Huge unexpected EON bill!

zebra12

Hello,

I'm writing this on behalf of a family member.

Their electricity is supplied by EON. The account has always been paid on time.

A couple of weeks ago it became apparent that the representative sent by EON to do the meter readings had been making serious mistakes. Firstly, and unbelievably, they had been reading the night and day rates the wrong way round. Also, they had unsuccessfully attempted to take the meter reading from the wrong property and therefore not obtained a reading at all on one occasion.

My relative has now been presented with a £1200 bill. Surely there must be some redress in this situation? Had EON obtained the meter readings correctly of course my relative would have investigated and changed their usage habits immediately. It seems terrible customer service that due to the 100% fault of EON, a customer can be unexpectedly landed with such a huge bill.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

Browntoa

dont they check their own meter readings ??

I send meter readings each month regardless of what they do

I'm assuming as its their agents error they will spread the repayment (or they should)

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena

Hi zebra12

I'm sorry your family member has had this problem. I do know its not very nice.

There's a few things to check.

It sounds like they have an economy 7 meter, so a day rate and a night rate. Are they being billed on an economy 7 tariff?

As we're only obliged to read the meters once every two years, have they also been sending in their own reads? Have they checked the reads we've used to bill when they have been receiving the bills?

I'm sorry about all of the questions, but we'll need to establish what's gone wrong.

They need to contact us to discuss it properly and to get things put right.

We may be able to offer a slightly longer period of time to pay the balance off, there may be other things we can offer. It will depend on exactly what's happened.

Let me know if you need any more info.

Helena

zebra12

Browntoa wrote: »

dont they check their own meter readings ??

I send meter readings each month regardless of what they do

I'm assuming as its their agents error they will spread the repayment (or they should)

No, the meter readings have all been taken by the EON representatives.

ETA: the incorrect meter readings that is. My relative did send in the last readings.

zebra12

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena wrote: »

Hi zebra12

I'm sorry your family member has had this problem. I do know its not very nice.

There's a few things to check.

It sounds like they have an economy 7 meter, so a day rate and a night rate. Are they being billed on an economy 7 tariff?

As we're only obliged to read the meters once every two years, have they also been sending in their own reads? Have they checked the reads we've used to bill when they have been receiving the bills?

I'm sorry about all of the questions, but we'll need to establish what's gone wrong.

They need to contact us to discuss it properly and to get things put right.

We may be able to offer a slightly longer period of time to pay the balance off, there may be other things we can offer. It will depend on exactly what's happened.

Let me know if you need any more info.

Helena

Hello Helena,

Thank you for your reply. I believe it is an economy 7 tariff, yes, but will have to double check this. There are day and night rates.

The meter readings have certainly been taken more frequently than once every two years. Some of the readings were registered as being unable to be obtained because the meter was taped up and inaccessible. This has never been the case at my relatives property, however the neighbouring property does indeed have it's meter sealed up so it's clear the meter reader has been trying to access the wrong property.

My relative telephoned in the last meter readings and it then became clear that EON did not know which reading was which. After considerable to-ing and fro-ing, it was established which reading was which. This in turn has generated the enormous bill.

My grievance with this is that had the meters been read correctly, this amount of energy usage would never have been allowed to be accrued. If the usage had been recorded correctly, the route of the usage would have been traced and altered accordingly.

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena

Thanks ever so much for the extra details zebra12 and I understand where you're coming from.

Yes check the tariff if you can.

Although they've had more reads taken, we only legally need to read the meters once every two years.

It looks like your relative has been receiving the bills and just paying them, not checking their meter against the reads used to bill.

It is a bit of a confusing issue though about the meter reader reading the other property, do you think they've been sending us the reads for someone else house altogether? But using these for your relatives bill?

Or do we just think it's a transposed issue? (when we've billed the day and night the wrong way round)

I think they need to speak to us as soon as possible, because I think it's maybe a bit more complicated.

If you can ask then to have up to date meter reads and their meter serial numbers (take this off the meters itself) to hand when they contact us, this is a good start.

Thank you

Helena