energy bill....not paid

ecsb

Hi.
I woke up in the middle of the night in a panic as don't remember when I last paid energy bill. There was a direct debit going out of the bank, or so I thought.
looked this morning, no payment made by me since may 2014. After a few phone calls, I am no longer with eon which I thought I was but with ovo and have been since 6/14. I must have changed supplier! I have not paid them anything or had any correspondence from them. They are not there to answer my calls today. What will happen? Thanks.

HappyMJ

ecsb wrote: »

Hi.
I woke up in the middle of the night in a panic as don't remember when I last paid energy bill. There was a direct debit going out of the bank, or so I thought.
looked this morning, no payment made by me since may 2014. After a few phone calls, I am no longer with eon which I thought I was but with ovo and have been since 6/14. I must have changed supplier! I have not paid them anything or had any correspondence from them. They are not there to answer my calls today. What will happen? Thanks.

They'll get in touch eventually and back bill you 12 months of usage. Keep reading your meter regularly and recording the dates so cross check when the bill finally arrives.

System

HappyMJ wrote: »

They'll get in touch eventually and back bill you 12 months of usage. Keep reading your meter regularly and recording the dates so cross check when the bill finally arrives.

The Back-Billing Code is not a pass for free energy: it generally requires some action - that is, an attempt to get a bill - by the customer. If the problem was solved today, then the energy company will only consider writing-off the energy provided during the period May to September 2014. There would still be a year to pay for.

https://www.eonenergy.com/About-eon/how-we-service-our-customers/~/media/PDFs/About-Us/Codes-of-Practice/412-the-code-of-practice-for-accurate-bills-back-billing-for-domestic-customers.pdf

If we take the OP's post at face value, and I confess that I find it difficult to accept that a bank account holder fails to notice that a direct debit has not been collected for 17 months, then there would seem to be the possibility of an erroneous transfer of supply. This needs to be investigated as, eventually, the truth will come out and a supplier will come looking for payment.

If the OP has no recollection of switching his supply that he needs to contact E.oN. E.oN may well ask some difficult questions as to why it has taken 17 months for this error to come to light.

ecsb

I genuinely did not realise the money has not been being taken. It is all very strange, as eon who I was with was definitely the best provider for me. The only thing I can thing of is a changed supplier via a you need to do nothing website and that is what I did.......nothing. Why have I not had any correspondence from ovo, surely by now they should be asking where the payments are?

System

The most likely scenario is that A N Other initiated a switch and your meter number was passed to Ovo through error. You can check which company is supplying your property by speaking to these guys:

http://www.energy-uk.org.uk/customers/how-to-switch-energy-company/find-out-who-your-energy-supplier-is.html

If it is an erroneous transfer, then the matter will be taken very seriously. You will not be out of pocket but you will owe your old supplier for all the energy that has been consumed. Normally, energy companies don't expect to have to wait for a year and half for a possible switching error to be pointed out to them.

http://www.ovoenergy.com/ovo-answers/what-is-an-erroneous-transfer/

ecsb

Thank you, I will phone ovo tomorrow.

System

ecsb wrote: »

Thank you, I will phone ovo tomorrow.

You can contact them at hello@ovoenergy.com. The customer services office is manned at weekends: they don't answer the phone. You will need to give them your meter numbers.

ecsb

Hi.
After spending hours on the phone back and for between evo and eon I think it is just about sorted.
Someone changed over using a website and the name of someone who lived here over 4 years ago, and I know this person would not do this. The telephone number and email given were fictitious ones. It was an erroneous transfer.
I am now switched back over to eon, and they will send me a bill after a meter reading, no mention of only having to pay back only a year, will cross that bridge when it arrives.
Thanks

Cardew

This still doesn't sound right to me.


Who gave OVO the final meter readings? Were they close enough for Eon to accept them as valid?


With any transfer - even an erroneous transfer - with the account paid by Direct Debit, there would be a debit or credit balance so Eon would have emailed or written to you about that balance and sent a final bill.


As OVO were not getting paid anything, they could trace the OP's address from the meter serial numbers. If the email OVO were given 'was fictitious' why didn't they write(snail mail) or send round a meter reader or pass the account to a Debt Collection Agency.


What 'Bridge have you got to cross' about only paying back for 12 months? Do you think you are entitled to relief for all your hard efforts to get billed?


Put another way what have you lost? in fact you have had an interest free loan.

footyguy

ecsb wrote: »

Hi.
After spending hours on the phone back and for between evo and eon I think it is just about sorted.
Someone changed over using a website and the name of someone who lived here over 4 years ago, and I know this person would not do this. The telephone number and email given were fictitious ones. It was an erroneous transfer.
I am now switched back over to eon, and they will send me a bill after a meter reading, no mention of only having to pay back only a year, will cross that bridge when it arrives.
Thanks

I think the first question you should be putting to your supplier, Eon, is why they never sent you a 'sorry you are leaving message'. Not only does failing to send one imply they don't care about losing you as a customer, but it may come back to bite them on their backside as I'll explain later.

The other thing to realise is that as this is well over a year ago, then you will probably be on the supplier's expensive, standard variable tariff by now. :eek:

You presumably already understand that where an erroneous transfer takes place, you will be put back into the situation you would have been in had the erroneous transfer not occurred, so any money you owe will be owed to Eon.

Now to the matter of backbilling. Essentially this applies where the supplier is deemed responsible for not having billed you for consumption over 12 months ago (and only goes to ensure you do not have to pay more than you otherwise already have)
Each claim is looked at based on it's individual merits.

As this involved an erroneous transfer, I'm not sure Eon is responsible for the mistake.
However, if they didn't send you a 'sorry, you are leaving message', then that may well go against them to an extent.

Of course, if you had alerted the supplier that you had not been billed for such a long period, and that you were not paying for any ongoing consumption via a monthly DD, and the supplier ignored that complaint, you'd have a whole stronger case for the 12 month back billing rule to be applied.

As it is, I'm not sure whether or not you will see any benefit of the 12 month backbilling process in this instance, but worth asking.
Perhaps the supplier will grant you a goodwill credit instead, not least for not sending you a 'sorry you are leaving' message (if that turns out to be the case)

And please, consult a comparsion site to find the best deal for you. The Eon standard variable tariff is very expensive in comparison.

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena

Good morning ecsb,

I'm so sorry I didn't see this thread earlier

There's some wonderful advice from the guys on the thread already, so thank you so much for this

I'm glad that all is now sorted out and the supply is back to where you thought it was.

Now we have to establish what went wrong here, I agree with footyguy in that we always send a letter saying' sorry you're leaving have you checked out our best deal for you'

So we need to look at why you didn't get that, as that would have made you aware that something was going on.

We'll now bill you as if you never left, so up to the accurate reads you're giving to us.

There's sometimes a bit of scope for a payment arrangement in cases, if we've made a mistake. I can't say for sure as I don't have the details, but we may offer for to pay what's owing and your usage over a longer period as it sounds like it's been a while.

I don't know if the back billing code would apply, it would be looked at by a specialist team and investigated properly.

Hope this helps a little and I'm here if you need me.

Helena