Erroneous Transfer

ledzeppelin4

I recently checked my online account with scottish hydro and noticed I hadn't received a gas bill in almost 2 years. My account still showed on the website, with an outstanding balance of £0. My electricity account also with scottish hydro was unaffected. So I had sill been paying my direct debit for electricity, but the one for gas had stopped.
So I contacted Scottish Hydro to ask what was happening with my gas account. After being transferred through a few people I was told my gas account was closed. I asked how this could have happened, they said you are the only person who could have closed it. I said I had no recollection of changing my supplier and asked how I could find out who my supplier is, and they said I would have to contact the national grid.
So I phoned the national grid, and they said my supply was with Eon.
So I contacted Eon through their website, and got a reply after about a week.... saying I had to phone them. I got through and after about an hour discovered they had transferred my flat over instead of one of my neighbours by mistake. I asked them to transfer me back to my original supplier and they said they would do this.
Then I got a letter from Eon saying they could not transfer me back to Scottish Hydro as it had been too long and I would have to contact Scottish Hydro.
I contacted Scottish Hydro and they said I would have to re-apply to have my gas switched back to Scottish Hydro and the 2 years of gas I would have to pay Eon for.
So it appears my only option is to sign up for Eon, pay my bill, then immediately switch back to Scottish hydro if I want to go back to where I started. It seems like Eon have carried out a hostile takeover of my gas account and my only option is to set up an account with them.
Anyone else had a similar experience?
Also, will I be charged for all the gas at today's gas prices? As I imagine gas prices have gone up quite a bit over the last 2 years.
Do I have any options here?

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

ET's can happen for a number of reasons, normally it's due either to a meter mix up in flats, or people with clunky fingures typing their neighbours address when switching suppliers.

It's extremely unlikely e.on have decided to make a "hostile takeover" of your gas account; they make enough money without having to resort to this. They were told by someone (rightly or wrongly) to switch it, and they did.

It sounds like you haven't checked either your bill or your bank statement in 2 years. If you had this would have been spotted, and you could have applied for an ET back to Scottish Hydro. 2 years worth of free gas is far too much for the suppliers to write off between them however, you're going to have to pay for what you've used.

I'm sure an e.on rep will be along with their opinion, but I'm fairly certain the bill will be calculated pro rata as to when it was used (although this in itself will be tricky, I assume you haven't submitted meter readings either?)

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena

Morning ledzeppelin4 and welcome to the forum

Thanks to Bluebirdman of Alcathays for some good info there

As Bluebirdman says, ET's can happen for a number of reasons and we can't just take a supply over, someone has to request this.

It does sound like one of your neighbours has applied to change to us and we have taken your supply in error.

Normally you'd have received a welcome letter, but it may be this was changed over with incorrect meter details and the letters are still going to the person that thought they had changed to us.

So, you will need to pay for the gas that's been used, but this will be calculated over the correct prices, not all at today's. we'll also offer a payment arrangement so you can pay this off over a number of months.

We can't send this back as an ET now it's been too long.

If you did want to stay with us, we can set up an arrangement for you to cover your usage and pay off the balance.

If you wanted to change supplier, you'd need to ask for them to take the supplier as a normal switch.

Hope this helps a little and I'm sorry you've been left in this situation.

Helena

oldwiring

Being b****y minded here, my question is this.

One would assume that the OP wanted to stay with his provider, as its rates were cheaper, taking in to account any dual fuel discount receivable.
Why the heck should people like him have to pay over the odds to settle the matter? IMO in such cases the bill should be calculated at the rate the victim would have paid had the error/ erroneous transfer not happened. Any book balancing shold be between suppliers or treated as a normal commercial risk.

As per usual the little man gets the sticky end.

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

oldwiring wrote: »

Being b****y minded here, my question is this.

One would assume that the OP wanted to stay with his provider, as its rates were cheaper, taking in to account any dual fuel discount receivable.
Why the heck should people like him have to pay over the odds to settle the matter? IMO in such cases the bill should be calculated at the rate the victim would have paid had the error/ erroneous transfer not happened. Any book balancing shold be between suppliers or treated as a normal commercial risk.

As per usual the little man gets the sticky end.

In the case of an ET, all that you've mentioned happens. The ET process is designed to protect the consumer. Energy companies can only act on information provided, they can't intuit that a switch wasn't intended.

Most people would do at least 1 of the following 3 things once a month:

Check energy bill
Read meter and submit details
Check bank statement

Any of those 3 things would have sorted this mess out at source. To do none of them, and then expect some sort of windfall when things go awry is optimistic.

oldwiring

Thanks for the info. It is nice to know that as general principle matters are dealt with fairly. I take your point about the OP's case.

yvonne13_2

Wait!!!! So let me get this straight the OP pays via DD for duel fuel and doesn't notice that the supply is for electric only!!!! Sorry but I don't buy this story for one minute.

You get an online statement either once a month or every quarter and it's your responsibility to check what you're paying for.

ledzeppelin4

thanks for the comments.

Just had another hour long phone call with Eon trying to set up an account to pay my bill... but apparently my gas meter doesn't exist. According to their records my meter was removed 2 years ago and replaced with a pre-payment meter... the gas meter under my sink disagrees.....

spiro

The ET charter does limit the period to 2 years, I suspect this is because OFGEM expected a customer to notice within 2 years. If it is identified within the 2 years you go back to your old supplier and only have to pay them but for all the energy , you don't escape paying for the energy used during the ET.