EON have taken 3 months to rectify their mistake

hayleysd

On the 21st June i contacted EON as my gas/electric bill was £1000. In November 09 i had a new meter fitted and they did not input the new readings correctly. I have contacted them weekly and given new readings on numerous occasions. I called them again today, 3 months on and they have still got no further and said it could take a further 8 weeks to complete the dispute. My bill has been put on hold for the time being. But when it is finally settled the bill will be huge and probably unaffordable.
I am running out of patience now and need advice please.

maddipops

has your bill been estimated since the meter exchange or has the meter exchange been updated but the removal readings of old meter or the installed readings of new meter were wrong?

If you pay by direct debit Eon will give you the length of time this bill has built up over to repay this bill (plus ongoing usage) so in this case probably about 12 months?

Cant make excuses for them however I can promise you they will get it sorted and offer a repayment plan for the length of time the balance has built up over.

There is nothing stopping you making payments to them in the mean time - call them and ask them to do a manual calculation of what your bill should be once corrected.

PNPSUKNET

3 months isnt long for a utility company.

echoecho_2

Hi Hayley,

unfortunately PNPSUKNET is correct.

Having a bit of industry know how,there are so many third parties involved that things go wrong a LOT. eon may be trying their best to get this sorted out but having to depend on third parties, even with all the will in the world it can take time. Ridiculous, i know.

In the meantime, put the money to one side, ask eon to manually calculate the bill and if you can't afford the bill when it is corrected ask for a payment scheme.

G1598

They will get this sorted out, unfortunately its one of those things that can happen with this industry, basicly how the industry has to be run is probably more complicated then you would think, unfortunately it just has to be that way.

If you have let them know about it and contact them as soon as any problems arrive they will sort it, it just takes time.

The third parties in this will more then likely be the guys who handle the meters, also with this kind of problem it will have to go through a lot of different departments. like i said it will just take time to get sorted.

davidgmmafan

Its been long enough to go to the Ombusmen if its been logged as a complaint, but for the reasons given by others I doubt if this will speed things up any.

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

hayleysd wrote: »

On the 21st June i contacted EON as my gas/electric bill was £1000. In November 09 i had a new meter fitted and they did not input the new readings correctly. I have contacted them weekly and given new readings on numerous occasions. I called them again today, 3 months on and they have still got no further and said it could take a further 8 weeks to complete the dispute. My bill has been put on hold for the time being. But when it is finally settled the bill will be huge and probably unaffordable.
I am running out of patience now and need advice please.

Hi hayleysd and sorry for the late reply.

Unfortunately, as others have posted, problems sometimes occur following meter exchanges and it can take a while to sort them out.

You are doing exactly the right thing in keeping a record of meter readings. These can be used to bill the account accurately once everything has been sorted.

Also, make sure we bill you on the tariff you originally requested, or subsequent replacements, rather than our standard prices.

Once the billing has been corrected and a balance agreed, we will be happy to set up a payment arrangement to spread this over a manageable period.

Thank you for your patience and I'm really sorry it has taken so long to sort this out.

Malc

PNPSUKNET

I would advice, making what you think you should pay onto your account.

Premier_2

PNPSUKNET wrote: »

3 months isnt long for a utility company.

Ain't that the truth!

It took E.on almost 2 years to finally resolve a complaint I once had with them. The longer it went on, the more confused they got.
It didn't help that they moved their call centres to India and back in that period and also changed their computer systems.
(Actually, maybe they hadn't got the main one back in that period, but my case was transferred back to a UK rep once it was clear the Indians had no prospect of resolving it. I even had a direct dial number to the persons desk)
In the end, they decided I had better records than them ... :cool:

So, keep meticulous records yourself. You have a meter; take meter readings regularly and keep a record. You can work out what you owe. E.on have agreed to suspend collection on your account pending resolution of your complaint (as they quite rightly should)

Open a savings account and put the money you calculate as owing into that and earn the interest yourself. The money is better used earning interest for you than some multi-million pound organisation.

If you are really lucky, and can prove your records are better than theirs, you may get as lucky as I did and get E.On to waive all previous charges and start again afresh.:j

Andymoney_2

Sadly I have to concur with others that the meter reading and billing departments in E-ON are a shambles. It wasn't always like this and I've no idea how they've let it get so bad. I understand that it may not help to change supplier, because I'm told they all subcontract out to Siemens and they have a monopoly. Anyone confirm this, or is it a myth I've been peddled? If true, it means they have no incentive to improve, because there is no effective competition.

I had a battle over 18 months to get a new meter registered on their computer, and then they misread the meter which required a further few complaints to correct. I'm now sorted, although I was confused by the final reworking of all bills over that period which by my calculation meant I'd benefitted by about fifty quid. OK for me (except for all the hassle), but that together with the effort they needed to put into correcting things means that all bills must be increased to cover their costs (they won't be reducing dividends because of it). I'd lost the will to live by this point and so left it.

I was also informed that lots of customers had complained that no leaflets are provided with new meters and they had conducted an internal management meeting which had resolved to supply meter reading instructions. This was a year ago. Still no leaflet...

On the bright side, their network operations seem first class when repairs to the supply were needed. Big up for Central Networks. They did a super job, kept me informed all along with progress and what they were going to do next.

mattcanary

Southern amd EON don't contract out to Siemens - they read meters and replace meters themselves. (At least in East Anglia)

I don't think EDF or NPower use Siemens either. However, they probbaly do contact the work out to another company.