e.on EnergyOnline, very misleading letter. Buyers beware!

Parchester

I received a letter from e.on today informing me that my EnergyOnline ExtraSaver 13 plan was ending on 1 August 2010 and that I would be moved on to the standard EnergyOnline plan. My combined dual fuel, direct debit and online discount would fall from 14.7% to 10%

The basic prices would, however, remain the same except that the new tariff has no Standing Charge. This is of course, total twaddle. All it means is that the Standing Charge costs are built into the price of the first block of units. Working back from the unit prices and the size of the block (or annual threshold as they call it) you can see that the electricity standing charge is increasing from £120.95 to £121.34 per year (including VAT), while the gas standing charge goes up from £79.68 to £90.22 per year. That is not what I call 'my prices remaining the same'. In fact it represents a 0.5% increase in my basic annual bill before any discounts.

Just to confuse matters further, the table showing the old and new contracts mistakenly gives the price for the old standing charge as p/kWh, when it should be p/day. Does nobody proof read these things before they get sent out?

Together with the reduced discount I therefore faced a 5.7% increase in my total annual bill from 1 August.

The only helpful sentence in the letter was the one saying 'Alternatively, you can log into your account to see our latest online offers'. Which I duly did and it was a good job because - lo and behold - there is the FixOnline8 tariff. Exactly the same unit rates, but a total discount of 26.4% fixed to 1 July 2011. This will save me 13.3% off my current tariff and a whopping 18.2% off what they would otherwise have dumped me onto.

So, to summarise, e.on could have just left me on my existing deal and I would have been none the wiser. But their clumsy attempt to extract more money from me via a letter containing half-truths, misprints and no mention of the better deals available prompted me to do the research and end up considerably better off.

Nice try guys, but I win this round!

joedenise

Same here but I knew I was due to be coming to the end of my fixed deal so had already checked on line to see what I was going to change to and just phoned them and they changed it there and then even though there was still a month to go on the old fix.

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Hi Parchester

I'm sorry if the letter you have received is not too clear and also contains errors.

If you would like to send me examples of these, I will happily feed them back to the relevant people. Please drop an email to the address in my Profile.

Just for info, we no longer offer any tariffs with a daily standing charge to customers with credit meters. Instead, all our credit tariffs now have a two tier charging structure.

As your existing tariff has a daily standing charge, we are no longer able to offer a direct replacement.

The product we have offered is the nearest available to your existing arrangement without any tie-ins.

Part of the agreement with customers opting for online tariffs, like Extra Saver 13, is that they manage their accounts online. This is partly why extra discount is given on these tariffs.

All our current products are listed on the website and can be accessed at any time by logging on to your account. This is why the letter we sent directed you to this area.

Most of these products have certain conditions, like time restrictions and cancellation fees, which all customers may not wish to take up.

If a customer chooses to take no action, we still need to put them on a tariff once their existing product runs out. Therefore, by putting them on a tariff with no restrictions, they can switch product/supplier at any time in the future without difficulty.

Hope this explains why you were offered the replacement tariff in question and why you were directed to the website for the alternatives. Give me a shout if you have any more questions as will be happy to help.

Malc

specialsparky

Hi Parchester,
If you run your acccount on line then I am surprised that you wern't aware of Fix on line 8 and have moved before. It is very clear on Eon site and says something like "comapare tariffs" and you click on there and it tells you what you are paying and what else is available. The letters aren't meant to be confusing it more likely the ridiculous legal regs that suppliers have to go to. They are not allowed to move you to another "deal" and have to move you to standard as moving you to another deal would be seen as anti competitive. So blame Ofgem not your supplier.
Good luck you have a cracking deal same as me
Hope this helps
I beleive Eon to be pretty good supplier.

Parchester

Like most people who 'run' their account online, this basically consists of doing the initial comparison, signing up and then sitting back apathetically and letting them get on with it unless prompted to do something by a letter from the supplier or comment in the MSE newsletter.

My fault I know, but had they not ended my current deal, I would have continued blissfully unaware that there was a cheaper alternative and they would have carried on making more money out of me. Seems a strange way to run a business!

My main beef with the letter was not that is was confusing. It was the blatant lie that the basic prices were not changing, when in fact the change to the standing charge arrangement concealed an increase and then they carelessly got the units wrong in the comparison table. Very unprofessional.

jdm01

specialsparky wrote: »

Hi Parchester,
If you run your acccount on line then I am surprised that you wern't aware of Fix on line 8 and have moved before. It is very clear on Eon site and says something like "comapare tariffs" and you click on there and it tells you what you are paying and what else is available. The letters aren't meant to be confusing it more likely the ridiculous legal regs that suppliers have to go to. They are not allowed to move you to another "deal" and have to move you to standard as moving you to another deal would be seen as anti competitive. So blame Ofgem not your supplier.
Good luck you have a cracking deal same as me
Hope this helps
I beleive Eon to be pretty good supplier.

Just noticed this when doing a comparison (was thinking of leaving EON) - http://www.energyhelpline.com/xhl/news.aspx?tiid=820&p=1

In fairness, it looks as though the good deals are being withdrawn as well, what's going on?

J

NeverInDebt

They are withdrawing some tariffs as you know

dont worry other tariffs will appear

Can you still afford your sky?

jdm01 wrote: »

J

In fairness, it looks as though the good deals are being withdrawn as well, what's going on?

J

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

jdm01 wrote: »

Just noticed this when doing a comparison (was thinking of leaving EON) - http://www.energyhelpline.com/xhl/news.aspx?tiid=820&p=1

In fairness, it looks as though the good deals are being withdrawn as well, what's going on?

J

Hi jdm

Just for info, our Fixonline 8 was withdrawn from sale at the end of last week. At the same time, we released Saveonline 2 as a replacement tariff.

Always best to check out the comparison sites to see what the best deal for you is.

Please also be aware, we don't give discount on final bills when changing supplier. Therefore, try and make sure you time a move away to lessen the impact of this.

Hope this helps jdm. Give me a shout if you need any more info as will be happy to help.

Malc