EON E10 EnergyPlan 8

charity4

After checking my finances, I'm not sure if my electricity bill is correct. I've lived in my flat for a year and have provided Eon with meter readings when asked and they have also been out to read the meter periodically throughout the year so I've just been paying the amount specified on the bill. Having now looked into this in more detail, it appears that the meter readings have not changed at all and I have only been charged standing charges and the units used are apparently 0.
How would they estimate how much electricity I have used over the past year? I know myself that I don't use much but I know I must use something!
Any advice would be greatly appreciated

rogerblack

Neglecting the post.
Are there any legal requirements for the householder to inform utility companies of their errors, or faults in the equipment owned by the company?

Clearly, morally, OP should inform them, and pay the appropriate amount.
What are their actual legal responsibilities?

(As I understand it, they may take historical readings of power use, if they have them, or estimate an amount owed. They cannot in many cases back-bill beyond a year. You can haggle the amount owed, if you believe the way they came to it is inaccurate for some reason)

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Hi charity4

Sounds like you've a stopped meter.

Your particular meter is Economy 10. These are specifically designed for all electric properties with storage heaters.

Economy 10 meters come in various guises but, generally, there are three registers. Day, night and stored heat.

If you've only been billed for the standing charge for the past year, it looks as though all three registers have stopped recording electricity used.

We've a specialist team who deal with this type of fault.

They look at the circumstances behind each individual case. For instance, what readings we may have, when the meter stopped etc.

If there's no usage history, we'll look at the type of property, how it's heated, number of radiators, appliances used etc.

We'll estimate back to when we believe the meter stopped, taking seasonal variances into consideration.

As you've a multi rate meter, electricity used at certain times of the day will be charged at lower, off peak rates. In these cases, we apply a split between the off peak and peak periods.

These estimates aren't set in stone and, if you disagree, you can challenge the calculation.

Hope this helps charity4. Give me a shout if you need any more info as will be happy to help.

Malc

charity4

Thanks for your reply to my post in the forum.
The last time my meter was due to be read, I received an email from Eon saying they were sending a meter reader out to read my meter this time so I didn't need to provide readings. To quote from their email 'We like to take a meter reading where we can. This is to help ensure you continue to receive accurate bills and double check your meter is still safe and in working order.'
This gave me the impression that if there was a problem it would have been highlighted from the meter reader coming but as nothing has come up it made me think that I may be on some sort of tariff where a certain amount of usage is included in the standing charge and anything above that is recorded on the meter and then charged.
Also, if it comes out that they are going to charge me for the past year, will they take into account that I was in Canada for 5 weeks in the winter and have spent at least another 4 weeks away during the year. Will they also look take into account that although I have 4 storage radiators, I have only ever had one switched on as I'm a 4th storey flat and it is hot!
I'm not sure what to do about all of this and it's stressing me out!
Thanks again

anotherbaldrick

As the E-On rep. said you can challenge and if you were not occupying the property for 5 weeks and only have one one storage heater on, take a look at their assesment and challenge,challenge,challenge. The one thing to insist on is that they give a full set of calculations and sustantiate exactly how they arrived at any assesment, no smoke and mirrors.

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Hi charity

Sorry for the late reply. Been out of the office recently and just catching up.

I agree with anotherbaldrick. If you're not happy with our proposed resolution, challenge it. Estimates aren't an exact science and, as such, aren't set in stone.

Make sure a complaint is raised on the account and escalate this to a manager if necessary. If, after 56 days, you're still unhappy with our proposals, you can go to the Ombudsman for an independent review.

Sorry again for late reply.

Malc