Moving into a new house - get ripped off!

tonyb6

Having moved into a new house on 13th January I used Cheap Energy Club to source my best deal for gas and electric and to switch from the previous occupiers supplier to my own, namely from Eon to Npower. This was done on the 27th January. Over two weeks have now passed and I have heard nothing from Npower. Having just phoned Npower I am informed that they have received NO request to switch.

The current supplier to the property (Eon) is fleecing me! they have placed me on their 2nd most expensive tariff, (probably the one just below having a payment meter installed) and apparently because a 'deemed contract' is in place there is nothing I can do, basically I have to pay up and shut up until the switch takes place.

Having now waited over 2 weeks for Npowers acknowledgement my fear is that in another 4 - 6 weeks I then find out they never received the request in the first place and that I am then forced to wait another 4 to 6 weeks.

My 2 main points behind this post is why I am forced into a contract with the previous occupiers supplier and why does it take so long for switches to take place?!

What I personally find hard to believe is that it supposedly takes 4 to 8 weeks to switch from one supplier to another. Unless I am mistaken this is 90% a admin task and 10% someone coming out to read the meters.

I believe this is just another way for these energy companies to be permitted to take advantage by enforcing new house occupiers to pay what charges they dictate. As the new house owner/occupier I have no say or discussion about these charges. The first I heard from Eon was when their first bill arrived on 30th Jan. Having looked at it I phoned Eon and was told they had placed me on their second most expensive tariff and that I could change to one of their other tariffs but then cancellation charges would be chargeable when Npower takes over.

Apparently I am in a deemed contract! Eon have adopted me as a customer without notification or agreement with me and as such have denied me my right to choose my own supplier. They have then placed me on a tariff which I was not privy to and are now demanding a payment for an amount which I did not agree to or negotiate.

Where else in life does a company have such rights and permissions to dictate contract and costs?

I am not surprised it takes 4 to 8 weeks to switch suppliers when they are permitted to charge what they want for those 4 to 8 weeks. Eon are legally permitted to adopt me as a customer but where are my legal rights not to be taken advantage of? I suspect that if Eon were also legally obliged to place me on their cheapest tariff rather than their most expensive for the period of adoption then these switches would take one week and not six!

Ripped off again!

Regards Tony

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

Yes you're in a deemed contract. This is to ensure continuity of supply - the alternative is to have all properties de-energised when people move home. General consensus is the that current situation is better.

If you didn't want to be on Standard tariff you could have avoided this on day 1 - just ask e.on to be put on their cheapest tariff. You didn't even choose your supplier for 2 weeks after moving - did you think you were getting free energy during this period?!

Any delay in switching is entirely down to npower, and not eon. They are experiencing meltdown at the moment, with most complaints on this forum about them.

It would appear eon have acted entirely properly - if they'd put you on their cheapest tariff no doubt you'd moan that they'd tied you into a lengthy contract!

boonaroony

I am in a similar situation and thought I would post here rather than start a new thread if thats ok!

I switched from npower to eon when I moved house feb last year . It has taken npower this long to get my final bill out to me and now I am not happy with the costs. They say the bill is based on meter readings but it works out about £60 per month more expensive than my new supplier. They have charged me approx 8 weeks Feb-April 2013.

My question is a) can I argue the bill and get a reduction, and if so what is the best way to go about this - i.e. should I offer them what I am paying with eon i.e. £180 instead of £280 and say take it or leave it? or b) can I just ignore the bill and if so what are the repercussions (i.e will this give me bad credit, will they send round bailiffs/take me to court?)

Also if I end up having to pay the full whack I assume I can set up a payment plan of e.g. £5 a month and they have to accept it?

Thanks in advance.

Nada666

You were free from day one to choose a cheaper tariff from Eon. And you were free from day one to save more than 7% through paying by direct debit.

Would you rather pay £100 or £200 when you move to reconnect supplies and live in the dark and cold for the days or weeks it takes to make an appointment?

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Hi Tony

As Bluebirdman says, deemed contracts are the preferred way of guaranteeing continuity of supply when responsibility for properties changes hands.

With a change of responsibility, unless a customer tells us differently, we'll put them on our standard tariff. This has no tie-ins or cancellation fees leaving you free to change supplier whenever you wish without penalty.

We only have four tariffs available for credit customers. One is age specific (customers aged 60 and over) and two with cancellation fees. The fourth is the standard tariff you're on.

We're unable to put you on any of the other 3 tariffs without having a conversation with you first. This is to make sure you're eligible and aware of the restrictions/terms involved.

Did you talk to us when you first moved in? If you did, at this point we should've discussed all the options available. As Nada666 says, this will have included cheaper standing charges for paying with a Monthly Direct Debit.

When changing supplier, it's the responsibility of the gaining supplier to initiate a switch and request your account. Part of the time taken will include a cooling off period to give you time to change your mind if you wish. Ours is 2 weeks. Not sure how long npower give for this though.

There's also a further week where the losing supplier can object to a switch.

After this, it's a matter of transferring information between various industry bodies. These include distributors, meter operators, meter readers and the national databases that hold details of all the meters in the UK.

Hope this is of interest.

Malc

chanz4

boonaroony wrote: »

I am in a similar situation and thought I would post here rather than start a new thread if thats ok!

I switched from npower to eon when I moved house feb last year . It has taken npower this long to get my final bill out to me and now I am not happy with the costs. They say the bill is based on meter readings but it works out about £60 per month more expensive than my new supplier. They have charged me approx 8 weeks Feb-April 2013.

My question is a) can I argue the bill and get a reduction, and if so what is the best way to go about this - i.e. should I offer them what I am paying with eon i.e. £180 instead of £280 and say take it or leave it? or b) can I just ignore the bill and if so what are the repercussions (i.e will this give me bad credit, will they send round bailiffs/take me to court?)

Also if I end up having to pay the full whack I assume I can set up a payment plan of e.g. £5 a month and they have to accept it?

Thanks in advance.

reads dont lie, so no. They can issue a default notice on your credit file then sell your debt to a dca

daniel80

Iam in a worse situation. We are moving Monday to a house supplied by Ovo and is on Economy 7. No gas. I will be coming off this and changing supplier but apparently I have to stay on E7 while this goes through about 6-8 weeks. Not happy as at home during the day and any electric used is on the higher tariff.

oldskoo1

I had the same problem when I moved recently

I was on n powers standard tariff when I moved in. If I wanted a cheaper tariff I had to go onto a 12 month contract that is what several phone operators told me.

I had initiated the switch to co-op on day 1 so I had to pay the most expensive rate for nearly 2 months. Ridiculous.

tonyb6

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays wrote: »

Yes you're in a deemed contract. This is to ensure continuity of supply - the alternative is to have all properties de-energised when people move home. General consensus is the that current situation is better.

If you didn't want to be on Standard tariff you could have avoided this on day 1 - just ask e.on to be put on their cheapest tariff. You didn't even choose your supplier for 2 weeks after moving - did you think you were getting free energy during this period?!

Any delay in switching is entirely down to npower, and not eon. They are experiencing meltdown at the moment, with most complaints on this forum about them.

It would appear eon have acted entirely properly - if they'd put you on their cheapest tariff no doubt you'd moan that they'd tied you into a lengthy contract!

General consensus, By whom?! the energy companies! the ombudsmen?! By the people who are supposed to be protecting my interests by legally allowing a company to adopt me as a customer without so much as notification. You say the alternative woudl be to de-energise. (had to look that up, being a mere mortal I didn't understand techie speak). What you actually mean is to turn off the supply at the meter. What I say is give me the choice!

I didn't choose my energy supplier for two weeks as BT had problems installing my broadband and phone lines meaning I had no way to compare. And no I didn't think I was getting free energy! I just presumed my new energy supplier would commence my billing using the previous suppliers end meter readings. That is what I presume meters are for! This system seems to work for the water metered supply.

How could I have avoided it on day one?! I didn't even know who the previous occupiers supplier was and only found out about them when their bill dropped through my door on the 30th. Am I'm supposed to phone up all the energy suppliers asking did you supply the previous occupiers at this address?! You say I could have asked them to put me on their cheapest tariff which I did when I spoke to them, but as in my original post they would then have charged me the cancellation fee's when Npower takes over so quite simply if their not fleecing me in the first instance then their doing it in the second. This I believe also answers your final point!

You say the delay in switching is down to Npower. I'm interested how you know this? I've been trying to find out the process for switching and where each suppliers responsibilities lies. Maybe you can enlighten me? And maybe also you can confirm if you have any interests or associations with either Eon, the other energy suppliers or the industry as a whole?

Maybe if Eon wants less complaints they should stop fleecing people and placing them into contracts they know nothing about!

tonyb6

Nada666 wrote: »

You were free from day one to choose a cheaper tariff from Eon. And you were free from day one to save more than 7% through paying by direct debit.

Would you rather pay £100 or £200 when you move to reconnect supplies and live in the dark and cold for the days or weeks it takes to make an appointment?

I wasn't free from day one to choose anything from Eon! They didn't even make me aware that they had adopted me as a customer. And when I did discover they were my supplier in order to gain the cheaper tariffs they informed me that cancellation charges would then apply as part of the contract so in simple terms they take me from a Deemed contract to an agreed contract but either way their still fleecing me until Npower start to supply.

Regarding your second comment. I would rather have the choice and the freedom to choose. And if this was the situation then you would arrange with your new supplier for service prior to the move just the same as you do for your phone lines. At the end of the day Eon knows the end meter reading of the previous occupier and there is no reason why they can not simply pass these details to Npower to back charge. The fact that we have meters makes the need to physically turn on/off supplies redundant. This process of back charging seems to work fine for your water meter.

tonyb6

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc wrote: »

Hi Tony

As Bluebirdman says, deemed contracts are the preferred way of guaranteeing continuity of supply when responsibility for properties changes hands.

With a change of responsibility, unless a customer tells us differently, we'll put them on our standard tariff. This has no tie-ins or cancellation fees leaving you free to change supplier whenever you wish without penalty.

We only have four tariffs available for credit customers. One is age specific (customers aged 60 and over) and two with cancellation fees. The fourth is the standard tariff you're on.

We're unable to put you on any of the other 3 tariffs without having a conversation with you first. This is to make sure you're eligible and aware of the restrictions/terms involved.

Did you talk to us when you first moved in? If you did, at this point we should've discussed all the options available. As Nada666 says, this will have included cheaper standing charges for paying with a Monthly Direct Debit.

When changing supplier, it's the responsibility of the gaining supplier to initiate a switch and request your account. Part of the time taken will include a cooling off period to give you time to change your mind if you wish. Ours is 2 weeks. Not sure how long npower give for this though.

There's also a further week where the losing supplier can object to a switch.

After this, it's a matter of transferring information between various industry bodies. These include distributors, meter operators, meter readers and the national databases that hold details of all the meters in the UK.

Hope this is of interest.

Malc

Deemed contracts are enforced upon adopted customers without their knowledge or agreement. I was not privy to this contract not did I agree to it. When I moved into the property you did not inform me of the contract nor that your were the supplier to the property. How was I supposed to contact you?

You state, and show on your website that you have "only" 4 tariffs in place yet your own representative has told me that you have placed me on 2nd most expensive. While I accept that you may only have "4" Tariffs/plans I wonder how many variations to these tariffs/plans you have. I know Eon also supply customers with Prepay meters but yet your 4 tariffs/plans fail to mention this option and as such I believe your misrepresenting your number of tariffs. While both myself and a Pre Pay customer maybe on your standard tariff, namely the 'Eon Energy Plan' I do not believe we both pay the same for our supply and are therefore each on a different tariff. Maybe you can also confirm if a customer such as myself in the northwest pays the same for his supply as say a customer in the south east and another in the midlands. While I suspect we are all on the same 'Eon Energy Plan' we all pay a different price for our supply and as such are all on a different tariffs or at least on a different variation of that tariff, therefore it is incorrect for you to say you have only 4 tariffs. This statement is misleading.

You ask if I talked to you when I moved in?! Do you believe I have psychic skills? How am I expected to know you were the suppliers to the previous occupiers and that you now had a deemed contract with me?

You state that you were unable to place me on one of the other "3" tariffs you have! I presume this is because these tariffs require me to AGREE and ACCEPT a contract where as the DEEMED contract I am forced into does not require any agreement from me. Indeed the only way I can 'get out' of the deemed contract would be to enter into another contract with yourselves which I could only then get out of by paying your cancellation charges. I believe this is correct?

I'm sorry. I do not understand the benefits to me of the 14 day cooling off period. I am an educated guy and understand that when I agreed to Npower as my supplier that I was entering into an agreed contract. The only benefactor of the cooling off period is you as you are able to charge me what ever you like during this period as Npower are not able to even commence the switch until this period as expired. I'm also lead to believe that the 2 week cooling off period if an industry wide practice (no doubt implemented by the ombudsman with agreement by the energy companies, it is nice to know you all have my best interests at heart)

Maybe you can also clarify the situation when you say "the losing supplier can object to a switch." As an individual who has had Eon forced upon him and his right to choose denied to him what you seem to be saying is that Eon can also prevent a move to my freely chosen supplier irregardless of the fact that Npower and myself have negotiated a contract for supply. In essence you seem to be saying as an adopted customer not only have you the right to force me into a deemed contract you also have the right to object to any contract I have negotiated with Npower and as such hold me captive to your company. Please tell me on what grounds would Eon be able to object to a switch?

So in short, for a minimum period of 21 days I am bound to a deemed contract with you. During this period Npower can not start to commence the switch because A) The industry has given me a 14 day cooling off period so that I may have the option to cancel a contract to which I have agreed for one which I did not choose or agree to and a further 7 days while Eon decides if you are going to release a captive customer who never choose you as a supplier in the first instance.

During those 21 days Eon are free to charge me whatever rate you so choose. I have no say or negotiation in this rate. If I wish to negotiate this rate my only option is to accept one of your other contracts. By doing this I would either then have to cancel my chosen, preferred and cheaper contract with Npower or pay cancellation fees to you.

After that period I must then be prepared to wait a further 7 to 28 days, during which you are still free to charge me whatever rate you deem appropriate while you do what is in essence administrative work.

Yes, that's a quite nice little earner for you energy companies. Being legally permitted to hold a captive customer hostage for up to 8 weeks while charging them what you want.

It kind of makes me wonder, if you were forced to place these adopted/captive customers such as myself on your cheapest tariffs rather than your most expensive ones for an 8 week grace period then I suspect the majority of switches would take 2 weeks and 1 day...

I look forward to your reply