eon- dd disappeared, now owe £1665 - HELP

wroe1123

long story short, i was paying duel fuel by dd, or at least until feb this year, for some reason this stopped, eon did not contact me until september telling me this, and said i owe them £1600 !!
i rang up and paid £200 that day and was told pay £200 next month then set a dd back up , on the 26th oct ( the day i was due to pay ) i got a letter from an eon debt collector saying contact URGENT. i owe £1665 !!
now they insist on fitting pre payment meters and want £80 a month off the debt before i get any gas/elec which i cant afford !
can they just do this ??
how can i owe £1600 in 7 months this is £228 a month through summer !
no one at eon seems to be able to help
help, loosing the will :mad:

pelirocco

Apart from the obvious that you should have contacted them when the DD stopped .........have you taken meter readings?

jalexa

wroe1123 wrote: »

, i was paying duel fuel by dd, or at least until feb this year, for some reason this stopped,

On the face of it appalling treatment, but...

In relation to meaningful help here you need to further explain "for some reason". Do you know the reason but are not saying or do you not know the reason? Have you asked E.ON for their explanation? Their answer to that is relevant to how you contest this.

In relation to the 26th October payment was it collected or not? If it was collected, then you are not in breach of an agreement made and E.On's behavior would be "appalling" (and contestable).

There is another issue which is not clear, what was the account balance and monthly payment on the statement immediately prior to Feb?

macman

How could you not notice that a DD of £XX was not going out of your account each month for 8 months? You presumably have that surplus still in your bank account?

dogshome

From your post you say that you were unaware of the uncollected D/D's or the size of the debt until Eon contacted you in September - Did you not have a bill between Feb and Sept, and in fact have you had a bill justifying the £1,600 demand?

If you have not had a bill or bills
WRITE to Eon heading the letter Complaint demanding that Eon issue fully detailed bills to you immediately, and provided that there is no reason why your bank should have failed to honour the D/D's such as lack of funds, asking for an explanation as to why Eon ceased to operate the D/Debit mandate you had given them.

pooch

wroe1123 wrote: »

long story short, i was paying duel fuel by dd, or at least until feb this year, for some reason this stopped, eon did not contact me until september telling me this, and said i owe them £1600 !!
i rang up and paid £200 that day and was told pay £200 next month then set a dd back up , on the 26th oct ( the day i was due to pay ) i got a letter from an eon debt collector saying contact URGENT. i owe £1665 !!
now they insist on fitting pre payment meters and want £80 a month off the debt before i get any gas/elec which i cant afford !
can they just do this ??
how can i owe £1600 in 7 months this is £228 a month through summer !
no one at eon seems to be able to help
help, loosing the will :mad:

What was that reason? :huh:

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Hi wroe1123

I'm sorry you've not received a satisfactory explanation from us about the balance on your account.

When a payment arrangement is changed or cancelled, we send a letter confirming what's been done. This is the same regardless of whether it's us or the customer who makes the changes.

Since February, we will have issued bills. These will have advised of an outstanding balance building up on the account.

As jalexa asks, was there a balance on the account prior to the Direct Debit being cancelled in February?

Is the current balance based on accurate meter readings or estimates? If estimated, let us have readings and we'll be happy to re-bill accurately.

Before we reach the stage of involving third parties and talking about a prepayment meter, many letters, emails (where appropriate) and phone calls are made.

One of the reasons behind this contact is to see if it's possible to set up a suitable payment arrangement. These plans look to cover the ongoing usage and spread the debt over a manageable period.

Why didn't we set up a formal arrangement when you made the initial payment of £200? This would have stopped all subsequent follow up.

Did you talk to us before the recent contact?

In many instances, home visits are made before we go down the prepayment route. Has someone visited or called to make an appointment?

Sorry for all the questions. Trying to build up a picture of what might have happened here.

Malc

wroe1123

My bank blame eon and eon blame my bank for the dd stopping.i didn't cancel it. I did give several meter readings through the year, but received no bills atall, or even letters to say my bill is mounting up. And I did ask for the payments to be spread out over a longer period than 12 months but was told this is the longest repayment term eon will accept , I will need to go online banking to check how much the payments were in jan/feb I can't remember,

yangptangkipperbang

macman wrote: »

How could you not notice that a DD of £XX was not going out of your account each month for 8 months? You presumably have that surplus still in your bank account?

"But answer came there none"


Lewis Carroll -Through the Looking-Glass

wroe1123

Malc- I've not spoken to anyone from eon or had any contact until September when I got a letter saying I owe £1600, the woman I spoke to when I paid £200 told me to ring back up on 26th oct (pay day) and pay another £200 , then I could set a payment plan up , but I got the URGENT letter saying an agent needed to visit on the 26 th. he has been and told me its either £296 pm dd or meters fitted,
On the meters he told me my use age is £131 pm approx combined , so I will be paying around £151 a month, which I said is manageable, but the charge is not £10 a month off each, it's Is £10 a wk off each meter making my actual repayments around £210pm.
Bear in mind £131 is off summers useage, and we are now at winter.:(

undaunted

Are you in any financial / other difficulty?

If so are you on benefits? If yes Fuel Direct may be an option for you instead of a pre payment meter.

http://cfe.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5488/~/information-about-fuel-direct

Presumably you knew the direct debit had stopped if you've been using your bank account and that you consequently were not paying your supplier. What did you do to query this?