EON, Please stop scamming people in the streets!

lstar337

Got home last night to find my OH had been scammed into switching to EON!

Now I know she is partly to blame, but with the lies she was fed I can't help but direct all my anger at EON.

She was so pleased with herself, all bright and beaming when I came through the door. It tore me apart having to explain how she had not done us a favour as she thought she had.

She was so down by the end of it that she was practically in tears thinking that I was angry with her, when she had thought she was doing such a great thing.

The rep had cornered her in a super market, and since she was killing time, she let him do his thing.

I looked at the booklet thing where he had written all the details, his writing was terrible! I could barely read it, and all the things he wrote were in the wrong boxes.

He hadn't written a tariff name, but as we are on Prepay, there was no need as it was just the standard tariff. H had scrawled down the EDF rates for Day/Night and then the EON rates underneath.

This is where his selling started, the EON rates are lower he said, that means you will save X amount of money a year with us.

Well, yes, the rates are marginally better. 18.03p vs 17.69p Day, and 6.8p vs 6.76p Night. Very marginal!! (I have taken his word over the rates as it is impossible to find them on EON's site, or anywhere else on the web) (Unlike EDF, who publish them clearly on their site)

What is the daily standard rate? Nowhere to be found in his little notes! I asked my OH, she says he never mentioned a daily standing charge. I said there must be one (I knew this would be where the deal would be bad, as I had done searches on comparison sites and knew we were on the best deal), almost all of them have one.

So I got out our bill from EDF, plugged in our figures and ran the uSwitch checker. Congratulations it says, you have the cheapest deal.

EON were the next cheapest (would have cost us £7.03 more per year), so I clicked to see what the details were. There it was in black and white Daily Standing Charge: 26p which is more than the 19p we pay EDF.

That is the reason we pay less on EDF, and the very thing the EON sales rep decided to leave out of his little analysis!

Luckily we have 14 days to opt out, or so the little book says.

EON, I have no problem with you trying to get business by way of salesmen, but please make sure they are telling people the whole story. If you can beat on prices (like for like) then fine, but if you can't, don't claim you can!

MY OH now knows to steer clear of you, and so will everyone of my friends and family.

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Hi Istar 337

I'm sorry if our sales rep gave misleading information to your OH yesterday.

We've strict guidelines about how we carry out sales discussions and, where these haven't been followed, we've a specific complaints procedure to put things right and stop them happening in future.

Certainly, the Standing Charge is a vital part of the tariff and this should've been properly explained.

If you drop an email to the address in my Profile with all the details, I'll be happy to kick start a sales complaint for you.

You're right, there's a 2 week cooling off period to cancel switches. This is something else I can take care of for you.

Malc

joncombe

This is a good indication of why the current charging structure is a mess. If a standing charge is about recovering fixed costs it should be fixed. Yet it varies widely between suppliers and even amongst tariffs of the same supplier (the standing charge on some Npower tariffs are 3 times higher than on other Npower tariffs for example). Only if there is either no standing charge or the standing charges are fixed by the regulator will it become simple to compare tariffs. Which? is pushing for this and I hope they are successful because it will put a stop to this kind of thing.

JSR

joncombe wrote: »

I hope they are successful because it will put a stop to this kind of thing.

It will also mean energy will be more expensive for those who shop around. EON just need to put a stop to mis-selling, we don't need further dumbing down of the market.

lstar337

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc wrote: »

Hi Istar 337

I'm sorry if our sales rep gave misleading information to your OH yesterday.

We've strict guidelines about how we carry out sales discussions and, where these haven't been followed, we've a specific complaints procedure to put things right and stop them happening in future.

Certainly, the Standing Charge is a vital part of the tariff and this should've been properly explained.

If you drop an email to the address in my Profile with all the details, I'll be happy to kick start a sales complaint for you.

You're right, there's a 2 week cooling off period to cancel switches. This is something else I can take care of for you.

Malc

Thank you for your appology, and offer to cancel the deal for me.

This has already been taken care of however.