Eon overpayment to me, their error...

bannedbiker

I have an issue with Eon, who have overpaid me a refund.

29th Sept my account is ~£70 in credit, closed (we moved house), and all DDs are cancelled.
1st Oct, Eon expect a DD payment, which is not made as it has been cancelled.
2nd Oct, Eon send me a cheque for ~£125, which I payed into my bank.
23rd Oct I recieve a bill from Eon at my new house, for ~£55.

I called them today, and they say that because they expected the DD to come through, they sent the £125 cheque. This seems really stupid to me as the DD was due before the cheque was sent out.

My intention is to agree that they have overpaid me £55, but that I will now charge them a fee for the time I have spent investigating their error, which I will set at £55, meaning my account will be settled.

Has anyone done this before, or have any knowledge that might help?!

victor2

bannedbiker wrote: »

I have an issue with Eon, who have overpaid me a refund.

29th Sept my account is ~£70 in credit, closed (we moved house), and all DDs are cancelled.
1st Oct, Eon expect a DD payment, which is not made as it has been cancelled.
2nd Oct, Eon send me a cheque for ~£125, which I payed into my bank.
23rd Oct I recieve a bill from Eon at my new house, for ~£55.

I called them today, and they say that because they expected the DD to come through, they sent the £125 cheque. This seems really stupid to me as the DD was due before the cheque was sent out.

My intention is to agree that they have overpaid me £55, but that I will now charge them a fee for the time I have spent investigating their error, which I will set at £55, meaning my account will be settled.

Has anyone done this before, or have any knowledge that might help?!

E.On customer services are pretty good and may just write it off as a goodwill gesture. I wouldn't pursue the "charging them a fee" line, just contact them and politely explain the issue and time you have spent trying to sort it out. You're still their customer, so it's in their interest to keep you.

System

I have changed my post because what you are suggesting does not stack up. The only party that can cancel a DD on your account is you. As a consequence of your actions, which I accept may have been made in good faith, the fault for the overpayment lies squarely with you. DD requests for payment are made some days before the payment is actually made; it follows that the request for payment was in the Banking system waiting payment when the DD was cancelled. It seems to me that E.on has acted in good faith by paying you a refund ahead of the DD payment to them being received. When it failed to come through, E.on raised a bill - less than 3 weeks later. It follows that you must have known that an error was made as we are talking days not months. My advice is 'pay the bill - and move on'.

brewerdave

If EON had taken a year or so to raise the bill for £55 then I think that you would have had a fair argument - but only 3 weeks ? As Hengus says, pay the bill and move on!

bannedbiker

Thanks for the replies Hengus.

I cancelled the DD myself on the 29th Sept monents after closing my Eon account. I would have done this as a matter of course anyway, but I was also recommended to do this by the Eon customer service operator on the phone! They even said to me "no more Direct Debits will be taken, but you might want to cancel it from your end for your own peace of mind."

If the DD request was already in the system on the 29th Sept when I spoke to the operator, but not cleared, surely the system would not have shown me £70 in credit, but actually only £15 in credit as the DD had not actually been put through?

I was aware of an error, yes, as I'd been told to expect a cheque for £70, yet I received £125, however, I assumed (I guess like Eon did) that a final DD must have been paid, and they were refunding it, I didn't check this as between moving house and working abroad, it wasn't top of my priorities!

I had a small windfall, whilst moving house, and was happy about it with lots of other bills to pay. At the same time, I get charged £20-30 by various companies each time I make a change to my account as "admin fees". For example, our TV/phone/braodband provider wanted to charge us £50 to move our subscription - I cancelled my subscription for free, and my wife opened a new account at the new address, and even then we were charged £20 for setting up the new account, on top of the first monthly bill.
Receiving an unexpected bill, to a new address, from a previous supplier has caused me to take a couple hours out of my working day, and also stress, why shouldn't I charge a similar admin fee to the company causing this with their mistake?! :cool:

naedanger

bannedbiker wrote: »

I was aware of an error, yes, as I'd been told to expect a cheque for £70, yet I received £125, however, I assumed (I guess like Eon did) that a final DD must have been paid, and they were refunding it, I didn't check this as between moving house and working abroad, it wasn't top of my priorities!

When you collected the £125 you understood that was only the correct amount if your final dd of £55 went through. You now know it didn't go through and Eon are £55 out of pocket.

I had a small windfall, whilst moving house, and was happy about it with lots of other bills to pay. At the same time, I get charged £20-30 by various companies each time I make a change to my account as "admin fees". For example, our TV/phone/braodband provider wanted to charge us £50 to move our subscription - I cancelled my subscription for free, and my wife opened a new account at the new address, and even then we were charged £20 for setting up the new account, on top of the first monthly bill.
Receiving an unexpected bill, to a new address, from a previous supplier has caused me to take a couple hours out of my working day, and also stress, why shouldn't I charge a similar admin fee to the company causing this with their mistake?! :cool:

I don't agree that Eon have caused you any material inconvenience. Their billing was clear and their repayment prompt. They are now just sending you a bill for what you know you are due to pay them.

I think you should pay the bill and move on.

matelodave

No reason why you shouldn't try but do you want to end up with a default on your history with the credit reference agencies because you've got an outstanding £55.

Principles are great, but can often have unintended consequences - I'd just pay up and done with rather than getting on my high horse and then finding that they've won some other way

bannedbiker

Fair shout!

Thanks for the feedback all!

bannedbiker

naedanger wrote: »

I don't agree that Eon have caused you any material inconvenience. Their billing was clear and their repayment prompt. They are now just sending you a bill for what you know you are due to pay them.

I think you should pay the bill and move on.

I do have to say though that their billing was not clear!
Especially when a cheque for nearly double the amount I was expecting landed in my postbox!
To then, some weeks later, receive a bill, requesting payment from a company who I believed I had closed my account with is far from clear!

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that Eon are not being fair or correct, just that it took me having to spend my lunch break on the phone to them to understand how the situation arose.

naedanger

bannedbiker wrote: »

I do have to say though that their billing was not clear!
Especially when a cheque for nearly double the amount I was expecting landed in my postbox!
To then, some weeks later, receive a bill, requesting payment from a company who I believed I had closed my account with is far from clear!

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that Eon are not being fair or correct, just that it took me having to spend my lunch break on the phone to them to understand how the situation arose.

I agree some energy companies's bills can be unclear (though have no knowledge of Eon's bills). Nevertheless, despite the bill being unwelcome, I think you don't have sufficient grounds for with holding payment. However that is obviously just my opinion.

Nada666

And this is why people vote UKIP.