Eon/Sainsburys Energy Account Query

Wondercuz

Hi i'm looking for some help and advice with an issue we are currently having with Sainsburys Energy and our previous provider Eon.

We started our account with Sainsburys energy on 7th April of this year and our Eon account ended on 6th. On the final bill for our Eon account we had an end gas meter read of 04828 and our Sainsburys account starts on this value also.

There was a 2-3 month delay on the setup of our gas account and when I entered my first meter read amount it was ~5200 (a difference of around 400 units).

Now to the key part of this, when I received my final Eon bill on 24th April their value of 04828 was listed as an estimate which led to them refunding me £100 from my account. However when speaking to them on the phone I was informed that in March (the month prior and when I left through USwitch) I provided Eon with a meter reading of 05111. They have not used this or taken this into account with the final bill and refunded when they should have not.

Either way, I appear to owe around £300 in gas that was not used despite Eon not using my final read (which was also provided to sainsburys) and basing it on an estimate value which was over 300 units higher than an actual read I provided the month previous.

Would it be worth disputing this as I feel that I provided Eon with meter readings in good faith a month prior to me stating I would leave and they did not use this value at all in their final bill which they generated. Also sainsburys have a value of 05164 on their sales document which they also chose not to use.

I'm at a loss at the moment as £150 is a lot for me to be able to repay.

System

When it says estimate it generally means that the meter reading that you gave went through a third party. I switched recently and the estimated amount of gas was 105C3Ms in the old supplier's failure. In other words, I have paid the old supplier for gas that I have yet to use!! The new supplier cannot raise a dispute as the variation is less than the industry agreed difference of 109C3Ms.

Provided that the closing and opening readings are the same, then the actual difference in cost is very small. I calculate that I will be paying my new supplier for gas from about mid November: 3 months after the switch.

Wondercuz

Yeah I've paid less to Eon even though I gave them a reading the month before which was for more than they ended the account on. I believe sainsburys also had the updated value but for some reason or another did not pass this on.

System

Basically suppliers do not trust consumers to provide accurate meter readings when switching - particularly, if the new tariff costs more. All readings go to an industry third party for arbitration. They look at the historical usage figures for the property and come up with an adjusted estimate. This is what appears on the opening and closing accounts.

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena

Good morning Wondercuz and welcome,

I just wanted to give you a little bit of info for when customers change supplier.

When a customer has chosen their new supplier, they would start the switching process. The new supplier would then ask the customer to provide the meter reads.

The new supplier then sends the meter readings to the old supplier via third party company's to verify these.

I understand you provided us with some closing meter reads, however, we would only use the reads sent through to us electronically by your new supplier, as you know, the opening and closing reads needs to match..

If there is a discrepancy between the meter reads, the supplier can raise what's called and ARD (agreed read dispute) this is where we would agree to use a different meter reading that both suppliers have agreed too.

An ARD woould only be raised though if there was more than a difference of 45 units for Gas 4 dial /125 units for Gas 5 dial /Elec -250 unit.

To raise this your new supplier may ask for a couple of up to date reads to enable them to send us a more accurate change of supply read.

It's something you can ask, if you'd like to raise it.

Hope this helps.

Helena