moved into house with EOn prepayment meter any help???

surfsister

Hi guys I have moved into a house with a prepayment meter for gas which I did nit realise. I have excellent credit rating and always paid by DD and had no problems.

I sent 2 hours waiting to talk to someone and then talking to 4 different people - goodness knows how much that cost me.After making a fuss they did credit me with a fiver on my account.

I cannot have the meter changed for 3 weeks due to Eon terms and conditions - but I never agreed to have a prepayment meter so why and I am forced to pay through the nose for it.

So I put 20 quid on the prepayment meter and it only shows 8 pounds 16p!! another rip off. I know that 2.16 was on the card from the other chap and they said it would be credited to my bill, but where did the other ten quid go??? At this rate it is going to cost me an absolute fortune!

I cannot believe that Eon are first for customer service!! No way on their Facebook page there are nothing but an endless round of complaints about being ripped off and kept on the phone for hours; just like me!

[Deleted User]

The prepay was in the property when you took the tenancy so you have agreed to it as a fixture and fitting and possibly may have to reinstate the meter when you leave.
Hopefully you have a new Eon card/key so any debts from past tenants would have been wiped off. There is a standing charge of approx £1.40 a week for all prepays. you pay standing charges up front and they re very visable.Credit meters pay the same standing charges. The £10 could ve been a few weeks standing charge build up between tenants , maybe that should been incurred by the landlord. you are not paying through the nose for your energy at all. when you get your credit meters ,unless you elect for cheaper fixed deal by direct debit, you will be paying exactly the same as one of Eons default standard tariffs

surfsister

thanks but I bought the house!!!

I am paying through the nose definitely.

I only moved in today so how can I have used ten quid of standing charges???????

Eon is total rubbish: on Facebook there are hundreds of dissatisfied customers.

jules-2005

I had to talk to eon about money being taken off my top ups, £36 in total on the gas ... They sent me a card with the credit on it with no problems or arguments. I just had to press a few buttons on the gas meter whilst I was talking to them on the phone for them to see how much debt was taken off each time I'd topped up.
It took me about 4 weeks to have both prepayment meters replaced with normal meters from when I moved in. Got to say I had no problems at all with Eon, I think people don't think to put good service reports on the internet to balance out the bad

surfsister

thanks jules! how can they justify taking extra charges off people and hoping they don't notice!!

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

If the meter is recovering debt, the debt doesn't belong to you, and whoever you spoke to should have realised that and cleared the debt from the meter.

You would hopefully have called them on the first day you took ownership of the property, so any standing charges that had built up were also wiped.

Any notion that they're overcharging you (PPM's charge the same as Standard tariff quarterly payers) or that you didn't realise there were PPMs in the property is a non-starter.

sky11

You bought the house with a prepayment meter and you will be 'inconvenienced' with this type of meter for a few weeks until you get it exchanged. Most important is that you have gas.
BTW there are people with 'excellent credit rating' who choose to have prepayment meters.

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Hi surfsister

Sorry about the long waiting times on the phone. Already some excellent advice on here. Thanks all. Thought I'd pop on with a bit of information.

We're happy to look at changing prepayment meters for credit provided a credit check has been passed.

There's no charge for this meter exchange but the time to do the job will depend on the engineer's availability. At this time of year, it can be between 3 to 4 weeks.

As sacsquacco and Bluebirdman say, prepayment prices are about the same as our standard variable tariff. You can see the prices you're paying by pressing the button on the front of the meter and scrolling through the screens. They're on screens 9, 10 and 17.

Now you've spoken to us, we'll send you a new payment device. Please use this as soon as you can, even if you top up with a quid. Doing this will clear any debt left over from the previous occupant.

This debt could include unpaid Standing Charges, gas used in Emergency Credit and any arrears on the meter.

Emergency Credit is an amount that can be used once your credit has been used. It helps keep the gas coming for a short period to give time to top up. Gas used this way will need repaying and this is taken back once you top up.

Did you tell us about any arrears on the meter when you called? This would've been on screen 27 (you'll need to put the card into the meter to see screens 24 onwards). If you did, the payment device should credit this back to the meter.

If not, don't worry, have a chat to one of our Prepayment Teams. They'll send a message to the meter to put this right. You may need to top up 3 to 4 times to pick up the message. Again, a quid each time will do.

Sorry again for the long waiting times on the phone surfsister but hope this is of interest.

Malc

surfsister

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays wrote: »

If the meter is recovering debt, the debt doesn't belong to you, and whoever you spoke to should have realised that and cleared the debt from the meter.

You would hopefully have called them on the first day you took ownership of the property, so any standing charges that had built up were also wiped.

Any notion that they're overcharging you (PPM's charge the same as Standard tariff quarterly payers) or that you didn't realise there were PPMs in the property is a non-starter.

---

well update!!! At last I have my own prepayment card after a 2hr call to Eon and a weeks wait during which the old card locked up cut off my gas and when I got the new card had to pay someone to start the boiler as it cut out. So for 2 days no gas for heat or water!!

The previous owner told me it had been removed and I contacted Eon well before I moved in. Actually Eon never turned up to remove the meter despite the previous owner waiting all morning! So this is all Eon's fault!!! I have to wait 3 weeks to have it removed so that's 6 weeks from when the previous owner arranged for it to be removed.

Eon customer service provider of the year; I don't think so!!

surfsister

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc wrote: »

Hi surfsister

Sorry about the long waiting times on the phone. Already some excellent advice on here. Thanks all. Thought I'd pop on with a bit of information.

We're happy to look at changing prepayment meters for credit provided a credit check has been passed.

There's no charge for this meter exchange but the time to do the job will depend on the engineer's availability. At this time of year, it can be between 3 to 4 weeks.

As sacsquacco and Bluebirdman say, prepayment prices are about the same as our standard variable tariff. You can see the prices you're paying by pressing the button on the front of the meter and scrolling through the screens. They're on screens 9, 10 and 17.

Now you've spoken to us, we'll send you a new payment device. Please use this as soon as you can, even if you top up with a quid. Doing this will clear any debt left over from the previous occupant.

This debt could include unpaid Standing Charges, gas used in Emergency Credit and any arrears on the meter.

Emergency Credit is an amount that can be used once your credit has been used. It helps keep the gas coming for a short period to give time to top up. Gas used this way will need repaying and this is taken back once you top up.

Did you tell us about any arrears on the meter when you called? This would've been on screen 27 (you'll need to put the card into the meter to see screens 24 onwards). If you did, the payment device should credit this back to the meter.

---

Of course not I had no idea what was going on it was pitch dark and I couldn't work out what to do - I had no idea; as the previous owner asked for the meter to be removed that arrears were building up! I only noticed the prepayment metere by chance when the door flew open as it has been broken. I was horrified! I have always been all electric before as in the country and never had gas or a prepayment meter!! what the hell is screen 27 or 24???

surfsister

sacsquacco wrote: »

The prepay was in the property when you took the tenancy so you have agreed to it as a fixture and fitting and possibly may have to reinstate the meter when you leave.
Hopefully you have a new Eon card/key so any debts from past tenants would have been wiped off. There is a standing charge of approx £1.40 a week for all prepays. you pay standing charges up front and they re very visable.Credit meters pay the same standing charges. The £10 could ve been a few weeks standing charge build up between tenants , maybe that should been incurred by the landlord. you are not paying through the nose for your energy at all. when you get your credit meters ,unless you elect for cheaper fixed deal by direct debit, you will be paying exactly the same as one of Eons default standard tariffs

---

just got my paperwork at last and the standing charge is 31.5p a day!!! lol! over 2 quid a week! 2 pounds 20p actually!! if this is the standard charge for eon gas meters I'm changing suppliers asap!