e.on asked my neighbours about me

sashajade1975

Joyful wrote: »

How long have they supplied you without billing you and how many payments have you made of £60? Was there a reason your husband could not take a meter reading?

Not had a bill for months.
They told me to pay £44 so i did and was in credit for months, at one point i was over £190 in credit, they then said i had to pay £50 so i did.
I got it wrong i pay £50 not £60.
They have been taking meter readings so my husband never did as they said if the SO needed putting up they would let us know.
They have given me a online account so just looked at online bills.
From feb to the end of may the bill was £194.37 and i paid £200 and from the meter reading he took yesterday from the 30th May to the 17th of July my bill was £33.16p that includes standard charges too.

According to the online bills they sent a person to collect the money when we owed £178 pound as they changed £55.00 which i have not been told about, this was in feb.
It says online i owed £458.61p they then took off a payment of £50 but then added a charge of £55 for the man yesterday so says i now owe £441.77p but the letter the man gave me says i owe £513.61 and where it says i have been charged --- he has put a line in it.

sashajade1975

Kayalana99 wrote: »

Thier are two issues here the gas man asking questions - and the money.

Taking out the gas man, basicly your saying you can't afford to pay Eon what they want but thing is your using thier service so they want paying!!

I suggest not using your eletric so much or finding a way to cover your expences...

Putting it up to £70 a month as you suggested probally doesn't cover your bill since you have gone so much over due on £60 and would probally contine to build on £70 a month..so thats probally why they are putting thier foot down with you.

I think you need to accept you owe this money and try and find a way of paying it back - either by cutting down or paying more up front. You will only end up in court in the long run if you don't.

I can afford to pay eon what they want, they want £70 taken from my ESA, i have told them i will pay them the 70 by standing order but they said no if i pay by standing order they want more.
I am not going to trust a company to take money from my ESA when they have betrayed my trust and spoke to my neighbours about my illness.
My bill for the 30th may until the 17th july was just over £33.00 with the standing charge so i am not using loads of gas.
70 would well and truly cover my usesage and pay off the debt in the summer months.

I am not refusing to pay, i offered to go straight to the pc and change the standing order to £70 a month instead of waiting weeks for a form from them then me filling it in and then waiting for the ESA to do the payment but they said no.

sashajade1975

Kayalana99 wrote: »

Put it another way... £500 over budget over three years ( we obvouisly don't know how long this has gone on for but will it be more then three years?)

Is £13 extra you are using then you are paying a month so you are using £73 a month...now you have the £500 to pay back...say you did it over three years...and paid £86 back. (£13 a month for a £500 debt over 3 years)

Thats still three years to clear the debt...thats based on them not doing your meter readings for 3 years...and then it would still only go down to £73 a month thats like worse case scenio...

You can kick up a fuss about what the gas man should or should not do but it doesn't change the fact you owe this money.

They told me to pay £44 so i did and was in credit for months, at one point i was over £190 in credit, they then said i had to pay £50 so i did.
I got it wrong i pay £50 not £60.
They have been taking meter readings so my husband never did as they said if the SO needed putting up they would let us know.
They have given me a online account so just looked at online bills.
From feb to the end of may the bill was £194.37 and i paid £200 and from the meter reading he took yesterday from the 30th May to the 17th of July my bill was £33.16p that includes standard charges too.

According to the online bills they sent a person to collect the money when we owed £178 pound as they changed £55.00 which i have not been told about, this was in feb.
It says online i owed £458.61p they then took off a payment of £50 but then added a charge of £55 for the man yesterday so says i now owe £441.77p but the letter the man gave me says i owe £513.61 and where it says i have been charged --- he has put a line in it.

I have owed them money since a large bill in Dec 2012, in Feb they sent someone out for £178 pound that i owed .
I am not sure why people keep on implying that i am trying to get out of paying it, i have not said i wont pay it, i have offered to pay it by standing order and i am not kicking up a fuss over what the gas man did to try to get out of paying.
How would you like it if you had a personal private illness and they spoke to your neighbours about it?
I have only seen my neighbours twice and never spoken to them.
I trusted a gas company with private information about me which they have partly shared with my neighbours and that must be a breach in the rules.
If a person with a skin complaint was getting cheaper water rates as they have to bath more and the water company asked the neighbours does the bloke next door scratch a lot? would that be ok? would it be ok to share that info with strangers when that person might be very private about their illness? no it wouldn't but i do not expect people to understand how i feel violated if they do not suffer from mental health and the stigma it causes. not to mention the anxiety i now feel knowing what they have done.

sashajade1975

I did not come on here to try to get out of paying i came on here to find out if eon are allowed to share private info with strangers and if i should make a complaint and how to do that.
I will sort the debt out with them one way or another.
I wont be coming on here again after the lack of empathy shown on here towards people with mental health illnesses and the narrow mindless of all people on benefits are scroungers who cant be bothered to work and will try to get everything for free and think they should not have to pay for things working people do and they are all rolling in it, well i hate to disappoint but i dont have a flashy car as i dont have any car, i dont go on holidays abroad as i dont go on holiday at all, i dont have a 42 inch flat screen tv as i have a second hand old tv, i pay a lot towards my rent, i pay my bills, i pay council tax and i wish i could work.
Bye :wall:

zolablue25

I don;t see why they can't go to a neighbour and ask "who lives next door?" and "Are they both able bodied?". I could ask your neighbours that, so I don't see why Eon can't. However, I don't think they should be able to say to the neighbours "Hey, you know those folk next door? They owe us £500+", but there is no evidence that this occurred.

Nada666

I think you need to reflect on how you are presenting yourself. In this economic climate a meter reader jeopardises his job and career by engaging in an egregious breach of privacy. When you present this clear offence you cloud it with so much wheedling "I don't want to pay this way", "I don't want to pay that way" you completely undermine your argument and turn readers against you.

The meter reader/collections agent presented you with options. You rejected them all, unjustly. Your 'willingness' to commit to only paying an extra £20 is patently silly and does not add up. If you do want to 'cut back in the future, honest' then that is available through the option of prepayment meter - but you reject this. Pay a lump sum by the end of this month or next month to pay off most of the arrears and continue paying by standing order - rejected; switch to paying by direct debit - rejected; increase monthly payments to a realistic sum - rejected; prepayment meter - rejected; realistic sum taken directly from allowances - rejected.

As to a lack of empathy - nonsense. You state you have mental health issues, not that you have learning difficulties. Being patronising and saying 'poor you' and treating you differently because of an irrelevant issue - now that would be insensitive and prejudiced.

macman

For 'lack of empathy', read 'no one on here agrees with me'! Unfortunately that is often the case when you post on a public forum.
As already pointed out, there are two different issues here. If you want to pursue the data protection issue, then make a written complaint to the supplier.
That has nothing to do with the inevitable conclusion of PPM's being fitted by warrant if you can't manage your debt. Several suggestions have already been made as to how you can manage the top up issue.

Joyful

It looks like from one of your posts that you meant to say you were to pay £60 and only paid £50. This is the problem with standing orders. This will mean that any payment agreement you had would be cancelled. It is not in the companies or your interest to have this situation. With Fuel direct the amount is agreed in writing and comes straight from your benefits. Whatever your consumption is they will split over 12 equal payments. This will be periodically checked to see if your consumption falls or increases. On top of this you will pay a much smaller amount weekly towards your debt. Unlike the way you want to pay this will stop any more arrears building up.

I do not believe that a collection agent would ever tell someone else about your debt but they were quite right to ask if they should be aware of any health issues at your property. If you had been around they would have asked you. If they have already started charging you for being in arrears you need to decide quickly whether this or a prepayment meter is the way forward for you ( unless you can borrow the money from someone else).

If you have mental health issues another thing you should do is make sure you are on the suppliers Priority services register. Also check out the Warm Home discount scheme which this year would add £135 on to your electricity account which may mean you could clear your arrears faster.

SwanJon

Wrote a reply looking at the figures and the internet ate it.
Summary of it
It looks like E.ON have cancelled the payment arrangement, otherwise they wouldn't send people round, so they will progress this to warrant and charge you to fit a prepayment meter unless you take control.

You have used £61/month from December to July, so any future payments need to use this as a baseline. (This may be slightly on the high side as the autumn can't be as cold as *cough* spring was this year.)
Paying by Fuel direct pays the balance at a fixed rate (£3.60 above sounds right, so £15/month). This gives you the longest to clear your balance, paying £76/month
Paying by prepayment can be as low as £3.60, but they may want the balance cleared in 6 months - £17/week (£73/month) - you'd pay less in the summer and more in the winter, but if you were budgeting ahead, use £135/month.
Paying by SO, DD will need to be negotiated, and they would probably want £37/month to clear the balance in 12 months. Look to pay £98/month.

All of these will drop once the balance has cleared.

Bottom line - you have made a complaint about the neighbour issue, put that to one side.
Take control of this bill before your options reduce and you pay for the privelage.

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Hi sashajade1975

I'm sorry if our rep spoke inappropriately to your neighbour. If the rep shared information that breached the Data Protection Act then you're absolutely right to make a complaint.

It takes quite a time to reach the stage of home visits due to arrears on accounts. Before this, we'll try to make contact via phone calls, letters and, where appropriate, emails and phone texts.

If we're unable to talk to you via these routes, we'll look to go to the next stage. This usually involves applying for a warrant to fit a Prepayment Meter. However, before this, we'll visit to discuss alternatives and to make sure a Prepayment Meter is feasible.

As Joyful says, we've a duty of care to check there's no vulnerability at the property before going down the prepayment road.

Ideally, we'd talk to you but, if that wasn't possible, we may ask a neighbour general questions about any obvious vulnerability. As I say, such enquiries must only be of a general nature and certainly shouldn't breach data protection.

It looks as though we've offered the option of Fuel Direct Joyful mentions. This is where deductions are taken directly from benefits and passed on to us by the Department of Work and Pensions. The payment will cover ongoing usage and an agreed amount towards the arrears.

If this isn't acceptable, a Prepayment Meter would be another option. This would allow us to put the arrears on the meter to collect at an agreed rate each week. As others have said, better to talk to us about this before it reaches the warrant stage as this would involve significant extra charges.

Joyful also makes a good point about the Warm Home Discount scheme. This is a government led initiative to provide support to customers likely to be at risk of fuel poverty. You'll need to apply through your electricity supplier. Might help a bit.

You mention not receiving bills but it looks as though you've registered your account online. Online accounts have paperless billing. Instead, we'll drop you an email each time a bill is produced so you can monitor online.

Hope this is of interest.

Malc