EON direct debit increase

brewerdave

EON rep Helena - your colleague Brian, assured me in an earlier post that my account would not be expected to be balanced this April/May as I only joined you in late September 2009 - the zero balance position would be expected by April 2011's review.This appears to be different from your replies to this thread - I certainly will not be zeroed by this Spring's review because my DDs were set on 1/12 of my expected annual usage and I've obviously used more gas/elec during the initial Winter period.

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena

Each account will be calculated individually, as some may not include the first spring review as the Direct Debit may have been set up too close to this date, therefore, moving this to the next spring.
Helena

Hi brewerdave,

As above, not all accounts will fall under this spring review, as it does depend on when they were set up. Brian has already confirmed this for you.

Helena

DirectDebacle

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena wrote: »

The spring review started around April last year, this was changed due to feedback from customers requesting not to left in debt after winter bills, as this then left them with much higher payments to pay back the debt.

As others have said, you will also receive a Direct Debit discount.

Helena

Why were E.ON managing their DD scheme so poorly that customers were left with high debt at the end of their 12 monthly payments?

What steps have E.ON taken to ensure DD customer accounts are managed better to avoid large debt building up? Making all DD customers annual review at the end of winter will surely result in all customers having a large debt at the end of winter unless the root problem has been solved.

Interesting that in all the years that DD schemes have been operating this problem seems to have only arisen in April 2008, just as the credit crunch was biting hardest.

However I am sure E.ON were acting upon customer feedback. Energy consumers are constantly amazed at the energy companies reaction to consumers views.

In the case of E.ON, DD customers will no doubt be very pleased that in theory their accounts will be permanently in credit or at best in zero balance and that the whole point of the DD scheme has been sidelined in preference to resolving E.ON cash flow difficulties.

papito

plumfin wrote: »

Hi, I may have duplicated this post so sorry if I have.

EON have contacted me to say that they need to increase my dd from £50 per month to £142 to allow for the increased electricity we normally use up to May. After last quarter, we are £163 in arrears, which we normally pay off over the summer as we use less electricity. EON are telling me that I have to get my account to £0 in May as that is when they review it all.

I spoke to a man there who was polite but not interested at all that this is a 300% jump in cost just to balance their books and that not to pay this would land me in debt with them, an action he can't allow.

Can they do this? i have been with them for 3 years and never had this problem before. We are on fixed online v4, and do use a lot of heat over the winter as we only have storage heaters, about 12000kw per annum.

Any ideas? many thanks, kelly

Hi if you tell them you can't pay that much they should be able to reduced the amount they are requesting. But have you tried moving to a lower tariff with them? it may be that you can save some money and another reason for EON not to ask you for a higher DD payment...good luck.:)

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena

Hi DirectDebacle

We regularly try to improve our systems and processes to improve our customer experience.

As I know you understand, changes such as these can never satisfy 100% of our customers.

Direct Debit is not for everyone, this is the reason that we do offer a number of payment arrangements.

Helena

JennyR68

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena wrote: »

Hi DirectDebacle

We regularly try to improve our systems and processes to improve our customer experience.

As I know you understand, changes such as these can never satisfy 100% of our customers.

Direct Debit is not for everyone, this is the reason that we do offer a number of payment arrangements.

Helena

Yes but you do make a financial incentive to go with DD making all other payment methods dearer. Thus literally forcing some in DD arrangement even though they would rather not do it that way.

High time a few more companies offered variable monthly DD so the customer could manage himself without being penalised for it.

Andy_WSM

JennyR68 wrote: »

Yes but you do make a financial incentive to go with DD making all other payment methods dearer. Thus literally forcing some in DD arrangement even though they would rather not do it that way.

High time a few more companies offered variable monthly DD so the customer could manage himself without being penalised for it.

Urm, that's not the way I see it.

DD is discounted, due to the reduced costs of collecting payments from the customer.
The other methods are dearer because it costs more to collect money by any other method.

Why should a DD customer, who always pays up front, on time, with no hassle to Eon, subsidise the other payment methods? I don't want to pay towards the debtors and people that have key meters etc etc. If it costs more to run their chosen payment methods then they should pay for it.

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena

JennyR68 wrote: »

Yes but you do make a financial incentive to go with DD making all other payment methods dearer. Thus literally forcing some in DD arrangement even though they would rather not do it that way.QUOTE]

Hi JennyR68,

This is the preferred method of payment (as for many companies) and we do offer extra discount for paying by Direct Debit.

Helena

Andy_WSM

I was going to add that after one of my heaviest Winter bills ever - no, THE heaviest Winter bill ever and burning up nearly all my credit, Eon reduced my monthly DD payment with this statement, which makes no sense to me at all, so I called them up and asked to leave it where it's been for the last year - which of course they were happy to do.

I guess the DD payments are calculated based upon previous consumption and the computers don't take into account the extended cold weather we have had this Winter leading to higher consumption?

DirectDebacle

brewerdave wrote: »

EON rep Helena - your colleague Brian, assured me in an earlier post that my account would not be expected to be balanced this April/May as I only joined you in late September 2009 - the zero balance position would be expected by April 2011's review.This appears to be different from your replies to this thread - I certainly will not be zeroed by this Spring's review because my DDs were set on 1/12 of my expected annual usage and I've obviously used more gas/elec during the initial Winter period.

Then at some point you are going to have the same problem as the OP.

As an example lets say your energy costs £1200 p.a. and 75% of that energy is consumed in the 6 months Oct-March.

Your DD is set at 1/12th annual cost @ £100 per month.

Over the next 18 months you will use £2250 of energy but only have paid £1800.

This £450 shortfall will have to be paid as a large bill at the end of winter. The E.ON rep assures customers their manipulation of the DD scheme is designed to avoid this. The only other way is that when you joined E.ON the DD was set to achieve a zero balance in April 2011 which would comprise of 2 winter periods and one summer. In this example it would be £125 p.m.

To avoid building up this debt you need to review your DD now and increase it if necessary.

Looks like another example of, 'We regularly try to improve our systems and processes to improve our customer experience.'


I wonder if you would have switched had you been told this before you signed up? This should have been explained to you.