Eon complaint faulty meter (ombudsman sided with them)

rosielx

We had a new "smart" meter installed by EON in summer 2014. We're an all electric house on economy 7 heated with a rebuilt GEC Night store boiler which charges overnight and runs a standard wet system. Turned it on in October and it failed to charge up so we called out our GEC trained engineer who services it annually. Turned out the new meter was faulty and was not sending the night signal to the boiler to allow it to charge.

Eon quickly came out and replaced faulty meter component but refused to refund our engineer call out. The rest of the electrics in house were running fine so we had no reason to assume it was the meter. The ombudsman sided with Eon saying that in their terms and conditions it says they wont pay for third party engineers call charges. My husband signed up with EON 17 years ago and doesn't remember the terms. This was well before my time and it was me who called the engineer.

Is there anyone else we can complain too? The fault was with EON but it seems as long as something is written in their terms it's covered even if they caused the fault. I'm planning to switch providers as we can save a little bit but the cheapest provider, Scottish Power, has bad customer service reviews .

lvf

Well, ask yourself this. Did you contact EON before calling out the engineer? Did they tell you to go and get a third party inspection?

If not, then how is this any different from you taking a car along to a mechanic, only to be told it needs to go back to the manufacturer for a repair. You still have to pay the mechanic for their time, even though this isn't necessarily the correct course of action.

I find it very hard to believe EON told you to get a third party inspection done for an actual issue in your property. The only time a supplier will tell you to get a third party inspection at your own expense is for things that are not an issue and will benefit you, such as major metering changes like E10 to E7 or standard, for example.

Why do you believe EON owe you for your mistake?

Andy_WSM

2 things here. Well, 3.

Eon don't own or maintain meters. The network DNO for your area is responsible for that although Eon would be the ones that call them out for you.

If it's in Eon's T&Cs that they don't pay for third party engineers, then that's pretty much that - just because you weren't aware of the condition doesn't make it invalid.

It's been to the Ombudsman, they agree that Eon aren't being unreasonable, so there isn't much more that can be done.

rosielx

Well if a gas boiler isn't working I'd call an engineer to service it. As our all electric boiler failed to charge we assumed it was the boiler. It wasn't. Eon had fitted a faulty meter which wasn't sending the signal to the boiler. If all of the electrics are working in a house most people would assume that it was an appliance at fault. If anyone can help please post.

rosielx

Thanks Andy. I've been trying to get the terms and conditions but EON say that terms have changed since we became a customer and we don't have a copy of those.

Andy_WSM

rosielx wrote: »

Thanks Andy. I've been trying to get the terms and conditions but EON say that terms have changed since we became a customer and we don't have a copy of those.

If you have an online account then i'm pretty sure you can get the T&Cs online.

I'm not currently an EON customer so I can't check where for you i'm afraid.

EON do have reps on this forum who are very helpful, but I'd suspect they have finished for the weekend (if they're lucky! )

naedanger

rosielx wrote: »

We had a new "smart" meter installed by EON in summer 2014. We're an all electric house on economy 7 heated with a rebuilt GEC Night store boiler which charges overnight and runs a standard wet system. Turned it on in October and it failed to charge up so we called out our GEC trained engineer who services it annually. Turned out the new meter was faulty and was not sending the night signal to the boiler to allow it to charge.

Eon quickly came out and replaced faulty meter component but refused to refund our engineer call out. The rest of the electrics in house were running fine so we had no reason to assume it was the meter. The ombudsman sided with Eon saying that in their terms and conditions it says they wont pay for third party engineers call charges. My husband signed up with EON 17 years ago and doesn't remember the terms. This was well before my time and it was me who called the engineer.

Is there anyone else we can complain too? The fault was with EON but it seems as long as something is written in their terms it's covered even if they caused the fault. I'm planning to switch providers as we can save a little bit but the cheapest provider, Scottish Power, has bad customer service reviews .

As you have gone as far as the Ombudsman, your only other option is to take legal action against them, probably as a small claim. There will be a cost to you of bringing action, which you should be able to recover if you win. However like the previous posters I think you would be very unlikely to win.

Also think carefully before moving to Scottish Power or npower. They have both caused problems for many of their customers.

Unless you produce terms and conditions that actually support your argument (and I think it unlikely any supplier would ever have had such terms) then I think you are unlikely to win. It seems unreasonable to me, to expect your supplier to pay, unless they agreed in advance. (Had you said you suspected there was a problem on their side of the supply then they could have sent their own worker.)

Consumerist

naedanger wrote: »

. . . Also think carefully before moving to Scottish Power or npower. They have both caused problems for many of their customers.

I would agree with that if you want peace of mind. Some of the new kids on the block are also having what might be called "teething problems"

I would suggest you have a look at Ovo Energy or Co-op Energy who are normally quite competitive and have good customer service.

rosielx

I'll check those out . It's hard to find competitive deals as we're a single fuel all electric house.

chanz4

switching will also possibley disable the smart feature also

espaceblue@btopenworld.co

rosielx wrote: »

We had a new "smart" meter installed by EON in summer 2014. We're an all electric house on economy 7 heated with a rebuilt GEC Night store boiler which charges overnight and runs a standard wet system. Turned it on in October and it failed to charge up so we called out our GEC trained engineer who services it annually. Turned out the new meter was faulty and was not sending the night signal to the boiler to allow it to charge.

Eon quickly came out and replaced faulty meter component but refused to refund our engineer call out. The rest of the electrics in house were running fine so we had no reason to assume it was the meter. The ombudsman sided with Eon saying that in their terms and conditions it says they wont pay for third party engineers call charges. My husband signed up with EON 17 years ago and doesn't remember the terms. This was well before my time and it was me who called the engineer.

Is there anyone else we can complain too? The fault was with EON but it seems as long as something is written in their terms it's covered even if they caused the fault. I'm planning to switch providers as we can save a little bit but the cheapest provider, Scottish Power, has bad customer service reviews .

THIS HAPPENED to me in 2013 ! december a new meter didn't register night time rate. they promised to come and fix it, umpteen times. failed and paid me for none show once. don't reply to my calls or texts. ombudsman said i ve got to gather evidence, names of operator , dates, just like a legal case. ombudsman, unsympathetic . i ve no debts they have messed up my budget, no off peak. storage heaters and frantic night time operation of dishwasher , washing machine etc. will not be able to afford to be warm at all. i can't cope with scottish electricity.