Eon problems

Consumerist

bukko wrote: »

Excuse me??
What the hell are you implying? The statements were online only, which I now don't have access to since I switched. And I don't know what tariff I'm on. I certainly never changed it.
I haven't withheld any information. I can't believe your attitude.
I only came here for help. Talk about judgemental!

Sorry, didn't mean to appear judgemental. I was, however, suspicious, from past experience, of so little information to go on - one of the consequences of internet-only accounts.

Consumerist

Ok then, moving on.

£60 per month or £720 per year for electricity seems more than adequate for an average user. What is not clear is why your DD was sometimes up to £300 (have I got that right?) and you didn't challenge it at the time. If you did challenge it, what were you told?

bukko

The first few payments were correct, then suddenly jumped after I supplied a meter reading.
To be honest at this point I just assumed that the initial reading had been out or there was some catching up or something, so I didn't challenge it. However the next one I did challenge, and although I can't remember what was said this was basically ignored.
Maybe I was stupid and I let it go for a while, but eventually I phoned and compained with the same result, and then I saw an ad for uSwitch somewhere (or on Watchdog or something) and found my current supplier OVO, which came out cheaper in their comparisons so I switched.
I guess I need to go back through my bank statements and check how much we have paid in total and compare it with what we were quoted.
But you seem to be saying that their quote is irrelevant, in which case I guess I can't do anything but pay!
But I'll wait to see if I get a revised bill as suggested by the guy at EON.
I'll also write to both them and the DCA, as suggested earlier.
I still can't quite get my head around the fact that it's ok to quote one price and charge something entirely different though.

On another tack, is it possible there is a fault with our meter? How do we check this and who with?

Thanks

Consumerist

bukko wrote: »

. . . I guess I need to go back through my bank statements and check how much we have paid in total . .

A very good idea.

. . . and compare it with what we were quoted.

At best you will have been given an estimate based either on past consumption or, perhaps, on the consumption you used in the uSwitch comparison site. To get an idea of the amounts involved it would be helpful if you know what your annual consumption (kWh) is roughly.

But you seem to be saying that their quote is irrelevant, in which case I guess I can't do anything but pay!

I would suggest that at this stage you don't even admit any liability for the alleged debt. It is conceivable that you may even have been overcharged.

But I'll wait to see if I get a revised bill as suggested by the guy at EON.

That would be my recommendation at this stage.

I'll also write to both them and the DCA, as suggested earlier.

Vital. Use Recorded Delivery post in both cases.

I still can't quite get my head around the fact that it's ok to quote one price and charge something entirely different though.

Only your capped tariff rates could have been "quoted" but not your bill because that always depends on your consumption which they wouldn't know with certainty.

On another tack, is it possible there is a fault with our meter? How do we check this and who with?

Unlikely although possible. It is more likely that E.on have been using readings from the wrong meter. Too early to go down either of these routes yet. I would suggest getting all the data in first.

[Deleted User]

how can any salesman be saying you wont be paying more than £60 a month, and if this rogue did say that, why would anyone believe it.You pay what the meter says you ve used.A lot of doorstep sales have been stopped now precisely because of these sort of dodgy sales practices. No one can say how many units you r going to get through in any month, theres never much difference anyway with all the suppliers, be it Eon or any of the others.Every salesman selling energy I ve ever met says they are the cheapest, some people fall for the patter and believe the rubbish. I suppose there could be a meter reading !!!! up along the way somewhere, do you have a "dial meter" with the 6 rotating dials or a multi rate meter?

Terrylw1

OP - without any detail such as the readings from start to finish, there is just nothing to go on. It could lots of things (dodgy meter change, dodgy amended bill, dodgy reading, dodgy meter, etc) but we need to eliminate them one by one.

I suggest you complain as already mentioned and if you really haven't got any bills, get the supplier to detail it all. You could get that over the phone and post back on here for advice.

jalexa

bukko wrote: »

I still can't quite get my head around the fact that it's ok to quote one price and charge something entirely different though.

You are not helping yourself by sticking to that (probably unwinnable) "mis-selling" argument to the exclusion of other (possibly winnable) explanations. Several posters have explained that an E.ON billing issue cannot be excluded and indeed is more "likely" than some other explanations.

Copy bills are available from a supplier on request, there may or may not be a charge. If the supplier intends to charge for copy bills it may be cheaper to make a £10 Subject Access Request.

One other thing. What is done is done (switching away) so this is for the benefit of others. Switching is an entitlement subject to terms and conditions and not being "blocked" by the incumbent supplier, but be aware if you switch away with unresolved problems a "debit balance" issue can very quickly become a "debt" issue. Which is a different kettle of fish, and what has happened in this case.

bukko

jalexa wrote: »

You are not helping yourself by sticking to that "mis-selling" argument to the exclusion of other possibilities. Several posters have explained that an E.ON billing issue cannot be excluded and indeed is more "likely" than some other explanations.

Copy bills are available from a supplier on request, there may or may not be a charge. If the supplier intends to charge for copy bills it may be cheaper to make a £10 Subject Access Request.

I'm not excluding anything. Please see previous posts.
I'm flooded in today so I'll have a go at speaking to EON to try to get some history from them.

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena

Hi bukko,

I'm sorry I'm coming in on this one a bit late

There is already some good advice and information from the guys here, but I hope I can help a bit more.

I may have missed this but how did you change over to us in the first place? online? salesman?

All of the information is on your bills that you will need to establish if your readings were correct, what your tariff was, what we used to open and close your account too and from.

I know you have an online account, you can log in to this to see all of the info up to 2 years after a change of supply so I would advise you to do this first.

As the others have said, the Direct Debit amount can change as this goes on the amount of energy that you use. The tariff may be a fixed unit price but the usage will still vary.

There could be a few reasons for the increase in payments, wrong start read, estimated bills resulting in catch up bills, change in usage.

Whatever the reasons and whatever the issues, there has clearly been some confusion here and poor customer service as you say you have already raised this and nothing has been done.

That's not the right thing to happen and I'm sorry that you are now left in this situation. A complaint should have been raised and investigated and resolved for you.

I know you're going to call again today, but if you do need any extra help from me, just email your details to the email address in my profile page and I will be happy to help.

Helena

Consumerist

Another thing that has (belatedly) occurred to me is why did E.on not object to the switch if they thought you owed them £300?

This issue certainly smacks of an E.on billing error.

For this reason, I would certainly deny any liability for the alleged debt when dealing with the CRA and definitely not pay them anything until the matter is resolved.

If it turns out to be an E.on billing error then I think I would be seeking compensation for the stress and expense this has caused. I would keep a record of my phone and postal costs and the time spent dealing with this matter.