Eon to EDF changeover from hell / 3 years of gas bills

WillIam_3

Hi all, This is my first post, so please accept my apologies if it’s been mentioned before.
I believe this is somewhat of a real paradox, and I’m hoping someone can help me out by offering some experience or perspective.

I moved into my house 3 years ago, and transferred all my Gas and Electricity to EON.

I used them for three years taking advantage of their online accounts. I was a model customer for this time.

A few weeks ago I received a phone call from EON informing me that they weren’t infact my Gas supplier !
They had messed up the transfer, and the gas meter was still registered to EDF !!

I had paid them for 3 years worth of gas which they had billed me for, and now they were telling me I actually owed EDF for that period.

They refunded my payments back to me of just under £1200, but the problem is this.

I’ve never had any bills from EDF, they’ve never sent anything addressed to either me, or the “occupier” of the house.
However there has been some stuff from them addressed to the previous owner which I’ve always either binned or returned via the post box.

I spoke to someone at EDF, who pointed out to me that I wasn’t an account holder, but could confirm that the meter I was talking to them was in arrears badly and owed them the best part of £1500 !!

Eon are telling me I only need to pay 12 months worth of gas charges, and that this is my lucky day !

EDF are saying that although they’re not chasing me, the meter owes £1500 and was due to be cut off ages ago, but the supply isn’t on the national grid, it’s on a private supply which apparently makes it very hard to action a cut off.

The Energy watchdog are saying it’s a grey area and that I should pursue the two companies in writing and get them to sort it out.

I am happy to pay EDF what I’ve used, however thanks to Eon, im several hundred punds short, which they are refusing to pay me. ( EDF has billed on a standard tariff, I was on a web saver one with EON ) - ion the same breath though, im also keen to learn how much mileage there is in this claim that EDF can;t touch me for the last 3 years worth of gas in the first place.

Hopefully you can see both my moral and practical dilemma. I started off keen to sort this out and pay up etc, but EON are being a nightmare, and EDF have never done anything other than send the previous owners letters demanding payments from 3 years ago!

What should I do ?

Thanks everyone for your time J

dogshome

Wow! You do your best, you pay your bills, and you still get your a**e caned by the bloody great holes in the 2002 Utilites Act'
The only highlight in the whole damned mares nest is that we have a major distributor invoking the 12 month back-billing rule against another major distributor .
Here's what I'd do. Make sure you have registered your meter reading with EDF so that you have a clear cut-off line beween them and EON.
Write a joint letter to both EON and EDF repeating the history in your post and pointing out that you are the totally innocent party, and as such, you should not suffer any financial loss. You require that between the two of them, they reach agreement as to what funds should be passed from one to the other to resolve the matter without involving you in any way or expense, and as EON have admitted that they are primarily at fault, in the event that they cannot or will not reach an agreement with EDF, you will be billing them for any loss, (including tariff differentials), and costs in dealing with the matter (£15 a letter - £8 a phone call), and you will pursue them through the Small Claims Court if they have not paid you for these costs within 21 days of you advising them of the amount.
PS - Your post mentions Energywatch who were disbanded last Autumn - You obviously contacted one of it's four replacements - It would be interesting to know which one it was that shrugged it's shoulders and walked away

E.ON_Company_Representative

Hi WillIam,

This sounds like a nightmare; I hope I can offer you some assistance.

My first question is did you ever speak to EDF when you first moved in? It sounds like they didn’t know you had moved in and that is why all the correspondence you’ve had was addressed to the previous occupier.

This is important because it could play a part in whether or not the billing code would apply.

If EDF were not notified of you moving in, it is clear why they continued to bill the old occupant and not you. So effectively they haven’t done anything wrong and they would feel that a reduction isn’t warranted.

It’s difficult to see the best way to resolve this; I understand your perspective and believe you being left with £300 is unfair as you haven’t done anything wrong.

This clearly wouldn’t have happened if not due the fault of E.ON; however EDF may not be completely blameless, especially if you had informed them you were living there. Bills and reminders from EDF would have raised this issue years ago.

I would be inclined to ask EDF to bill you on a tariff that you would have requested if you knew they were the supplier for this period, an online tariff.

EDF have billed you on standard prices therefore causing a larger difference between the E.ON bill and the EDF bill, rebilling on a better tariff would bring the two bills closer ad then maybe E.ON clearing the difference would be more likely.

This method means the two suppliers will both take some responsibility for this and you will be left not having to foot the bill.

Can I ask who you’re dealing with at each company?

If you haven’t already I would raise this with the Director of Customer Service at E.ON, I’m confident you will receive the best support from this complaints area. Once a complaint is raised you will have a designated point of contact to discuss the complaint with. Maybe EDF have an equivalent area that you can deal with as well.

Regards

Brian

DVardysShadow

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Brian wrote: »

Hi WillIam,

This sounds like a nightmare; I hope I can offer you some assistance.

My first question is did you ever speak to EDF when you first moved in? It sounds like they didn’t know you had moved in and that is why all the correspondence you’ve had was addressed to the previous occupier.

This is important because it could play a part in whether or not the billing code would apply.

If EDF were not notified of you moving in, it is clear why they continued to bill the old occupant and not you. So effectively they haven’t done anything wrong and they would feel that a reduction isn’t warranted.

It’s difficult to see the best way to resolve this; I understand your perspective and believe you being left with £300 is unfair as you haven’t done anything wrong.

This clearly wouldn’t have happened if not due the fault of E.ON; however EDF may not be completely blameless, especially if you had informed them you were living there. Bills and reminders from EDF would have raised this issue years ago.

I would be inclined to ask EDF to bill you on a tariff that you would have requested if you knew they were the supplier for this period, an online tariff.

EDF have billed you on standard prices therefore causing a larger difference between the E.ON bill and the EDF bill, rebilling on a better tariff would bring the two bills closer ad then maybe E.ON clearing the difference would be more likely.

This method means the two suppliers will both take some responsibility for this and you will be left not having to foot the bill.

Can I ask who you’re dealing with at each company?

If you haven’t already I would raise this with the Director of Customer Service at E.ON, I’m confident you will receive the best support from this complaints area. Once a complaint is raised you will have a designated point of contact to discuss the complaint with. Maybe EDF have an equivalent area that you can deal with as well.

Regards

Brian

Brain,

NO. Customer arranged with E.on. E.on have taken the money, E.on should have managed the change. E.on failed to do this, so Eon should put it right and square the whole matter with EdF without further prompting.

If it was my account and E.on did it this way, I would stay with E.on. But doing it your way, I would be looking for a new supplier

These complicated arrangements for transfer of supply give consumers a head ache, but they are what the industry wanted. The industry should take responsibility for sorting out consumers problems arising.

E.ON_Company_Representative

Hi,

I completely agree however, if I was dealing with this complaint and I contacted EDF to talk about this they probably wouldn't discuss it as they will only talk to the customer directly.

The problem here is EDF are the supplier, E.ON have paid back the incorrect payments and now have no control over what happens in regard to the billing.

The OP is a gas customer of EDF, not by choice but by deemed contract, this is why certain aspects of this case need taking up with EDF.

The exact details of this case will affect the outcome of the complaint; hence my advice to the OP is open and broad as there are lots of factors involved.

I am not in a position to say the £300 will or won't be paid by E.ON; I am purely trying to offer some assistance to the OP.

Thanks for your input.

Brian

DVardysShadow

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Brian wrote: »

Hi,

I completely agree however, if I was dealing with this complaint and I contacted EDF to talk about this they probably wouldn't discuss it as they will only talk to the customer directly.

I appreciate you engaging on this.

The problem here is EDF are the supplier, E.ON have paid back the incorrect payments and now have no control over what happens in regard to the billing.

The OP is a gas customer of EDF, not by choice but by deemed contract, this is why certain aspects of this case need taking up with EDF.

The deemed contract was ended when the OP transferred to e.on. For whatever reason, the administration of this was messed up, so EdF are thinking differently. But e.on took the money and should now take responsibility. e.on should have taken ownership of the problem and contacted the customer to get authority to discuss matters with EdF - not handed the money back, but squared it with EdF. Why should the customer get such a raw deal out of a process failure to end a deemed contract when the customer appears to have acted correctly and have every reason to believe that the deemed contract was finished?

The exact details of this case will affect the outcome of the complaint; hence my advice to the OP is open and broad as there are lots of factors involved.

I am not in a position to say the £300 will or won't be paid by E.ON; I am purely trying to offer some assistance to the OP.

Agree, we are both working with some assumptions in mind, but on the whole they are reasonable at least for discussion in general terms.

Thanks for your input.

Not at all. I am rather encouraged to see a customer services rep engage [even tentatively] with wider process issues, rather than sticking to managing the situation to stop a customer howling publicly - [not suggesting WillIam's problem is trivial, either]

E.ON_Company_Representative

Hi,

I couldn't agree more, my job and that of anyones in the industry would be easier if we could interact with each other directly.

It is clear that we are often bound by rules and regulations, and these make life difficult for us, often with a knock on effect to the consumer.

I don't know the reasons for these rules and processes I expect Data Protection plays a big part, but I share your opinion, the industry as a whole however may disagree.

Thanks again for the discussion.

Brian

WillIam_3

Hi again All.
I wanted to say thanks for all your input, it’s really nice to see people out there with obvious knowledge who care.

As it happens, Brian has PM'd me and I've sent over all my contact details.
I’m hoping he’ll use them soon.

To answer some of your points...

I know for certain I phoned EDF when I moved in telling them the meter readings and that I moving suppliers. (to see if they’d do me a deal!) However I remember even better the call with EON telling me that I just needed to supply them with the meter readings and they would do the transfer. ( asked loads of questions about the online meter submissions etc as it was quite a new thing back then..)

Through the years, I even sent back the bills to EDF that were turning up to my house addressed to someone I didn’t know. (the previous owner)

Here’s the headline contact chain so far.....

Eon ring me... “we’ve made a mistake” “ we’re not your gas supplier even though we’ve billed you for three years.”
They offer to refund me straight away, I knew what lied ahead and asked EON to keep their money and pay EDF off themselves. They told me clearly, “we can’t do that”, and you’d be better anyway off because they can only back bill you one year.

They credit my account... wrongly, then after another go top it up to include all the fees I paid due to me being off the national gas network.

The cheque arrives

I contact EDF and catch up with them . They tell me they want the whole lot, and that the back bill law only counts if it’s their fault the details weren’t updated. Which of course it wasn’t.
EDF will not change the tariff, and tell me to get EON to pay up, and compensate me for all the hassle.


After around 10 phone calls to EON they said " scan us a full break down of the charges and we'll look at it"
I do that and write them a nice letter asking for the difference in the two bills, nothing more .. I also point out all I want is to stay with EON as I was with both fuels, and would do so if they squared off their mistake with EON.

I get a vague reply Weeks later which addressed little or none of my points claiming that I had given “incorrect information” to them !!!!
I write back asking for the first lot of information I written for and questioning how wrong the info could have been seeing they had been billing me for 3 years !

5 more phone calls to chase this up.

Nothing....

* Deep breath¬! * anyway , Brian seems keen to help so I'll let you know how this pans out.

dogshome

I know this is a bit of "Bolting the Stable Door", but I have posted this before.
The Switch system is designed to be almost 'Hands Free' so far as the customer is concerned, but if it goes wrong the customer is innocently enmashed in the shambles, whilst the two distributor's prime concern is blaming each other.
For your own protection, take some control. When you arrange a switch, write to both the outgoing and incoming supplier confirming your intention, then most importantly, on the day you are asked by the new supplier to give them your meter readings, write a joint letter to both the old and new suppliers confirming those readings, and what type of Gas meter you have - Metric or Imperial
The 'Hands free' system will still do it's own thing with the old distributor supposedly using the readings you gave to the new distributor - but if they get things wrong - You have an umbrella when the sh*t starts to fly.