Help - In a bit of a sticky one!!!

ruthie77

Hi all, this is my first post, I hope someone can help.

We were absolutely suckered in!!!

We got a call a year back September from a representative of EON offering us the chance to switch energy companies and we went through our usage and set a dd amount.

Now, when we got our first annual statement we ended up owing them £473!!!! So straight away we got on the phone and asked for an explanation. We were advised at that point that the company that "sold" us their product were an external company aand they couldn't trace the initial call. We were assured that a manager would call us back and guess what.............no call!!!

We called back and were again assured they would look into this and call back. In the meantime they would reduce the amount we owed by, this is the punchline, £18!!!!!!

We have now had our first bill in after the winter and we now owe them £994!!!!! They want to put our direct debits up to £355 a month!!! Now how many people can afford that with a house to run and 3 kids!!!

We've registered an official complaint with them and basically hit a brick wall. We don't really know where to go now. They say we can't pay any less than the average usage, we understand that we've used the gas and electric and have to pay for it, but surely you would think that someone complaining to them about this twice would make them look into it further.

Please help..........what do we do next???

Premier_2

Check your meter readings, ensure they are actual not estimated.

You will have to pay for what has been recorded by the meter (unless you can prove the meter is faulty).

Monthly direct debits only go towards paying the resultanmt bill. Obviously the hope is that the monthly amount is 1/12 of your actual annual consumption ... but when it isn't you need to pay the balance.

The supplier should be able to increase the monthly payment to take account of your increased usage and a portion of the amount you now owe so that you don't have to pay the whole amount in one go. (Check that is what they have proposed)

KimYeovil

I don't understand what the problem is. You switched company, you paid x amount per month. You used a y amount of power. The instalments you paid only cover a part of the useage. Your new instalments are adjusted to cover your balance plus an estimate for your ongoing useage.

There are meters in your home - you are supposed to look at them now and then to compare how much you are paying with how much you are using. If there is a disparity you know you will have to catch up somehow.

I am not sure why you are complaining - why does it matter if you have complained twice, three times or a hundred times. What is there to look at further?

ruthie77

Premier wrote: »

Check your meter readings, ensure they are actual not estimated.

You will have to pay for what has been recorded by the meter (unless you can prove the meter is faulty).

Monthly direct debits only go towards paying the resultanmt bill. Obviously the hope is that the monthly amount is 1/12 of your actual annual consumption ... but when it isn't you need to pay the balance.

The supplier should be able to increase the monthly payment to take account of your increased usage and a portion of the amount you now owe so that you don't have to pay the whole amount in one go. (Check that is what they have proposed)

Thanks Premier,

We understand that we've used the gas and electricity, and we're not disputing that we need to pay for it, and sorry I maybe should have made this point before.

With our previous supplier we paid about £9 a month more on direct debit, but at the end of each year they owed us money!!! We're now in a situation where we owe our supplier around 10 times more than we were owed by our previous supplier on an annual basis!!

Premier_2

Either prices increased and/or you used more. Simples.

How many kWh per year did you use with the previous supplier?

How many kWh per year have you used with the current supplier?

Gurn_2

£9 a month?!?!?

27col

I certainly would not have bothered to change supplier for the sake of £9 a month. It sounds as if you did not compare the cost per Kwh between the new supplier and the old supplier. I notice that you have not said how much per month you were paying the old supplier. You need to tell us if you are to get any meaningful advice. You also need to tell us what your Kwh's were for the old company and for the new company. Do not forget that this last winter was particularly long and cold so it was quite likely that you might have owed your old supplier money had you stuck with them.

E.ON_Company_Representative

Hi ruthie77,

If you provided accurate usage figures in kWh you were quoted by our sales representative then the Direct Debit amount they set you up on should have been relatively accurate.

May I ask how much you were quoted per month?

You say you received the first annual statement and you were £473 in arrears, did this statement cover 12 months? Or did you receive quarterly or six monthly bills?

I ask because you should have receive more than one bill per year, earlier bills would have shown the Direct Debit amount you started paying was not covering your consumption.

I’d have thought the deficit is unlikely to be purely the result of the difference between the previous supplier tariff and the newer E.ON tariff. So this suggests that something else is the cause to the debit situation.

As others have suggested this is quite likely a result of an increase in consumption.

The Direct Debit can be spread over a longer time frameif you are struggling with the new suggested Direct Debit amount, please ask when discussing this with us if the repayment of the baance can be spread to make things easier for you.

Brian