Eon Court Date

undaunted

£250 assumes they get a warrant & force fit a PPM

You have nothing to lose by approaching the supplier again with your proposals.

If they still refuse you can go to Court and put them to the Judge

If he refuses the warrant request based upon that you will not incur those costs.

You would need to put together a convincing explanation for why you can suddenly find this money but couldn't before and how you will avoid future arrears I would suspect.

If you have evidence of the above claims and hardship you may also wish to refer to the ERA safety net & include that as suppliers are supposed to consider affordability in their proposals.

Good luck

Fire_Fox

splodge1983 wrote: »

Thank you very much for your comments. I did ask for a prepayment meter to be fitted voluntarily 2 months ago but they would not do this unless I paid half the outstanding debt which I was not in a position to do at the time (I have been on maternity leave and have only just returned to work), in addition to this, I offered a payment plan which would have meant that that I was paying £400 per month and they would not accept this (I do have email replies from Eon customer services to prove all of this), therefore, there have been no failed payment plans as they would not agree to one without an upfront payment of £650.00 and they would not voluntarily fit a prepayment meter. This is why this £250.00 is so stressful, I have done everything possible to try and avoid this.

Thank you again for your suggestions. Is there any point in me attending court with these emails to explain that I have tried to come to an amicable solution with Eon but they never gave me a workable solution?

So you have all of this in print? Have you been making regular monthly payments over and above your use out of your benefits/ maternity pay, or just one offs? If so how did you get £1300 in debt?

Generally the DFW board regulars advise you to stick to payment plans even if not agreed, set up a standing order or send a monthly cheque for what you are offering. Then if further action is taken it's clear your intentions are to clear the debt ASAP.

Who exactly have you been dealing with, as in what department and job title? Sounds like you have been dealing with collections/ debt recovery or bog standard customer service instead of complaints or someone who deals with hardship/ low income/ vulnerable customers. Have you ever submitted a paper letter of complaint? Are you officially in fuel poverty?

https://www.eonenergy.com/for-your-home/saving-energy/need-little-extra-help/Energy-efficiency-advice/Guidance-and-Caring-Energy
http://www.eon-uk.com/about/crarchive/customersenergyneeds_vulnerablecustomers.aspx
https://www.eonenergy.com/~/media/ED96F94C8C14468DBD99304E45F867FE.pdf
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-of-energy-climate-change/series/fuel-poverty-statistics


ETA as per previous thread did you contact the Vulnerable Customer Team as recommended by the EON company representative? It sounds like you were dealing with Debt Recovery, they have targets for collecting money they aren't there to help. Having read that IMO you definitely should have been writing a letter not using informal communication. Are you in more debt now than two months ago (was over £1000, now £1300)?
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4410525

chanz4

undaunted wrote: »

£250 assumes they get a warrant & force fit a PPM

You have nothing to lose by approaching the supplier again with your proposals.

If they still refuse you can go to Court and put them to the Judge

If he refuses the warrant request based upon that you will not incur those costs.

You would need to put together a convincing explanation for why you can suddenly find this money but couldn't before and how you will avoid future arrears I would suspect.

If you have evidence of the above claims and hardship you may also wish to refer to the ERA safety net & include that as suppliers are supposed to consider affordability in their proposals.

Good luck

This is untrue, the supplier can still bill for the warrant application costs unless you have real grounds. Also a supplier can refuse to supply you on a credit meter, remember the meter is their property. Inregards to the post above, they will just re-apply and take the evidence, their other option is to obtain an inspection warrant to access their meter and then just cap it off.

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

splodge1983 wrote: »

Hi There, I have a court date with Eon on 22nd March 2013 for them to get a warrant to fit a prepayment meter. At the time they applied for the court date I owed £1300, however, I have since paid nearly £200 off this and will be paying another £700-800 this week. As I will have nearly paid the debt off do you think it is worth me asking them to stop the court action and arrange a monthly payment on top of normal payments to clear the additional £300? They had previously said that because there was so much outstanding they would not put a payment plan in place bt once there is only £300 outstanding would they consider this? The reason is that if they go to court they are going to charge me an additional £250 which will then almost double the amount still outstanding!

Any advice would be appreciated as I really want to avoid the additional £250 if at all possible.

Hi splodge1983

I'd suggest contacting our Warrants team about this. Now you have a court date, they'll be the ones with your account and best positioned to discuss your request.

A lot will depend on the payment history on your account. They'll look at what's happened previously.

It takes a long time before we reach the warrant stage. During this time, we'll have sent letters and emails (where applicable), phoned you and called at your property. All this will be detailed on your account. Additionally, notes will be there detailing offers you've made in the past and our responses. Our Warrant team will be able to look at all this and see if there's room for negotiation.

They'll also be able to let you know exactly where we're at in the process and what extra charges you can expect.

splodge1983 wrote: »

Thank you very much for your comments. I did ask for a prepayment meter to be fitted voluntarily 2 months ago but they would not do this unless I paid half the outstanding debt which I was not in a position to do at the time (I have been on maternity leave and have only just returned to work), in addition to this, I offered a payment plan which would have meant that that I was paying £400 per month and they would not accept this (I do have email replies from Eon customer services to prove all of this), therefore, there have been no failed payment plans as they would not agree to one without an upfront payment of £650.00 and they would not voluntarily fit a prepayment meter. This is why this £250.00 is so stressful, I have done everything possible to try and avoid this.

Thank you again for your suggestions. Is there any point in me attending court with these emails to explain that I have tried to come to an amicable solution with Eon but they never gave me a workable solution?

Have to admit, I don't understand why we're applying to fit a prepayment meter now if we've refused to install one in the past.

You do mention in another thread that Fire Fox has linked to above, there may have been problems installing prepayment meters previously. Have these problems been resolved?

I'm aware, in the past there were certain gas meters belonging to Independent Gas Transporters rather than the National Grid, where prepayment meters weren't an option. However, this difficulty has been partially if not entirely resolved now.

As others have said, talk to us about fitting prepayment meters in advance of a warrant. If we've applied to fit them, I can't see us refusing to do this.

Again, our Warrants team will deal with this now. They'll also be able to let you know if doing this will stop some of the associated costs.

Sorry some of this is a bit sketchy but not sure of all the circumstances here.

Malc

splodge1983

Thank you again for your replies. Further to the previous post, I have never had a visit from Eon so could not have been uncooperative, with regards to how the debt got so bad. We live in quite a rural area and someone built a house near ours with a very similar name, and this led to huge confusion with our post, they were getting nearly all of our post for about 5 months and I did not know that there was no direct debit payment being made (our direct debit was set by Eon at £40 per month so it was not a large amount that I noticed was not coming out). To cut a long story short, due to another matter we discovered the problems with our post and rectified these. However, the first letter I received from Eon was obviously after nearly 6 months without payment so quite understandably they were seeking full payment. I immediately rang the number on the letter and offered a payment plan but they would not enter into any kind of payment plan without me paying half the outstanding amount which I could not do. On this day I only had £60.00 in my account. I gave Eon £50.00 and was advised by the person I spoke to to use the contact us form on the website to write in with a payment plan for them to consider. During this telephone call I was asked about the position of the 2 meters and upon giving this information was old that it may be a problem to fit prepayment meters. I then used the contact us form as I had been advised and received a reply saying they could not chage the payment deal I have been offered and 'wanted to be able to help but could not'. I then sent another contact us form through asking why the prepayment meter could not be fitted without going to court. I received a reply saying.... they could not change the payment deal I had been offered and 'wanted to be able to help but could not'.

The next thing I received was my court dates, following by a letter advising that now the only way to avoid court was to pay the full amount (which obviously I could not do if I could not pay half).

Therefore, no payment plans have failed (other than the original direct debit which, as it turns out, would not even have covered half my monthly usage anyway!) since this date I have made further payments through their online payment system and have paid off another £200.00. I have arranged a £600 loan to come through tomorrow to pay off another £600 which will bring the outstanding debt down further, but I am now in 2 minds as to whether or not to do this as if I am going to be charged £250.00 extra I would rather have it added to the debt on the meter and not be paying off a loan on top of all this.

Malc - could you give me anything helpful like contact details for your warrants team?? (If you could you would definately be the first helpful person I have come across at Eon ) )

Thank you again everyone for you help. I realise that this whole situation has been caused by me not being in tight control of paperwork etc (my mind was on pregnancy etc at the time ) however, this has definately changed and now I check my online statement everyday to make sure everything is coming in and going out as it should... better late than never.

In regards to a visit from Eon, should I have had this to see if they could fit the prepayment meters where they are situated? as, no one has ever been to do this, it has just been through a conversation with someone on the phone.

splodge1983

Further to above, I have just worked out that if I use the £600 to pay against my account the outstanding balances as per the court date will be:

Electricity - £56.53
Gas - £363.57

This would have been reduced from £1305.10 on the combined accounts when they applied for the court date.

undaunted

chanz4 wrote: »

This is untrue, the supplier can still bill for the warrant application costs unless you have real grounds. Also a supplier can refuse to supply you on a credit meter, remember the meter is their property. Inregards to the post above, they will just re-apply and take the evidence, their other option is to obtain an inspection warrant to access their meter and then just cap it off.

Tut Tut Chanz4, you seem to be trying to mislead the poster as you will be well aware that warrant application costs are nowhere near £250 even if they were to be billed (the bulk of those costs are the suppliers charge for fitting the ppm not court application costs!

Furthermore, just as I said above, you'd obviously have to have "real grounds" for a Judge to refuse the warrant request. It would then be far from unreasonable to ask the costs be born by the supplier

It is in my opinion very unlikely that a warrant having been refused and payment proposals put in place - acceptable to a Judge - that they could then justify the subsequent course of action you suggest

Fire_Fox

splodge1983 wrote: »

Further to above, I have just worked out that if I use the £600 to pay against my account the outstanding balances as per the court date will be:

Electricity - £56.53
Gas - £363.57

This would have been reduced from £1305.10 on the combined accounts when they applied for the court date.

Might be worth considering evening out those figures, you don't want to end up with them pushing through fitting one prepayment but not the other because one debt was still too high.

When you wrote a letter of complaint have you submitted evidence that you were not receiving your mail? Presumably you have a complaint in with Royal Mail and can send copies of letter(s) from them on headed paper. Also evidence of your pregnancy, that might help you class as vulnerable.

Lastly were the Vulnerable Customer Team unhelpful? It's useful for us to know whether to direct people to them in future or not.

chanz4

undaunted wrote: »

Tut Tut Chanz4, you seem to be trying to mislead the poster as you will be well aware that warrant application costs are nowhere near £250 even if they were to be billed (the bulk of those costs are the suppliers charge for fitting the ppm not court application costs!

Furthermore, just as I said above, you'd obviously have to have "real grounds" for a Judge to refuse the warrant request. It would then be far from unreasonable to ask the costs be born by the supplier

It is in my opinion very unlikely that a warrant having been refused and payment proposals put in place - acceptable to a Judge - that they could then justify the subsequent course of action you suggest

Okay lets break it down for you:

Pre-discon visit £23.50
warrant application fee £18
agent court attendance fee £27
Locksmith fee £40
TSE Grid engineer hire £80
Agent warrant execution £27

Staff processing time is the rest

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

splodge1983 wrote: »

Malc - could you give me anything helpful like contact details for your warrants team?? (If you could you would definately be the first helpful person I have come across at Eon ) )

Sorry the delay replying splodge. Been away from the office.

If you call the number on your bill and ask to be put through to the Warrants Team, you'll be connected straight away. Alternatively, drop an email to the address in my Profile and I'll be happy to put you in touch.

Sorry again for the late reply.

Malc