have been read unless its a keying in error made more than once, my meter reading serial number is the same on the bill as it is on the meter, so I just don't know.

I am going to have to do something regarding this, but I don't really know who to approach?

British Gas are being very very helpful, they are emailing EON on a regular basis with meter readings and asking for updates on my behalf, as they have stated to EON the meter hasn't been tampered with in any way, British gas has checked my meter, it seems EON are just useless.

I hope you get your problem sorted quicker than mine is taking.

Annoyed23

At least British Gas know what they are doing! I hope that you finally get your problem sorted aswell!

I just do not know how such a big company like Eon can make these kind of mistakes, I've read quite a few on here. I've also read something in my local paper about Eon & their mistakes by somebody who writes a column in it.

killer_cam

hi,

i went into debt after 5 years it is to late to chase so keep complaining till 210 and you wont have to pay

AppleMonkey

killer_cam wrote: »

hi,

i went into debt after 5 years it is to late to chase so keep complaining till 210 and you wont have to pay

I'm not quite sure what that was supposed to mean.

E.on are are a bit useless when it comes to new build properties (or properties built within the last 8 years) that are connected to the National network by Independent Gas Transporters (IGTs).

Your boyfriend has a strong case for a goodwill gesture to be made on E.ons part however the billing code will only apply to bills that have not been produced at all by E.on (that is to the address registered, NOT to the tennant). In other words E.on have produced bills for the gas used however they have not been in your boyfriends name.

I know that it will be a shock for him to get a bill for gas if he thought he was paying for both, however the bills clearly state that they are for Electric and Gas.

Its a joint responsibility, your boyfriend didn't check his bills. E.on sent gas bills out to the wrong person at the correct house.

Not defending them at at all - Billing code will not apply. He should argue the case and they will probably write part of it off as a good will gesture and should spread the payments over 3 years (longest they can basically) if he should need it.

Hope that helps in some way.