Please help me with a very high final bill from Eon

headcrash27

We left Eon in April this year and despite requesting a final bill from them several times they have only just produced it. I was shocked to discover that our final bill is for £411 and we have used an extra 3005 kw of electricity!

Looking into this it appears that the reason is because all the bills have been estimates and the last correct reading was taken in June 2012 and so since then Eon have been massively underestimating the bills. We have had several men round to read the meter and i assumed that Eon were using those readings. I also gave them readings on a couple of occasions. I have no idea why they haven't used those readings and frankly i'm extremely annoyed about it as if they had then they we wouldn't be landed with this massive bill now.

I should also mention that when we joined Eon we were on the SaveOnline11 Plan and this tariff expired in February when we moved to the standard Eon EnergyPlan. However they have added the 3005 kw to our bill as being used between 16/04/13 and 29/04/13. Obviously this isn't the case and that electricity would have been used over the whole period we were with them. I don't know if it's worth getting them to recalculate the bill and charge us the cheaper tariff or if i should leave it as it is. As they have said we used those 3005 kw over 13 days we have only been billed a 13 day standing charge at 26.09p per day and then 13.59p per kw. I don't have the tariff details for the SaveOnline11 plan so i don't know if it would work out cheaper if they were to bill us using that tariff.

We really can't afford to pay this bill so i'm not sure where to go from here. I don't know if they will let us pay in installments. We are with First Utility now so we won't be cut off if we can't pay.

Browntoa

my Eon bills say quite clearly Estimate/customer reading etc

not sure how you missed it was estimated readings when you looked at the bills before leaving ?

Andy_WSM

Browntoa wrote: »

my Eon bills say quite clearly Estimate/customer reading etc

not sure how you missed it was estimated readings when you looked at the bills before leaving ?

I agree. Eon have one of the least complex billing systems. Dead easy to check the bills online and see exactly where you stand. You can even submit your own readings online and request a new, up to date, bill at any time.

Not saying Eon are blameless, but I'd have thought you have to take accept responsibility for this too.

iancrt

If you have been taking some meter reads do you have the readings and dates taken?

If so contact EON and talk to them they may re-bill the previous periods. Without them they can just argue you used it all in those 13 days.
They may accept the argument without meter reads and offer you a simple discount. They obviously had no idea or they wouldn't have allowed your switch
How much difference would the price change make? Is it worth the effort or would you be better just negotiating repayments with EON?

headcrash27

Andy_WSM wrote: »

I agree. Eon have one of the least complex billing systems. Dead easy to check the bills online and see exactly where you stand. You can even submit your own readings online and request a new, up to date, bill at any time.

Not saying Eon are blameless, but I'd have thought you have to take accept responsibility for this too.

I'm not denying any responsibility. I admit i should have noticed this on the bills but it's not something i paid much attention too.

headcrash27

iancrt wrote: »

If you have been taking some meter reads do you have the readings and dates taken?

If so contact EON and talk to them they may re-bill the previous periods. Without them they can just argue you used it all in those 13 days.
They may accept the argument without meter reads and offer you a simple discount. They obviously had no idea or they wouldn't have allowed your switch
How much difference would the price change make? Is it worth the effort or would you be better just negotiating repayments with EON?

No i don't have the dates/readings. I don't know how much difference the price change would make as i don't have any details of the old SaveOnline11 tariff. Looking at the bills it's very confusing as they have charged one lot of kWh at at 21.72p per kWh and then another lot at 10.93 per kWh. There seems to be no logical explanation as to why some units are charged at the lower or higher charge and each bill is charged differently.

For example on my June 2012 bill they have charged the first 187 units at 21.72p each and then the next 820 units at 10.93p each.

Then on the October 2012 bill they charged the first 259 units at 21.72p each and then the next 81 units at 10.93p each.

It just doesn't make any sense to me.

I don't see how they can argue that i used it all in those two weeks as they must know that logically that's extremely unlikely. They put their prices up in January this year so i have been charged it all at the higher prices too.

Cardew

headcrash27 wrote: »

We really can't afford to pay this bill so i'm not sure where to go from here. I don't know if they will let us pay in installments. We are with First Utility now so we won't be cut off if we can't pay.

As you have left E-on I doubt if they will agree to instalments on a £400 bill.

If you don't pay, the debt will eventually be passed to a Debt Collection Agency and will affect you cretit history.

Cardew

headcrash27 wrote: »

No i don't have the dates/readings. I don't know how much difference the price change would make as i don't have any details of the old SaveOnline11 tariff. Looking at the bills it's very confusing as they have charged one lot of kWh at at 21.72p per kWh and then another lot at 10.93 per kWh. There seems to be no logical explanation as to why some units are charged at the lower or higher charge and each bill is charged differently.

For example on my June 2012 bill they have charged the first 187 units at 21.72p each and then the next 820 units at 10.93p each.

Then on the October 2012 bill they charged the first 259 units at 21.72p each and then the next 81 units at 10.93p each.

It just doesn't make any sense to me.

I don't see how they can argue that i used it all in those two weeks as they must know that logically that's extremely unlikely. They put their prices up in January this year so i have been charged it all at the higher prices too.

The 21.72p/kWh and 10.93p/kWh is the standard Tier system which virtually all companies used until recently.

Instead of the present Daily Standard Charge that has been recently introduced, you paid the first 900kWh pa - calculated daily pro-rata - at 21.72p and the remainder at 10.93p

So for a bill covering exactly 3 months you would be charged for 225kWh at the higher(21.72p) tier 1 rate.

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Hi headcrash27

I'm sorry you've had a string of estimated bills, particularly after giving us meter readings. We'll be happy to re-bill the account.

We can do this from the last correct reading in June 2012 through to the final reading. We'll use the readings you've given us as well as those the meter readers have taken since June 12. These readings will be logged on the account.

I agree, there's no way you should be paying for all the energy used between June 2012 and April 2013 at the later prices.

Not sure why the final bill was delayed so long. With a change of supplier, it's the responsibility of the gaining supplier to give the losing supplier the readings they intend to use to open their account. The losing supplier will use the same readings to close their account. This is to make sure customers are only charged once for the same energy.

Your current supplier may be able to let you know if they had any particular delays sending the final readings to us.

Usually, if we don't receive these readings after a period of time, we'll estimate the final bill. Leaving it six months is far too long, though, and there may have been another issue at our end causing the delay.

Cardew's explanation of our old two-tier pricing system is spot on.

We'll be happy to look at setting up a payment arrangement to spread the final amount over a more manageable period. Just give us a call or, alternatively, if you drop an email to the address in my Profile, I'll take a look for you.

Malc

anotheruser

headcrash27 wrote: »

I'm not denying any responsibility. I admit i should have noticed this on the bills but it's not something i paid much attention too.

And herein lies the lesson you will learn.
Check your bills and ALWAYS submit meter readings when they ask you to.

headcrash27

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc wrote: »

Hi headcrash27

I'm sorry you've had a string of estimated bills, particularly after giving us meter readings. We'll be happy to re-bill the account.

We can do this from the last correct reading in June 2012 through to the final reading. We'll use the readings you've given us as well as those the meter readers have taken since June 12. These readings will be logged on the account.

I agree, there's no way you should be paying for all the energy used between June 2012 and April 2013 at the later prices.

Not sure why the final bill was delayed so long. With a change of supplier, it's the responsibility of the gaining supplier to give the losing supplier the readings they intend to use to open their account. The losing supplier will use the same readings to close their account. This is to make sure customers are only charged once for the same energy.

Your current supplier may be able to let you know if they had any particular delays sending the final readings to us.

Usually, if we don't receive these readings after a period of time, we'll estimate the final bill. Leaving it six months is far too long, though, and there may have been another issue at our end causing the delay.

Cardew's explanation of our old two-tier pricing system is spot on.

We'll be happy to look at setting up a payment arrangement to spread the final amount over a more manageable period. Just give us a call or, alternatively, if you drop an email to the address in my Profile, I'll take a look for you.

Malc

Thanks Malc, i've sent you an email with my details.