Eon problems

bukko

Hi,

I signed up to EON Energy for my electricity supply last year around April.
I signed because I was told that I would pay a maximum of £60 per month.
However each bill has been considerably more than that, usually £100-£200 and sometimes over £300.
Ok, it's possible that the bills are correct according to their tariff, but I would not have left my previous supplier if they had not told me what they did.
So I left them a few months ago but they are still chasing a final bill of £300 which I cannot afford.
I spoke to them on Thursday and the guy on the phone said that I shouldn't pay the bill as it is based on an estimated reading and they are still waiting for the real reading from my new supplier, so the bill could be less.
He also told me that they had logged my previous concerns about how my account was sold (mis-sold?) and the salesman still worked for the company, but they still seem to be ignoring my complaints.
Anyway yesterday (Friday) the day after I spoke to him, I get a call from a debt collection agency. I refused to give them any personal info as I had never spoken to them before and they gave up, but today I received a letter from them demanding payment of the £300.
What is my best course of action? I can't afford to pay the remaining bill and I don't think it's fair that I should as they told me I would pay less.

Thanks for the help.

Premier_2

bukko wrote: »

Hi,

I signed up to EON Energy for my electricity supply last year around April.
I signed because I was told that I would pay a maximum of £60 per month.
However each bill has been considerably more than that, usually £100-£200 and sometimes over £300.
Ok, it's possible that the bills are correct according to their tariff, but I would not have left my previous supplier if they had not told me what they did.
So I left them a few months ago but they are still chasing a final bill of £300 which I cannot afford.
I spoke to them on Thursday and the guy on the phone said that I shouldn't pay the bill as it is based on an estimated reading and they are still waiting for the real reading from my new supplier, so the bill could be less.
He also told me that they had logged my previous concerns about how my account was sold (mis-sold?) and the salesman still worked for the company, but they still seem to be ignoring my complaints.
Anyway yesterday (Friday) the day after I spoke to him, I get a call from a debt collection agency. I refused to give them any personal info as I had never spoken to them before and they gave up, but today I received a letter from them demanding payment of the £300.
What is my best course of action? I can't afford to pay the remaining bill and I don't think it's fair that I should as they told me I would pay less.

Thanks for the help.

You have to pay for what was recorded as consumed.

However, you say the final reading is estimated at present.
Does it vary much from the actual that you supplied to the new company on the switch over date? If you can't remember that reading, it will be on the first bill issued by that new supplier, or if you don't have that I'm sure your new supplier will be happy to confirm this with you.

Consumerist

You should write to the DCA to tell them that you dispute the bill and also insist that they communicate with you only by post. Send the letter by Recorded Delivery post so there is no argument about you having sent it. It is important that you do not speak to them by telephone or you are likely to be "misquoted" to put it politely.

Then start E.on's formal (written) complaints procedure. They have eight weeks to sort it out after which you can refer the complaint to the Ombudsman Services: Energy.

jalexa

bukko wrote: »

I signed because I was told that I would pay a maximum of £60 per month.
However each bill has been considerably more than that, usually £100-£200 and sometimes over £300.
Ok, it's possible that the bills are correct according to their tariff,

What is your tariff? Were you paying monthly Direct Debit? Or quarterly?

Is your heating electric?

bukko

Thanks for the help, and I'll certainly write to the DCA and EON as suggested.
But what about the bill? Do I really need to pay it all? It isn't what I was quoted and I would not have signed up if they had been truthful.
Surely if they misrepresented their tariff I must have some grounds for at least a reduction!

bukko

jalexa wrote: »

What is your tariff? Were you paying monthly Direct Debit? Or quarterly?

Is your heating electric?

By monthly direct debit, and no our heating is oil not electric.

jalexa

bukko wrote: »

By monthly direct debit, and no our heating is oil not electric.

Well I don't believe the costs you report are likely (or even possible) assuming you are a domestic consumer and not a business.

Look for a billing/meter reading error.

Consumerist

bukko wrote: »

Thanks for the help, and I'll certainly write to the DCA and EON as suggested.
But what about the bill? Do I really need to pay it all? It isn't what I was quoted and I would not have signed up if they had been truthful. Surely if they misrepresented their tariff I must have some grounds for at least a reduction!

Until you get the readings on which the bill has been based, it's difficult to predict whether you owe any money or not. As suggested above, contact your current supplier, or refer to your first bill from them, to get the meter reading at switch-over.

What E.on tariff were you on? Were there any early termination charges to pay for switching early?

Edit
If you dispute the bill, you only need to pay the supplier what you think you owe pending further investigation. The difficulty now is that the debt has been passed to a DCA. So what you can do is to insist in writing that they provide you with proof of the debt which you should dispute with them if you disagree with it. If they cannot provide proof of the debt then you don't have to pay anything until they do.

bukko

So, even though they promised us we would be paying one price, it's still ok for them to charge us between 2 and 5 times that amount?
Does that mean I can quote people what I like, because they have to pay what I bill them for??
That can't be right.

Consumerist

bukko wrote: »

So, even though they promised us we would be paying one price, it's still ok for them to charge us between 2 and 5 times that amount? Does that mean I can quote people what I like, because they have to pay what I bill them for?? That can't be right.

What was your E.on tariff ? Did you pay by monthly DD or quarterly when billed.

Quarterly bills in the winter months, for example, can easily be two or three times the quarterly bills in summer.

Do you use gas for heating or is your property electricity only?

bukko

Consumerist wrote: »

What was your E.on tariff ? Did you pay by monthly DD or quarterly when billed.

Quarterly bills in the winter months, for example, can easily be two or three times the monthly average over the full year.

Do you use gas for heating or is your property electricity only?

Monthly direct debit, not using electricity for heating (oil, not gas).
I don't know what the tariff was called, but it was apparently capped for a year and we were told it couldn't go up during that time.
We were told that it would be a maximum of £60 per month, for a year, with no increases.