EON's rubbish computer ....

brewerdave

When I joined EON in late Sept 2009 I was concerned about the "zero balance in the Spring" situation with resultant higher than expected DDs.....HOWEVER, via the EON rep. Brian on this forum I got an assurance that my DD would not be reviewed until Spring 2011,allowing a build up of credit in Summer 2010, which actually happened.

backfoot

brewerdave wrote: »

When I joined EON in late Sept 2009 I was concerned about the "zero balance in the Spring" situation with resultant higher than expected DDs.....HOWEVER, via the EON rep. Brian on this forum I got an assurance that my DD would not be reviewed until Spring 2011,allowing a build up of credit in Summer 2010, which actually happened.

Then what happened?

How did the payment amount change after this review?

brewerdave

backfoot wrote: »

Then what happened?

How did the payment amount change after this review?

My payments decreased as I had a small positive balance in May - actually decreased to less than I calculated was necessary but as I intended to move at end of June when the late,lamented FixOnline 8 vanished I wasn't bothered as it meant a smaller credit to claim back.


However as I moved to EDF ....THE LEAST SAID ABOUT COMPUTERS THE BETTER.....:rotfl:

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

backfoot wrote: »

What is described is a completely flawed process. The more so, the further away from April that your Supply first commenced.It would result in a customer having to pay more than the cost of their annual consumption.

Can the Eon Reps confirm whether or not Airmike's description is correct, please?

Hi backfoot

Helena posted something about this earlier in the week. Thought it might help if I link to this.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3529335

Posts 4 and 8.

To summarise, we aim for as near to a zero balance as poss by the time of the spring review (April - June). To help achieve this, payment arrangements are reviewed and adjusted, if necessary, following each bill.

Calculations are based on recent past usage and the tariff. Any outstanding balance is added and the total divided by the number of months to the spring review.

We're always happy to review arrangements at any time.

Hope our joint effort is of interest backfoot. Give us a shout if you need any more info as will be happy to help.

Malc

Airmike23

backfoot - My description is right and I spend a good portion of my day advising folks on how to manage this. I wasn't saying it was right, just that is the system, the majority of all the energy company's use to manage mdd paying customers, the change came in Autumn of 2008, for many of the company's it took a while to implement so it wasn't until 2009 this started to take effect. You do not pay more ytour energy costs, regretfully the trend seems to be at one point have a higher than necessary mdd because there is an os bal on acc or minimal credit heading into winter period, so billing system re calcs payments to cover end of autum winter and til about april/may time and then when reviewed in spring their mdd gets halved eg oct- apr £120pm apr to oct £60pm thsi si v frustrating for custs who do not challenge or clarify these changes as they see their mdd double, and then halve and the explanation sent on the bill when the mdd is increased is long winded and poorly structured thus most folks don't even bother to read why their mdd is being increased and how their energy company manages their account for them. Remember all of the energy comapnys have millions of customers, with 10K's of bills being rpoduced daily there is simply not the resource to have an individual or even dept of individuals reviewing every account, that is why I advise customers that the incr is sytem generated if they disagree with the increase, ort decrease in mdd to call the power co and callenge it, just because inetrnal policy is nil bill by spring each year doesn't mean the customer has to accept an increase, but they need to do something about it, most people switch which leads to the same prob with a different co 6-9 months latter and they are sure the whole industry is crooked and trying to rip them off, whereas if they got an explanation and asked for it to be set realistically then the energy co would be happy to do so. EG annual cost £1200 ave mdd £100, adequecy autumn adjusts mdd to £130 as nil bal to cover winter usage then when spring review comes drops mdd to £65, neither are right, but agreeing to set the mdd back to £100 is not a problem. Is when customers want an mdd of £80 and there average usage is £110, they are already in debit and then call up when get mdd incr letter and want it putting back to a payment amount each month that is not realsitic is when the real probs occur. It is not the best system, yet no one else has come up with an alternative.

DirectDebacle

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc wrote: »

Hi backfoot

Helena posted something about this earlier in the week. Thought it might help if I link to this.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3529335

Posts 4 and 8.

To summarise, we aim for as near to a zero balance as poss by the time of the spring review (April - June). To help achieve this, payment arrangements are reviewed and adjusted, if necessary, following each bill.

Calculations are based on recent past usage and the tariff. Any outstanding balance is added and the total divided by the number of months to the spring review.

We're always happy to review arrangements at any time.

Hope our joint effort is of interest backfoot. Give us a shout if you need any more info as will be happy to help.

Malc

Hi Malc,

At what point of the sign up/switch procedure is this information given and what detail will it contain?

At what point is this information given to existing customers who change from a different payment plan to monthly DD?

Is there a working example explaining how your spring review works in practice?

I have read this http://www.eonenergy.com/directdebit.htm (How does Direct Debit Work?) and can see how it could lead to customer confusion.

Thanks.

backfoot

Please use my gas bill for the example.

Annual bill £1200.

I join Eon on 1st December.

2/3 of my annual consumption is from December to March.

I would expect my DD to be £100 per month. Consumption pattern is constant from year to year.

dshart

I have been with EON for several years now and this is the second time they have tried a similar increase in DD payment by an unreasonable amount. Each time I have already been in credit and I have had to call them up and argue it out with them.

In the most recent case I was in credit at my annual review in June and they refunded about £260 to me and in September my account was already £210 in credit yet they still wanted to increase my DD by £50/month. When I spoke to them they gave all sorts of excuses such as it was coming into winter and as such my useage would go up, and that they had recently had large increases in their prices.

Even when I spoke to a manager and explained how their calculation was wrong (I used their expected annual usage based on previous figures times their new charges) he said he would check it out and call back, but never did. I eventually spoke to another manager who agreed that my DD did not need to change.

In the end I was so annoyed with them I checked on one of the comparison websites and was able to find a cheaper supplier and I am now in the process of transferring.

EON like your account to be in credit at all times, I guess it saves them a lot of money to fund their projects. Imagine if everyone of their millions of customers was on average £100 in credit, that is hundreds of millions credit they are holding.

The whole point of an annual review should be to assess your useage for the past year and use that to project your usage going forward and based on their charges for the forthcoming year that should set your DD for that year. This should not change or be subject to review unless it can be shown that your usage for some reason has increased significantly (not because it is winter as this is already in the average) or their charges have increased. Any review based on season is just a con to get more money from you.

dshart

backfoot wrote: »

Please use my gas bill for the example.

Annual bill £1200.

I join Eon on 1st December.

2/3 of my annual consumption is from December to March.

I would expect my DD to be £100 per month. Consumption pattern is constant from year to year.

Using your figures and from my experience with EON, what will happen is that at your annual review lets say June they will calculate your annual usage to be £1200 and will set your DD to £100. The problem is come September they will say you need to increase your DD as it is coming into winter and your usage will rise and they dont want you going in debit (despite the fact that you may already be in credit) so they will increase your DD to £150 and it will remain like that till your next review in June by which time you have paid somewhere in the region of £1650 (3 x £100 and 9 x £150).

They will then do your annual review and if your consumption has not increased you will be £450 in credit of which they will probably refund £350 leaving you £100 in credit and reduce your DD to £100 and the cycle starts again.

They may tell you this is not how it works but it is exactly what happened to me.

jules68

SO Angry!!!! Got my letter from EON to say that my DD is increasing from £67 to £103!!! I phoned them up and said I cannot afford that. They said there is nothing they can do about DD and as an alternative I can go on a pay plan but will not get my 8% discount. I have always paid by direct debit and even when I was with southern electric the most I ever paid was £80. Why cant I change the DD? Now £103 pound will come out !!