EON direct debit

Djewattie

I have been an Eon customer for about 5 months now, changed from Southern Electric.
We don't have gas, so electric is heating as well.

We used to pay £67.00 monthly and were always in credit by £100 - £150 per year.

Moved to EON for a better deal, started paying £56.00 pcm dd.

You have to do your own meter readings which have been ok, I can login to the site but there s a problem accessing my account, contact us doesn't work, and its a 0345 number to contact, I gave up after 15 minutes.

Had an email yesterday increasing my dd to £127.00 pcm, omg.

There are only two of us, we use an A rated tumble dryer perhaps once a week, usual stuff, fridge tv, water heater on economy night, and no heating.

How the hell can they justify the 120% increase in direct debit payments?

Do I look elsewhere and take the cancellation hit or go down the miss selling route?

Buzby

There is no misselling - it is your consumption after all! What is your weekly Kw consumption? If you are paying by monthly DD, it appears you are on a budget plan - this averages the cost over 12 months.

Cancel this, and pay by DD quarterly - that way you only pay for what you actually use, AFTER you have used it.

Djewattie

Well my actual usage has gone down not up as they are stating, its the fact that during 'office hours' they don't answer their phones and access via the website is down.
On their estimates I must be running a night club.

I'll have to waste another £10 on phone calls tomorrow trying to at least gain access to my account online.

advantix

0345 is a local call rate (probably something like 2 - 3 pence per minute) and is usually included in any inclusive minutes so to spend £10 you would have to be on the phone for a few hours!!

Wywth

Djewattie wrote: »

I have been an Eon customer for about 5 months now, changed from Southern Electric.
We don't have gas, so electric is heating as well.

We used to pay £67.00 monthly and were always in credit by £100 - £150 per year.

Moved to EON for a better deal, started paying £56.00 pcm dd.

You have to do your own meter readings which have been ok, I can login to the site but there s a problem accessing my account, contact us doesn't work, and its a 0345 number to contact, I gave up after 15 minutes.

Had an email yesterday increasing my dd to £127.00 pcm, omg.

There are only two of us, we use an A rated tumble dryer perhaps once a week, usual stuff, fridge tv, water heater on economy night, and no heating.

How the hell can they justify the 120% increase in direct debit payments?

Do I look elsewhere and take the cancellation hit or go down the miss selling route?

On what basis did you switch?

You can't claim mis-selling unless someone actually sold you the product, as opposed to you choosing the product.

Hopefully you took advantage of the cooling off period given to double check things by referring to a couple of comparison sites.

Wywth

Djewattie wrote: »

Well my actual usage has gone down not up as they are stating, its the fact that during 'office hours' they don't answer their phones and access via the website is down.
On their estimates I must be running a night club.

I'll have to waste another £10 on phone calls tomorrow trying to at least gain access to my account online.

Don't believe you but I am more than happy to be proven wrong.

Please tell us:
1. Your supply region (or first part of your postcode)
2. Your anticipated annual consumption in kWh (plus % used at cheap rate if on E7)
3. The exact tariff you were on with Southern Electric
4. The exact tariff you are now on with Eon
5. Your start meter reading(s) 5 months ago
6. Your meter reading(s) today

macman

How did you possibly think that £804pa could be enough to heat and hot water and power an all-electric house? Even with E7.
How is the property heated?

Djewattie

Just a few points, with southern electric I paid £804 per annum, I was always at least £100.00 in credit, sometimes as much as £180.00.

I never use heating, been in the property for 12 years and not once have we put on a storage heater, in fact I have taken all bar on out.

The water is on for only 1 hour between 2am and 3am, we wash up once a day.

All the other information regarding tariffs is online, which I still can't get access too due to website issues.

I took a reading on Friday night and we have used 5 units of day and 3 units of night as of Sunday afternoon.

I will now be taking weekly readings to see usage.

I was stopped in a shopping centre and told verbally and in writing that they Eon, would give me significant savings.

matelodave

I've been "stopped" in shopping centres by energy companies claiming to be able to save or reduce my direct debit - they always can, usually by underestimating your usage of just offering a lower DD than the one you are on. If you don't know what tariff you are on they'll make the assumption that you are on the standard variable and that will almost always show a saving of some sort

Doing calculations on what you are paying rather than what you are using will seldom give you an accurate estimate, especially if your existing DD is wrong anyway.

As I know how much I use and have a rough idea of what my tariff costs are then it's always been good sport to waste their time for 10 minutes or so as I can always prove that I'm on a cheaper tariff than they can offer - I make them work it out using my usage figures and their actual tariff info rather than their automatic laptop calculator.

Read your meter regularly and often, record the info on a spreadsheet and do your own sums. Use a comparison site to check tariffs and you can work it out yourself. It's not hard and you should be able to save energy as well because you can see what you are using and therefore help you economise as well.

macman

If you are not using any storage heaters and only one hour of cheap rate power per night, then you are almost certainly on the wrong metering. Typically you need to use around 30% of your units on cheap rate to make E7 pay.
So what is your annual percentage split?
Do you really think that a rep on commission only in a shopping centre is going to tell you that he can't reduce your DD? Of course he can, but only for the first few months. Then. following a reading you'll get a catch-up bill and your DD will soar. He of course will be long gone, since he isn't even an employee.

ValHaller

Just write a letter to Eon with your reading and the date, place the DD and the current bill in dispute and ask for an updated bill.