EON Energy are having my pants down

chrisbungles

Please can anyone give me any advice?

I live in a 1bed apartment and use EON as my electricity supplier, I do not have gas.
I have lived here for nearly 2 years now.

When I first moved in my estimate for usage was around £30 pm which I was very happy with and paid regularly, after 6 months I provided meter reading and it went upto £50 pm, ok so not bad... BUT

around 8 months ago I had a bill from EON stating I was in credit by £70 so I did not pay my next bill, after that I then received a bill for £700 which was shocking in the same week I then received one for around £800 then one for over £1200 !
as you can expect I was straight on the phone to find out what the hell was going on, they told me that my original estimate was to low and this is a bill for my consumption since I moved in, I mentioned that I received 3 bills for different amounts all in the same week and they said that these were an error.

So for the last 6 months I have been paying £256 pm which has made me broke and struggling to live through the month, now I have had another bill saying my direct debits will be going upto £325 pm!! I have contacted EON, they told me that this was to pay my arrears of by April even though I have never missed a payment how can they do this? I even provided new meter readings which where well below the estimate but it made no difference to my bill, they have changed my direct debit already and I am so distressed and don't know what to do because I can not afford this any more it is a complete joke.

What can I do?
I am considering switching providers and leaving them to chase me for the debt but I do not want a ccj ? any advice please would be great, every time I try and phone them I'm just on hold for hours and it's costing me a fortune.

thanks for taking the time to read this.
Chris

crazyguy

Bend over and take it like a man,...........

Sorry couldnt resist that one if you default you will likely get a ccj, there is an eon rep on here somewhere have a look and pm them.

victor2

Was the only reading you provided the one you gave after 6 months and the rest were (low) estimates?
If the current balance is correct and using an accurate reading, then it sounds like E.On are recovering the debt as well as billing you for ongoing usage.
Not too much you can do about the debt if it's correct but pay it. However, if you accept that and talk to E.On about it, they may come to a repayment plan that won't hit you too hard.
In the meantime, look at your actual usage and ways to reduce it so that more of your monthly payment is going towards the debt.
No point refusing to pay what you owe, that will only get you into deeper trouble.

undaunted

I'm a little confused by your post. You say ".......I even provided new meter readings which where well below the estimate but it made no difference to my bill......."

Are you therefore saying that the direct debit figures now being proposed are based on the latest and incorrectly estimated bill?

If not do you accept that the estimates originally made were too low, you have used more electricity than you've paid for & the £1200 you mention is therefore correctly owed for electricty you have used?

If you do owe £1200 (or they currently believe you owe them even if they are wrong) your attempt to switch is likely to be blocked I'm afraid so you do need to sort this out somehow.

Have you written to the supplier with your queries? If not I would so so rather than rely on call centre staff

You could of course cancel your direct debit if they are taking more than you can afford and will not discuss other arrangements - though you may need to consider what impact this could have on any tarriff benefits you may gain by paying on DD & it won't remove the need to sort out the debt / balance issue by some other means.

If you are unclear how to proceed your local CAB or Community Legal advice centre or The Consumer Credit Counselling Service could offer you free help with this (and if appropriate any other debts you may have).

Giddytimes

I presume you're on an Economy 7 meter if you have no gas?

They might either have your readings the wrong way around, or have you set up on the wrong tariff so you're paying the higher day rate for all your useage. It's a common problem.

Take a meter reading yourself, your meter should state which is the low rate and which is the day rate- check they have these the right way around.
If they have them the right way round now check how they had them when you moved in. It's possible they may have flipped the readings half way though you living there, resulting in a massive bill.

The bill should also have a high and low rate, if you're being billed the same rate for every unit your tariff is probably set up incorrectly.

jalexa

chrisbungles wrote: »

What can I do?

Electricity is sold by "meter reading". You would get more meaningful help from forum members if you posted meter readings not £££s.

Also information about the type of heating you have.

Giddytimes

On reflection by my reckoning you've paid about 2,200 over 2 years? 90 a month isn't actually that high considering you have no gas.

I'd still check the readings and tariff but you might find it's correct.

How much are they saying your arrears still are right now?

chrisbungles

Thanks for all the quick replies guys, yes I have given new accurate readings and the direct debit that i can view online is still at £325 pm, the trouble with the readings is they are outside my flat and I have to get concierge to do the readings, so it's not easy to keep track and get readings, the comment regarding the readings being flipped around is interesting and I have also thought this might be the case as I was told by EON that my day usage is higher than night usage which is odd as I am hardly ever in during the day as I work 9-5 !

chrisbungles

Giddytimes wrote: »

On reflection by my reckoning you've paid about 2,200 over 2 years? 90 a month isn't actually that high considering you have no gas.

I'd still check the readings and tariff but you might find it's correct.

How much are they saying your arrears still are right now?

The current arrears are £850 I have paid £256 for the last 5-6 months now they have bumped it up to £325 which is the issue, thanks for the reply

Giddytimes

chrisbungles wrote: »

I was told by EON that my day usage is higher than night usage which is odd as I am hardly ever in during the day as I work 9-5 !

The day rate runs until about 10pm from memory, but your storage heaters should be set up to store heat at night on the low rate and release this through the day as required.
Another problem could be that the timers are wrong on your storage heaters, if they are out of sync then they will be storing up the heat on the more expensive day rate.

I'd start by checking the day and night readings are the right way around now and when you moved in, that's the most common issue with Economy 7 billing, especially if the day and night readings are similar/were similar at any point since you moved in.

murphydog999

My DD with eon is £100 a month (and I'm in credit) and I've got a 5 bed stone built victorian house, so unless you like living in a sauna, how on earth does a 1 bed flat have electric bills so high, something is very wrong.