Dicky economy 7 time switch for 15+ years

riam_2

It transpires I've had a faulty changeover switch for many years.
So Eon had it changed.
The meter reader who spotted it told me I'd be entitled to compensation.
Initially Eon denied it had been a historical problem, claimed it was just that time and they owed me nothing.

But when I asked them look back at their records, this has been going on for many many years. There are complete 1/4's going back to 2004 showing zero economy7 use. We've live here since 1994 and my guess is it's been faulty the whole time.

So they offered to re-bill all my use back to the first record they say they have at a standard tariff - some 50,000 units. On the face of it a good offer. They say that to re-calculate on a 60/40 split, they can only consider 1/4's where there was zero meter movement, yet freely admit in some 1/4's it only moved 1 unit! What they are saying is that as it moved 1 unit, the switch was working which is obviously rubbish. Ok it worked one night, but what about the other 90?

My contention is that there's been an erratic fault for 20 years.

The question - are they fobbing me off as they already tried once? They keep ringing and trying to get me to agree to their proposal but it's making me think I could do better or why would they?

If I can make them go over 10-20 years bills and re-proportion at 60/40 it's clearly going to be a better result for me.

Thanks for reading, sorry for the long post. :beer:

Cardew

Well even if a fault is proven and the loss can be defined, in law they only have to go back 6 years(5 years in Scotland)

Are you saying that when the off-peak meter failed to read, it was because the switch failed and it continued to record consumption on the day meter?

Playing the Devil's advocate!

What comes to mind is the the switch could also have failed occasionally at the end of the 7 hour off-peak period and it continued to record consumption on the off-peak meter during the day???

Or switched over to the off-peak meter, which failed to record usage???

The other argument is that you have failed to check your bills or you would have seen that you had no off-peak consumption some months.

There will be no way to determine your actual loss, so you need to have a figure in mind and accept if they meet that figure.

riam_2

All good points. Perhaps I should accept the offer. Apparently around now the difference between stad units and E7 day units is about 4p, so maybe over the years even if average was 1p they may offer £500? problem is they refuse to say unless I agree first! That just makes me suspicious...

I've never checked my bills. I know I'm silly. I've never changed tarriff, provider etc. It offends my lifestyle to think I must spend my evenings trying to compare incomparable offerings for phones, mobiles, internet, gas, electric etc. There's more to life than money as long as you have enough. But now I ain't so I'm trying harder. The badgers already had £600 of my money in their bank and I just knocked £60 a month off my payments! The swines!

Cardew

A further point is to even question if E-on are liable as they don't own the meter; had you used several companies - as many do - what would happen.

It all comes down to goodwill, but you obviously want an indication of how much goodwi££!

I would put in a 'silly' claim £2,000? and see their counter offer.

riam_2

Cardew wrote: »

A further point is to even question if E-on are liable as they don't own the meter; had you used several companies - as many do - what would happen.

It all comes down to goodwill, but you obviously want an indication of how much goodwi££!

I would put in a 'silly' claim £2,000? and see their counter offer.

I'm a bit green - how do I go about that?

Cardew

Send them an email asking for £2,000 compensation.

riam_2

I honestly have no idea even where to send such an email. I must sound pathetic.

espresso

riam wrote: »

All good points. Perhaps I should accept the offer. Apparently around now the difference between stad units and E7 day units is about 4p, so maybe over the years even if average was 1p they may offer £500? problem is they refuse to say unless I agree first! That just makes me suspicious...

I've never checked my bills. I know I'm silly. I've never changed tarriff, provider etc. It offends my lifestyle to think I must spend my evenings trying to compare incomparable offerings for phones, mobiles, internet, gas, electric etc. There's more to life than money as long as you have enough. But now I ain't so I'm trying harder. The badgers already had £600 of my money in their bank and I just knocked £60 a month off my payments! The swines!

The first thing that you need to establish - is E7 the correct tariff for you to be on? Yes the seven hours night rate units are cheaper but you will be paying a premium for the other seventeen hours units. Do you actually use a high enough percentage of night rate units to make E7 beneficial?

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Hi riam

Where there's a faulty time switch on an Economy 7 meter, it's not possible to re-bill totally accurately. In these cases, we use a standard calculation based on an average 60/40 day/night split.

This isn't set in stone as we do understand not everyone's circumstances are the same. If you feel the 60/40 split is unfair, by all means question this.

Make sure a complaint is raised on the account. If, after 56 days, you're still not happy with our actions, you can refer this to the Ombudsman for an independent review.

Our contact details are on your bills. You can also email us directly through our website.

Going forward, as espresso says, make sure you're using enough off peak electricity to benefit from an Economy 7 tariff. This varies depending on the region. We can let you know this too.

Hope this is useful riam. Give me a shout if you need any more info as will be happy to help.

Malc

macman

riam wrote: »

I honestly have no idea even where to send such an email. I must sound pathetic.

To your supplier? Have you really had the same supplier for 15 years though? Do not email if you want to be treated seriously, send it in writing by recorded delivery with supporting calculations. I do not see how you can contend that it has been faulty prior to 2004 though, since you have no evidence to back this up.
The fact that you've failed to notice a non-moving cheap rate figure on about ?60 bills is hardly going to strengthen your case though-do you not submit quarterly readings?
As for switching suppliers, you don't have to spend any evenings comparing tariffs. It's 5 minutes work on a comp site once armed with your annual kWh figures.
espresso's point is highly relevant-do you actually need an E7 tariff? How is the property heated and hot watered? Has this changed in the years you've lived there? If you've subsequently put in some form of central heating, then E7 is probably not suitable.

Cardew

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc wrote: »

Hi riam

Where there's a faulty time switch on an Economy 7 meter, it's not possible to re-bill totally accurately. In these cases, we use a standard calculation based on an average 60/40 day/night split.



Malc

A 60/40 split is very generous if it covers summer months as well.

It might even be possible that the OP doesn't have storage heating!