Advice needed : E On took payment 8 months after I left them.

FREEISBETTER

Hi

I need some advice. I left E On in December of last year but it appears that they didn't take the last payment that was due ( I was set up for quarterly direct debits).

I was schocked the other day to find out that they'd taken £240 out of my account by direct debit. They did send me a letter at the start of August but I didn't receive anything.

I contacted them to find out why they'd taken a payment and they explained that due to a billing error they never sent me a final bill in December and so didn't take the last payment. They've offered to reduce the bill by £40 because of the inconvenience of billing me 8 months late.

What I want to know is are they right to take the payment after billing me after so many months? Should the direct debit have been collected so long after I ceased to be their customer? Should I just take the £40 compensation offered and let the matter be?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Cardew

They haven't done anything that is illegal or breaches the Billing code.


The company only have to prove they sent a letter/email, not prove that you have received that correspondence.


Provided you are happy that the £240 is a valid amount, I cannot see you getting anything better than a £40 goodwill gesture.

dogshome

It seems from your post that you never actually recieved an actual 'Final Bill' for the account, (though this may have been enclosed with missing August letter ?).

You are entitled to a detailed bill, and till you have it the debt doesn't exist - Chase Eon for a copy with the threat that you will ask your bank to re-call the £240 payment if they don't supply a copy quickly

With that out of the way, YES - Eon can issue a bill 8 months after the account's closure, in fact they have up to 6 years to do so and a discount of £40 is a very good offer

FREEISBETTER

Thanks for the advice.

I don't deny that I owe the money I just thought they'd collected the payment nearly a year ago. When I log into their site I can see the final bill with the missing August letter.

If it's all legitimate that's fine. I'll still take the £40 gesture of goodwill payment though!

Thanks for the help. Much appreciated.

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Hi FREEISBETTER

I'm sorry it's taken so long to sort out your final bill. Did you change supplier or move out of the property last December? If you moved out, do the details on the final bill match those at the time of the move? In particular, the closing date and meter readings. If they do, the bill will be accurate although very delayed.

A change of supplier is different. Here, it's the responsibility of the new supplier to let the old supplier have the meter readings they use to open their account. The old supplier will use the same readings to close their account. This is to make sure the same energy is only charged once. If this is the case, are the closing/opening readings the same? Again, if the readings match, it looks like an accurate bill.

Sounds like you paid with a Variable Direct Debit. With these arrangements, the full amount for a final bill will be claimed automatically. We'll let you know this in advance. Usually, though, this is within 30 days of your account closing. Over 8 months later is way out.

As we've made an offer to reduce the balance, I suspect you're following our complaints route. If you're unhappy with this offer, ask for the complaint to be reviewed. A separate team will go through it again. If they think we haven't done the right thing, another offer will be made. Or, if they agree with the actions taken, the existing offer will be upheld. If you're still unhappy, we'll issue a 'Final Resolution Offer' letter and you can use this to go to the Ombudsman. Although, if the complaint's over 56 days old, you can go to the Ombudsman now, no need to wait for a letter.

Again, I'm really sorry it's taken so long to send a final bill but hope this helps point you in the right direction.

Malc