E-ON bill for 12 weeks: 350£ !!!

kirsty2010_2

Hi,

Just got a £350 bill for 12 weeks! For a two people household, which after a hefty but now small seeming £170 bill for two winter months has used heating very little, not even at all for a month of the 12 weeks period and only uses the washing machine at night-time low-energy costs.

I just can't believe that, is that a normal size bill? I must add we only have electricity and no gas.

The bill is now also telling me of a new tariff since early Feb which I wasnt informed about before, even though our contract just started in November.

1.) Can they do that? Can I do anything about it?
2.) Can anyone recommend me a cheaper electricity company?

P.S. I have been a customer of E-on for over 5 years now, in my previous 4 people household we never had such high bills, I even took them with me to my new placem, but it may be time for switch.

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena

Hi kirsty2010,

The bill you have received doesn't sound too out of the ordinary for a 3 month winter period in an all electric house.

A few things to check.

Are the all the meter readings used on the bill accurate and have you checked these against your meter.

We did have a price increase in February, is this the tariff change that you refer to, customers should have received a letter about this unless they were unaffected.

What tariff are you on? do you have storage heaters with economy 7?

Have you asked E.ON if there is a better tariff for you and asked them to do a comparison for you.

You can also use the comparison sites to check if you could make savings by changing tariff/supplier, I would advise you to use your usage in kWh as this gives more accurate results.

If I can help any further, just let me know.

Helena

kirsty2010_2

What a disappointing company! On energyhelpline.com E.On turns out to be the most expensive of options, and actually the E.ON EnergyPlan is not even listed as a tariff. This leads me to the next point: I have not once been presented with the various tariff options that you have but E.On has made this least advantageous choice for me by just setting up a plan. Why is that so?

Also, the energy costs are much higher even though we have as a reaction to the last bill massively reduced the use of heating, not using it at all for at least one month, and are only using the washing machine after 11pm. We are also out of the house during the day. The bill is also only for 11 weeks, while the already high one in peak winter for 8 weeks was 'only' 170£! The boiler doesnt have but handwritten E7 on it, if that may mean Economy 7, but I am not sure.

I also did not receive a letter informing me about the terribly increased price since February - after being in contract with you for only three months this is a bit early for a change of contractual conditions...

Thanks.

eurmalian

Sorry, but the E.ON Rep is making a lot of sense there. Ranting at them for it isn't going to change that. £350 is actually a fairly standard bill for 3 months over winter with electric only. Their prices may be higher than most in the area if that's what the comparison site says, but your bill isn't horiffic.

Your claim that you've had the bill for the main winter months already doesn't make too much sense. The coldedst period of the year would be December and January and it's not yet 11 weeks since the end of January. Pretty much all of January must be included on this bill that's just arrived once you include postage times and such.

You also haven't answered the question about whether the meter reads are estimated or not. If the previous bill was to an estimated read, or this one is, then you can't really compare the two at all.

They didn't offer you different tariff options. Did you ask them about any? Or did you just say that you wanted to be with them and leave it at that. If you don't ask about the different rates avaliable you don't really have too much of a platform for complaining that they don't just volunteer them all for you, in case you turn out to be interested.

Finally, complaining about your prices going up because you'd only been with them for three months is silly. What do you expect them to do? Raise the price for everyone else, but those who joined recently get to have it cheaper, because they're... ummm... special. Or something.

spiro

Agree with above, its up to you to request the cheapest tariff. Suppliers dont proactively say 'change to this tariff and save £100 pa'.

Have you checked the readings are actual and not estimates?

On the point about price increases OFGEM allow suppliers 90 days AFTER the price increase to notify customers. So even if they increased the prices on 1st Feb they have until 2nd May to tell you, if it was 28th Feb they have until 5th June.

david39

If you are on Economy 7, you will have 2 meter dials - one for peak period use and the other showing usage in off-peak hours.
Your bill should also be split into 2 separate readings showing the electricity used through each meter.

if you do not have Economy 7 then there is no point in running your washing machine after 11.00pm - you will be paying the same rate for your electricity whatever time of the day or night you use it.

kirsty2010_2

Yes, we have Economy 7 then, and the meter readings were mine.

I really disagree, not every customer can be expected to know that there are different tariff options available at all, if that is never presented. In particular, as in the case of E.On, the only option that was actually presented to me was - within the EnergyPlan - to have direct debit payment for a ridiculous 3% discount. It's very bad information policy and entirely untransparent, playing at the possibility that some customers just go with the most expensive option then.

I think it's the third time now that I am saying it. From a reading period starting at end (! 21st) January (the last bill was paid till Jan 21), one month no heating at all and much effort to save on peak time energy. After all these measures to save energy, all I get after only 3 months in contract is an even more expensive price and a much greater energy bill. From my recent experience in a 4 bedroom, 4 people household energy costs were never that high.

And by the way, it is already almost 12 weeks till the 21st of January, and March really wasnt a winter month at all. Peak cold was December and January, there hasnt been any snow in February.

Andy_WSM

kirsty2010 wrote: »

Yes, we have Economy 7 then, and the meter readings were mine.

I really disagree, not every customer can be expected to know that there are different tariff options available at all, if that is never presented. In particular, as in the case of E.On, the only option that was actually presented to me was - within the EnergyPlan - to have direct debit payment for a ridiculous 3% discount. It's very bad information policy and entirely untransparent, playing at the possibility that some customers just go with the most expensive option then.

I think it's the third time now that I am saying it. From a reading period starting at end (! 21st) January (the last bill was paid till Jan 21), one month no heating at all and much effort to save on peak time energy. After all these measures to save energy, all I get after only 3 months in contract is an even more expensive price and a much greater energy bill. From my recent experience in a 4 bedroom, 4 people household energy costs were never that high.

And by the way, it is already almost 12 weeks till the 21st of January, and March really wasnt a winter month at all. Peak cold was December and January, there hasnt been any snow in February.

Your rant is worthless until you say how much you are actually paying for your energy - per KWh. Comparing to another house, bigger or smaller, is also worthless - do you know the insulation levels in each of these properties? From experience, the number of people in a household makes very little difference to the overall consumption anyway.

Of course it's up to you to check the tariff you are on - no one else is responsible for your bills!

kirsty2010_2

Any insurance company or bank present you with their different options, normally in form of brochure or catalogue, so stop telling me it's my fault that I haven't asked the company for their tariff packages, when obviously it is not self-evident that each and everyone knows electricity providers have different packages. It would clearly be good practice to inform customers right at the beginning with the options that they can provide, and for the customer then to make that decision. Why do they mention direct debit as an option but not that there is a whole list of other packages. Stop blaming me, when the blame is on ommission of customer information!

deshepherd

kirsty2010 wrote: »

Any insurance company or bank present you with their different options, normally in form of brochure or catalogue, so stop telling me it's my fault that I haven't asked the company for their tariff packages, when obviously it is not self-evident that each and everyone knows electricity providers have different packages. It would clearly be good practice to inform customers right at the beginning with the options that they can provide, and for the customer then to make that decision. Why do they mention direct debit as an option but not that there is a whole list of other packages. Stop blaming me, when the blame is on ommission of customer information!

goto www.eonenergy.com
click on "products and services"
click on "electricity only"
... now that wasn't too hard was it

... and click on "prices and discounts", add in your post code etc and you'll get all the prices on a single page.

kirsty2010_2

great thanks, I know that by now.