EON & Buchanan Clark harassment and incorrect claims for money

waterwatereverywhere

Hi,

I posted this on someone else's thread which was also about EON but as there have been no replies I thought I would paste it into a new thread here and hope someone has some advice. I'd like to put a letter together for my friend but don't know what is best to say in the letter.

Many thx in advance.

Original Post:

Hi,

A friend of ours has been being hassled by Buchanan Clark Wells (phone calls and ridiculously worded letters) for an EON bill of under £80.

EON are claiming this for electricity but for an address where there was a prepayment meter so there were no bills (a council flat). My friend has phoned EON several times but just gets dim people on the phone who don't or won't listen - when she tells them there could be no outstanding bill because there was a prepayment meter she had one person from EON explain to her that the bill has arisen because "the price of electricity fluctuates"....

She is becoming fed up with the continuous harassment by BCW and Eon threatening to start legal proceedings for monies she does not owe.

Please does anyone have any advice on what she should do? So far she hasn't written to them - she has only telephoned EON repeatedly but they take no notice or action. She is not really good at writing letters but I can help if someone can advise what we should be saying to make the harassment cease.

She has moved address now and is only receiving their letters under a mail redirection which is going to end soon - she is minded that they don't have his new address and to just ignore it but I have said it would be better to put something in writing so there is a record of his attempts in case they proceed to court.

Any help or advice would be much appreciated.

Eager_Elephant

I think your friend needs to follow the information on here:

http://www.eonenergy.com/At-Home/Contact/Complaint/

She should also write to BCW to say that a query has been raised on this account and until this has been resolved she will not be paying any money.

A lot of people do think that by having a pre-payment meter this means they are paying as they go but unfortunately this is not fully the case.

We all know that electricity prices go up and down, for those of us with normal meters we get billed different rates on the next bill but for people on pre-pay meters their meters have to be manually updated. Obviously elec companies cannot get round to everyone in 1 day so over time people's meter's are recalculated but obviously arrears have built up from when they were being charged the lower rate instead of the higher rate.

Unfortunately most people are not aware of this until they move house and give a final meter reading as the arrears would be added onto the meter and paid off over time.

Some elec companies like British Gas etc have agreed not to back charge customers on pre-pay meters but unfortunately Eon has not signed up to this so they can do what they like.

EE

waterwatereverywhere

Thank you so much Eager Elephant for your detailed reply. I've never had a prepayment meter before and so assumed that they worked like they sound, i.e. that you have to pay (buy a token or whatever) for the actual electricity you are using as you go along so that it is impossible for arrears to build up.

When my friend told me what EON had said I really thought someone had got the wrong end of the stick - although I understand what you have said I can't understand why EON can't just increase the price people have to pay to buy the tokens (or whatever) at the time so that everyone knows where they stand and you pay for electricity at its current cost price to avoid the possibility of any debts arising.

This seems incredibly unfair and I doubt a meter reading of any sort was taken when my friend moved out (in stressful circumstances) as they thought they had been paying upfront and knew nothing of this arrangement. So how can they know what the charge EON is now attempting to make is even true and fair?

Has anyone successfully challenged this sort of thing with EON - if so please can you tell me how you went about it?

Thanks again to Eager Elephant for explaining this to me.

DarkConvict

This seems incredibly unfair and I doubt a meter reading of any sort was taken when my friend moved out (in stressful circumstances) as they thought they had been paying upfront and knew nothing of this arrangement. So how can they know what the charge EON is now attempting to make is even true and fair?

It is your responsibility to do a meter reading when you leave and give it to the utility company, if you do not then you can't challenge them as you have pretty much left it upto the wind. You cannot disprove the reading.

I do have to agree i did not know pre-payment meters had to be updated manually. They can broadcast simple signals like time across the country so i assumed the pre-payment meters had a similar function available to pick up a price change.

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Hi WWE

I'm sorry your friend has received poor advice from us about her old Prepayment account.

Sometimes arrears can build up on these accounts for various reasons. Eager_Elephant has highlighted one of the possible reasons where meters are not updated immediately following a price change.

However, this was more widespread on the old Token Meters. Over the last few years we have replaced most of these meters with the much more advanced Key Meters.

With Key Meters, electronic messages can be sent between the supplier and the meter. This allows us to update the meter with the latest prices as soon as they change.

Do you know if your friend had a Token or Key Meter at her old property?

Another reason for arrears is where a debt has been set on the meter, possibly due to previous under payments. Did this happen to your friend?

Sometimes customers use the wrong payment card/device when buying credit. Consequently, the amount purchased does not go on to the account.

These are some of the circumstances that can occur with Prepayment accounts.

Even though prepayment customers buy their energy in advance, we still have a responsibility to periodically issue statements. These show the amount of energy used, the prices charged and payments made.

Where an imbalance occurs, maybe due to one of the reasons above, it will show as a debit balance. Generally, where the arrears are correct and provided the customer is in agreement, this will be put on to the meter to collect at a mutually agreed weekly rate.

However, as your friend has now left the property, it is not possible to do this.

I would suggest talking to our Prepayment people to find out the source of the arrears. Once this has been established, we can look at possible solutions to the problem.

If it is found the arrears are correct, we can look at setting up a payment arrangement to spread the outstanding amount over a more manageable period.

Hope this helps your friend a little. Give me a shout if you need any more info. Alternatively, drop an email to the address in my Profile and I will be happy to take a look at the account.

Malc

PNPSUKNET

roll on the new system for mdp's , it will select the correct supplier no matter whos key it uses.