E-On Hell

MRGBSNZ

I moved out of my student house in second year in June 2013, and ever since have been part of an ongoing battle with E-on.

Until the month of May, we had not had a meter read (and in said month we had a read carried out by eon), and therefore had only been paying estimated readings - for a large 6 bedroom house we paid around 600 pounds for 9 months of electricity (the house did not have gas, and we were not on a direct debit tariff)

However, in October 2013, after another meter read we were billed the ridiculous amount of £3700 for one calendar year (even though there was a meter check in May, for some odd reason we kept receiving estimated readings well into august, when our 'final' estimated bill was, after the second meter reading on the first of July). Since then I've tried to tell eon that the amount is impossible for one year of electricity usage, and after 6 months of going back and forth and delays instigated by the landlord and also by eon themselves - constant pushing back of meter check installation works and the like - they installed a meter check and have told us that in fact the amount was correct and that the outstanding balance on our account - long closed, as of June 2013, was £3700.

I am at my wits end with e-on, as after this meter test check they refuse to consider the possibility that their calculations could be off - but we simply refuse to believe that we got through nearly four thousand pounds of energy within one year. I have emailed the ombudsman 3 weeks ago and have yet to receive a reply, and e-on are getting more and more intrusive with their requests of payment, to the point where it's feeling as if it's on the verge of harassment.

It's frankly astounding that this is an issue that I have been trying to get resolved for 8 months now, and at what seems like the end of it they have remained unmoving in their position, and with the ombudsman yet to reply, I have no idea what to do to continue. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Clueless101

Did you take your own meter readings and submit them to Eon? Or even if not submitted, just a record for yourselves.

Have you been billed only for what you used i.e. using a meter reading from the day you moved in and a meter reading from the day you moved out? How many kWh did you use? Did you take/check the opening and closing meter readings yourself?

Were you on an expensive tariff? Paying on receipt of bill may have been more expensive.

There have been several threads on here of people paying £600 a year for an all electric 1 person 1 bed flat, so your initial estimated charges of £600 for 9 months are likely quite underestimated.

While a £3700 bill is high, unfortunately several factors could mean it's not impossible:

An expensive tariff - how much were you charged per kWh?

Heating a large 6 bedroom house is always going to be expensive, all the more so, if doing so by electric - did you have storage heaters? Were you on an economy 7 tariff?

Only you and your housemates can judge how much electricity you were using, so feel free to disagree, but typically a student household (or any household of a group of adults) will use more electricity than a "family" as there tends to be more computers in the house (as well as printers, phones, perhaps TVs etc.), cooking tends to be done separately, more small appliances or more usage, more lights on, more hot water, house tends to occupied at all hours of the day (more heating) etc.

Approx. £50 a month each isn't extortionate for all electric - have you asked around friends what they pay for a similar set up? Can you find out how much the people who rented the year before you paid or the people who live there now? Actually best not to compare prices, but to compare how many kWh used.

I paid £40 a month when I shared a 3 bed house, but that was duel fuel so less expensive to run.

Nada666

You haven't mentioned opening reads - so there is no guarantee the £4,300 is for only twelve or nine months - the previous tenants could have left having underpaid. If you did not give E-on an opening read then you, the new tenants, are responsible for the shortfall, unfortunately.

£4,200 / 14p is 30,000 kWh. Over six users that is 5,000 kWh each. Over 9 months that is 18 kWh each per day (13 kWh over twelve months). Six students, six showers, six baths, six separate meals, separate oven cooking and boiling water, six breakfasts, seven heaters, heaters left on all day, computers, standard light-bulbs, televisions.

It isn't impossibly high - and certainly possible if the previous tenants only paid £600 too.

Unless you know no-one used much heating and cooking then it seems unlikely the money is not due. I hope you are still in contact with the other five so they can cough up their £600.

Nada666

(Note that all by itself each of you taking two ten-minute showers per day would consume nearly 10,000 kWh!)

E.ON_Company_Representative

Hi MRGBSNZ and welcome,

The advice you’ve been given is really good on here.

We’re obliged to read meters once every Two years, but we may have visited when you’ve been out. Did you ever have a card from a meter reader maybe?

We're always happy to accept customer's own readings and if you don't want to phone us, you can enter them through our website or Twitter etc.

I’ve just got a few questions to ask to get a better picture

When you moved in to the property, did you contact us with your start meter readings and all of your details so we could open an account for you? You can have a look at your first bill to see what start reads we used. Or do you still have a record of the ones you took?

Have you made sure you were on the correct tariff for your meter set up?

Sounds like we’ve been under estimating your usage, that’s why you’ve got a large bill now. We call this a catch up bill. Have you been providing meter reads when you received an estimated bill and asked us to re-bill?

Like Nada666 said there’s six adults in the house using a lot of electric with Tv’s laptops ect and all electric property’s do cost more. It also sounds like you have electric heating, we need to establish what sort of heating/immersion heater you have as this will contribute enormously.

I understand you say you’ve approached the Ombudsman, the first thing to do it to raise a formal complaint with us, we then need to try and reach a resolution. If after 56 days we can’t resolve this, then you’re free to go to the ombudsman. The complaints procedure is on the website.

The debt collection is continuing as there is no complaint currently, or any sort of arrangement to clear the balance. I really urge you to speak to us as soon as possible to start to get this sorted out.

I hope this helps and you know where I am if you need anything else.

Thanks

Amy

Clueless101

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Amy wrote: »

Like Nada666 said there’s six adults in the house using a lot of electric with Tv’s laptops ect and all electric property’s do cost more.

Not to sound all pathetic and needy, but did I not say that too?

MRGBSNZ

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Amy wrote: »

Hi MRGBSNZ and welcome,

The advice you’ve been given is really good on here.

We’re obliged to read meters once every Two years, but we may have visited when you’ve been out. Did you ever have a card from a meter reader maybe?

We're always happy to accept customer's own readings and if you don't want to phone us, you can enter them through our website or Twitter etc.

I’ve just got a few questions to ask to get a better picture

When you moved in to the property, did you contact us with your start meter readings and all of your details so we could open an account for you? You can have a look at your first bill to see what start reads we used. Or do you still have a record of the ones you took?

Have you made sure you were on the correct tariff for your meter set up?

Sounds like we’ve been under estimating your usage, that’s why you’ve got a large bill now. We call this a catch up bill. Have you been providing meter reads when you received an estimated bill and asked us to re-bill?

Like Nada666 said there’s six adults in the house using a lot of electric with Tv’s laptops ect and all electric property’s do cost more. It also sounds like you have electric heating, we need to establish what sort of heating/immersion heater you have as this will contribute enormously.

I understand you say you’ve approached the Ombudsman, the first thing to do it to raise a formal complaint with us, we then need to try and reach a resolution. If after 56 days we can’t resolve this, then you’re free to go to the ombudsman. The complaints procedure is on the website.

The debt collection is continuing as there is no complaint currently, or any sort of arrangement to clear the balance. I really urge you to speak to us as soon as possible to start to get this sorted out.

I hope this helps and you know where I am if you need anything else.

Thanks

Amy

Dear Amy,
In answer to your questions,
We had a meter reading carried out in May 2013, and the updated final bill wasn't sent until October 2013.
When we moved into the property we had a new account made under our name, but the first bill we appeared to have received was in March 2013 - we assumed that the estate agent had read the meter after the previous tenants moved out as this is standard procedure with the agent in question (they read the meter after we moved out), but this may not have been the case.
As far as I am aware the property used electric heating to heat a water tank located outside of the property and said water would heat radiators, there was one in each bedroom, one each bathroom (there were 2 bathrooms, one with an electric shower and one with a shower taking water from the electric heater) one in the kitchen and one in the living area.
I don't know about the tariff that we were on, but I don't think that it would have altered from the previous tenancy (which lasted 24 months).
I understand that the bill may be a catch up bill, but I just don't understand why the estimates were thousands of pounds off compared to the outstanding amount worked out supposedly after the two meter readings (one in May, and one in July at the end of the tenancy). I'll re-contact e-on about sorting something out - I don't know if it's worth complaining as although fitting a check meter and testing the meter has taken around 9 months, the results have shown that the readings have been accurate and that therefore the outstanding amount is correct - if so then what can complaining really achieve?
Thanks for all your time and input,
M

E.ON_Company_Representative

Hi MRGBSNZ,

We base estimated reads on the previous usage, the previous tenants might have not had six people living there and their usage might be a lot less than yours.

Estimated reads are not always accurate, that's why we always encourage customer to provide actual readings.

If you need anything else just let me know.:)

Thanks

Amy