£1000 Bill

lauraloo1_2

Hello

I am currently with E-On. When I moved in to my current apartment, I received a letter from E-On within the first few days stating that they do my electric and I am on a Standard-Charge electricity plan. I rang up and set up my direct debit which was around £30, over the next two years it raised to £70 per month.

Two weeks ago, I received a phone call from E-On explaining that there had been a mistake made. They informed me that I was not actually on the Standard-Charge Plan but was, in fact on the Energy Plan (Economy 7 meter) which means that my electricity is really expensive during the day but cheap at night. When E-on have been to read my electricity meter on the rare occasion, they have only taken the day reading and not the night reading so I have only ever been charged for the day use of electricity. She said I would receive a up to date bill in the post.

Days later, a bill came claiming I owed £682 and they needed to up my direct debit to £130 to cover the disputed amount. I rang back and explained I wasnt happy about this. She informed me that before they could go further that they needed the original meter reading from when I first moved in to the property as the amount they want to pay is, in fact, only an estimated amount. I gave her this and am waiting for the correct bill to arrive in the post.

Since then, she has contacted me explaining that a bill is on its way out to me and the amount is now £1041.

I am aware that, of course I have been using this electricity but if I had been aware that I was on this type of plan, I would have been using my electricity more at night.

My partner has since been on the phone to E-On and they have admitted that they knew of this error 3 years ago (before I had even moved in). So they knew of the mistake, chose not to correct it or inform me, then 2 years later decide to send me a bill of over £1000.

Any advice?

Many thanks

spiro

Couple of points here:
1) When you received a bill and checked the meter reading did you not notice there was 2 readings in the meter but only 1 on the bill?
2) Hopefully you have the date and time of the call when they admitted the error or at least the name of the person, because hopefully they will have a recording or log of the call and this would enable you to invoke the Back Billing Rule which only allows them to back bill 1 year.

Gloomendoom

I'm confused. I thought you said that you had being paying for the day rate only and that Eon had mistakenly not charged you for the night rate.

spiro

Gloomendoom wrote: »

I'm confused. I thought you said that you had being paying for the day rate only and that Eon had mistakenly not charged you for the night rate.

Not billed for the night rate consumption i.e. 30% of the day.

Gloomendoom

spiro wrote: »

Not billed for the night rate consumption i.e. 30% of the day.

If the difference is £682 over a year, that is an awful lot of electricity at night rates.


Edit: By way of comparison, I live in an ancient largish three bedroom gas heated house and my combined gas/elec bill is less than £100 a month. I'm on Eon Economy 7 too.

lauraloo1_2

Spiro:

1) When i received the bill and checked the meter reading, i didnt notice there were two readings as you have to press this tiny button to get the second reading, it is not very obvious at all.
2) I have logged all the dates and times or calls etc. I didnt know about the 12month back billing rule. thankyou for that!

Gloomendoom:

Yes I have only been paying for the day rate. They have not charged me for the night rate ever. I was never even aware that there was a night rate as I was informed that I was just on a standard charge plan where there is one meter reading and i just pay as i go along. The £1041 that they are trying to charge me is for the past two years of night rate.

Gloomendoom

How do Eon know how many night units you have used since you moved in?

pippitypip_2

I would think you have a claim for being mis-sold - how can they charge you at one rate when you were supposedly on another?

Do you have anything confirming what rate you're on? i.e. the standard one?

If you have a go enough that bill will come right down - it's not fair. Make sure you get a full and final breakdown of the charges and are happy it's fair before paying.

hth,
pippitypip.

dogshome

Hi lauraloo 1 - In all the posts there is no mention of how you are heating your home - Is it by gas?

It's not uncommon for dwellings that were built with ECO 7 meters & heating, to later have had Gas heating & HW installed by a subsequent owner, (who sometimes neglected to tell the Elec supplier of the change).
What should happen at this point is that the Elec supplier when they are told, either installs a 'Standard' electric meter or opts to simply add the Day & Night rate readings together and charge the total at 'Standard' rate.

If you are on Gas and it is supplied by Eon you have a good case to argue, as well as the fact that Eon seem to have ignored the problem for 3 years.
The problem remains that your Night rate meter's readings have not been charged for so you will owe Eon some money, but be aware that with Gas heating & HW the Night rate meter's readings will be very low, which means that if Eon back-track your bills they will be charging the majority of your power at the 'Premium' priced Day rate - up to 50% more thean 'Standard' electric.

If you are on gas inform Eon by Email today, then demand fully itemised bills for any period they want to back-chargeGood Luck

hellow_2

Hi,

We have had a problem with EoN too trying to ask for money back because their meter readers were billing the rates the wrong way round.

They see to be making a lot of mistakes like this i am waiting to see what the damage of their mistake is like and i ll report back but i am aiming to collect a load of people and go to watchdog as this whole thing seems very fishy.

Appareantly other people in our flat have also had calls from EoN quoting the same thing.

lauraloo1_2

Thanks for your comments and help. I do not have gas in my property, it is only electricity so that is why it is so expensive. My flat has storage heaters installed in each room to heat the flat. I am still waiting upon the woman from e-on to ring me back on monday re this issue.