Huge electric bill !!

nadmaj

Hi ya

Ive just receivedmy electric bill from eon at £581.34 for the month - its never been that high - so rang them up and they've been estimating the bill since dec even though everymoth i put in the meter reading as its an online tarrif and the reading goes through and gives the bill amount - i pay and do the same everymonth. A meter reading guy comes every so often.

This time i rang eon and they said that for since dec the metre reading that id been submitting hadn't been accepted by their system and the system generated an estimated reading and billed me - i explained how was i to know that and if the system was defaulting my reading to an estimate why wasn't it show on the computer ****** Edit***** the page where u enter ur metre readings and then the next page it shows the bill amount there was no where where it displayed that the metere reading entered was not accepted and a estimated reading has been generated and that the billwas an estimate so ud have to logonto to the paperless bill view thats where it would tell u but if it show the bill amount on the first page then why would you need to view ur bill again?
eon saidit wasn't up to them to inform their customers but if im putting in a metre reading and their system changes it then its not my fault.

ive reluctantly paid some of it but is there anything i can do

wasn't there something in the media about energy suppliers not billing customers properly?

Wywth

nadmaj wrote: »

Hi ya

Ive just receivedmy electric bill from eon at £581.34 for the month - its never been that high - so rang them up and they've been estimating the bill since dec even though everymoth i put in the meter reading as its an online tarrif and the reading goes through and gives the bill amount - i pay and do the same everymonth. A meter reading guy comes every so often.

This time i rang eon and they said that for since dec the metre reading that id been submitting hadn't been accepted by their system and the system generated an estimated reading and billed me - i explained how was i to know that and if the system was defaulting my reading to an estimate why wasn't it show on the computer so why didn't anyone tell me this and thats why ive been hit with a high bill.
eon saidit wasn't up to them to inform their customers but if im putting in a metre reading and their system changes it then its not my fault.

ive reluctantly paid some of it but is there anything i can do

You'll need to come to an arrangement to pay off the remainder.

You used it, you'll have to pay for it.

HappyMJ

December what year?

You can come to a payment arrangement to pay the arrears over the time they accrued. As December is only a few months back then you have a few months to pay....If it was December 2011 then you have a year and a bit to pay that and the current charges.

nadmaj

Wywth wrote: »

You'll need to come to an arrangement to pay off the remainder.

You used it, you'll have to pay for it.

thats now what im disputing - i am going to pay

what imdisputing is that when i put an accurate metre reading in foan online tarrif why did their system generate an estimated bill and not off the metre reading i put it

nadmaj

HappyMJ wrote: »

December what year?

You can come to a payment arrangement to pay the arrears over the time they accrued. As December is only a few months back then you have a few months to pay....If it was December 2011 then you have a year and a bit to pay that and the current charges.

december 2012

Cardew

If your meter reading was not accepted by the billing computer, on the bill the meter reading should clearly marked as estimated by (E) and would be different from the reading you submitted.

Had this continued for over 12 months you might have had redress under the back-billing provision in the Billing Code, but going back just 2 months you are liable to pay.

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Hi nadmaj

I'm sorry we've sent you estimated bills.

Usually, when a meter reading is rejected by our online service, you'll receive a message on the screen telling you. If you didn't receive this message, it may be you entered readings outside of the billing window. If I might explain.

For quarterly accounts, what we call the billing window is open for 14 days either side of the bill date. Readings entered during this time automatically create a bill.

However, readings entered outside of this time frame give you the option of just seeing a balance or creating your own bill. If you didn't select the option to create a bill, the readings would have been recorded but not used for billing.

If this was the case, we should have sent you an email asking for meter readings when a bill was due. Did you receive this email?

Once the billing window closes, we'll use estimates if we don't have a valid reading.

As Cardew says, the actual bill will show if we've used estimates.

I'm speculating a bit here nadmaj and could be wrong. Going forward, as others have said, we'll be happy to set up a payment arrangement to spread the balance over a more manageable period.

We usually look to spread balances over a similar length of time it took to bill accurately.

Hope this is of interest. Let me know if still not clear as happy to help.

Malc

nadmaj

Hello Malc

Thank you for responding

I pay monthly
An email comes ever month for (feb it was on the 9th) saying my bill is now ready - view it and then i enter my meter reading online, gets accepted, new amount of bill is generated and then paid all on the same screen as where i had entered my readings - once this is done there is no real need for me to view the paper view bill online,

ive done this ever since i had the online facility, but this time round ive been told that since december 2012 (7/12/12 bill date) nov 8/11/12)
when ive been entering my metre readings online somehow they've been accepted by the system but turned into estimate readings without any notice from the computer and thats why this bill is so much it's the shortfall total amount of the 3 months nov,dec,jan added on to febs bill

- -but why didn't the metre readings go through? thats where my complaint is and when i asked the customer services why didn't they notify me of this and would (they) Eon have let the estimates carry on until an actual metre reading was generated and with me receiving a bill in the thousands - how would that have been fair to me when i was putting in metre readings and the online system defaulting them to estimates??

StuC75

If the readings are correct then the balance i owed. its just that the estimated bills were lower than they should have been (Think of it as 3 months 'grace' and now with the correct reading the bill has been corrected...

Cardew

nadmaj wrote: »

- -but why didn't the metre readings go through? thats where my complaint is and when i asked the customer services why didn't they notify me of this and would (they) Eon have let the estimates carry on until an actual metre reading was generated and with me receiving a bill in the thousands - how would that have been fair to me when i was putting in metre readings and the online system defaulting them to estimates??

Why - cos its a computer!

Malc explained that entering readings 14 days outside of the bill due date, means the readings are recorded but not used for billing.

There is a safeguard against the bill running into £thousands when this situation occurs. If 'The Computer' continues to ignore correct readings, then that comes under the 12 month backbilling provision i.e. they could only back-bill for the previous 12 months and have to write off any arrears before those 12 months.

Willing2Learn

Wanted to add that it is the duty of a responsible customer to check all statements, bills and invoices (whether for a utility, credit agreement or any other service/product), for accuracy before payment. A dispute could (and should) have been raised in month one as you would have noticed immediately that there was an error in the meter readings used to calculate your bill.

This is not meant to sound judgemental or smug. Just put it down as a learning experience and negotiate a payment plan to settle the account.