Energy Misselling successes

dogshome

Hi Shell999 - There is something very strange going on here.
The verbal reason you have been given for the adjusted billing over such a long period just doesn't hold water.
It's reasonable that on any account there will be some Estimated Bills, but for only Estimated bills to have been issued over a period of 4 years is beyond beliefe, and just one proper meter reading in that time would have brought the account properly up to date from the day it was taken.

I suspect that your old meter was examined and found to be running slow - Why else the monthly readings since the new one was installed? - and Eon have been motitoring your new meter to Estimate what your bills would have been if your old meter had not developed a fault.

Most certainly follow Snowmans lead regarding Back-Billing and take up the Eon's reps offer of help, but to protect yourself WRITE to Eon heading the letter Complaint, demanding a written explanation for the late billing adjustments, and copies of all the previous bills that fall within the adjustment period. (They have to supply them )
When you get the bills look for consistency the the Start meter readings being the same as the End meter reading on the previous bill - Look to see if any Estimated reading is followed by a proper reading - Check as best you can that the annual consumption on the old bills differs wildly from the the years bills you have had on the new meter.

Most importantly
This site is littered by posters who have made agreements to pay off debt at X per month, only to be faced with demands for the whole amount some months later.
If you are at the end of the day left with debt to pay off over a period, you must get the total amount to be paid, at what £'s per month in writing.

SnowMan

Shell, with due respect to the EON rep, you probably need some independent help here. Perhaps worth contacting your local CAB to get some help with this and for checking how you stand re back billing. Collect all your bills and taken them all along.

Use the search at the bottom of this page to find your local CAB.

E.ON_Company_Rep_Chris

Some great advice here from the regular posters SnowMan and dogshome, thanks guys :T

CAB and Consumer Focus are excellent organisations for help with energy supplier disputes and information on the Billing Code.

I’d just like to add, that in checking that the billing and balance are correct, I’ll certainly look into whether the code applies and ensure that you’re not being asked to pay for anything that you shouldn’t.

I understand that you’ve already tried to sort this out with us and that you’ve come here for help from those in the know. Now, because there’s such a large payment due and the obvious distress you’re under, I’m concerned that going down the third-party route at this stage may not be the right call.

I’d still encourage you to get in touch Shell, I’ll log a complaint and this will put a hold on everything whilst I look into it for you. We’ll go through things together and then you can consider contacting a third-party for help if you need it.


Hope to hear from you soon, Amanda

wee_scot_lass

traz39 wrote: »

does anyone else have a prepayment meter that takes money from u everytime u charge it up mine does british gas say its because i use my emergency credit and it cost more any advice please

I moved into my flat on the 28th april 2009, and there was a prepayment meter in the flat, i phoned up scottish power and asked them to send me a gas quantum card, which i didn't recieve.anyway i was all electric until the 11th of august 2011, when i got gas central heating installed. when my meter went live, there was a debt of £108.51 on it. aparently this is standing charges since the 24th april 2009. I decided to leave scottish power on the 30th of august after paying in £51.00 and getting the debt down to £74.81 in the 21 days i was SP, and only 33.62 was used for gas, the rest came off the debt and standing charges for the 21 days. I went to eon and the debt was still coming off my meter, i contacted eon and got some of it back. scottish power has sent me a bill for £102.69.Apparently SP didn't put all of my arrears onto the meter and i must pay the £102.69. i think it's disgraceful that companies can charge for just having a meter on your premises doin nothing.especially as my landlord had capped the gas suppy too. companies charge 70% for the debt for prepayment meters. so for every time you top it up with £10.00, there's £7.00 taken off for your debt.

rosemary9468

Further to my post yesterday regarding E.ON....had a Welcome letter from SP stating my DD would be £77.00 based on my usage and even though I had been paying £90.00 DD to EON [before EON wanting to raise it to £147.00 monthly DD]. This is excellent news even though it may rise. Letter says fixed until April 2013.
In the same post I received letter from EON stating that as I had cancelled my DD I would lose the DD discount. I refused to pay £147.00 from the January DD and consider charges like this are THEFT.
Reading the other Posts I see EON pops ups more than most, BUT there is not much to choose. Maybe EON are suffering from keeping their prices low for so long?? There customer service stinks tho!
HAPPY NEW YEAR

sirazs

My mum and dad were struggling with the large bills so I have been helping them to bring down their monthly outgoings... I registered on-line with british gas and kept an eye on the account.
In December we received a bill for over £400 for gas.. we paid this and I was speaking to the agent over the phone, I advised him that the meter reader had not been for a while...he told me that they had estimated the bills and if I wanted i should submit the meter reading on-line.
As there was a difference I submitted the new meter reading. Thankfully we got a refund, £80 for gas and £35 for electric!!
It has disgusted me that had I not checked for my elderly parents who are not IT literate and do not use online services, they would have been overcharged £115! Also they have been billed many times using estimated billing,even though we haven't signed upto to the estimated billing service, when I questioned this the advisor told me that maybe there wasn't a meter reader in the area! It is disgusting that big companies can get away with this underhand tactic! I am now checking every month....

:-(

victor2

sirazs wrote: »

My mum and dad were struggling with the large bills so I have been helping them to bring down their monthly outgoings... I registered on-line with british gas and kept an eye on the account.
In December we received a bill for over £400 for gas.. we paid this and I was speaking to the agent over the phone, I advised him that the meter reader had not been for a while...he told me that they had estimated the bills and if I wanted i should submit the meter reading on-line.
As there was a difference I submitted the new meter reading. Thankfully we got a refund, £80 for gas and £35 for electric!!
It has disgusted me that had I not checked for my elderly parents who are not IT literate and do not use online services, they would have been overcharged £115! Also they have been billed many times using estimated billing,even though we haven't signed upto to the estimated billing service, when I questioned this the advisor told me that maybe there wasn't a meter reader in the area! It is disgusting that big companies can get away with this underhand tactic! I am now checking every month....

:-(

It does state on the bill if an estimated reading has been used and you can just phone in your own readings - what you have to do is read the bill, which your parents may have just taken at face value and not appreciated the complexity of. You don't sign up for estimated billing, they just do it if they haven't had a reading from the customer or a meter reader.
Managing it online means you can view the status (and past bills) without having to get the paper ones, as well as entering your own readings.

oneunluckylady

two years ago when i moved into my rented property which is electric only, i contacted eon energy and gave them an meter reading and was told as i only have electric in my property they will put me on the economy 7 tarrif.
so with every month that has passed up untill october last year i had been payng £30.00 pm . In october i recieved a letter telling me that they had underestimated my bills and that i should in fact be paying £42.00 pm. This being fine i was happy with the direct debit to increase and have never missed a payment since ive been with eon. In january i got a vist from one of their staff to read the meter. My eon online statements are quarterly and as the direct debit was leaving my account each month without fail i mainly only checked my bank account. I checked my eon account online yesterday and saw on my statements and bills that i had been in credit for past two years up untill my recent statment due to vist from their staff saying i now owed £1075.00.
I called them up immediately and was told that yes i have made my payments as requested by them every month, but they had made the mistake of underistimating my bills and that i did infact now owe them £1075.00 i then was asked to give them a meter reading and was told that as i am in an electric only property i was indeed put on the wrong tarrif to begin with and should have been put on an economy 12 tarrif instead and that YES EON had made the mistake of underestimating my bill. i was met with the response that they could only put me on a repayment plan to pay £200.00 pm to clear their mistake.

Obviously upset by this i then followed their online complaint process and contacted their complaints department and spoke to various staff members ,eventually ending up speaking to a manager about their mistake and that i now owed a huge debt due to THIER mistake . I was met with the response of "yes we have underestimated your bills and we agree we did ask for you to pay £30.00 then £42.00 each month and have made every payment by direct debt without fail and yes it does look like you have been put on the wrong tarrif. but you have used the energy and the only way to move forward is to put you on a repayment plan of £190.00 pm. And that although an error has been made we will not discount or reduce the size of the bill now outstanding. They then said that my direct debit will continue to take only £42.00 and will of course put me into further arrears and leave me with a higher arrears balance. When i asked them about the correct amount i should be paying they couldnt give me any figures and couldnt answer my questions about what the price would be each month if had/have been on the correct tarrif. Thry hav left my complaint open.

I am completely at my wits end and i dont know what to do.
i feel that i have a case but can anyone help?
and do i actually have a case or am i going to have to bite the bullet and now pay £190.00 each month for their mistake and continue to fall into arrears?

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Hi oneunluckylady

Please see my reply at the link below.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3820473

Malc

kouloura

I joined EDF on fixed in July 2011, transferred in mid August I did sign up at the door as I wanted a free energy meter and that was what I was promised.

Hassle free switch, however, I noticed in early September that they had collected DD for gas only and not for electric so I emailed them and awaited a reply, I did not receive a reply within their suggested time frame so I gave them a call, I was asked for meter readings which I gave and they arranged to call me back the following day to tell me how much I owed, no call came I rang three times and was basically fobbed off :mad:- I offered to pay by debit card the amount outstanding and was told that the department I was speaking to couldn't accept payment over the phone - WHAT??. Finally in December I received a call to let me know that my account was in arrears as if I didn't know, I was offered a payment plan which I took but wasn't really happy about the way it was offered as it was THERE FAULT FOR NON COLLECTION not mine- I had offered the money. On 1st January I decided that I was going to complain and finally after a couple of emails from them, last week I have been credited with the full amount of the electricity used from Aug - December :T (shame it wasn't the gas!) and they are going to send me an energy monitor - which as yet hasn't arrived but trust me I shall be pestering the life out of them until it comes!!

I have been told by EDF that when you switch the DD is usally set up straight away, however they were awaiting clarification of the meter number as we had a new meter installed and it hadn't been listed correctly and that is why the DD wasn't requested from bank. Don't know if this is true or if they are just fobbing me off.

So I would urge anyone who has had a similar problem to mine to complain and be persistent!