Help - Massive Bill from E-on

m3ech

Hi,

I am quite new to this forum and just hope some of you guys may be able to help! We have lived in a rented 2 bedroom flat for the last 3 years and have always been with E-on. This is our situation...

Upon moving into our flat 3 years ago we contacted E-on to confirm this along with our meter reading at the time, we also set up an online account to which we were informed that we would be receiving a monthly bill via e-mail, which to this date, we never have.

When we set up our account with E-on the adviser estimated our bills based on the information they asked about the property we live in, incidentally this is a 2 bedroom flat which is located on the fourth floor and has flat’s both above, below and to both sides so the warmth is shared to some degree. The adviser estimated our monthly costs to be £60.00 per month, based on the information above and taking in to account that we do not have gas, just electric. We responded by saying that we would pay a little extra, £67.00 per month, just to cover ourselves. We continued to make these payments every month via direct debit and also gave our meter readings whenever requested by E-on, this included twice in 2008 and once in 2009.

As you can appreciate it then came as a shock when a letter from yourselves landed on our door mat in July 2009 asking for the sum of £1200 following our last meter reading. We initially thought that there must be some kind of mistake so we contacted E-on in the first instance. The adviser that we spoke to agreed that this seemed very high based on what we had been using for the past 2 years. Following this we made a payment towards the bill and the adviser at E-on asked us to keep a record of the meter readings on a daily basis, which we did for 2 weeks at 18:30hrs each evening. We then called E-on and gave these meter recordings and the adviser once again that these were high. But still they were unable to explain them and agreed that something must be wrong!

At this stage they suggested that we may have a fault with our boiler, or that the meter may be giving faulty readings. Upon receiving this comment we arranged for a heating engineer from Gledhill (the manufacturers of our boiler) to come out and check the boiler. The engineer confirmed that the boiler was working as it should and there were no faults. The adviser from E-on also asked us to continue taking the meter readings and in the meantime they arranged for someone to come out and install a separate ‘check’ meter to run alongside the existing one, just in case the meter was faulty.

This was not carried out very swiftly at all and in the meantime we received another bill… This time in excess of £1500.00!! At this point we really began to panic as we did not have that kind of money to pay the bill and also because we couldn’t see how the bill could possibly be that high, we were both out at work all day and only ever use one heater (if any) and that stays on for approximately 1 hour per day.

Approximately 14 days later an engineer appointed by E-on came out to the property to install the test meter. Upon entering the property and looking at the meter installed, the engineer immediately said that the meter was wrong and we should have an E10 meter, which is meant for properties without gas. He said that the meter we have in there will be extremely costly. We couldn’t really understand this as our bills hadn’t previously been that high, even with the meter reading that we had provided. He also informed us that when we spoke to E-on they would probably dismiss the fact that we needed an E10 meter and say that they cannot supply an E10 meter, he explained that the reason for this is because the E10 meters are more costly to supply and that they would suggest fitting an E7 meter. He told us NOT to accept this as an E7 meter would not be suitable for the type of property we live in and our usage and as a result it would cost us more than we were already paying! Therefore when I spoke to E-on I made sure that I explained all that the engineer had said and tried to enforce the fact that it MUST be an E10 meter that we needed installing. The adviser we spoke to said that there was no way they would be able to install the E10 meter and the one we needed was an E7. After an in-depth conversation he agreed that the E10 meter would be fitted as it was recommended by the engineer.

In the meantime we heard back from E-on regarding the meter readings from the test meter and they confirmed that these were correct and reading the same as the meter we already had. An appointment was then arranged for the engineer to come out and fit the new ‘E10’ meter, this was a different engineer who had not been aware of the situation.

Throughout this time we continued to record our meter readings and reported these to the contact we had at E-on at the end of every week. The readings were still high and followed no pattern, to which the adviser couldn’t understand nor could he explain them. He said that he would have to look into the matter further and that he would get back to us the following week, but in the meantime to continue taking the readings down.

Whilst waiting for the phone call we received another letter from E-on demanding money and informing us that our payments would have to go up to £265.00 per month. Obviously on receiving this we called E-on to explain the situation and that we had had an E10 meter recently fitted and we were in contact with one of their advisers. To this the adviser instantly said, no you have had an E7 meter fitted! To which I was initially stunned and explained it was an E7 meter that we didn’t want, it was in fact the E10 meter that we needed. After much insistence from the adviser at E-on that the meter was in fact an E7 meter he said he would get the adviser to call us back. We still continued to make payments of £100.00 per month, which was an increase of £33.00 per month and really stretched us to the limit.

When the adviser called back he did not have anymore information to give us and still couldn’t explain the fluctuating meter readings or where the problem may lie. I also challenged him about the fact that the adviser I had spoken to had said that the meter which had been fitted was an E7 meter and not the E10 meter that we had been advised to have and assured that had been fitted. He said he would need to look into this and he would get back to us the following week.

To this date we have never had an answer to this question, nor have we received a call back as promised in previous telephone conversations.

Just 2 weeks ago I put in a telephone call to E-on, after receiving an unexplainable letter from a debt collector! I could hardly believe my eyes when I opened the letter as this just proved that the adviser must have updated the computer system with something to have taken the account out of dispute, but yet again, had failed to call us!!! When I called I explained the situation in brief to the adviser on the other end of the telephone, who was very apologetic and seemed to feel our frustration, they then put another note on the system that this adviser was to call us ASAP, as well as writing an e-mail to him to request that he call as a matter of urgency. Well, we are almost 3 weeks later and what does not come as any surprise is the fact we still have not heard a thing!

Not only do we feel thoroughly disappointed by the service we have been given from E-on, which I’m sure you cannot dispute has been absolutely disgraceful, not to mention the fact that we have been lied to and had a meter fitted which has been using MORE electricity that the previous one, but we feel that our bill as spun out of control through no fault of our own. We have always provided our meter readings when requested and never received any bills or e-mails from E-on. For a two bedroom flat which is un-occupied during the day this is completely ridiculous. Further to this we received a bill in yesterday to the tune of £1741.00!! And having read the bill more thoroughly they have again estimated this, despite the meter reading I gave them when I called 3 weeks ago, this works out to be only half of what the meter is currently reading.

We have tried to speak to our landlord about this but to be honest he's less than interested and judging by the amount of post we have from debt collectors for our landlord, it seems that he has his own issues to deal with! We have come to the point where we just cannot afford to stay in the flat any longer and as a result we are moving out in 2 weeks time, but we desperately need to get this issue sorted before we leave

E.ON_Company_Representative

Hi m3ch,

There’s a lot to take in here so bear with me if I miss anything.

You mention three larges bills, £1200, £1500, and £1741. Are these actually charge amounts or the balance increasing each quarter? For example, you were £1200 in arrears and now its £1741? Or are the bills saying one quarter you used £1200 and another quarter you used £1500?

If you have a Direct Debit set up then I am assuming this is the balance brought forward on each bill and it is increasing due to the Direct Debit not covering the usage (whether correct or not at this point).

The other thing with having a Direct Debit in place is you shouldn’t be receiving debt collection letters, only maybe Direct Debit increase letters. This point is confusing.

I disagree with the advice of the engineer; E7 is perfect for all electric properties, the difference between E7 and E10 is only the amount of off peak electricity you can use. 10 hours rather than 7, E10 is more of a comfort tariff.

The engineers comments really don’t make a lot of sense to me, the only time I think comments like this would be enforced is if you already had E10, which you didn’t.

Also the comment about you having the wrong meter is misleading, its true that a meter with off peak electricity would benefit you and be cheaper, but it is not a given requirement. There are many electric only properties with single rate meters that don’t offer off peak electricity.

Regarding the early part of your post where you say you didn’t receive E-bills from E.ON, are you aware that as an online customer you don’t receive an E-bill, but an email to tell you to log in to your online account to view the latest bill.

Can you clarify if you have had an actual bill or if the correspondence stating the balance of £1200, £1500 etc are letters not bills?

You say the new meter is using more energy? Do the meter readings reflect this or are you looking at the Direct Debit amount? Increased consumption on the new meter, if the reads reflect this may just be a result of the weather, do you have the figures for this?

To simplify: you had a single rate meter in an all electric property. You were paying £67 per month.

Two documents, which I am guessing are quarterly bills, show a balance increase from £1200 to £1500. This shows that per month your Direct Debit is £100 less than the amount of electricity you have been using on the single rate credit meter.

Therefore the balance is the result of the underpayments of £100 per month when the Direct Debit should have been £167 approx.

The check meter shows the meter wasn’t faulty.

The meter exchange to E10 or E7 will benefit you as you have electric heating.

I am unfortunately in the frame of mind that aside from poor service issues, which there may well have been, that the balance and reasons for the balance are accurate. Of course I don’t have the account in front of me, so I may well be wrong, but this is my analysis.

Poor service issues need to be addressed accordingly without question. Debt collection letters is confusing as you state you have a Direct Debit, so these shouldn’t be being sent. Has the Direct Debit been cancelled at any time during this?

Unfortunately the fact that the property had a meter type that doesn’t/didn’t best suit it is not E.ON’s responsibility.

Now you have a meter that suits the property, your bill amounts should fall, thus making the Direct Debit for consumption less, however the Direct Debit amount now will have to include the repayment of the arrears.

Sorry for the long post, so many questions!

Brian

KimYeovil

Brian, what tosh. In what possible way is an E7 meter more advantageous to a customer without storage heating than E10?

I agree the historical meter choice is nobody's business or responsibility other than the householder as are all the missed bills.

But can you explain your silly suggestions "E7 is perfect for all electric properties", "Now you have a meter that suits the property"? Paying a premium on each and every kWh the householder uses? What's perfect about that?

E.ON_Company_Representative

Sorry Kim,

What I meant was, as the OP has electricity only and storage heating, E7 will be beneficial as more often than not there is more usage on the night rate when the electricity is cheapest.

I didn't mean to suggest E10 was any less advantageous, I was just trying to emphasis that this is seen as a comfort tariff as you get 10 hours rather than 7, but just because there is more reduced rate electricity on E10 it doesn't necessarily work out cheaper than E7.

Sorry for any confusion!

Brian

KimYeovil

Where does the OP suggest they have storage heating?

E.ON_Company_Representative

Hi,

It's an assumption Kim, the OP mentioned 'heater' but I realise this doesn't necessarily mean it's a storage heater.

We'll hopefully find out when the OP comes back with more information.

Brian

Premier_2

If it's all electric, most properties have an electric immersion heater (although admitedly a few do now have huge instantaneous electric water heaters).

Even with an electric immersion heater, the customer may be better of on E7 (or other dual tariff) if they can take advantage of heating the hot water overnight using the cheap rate elkectricity.

I once had a property that had gas central heating, but it was cheaper in the summer to turn off the gas boiler and use an electric immersion heater on E7.
An electric immersion heater is essentially 100% efficient (ignoring any loss of heat from the tank that would be the same no matter how the water was heated); the gas boiler was 60%

Gas costs about 3.675p per unit, but at 60% efficiency that means it'll cost just over 6p per kWh output, whilst E7 electricity costs about 5.5p (night rate).

Yes daytime electricity may be about 10% higher compared to the equivilent single rate tariff, but remember the cheap rate applies to all usage in the 7 hours (that's almost 30% of the day), and if a customer takes advantage of that by using other appliances such as a washing machine, dishwasher, etc on the overnight rate the E7 may well be the best option even in the unlikely event that they don't have storage heaters.

Welshwoofs

I don't get the OP's bills at all.

I live in a 2-bed end of terrace and we have no gas. I'm also with E-ON. In the 3 years I've lived here my direct debit has not gone over £50 a month and I've never had to pay extra when bill time comes round!

I cannot possibly see how a 150yr old end of terrace with little insulation can be £50 a month in usage whilst a 2-bed mid-block apartment is using up £167 a month! I'd also add that I work from home so I'm here all day with 2 computers running, TV on in the background, lights on, kettles boiling frequently for tea, oven going on for lunch etc etc. I also use my immersion heater for a couple of hours each day for bath/washing up water.

There must be something very, very wrong there....it sounds like you're paying the electricity for another apartment on top!!

Andy_WSM

Welshwoofs wrote: »

There must be something very, very wrong there....it sounds like you're paying the electricity for another apartment on top!!

...or your meter is under recording and you are not being billed correctly because £50 a month sounds way too cheap for an all electric property!