How quickly do Eon and Scottish Power resolve disputes?

Scrimpstar

I have just used the MSE Cheap Energy Club to switch from EON to Scottish Power and I am having a stressful time, due to them not being able to agree my final bill with Eon. I have yet to have an explanation from EON as to how they think I have incurred over £100 gas bill (estimated) for the last quarter despite having only a gas hob and oven in use.

The estimated meter reading they used is higher than the meter reading now, 1 month after I switched!

The worst part of this is the achingly slow period it takes them to respond to each enquiry. I have been trying to get an answer from them since 16th September and it is really weighing on my mind. and my emails to them seem to falling on deaf ears. What is the point of having an energy regulator if the company can just cite volume of complaints as a reason to delay resolving them within the agreed timescales?

Does anyone out there know how long these type of problems take to resolve? I am getting worried because Scottish Power said the final bill demands would be frozen while the amount was in dispute, but there is no indication of this on the Eon website and I do not want a mark on my credit record.

Any help would be gratefully received...

Hoof_Hearted

I can't believe the energy club is recommending that anyone moves to Scottish Power, They are shockingly incompetent and their customer service is appalling. I am waiting the outcome of my complaint from the ombudsman at present.

The main thing is that your closing reading with your previous supplier is the same as the opening reading with the new one. It is well worth reading your meter on the day you change and sending it to both new and old suppliers. However, the reading they are using is clearly wrong and you need to convince them of that. This shouldn't be difficult if their estimate is more than your current reading.

matelodave

There is no average time to settle a dispute or problem - you can take it to the ombudsman after about 8 weeks but it can still take ages after that - Scottish Power took ten weeks to sort out my refund when I left them last year but I understand that they've got worse rather than better since then. They wouldn't be at the top of my list to swap to at the moment. However it seems that your problem is with Eon at the moment.


I cannot understand why they are using an estimate - if you read your meter and gave it to Scottish Power on the day you transferred then there should be no argument, even if you gave it a day or two earlier it shouldn't be all that much different.


Were you up to date with your readings with Eon or were you happily accepting estimated bills and not correcting them, in which case Eon may have been expecting a much higher reading than the one you gave so you've somehow got to prove what it was. Have you tried taking a photo of the meter and sending it to them.


Make sure you send monthly readings to SP when you eventually get transferred and check your bills carefully to ensure that they get corrected if they aren't right

E.ON_Company_Representative

Hi Scrimpstar,

I’m sorry your change over hasn’t gone smoothly, I thought I would give you some advice from our side

When you change supplier we’ll use the same meter reading as your new energy supplier. This is to make sure that you only get billed once for the energy you’ve used. Sometimes these meter readings can be taken
incorrectly, estimated or not sent through in time. The new supplier is responsible for this reading, whether it’s collecting an actual one from you or estimating it based on your previous meter reading history (which we would send to them)

If this happens we will raise an agreed reads dispute (ARD) with the other supplier. If both suppliers agree to the new meter reading we’ll both bill you to it. Both suppliers can start this process, so if you’ve already contacted Scottish Power they should have done this.

When there’s an ARD on your account it’ll be on hold so we won’t be chasing you for the balance, don’t worry about your credit score, as we’ll report it as ‘Q’ for ‘Query’ or ‘X’ for excluded.

If you’ve got a meter reading for the date that you changed supplier we’ll need this from you. As well as the two suppliers, there are some other parties involved in the background which means it can take up to 6 weeks, but it’s usually much quicker.

I hope this helps and this gets resolved quickly for you.

Thanks

Amy