EON gas debt - what do I do?

JS33

Hi everyone,

New member here in need of a bit of advice please.

I changed my gas & electricity supplier from EON to NPower a couple of months ago. I have pre-payment meters for both and had no debt on my meters.

After the switch i was sent a final bill by EON totalling £41.60. It says on the bill that this is based on an estimated meter reading. At no point during the switch did EON ask me for meter readings and I have had no explanation of why I owe this money.

It rubs salt into the wounds when the reason I left EON in the first place was because their high prices meant that, even with a 2 year old in the house, we couldn't afford to have the heating on for more than a couple of hours a day as it was!

I admit i buried my head in the sand about this final bill and ignored it instead of ringing EON. They have now passed the debt to UDS who have now sent an 'intention of court action' notice which says a rep (bailiff?) could call to my address to collect the money.

I've read about recalibration charges - when tariff prices change but the meters are not updated to reflect them? - and think this may be why they claim i owe them money. But at no point did EON ever contact me to say my meter needed updating or try to arrange this.

So where do I stand on this? Can they take me to court for a bill that is only an estimated one? Is it too late for me now to contact EON themselves seeing as it is in the hands of UDS? Can a bailiff remove items from my property for debt like this?

I know, compared to some, my debt is a pitiful amount but it is the principle that's the issue here more than the actual amount. Quite a few years ago i changed supplier from Yorkshire Electricity to Scottish Power. That time i was sent a final bill of (I think from memory) £190 - despite again having no debt to them and being on prepayment meters. In the end (after numerous phone calls back & forth and getting no explanation of why i owed this) I ended up borrowing this money from a family member to pay them off & rid myself of this "debt" - money i could ill afford to borrow.

Any advice as to what I should do now - especially now it has gone as far as threat of court action - would be greatly appreciated.

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DVardysShadow

You need to start by asking in writing for an explanation [a proper letter, keep a copy and don't do this by phone] and start working out whether or not you owe the money. If you owe it, pay it. If you don't owe it, don't pay it and come back for more advice.

By burying your head in the sand you have got yourself classified as "won't pay" which is a foolish position to get yourself in when you don't even know whether or not you owe it.

The harsh words you need to hear are that you are wasting Eon's time, the debt collector's time, your own life and people's time here by ignoring this problem and not getting to the bottom of whether you owe the money. People here would far rather be looking at the facts and Eon's explanations and helping you work out whether the money is owed.

Joyful

First check the readings of both suppliers then you can ask the latest supplier for the first reading when you used their device. This will show if the readings are incorrect. Whenever you top up it sends a reading through to the supplier. If this is not the probelm you need to get an explanation from them.

spiro

When you change supplier it is the New Supplier (in your case NPower) who send your Old Supplier the Change of Supplier reading. I this hjas come from Eon as an estimate it is because NPower have estimated it. Normally on the welcome lettrer it would ask you to phone in with meter readings on such and such a date, did they and did you?

E.ON_Company_Rep_Chris

Welcome to the forums JS33


I’m sorry that you’ve had to sign up because of that strange Final bill from us.

It’s a shame you didn’t contact us sooner but don’t worry this is easily sorted out.

As the forum regulars have already said, the estimated reading we’ve used to close your account has come from your new supplier. Now that you’ve been with them for a while and topping up regularly, they’ll be able to check if it’s correct.

As your final bill is automatically produced when this information comes in, it’s possible your last few top ups hadn’t reached us in time and may not have been included in the bill.

It’s very rare for a prepayment account to close owing that kind of money unless there’s a debt on the meter and several days with no credit, not even emergency.

It's just a quick call to the number on the letter and we’ll soon get this all straightened out

Amanda