EON's rubbish computer ....

dshart

jules68 wrote: »

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 !!

Check your latest bill for your latest annual consumption and the expected cost. I am sure you will find that if you divide this by 12 it will come out closer to £67 than £103. If it does phone them and point this out and ask how they can justify the large increase.

This is a con by EON when they want to raise more money they overcharge their customers.

victor2

jules68 wrote: »

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 !!

If the proposed new DD amount is a reflection of the latest price increases and your actual usage, then it may well be what you will spend on utilities over the coming year. Bear in mind that last winter was particularly cold and maybe (hopefully!) you'll use a bit less energy on heating this year.
E.On are not the cheapest supplier around, so use a comparison site to see what comes up and consider switching. Or maybe doing that will make you realise that's the sort of price you're going to have to pay.

DirectDebacle

Would need more information to answer that.

Date you joined Eon and on what tariff.

Was the DD set up when you joined them or did you join on an alternative payment method and then change to DD.

What the initial DD amount was and on what basis the figure was arrived at (e.g. prices and known or anticipated usage).

The terms of the DD. Was it 12 equal monthly payments or some other arrangement.

The full details of how their DD is calculated and administered should have been explained to you before you joined. If you were sent a copy of the T & C's the DD terms may be included or may have been sent as a separate document.

You should have been given a full explanation as to why the DD was being increased. E.g. change of usage, debt on the account, price change. What were they?

Edit.

Noted post by dshart. Good advice but you have to have all the information they used to raise the DD before you can argue with them.

Tomo85

dshart wrote: »

Check your latest bill for your latest annual consumption and the expected cost. I am sure you will find that if you divide this by 12 it will come out closer to £67 than £103. If it does phone them and point this out and ask how they can justify the large increase.

This is a con by EON when they want to raise more money they overcharge their customers.

It would be ok dividing your annual consumption by 12 and expecting to pay that amount however that is not how eon calculate their direct debit system. They aim to have zero balance in April/May/June.

Jules68 reasons why your direct debit may have increased are:
Estimated meter reads
Your prices have been affected by the recent price increase
Your consumption has increased
Eon estimate that you will have a debit balance at your annual review which will be in April, May or June.

Best thing to do is see if you are on the cheapest tariff available and also ask what month your annual review date is, its okay to get them to agree to keep your DD at a lower amount but come next year they will only want to increase it again!

dshart

Tomo85 read my post #20 and you will see how EON work. This happened to me twice in my time with EON and it is a very shoddy practice.

I can understand them not wanting a debit balance on the account but they seem to want accounts with major credit. If a persons account was assessed between in June and the direct debit set up to cover their expected use for the next 12 months, how can they justify a 54% increase in the DD payment 4 months later, unless they have made a mess of their calculation or there has been a massive increase in consumption. The 54% increase cannot be explained by their price rises as these were no more than 25%.

It cannot be due to estimated meter readings either as at the annual review they make sure they have a correct reading. Blaming it on a computer is also wrong as the computer only does what it is programmed to do and they program it to overcharge to ensure accounts are always in credit.

It should be a very simple system especially if you have been with them for a few years. They know your average usage they know their tarifs so at annual review they should work out your expected bill for next 12 months. Divide this by 12 and come up with your monthly DD add to that a slight premium to allow for fluctuations and there you have it. With this you should end up with a zero balance or slight credit at the next review. If not you identify why and amend for working out the next years DD.

They know that consumption will increase in winter so they should not use that as an excuse to raise the DD.

backfoot

Just bringing this back to the top to see if the Eon Reps can give a worked example as requested in DD's post 17 and my post 18, giving some illustrative figures.

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena

DirectDebacle wrote: »

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.

Hi DirectDebacle,

Sorry, Malc isn't here at the mo.

I'm not sure I completely understand what your after, as we have explained the way the DD works a number of times on the forum.

But I will try and clarify your points as you have addressed them.

When you set up a monthly Direct Debit you will be given the DD guarantee and how much you will be paying etc.

If you change from a payment plan to DD then you will get the info regarding your payments at the point of change.

The explanation of the spring review can be found on the link in Malc's post and then click on our Direct Debit scheme explained.

As Malc has also said, customers can come to us and ask for info and calculations on their DD's and we will be happy to help.

Helena

DirectDebacle

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena wrote: »

Hi DirectDebacle,


When you set up a monthly Direct Debit you will be given the DD guarantee and how much you will be paying etc.

If you change from a payment plan to DD then you will get the info regarding your payments at the point of change.


Helena

It is the detail I wanted to see. I am sure your DD agreement is probably a standard form sent with the T & C's.

Could you complete one using the info given by backfoot (post #18) and post it on this thread please.

Thanks

grizzly1911

I am with Airmike on this one.

I was with Eon, they honoured my forecast annual consumption when I went to them in June/July. By the March/April they had reduced slightly and I came out of it at virtually nil when I left them in July as they were no longer competitive.

This has been the same with all suppliers I have paid for with DDR.

As Airmike has said the real issues are where you have fallen behind somewhere in the cycle and this is forecast is to get worse over the cycle.

If you know your consumption and your DDR reflects this and you are not catching up I have found that they will accommodate reasonable requests. Evidenced with my Mothers bills/usuage/DDR.

I don't like monthly DDRs and it is obvious that they are engineered to assist the companies cashflow more than our budgeting.

Warning just wait till we get smart meters and they can vary the price on time of consumption remotely.:eek:

dshart

EON really take the biscuit. Despite me making several calls as to why they had increased my direct debit and eventually getting them to agree that there was no reason for an increase they went ahead and took the increased amount by DD yesterday.

I think it is because I am in the process of changing suppliers they just want to mess me around as much as possible. I am already over £200 in credit so they have no fear that on transfer there will be a debit balance.