District Heating System Rip Off

genoleigh

Hi All,

I have moved into a property in the last 6 months which is serviced by a District Heating System (provided by Eon) which I was assured was no more expensive than traditional gas boiler (and advertising on their website which is still there). I have spoken to Eon today and lady was very helpful. She agreed that their daily standing costs are significantly more than the industry standards however that because they maintain the boilers in with their prices. They charge around £1.00 per day standing charge and £0.007 for their KWH price. Normal charges are around £0.26 - £0.30 and KWh 0.13 - 0.15 per day (on their expensive standard tariff) so even at price they are are double the cost. Manager will call me back by Friday and will be escalating from there but just wanted to know if any of you have had success in dealing with these systems in the past. There are a fair few of us who could band together to achieve something hopefully but it seems disgusting that we are tied into a deal where we pay so much!

Any advice greatly appreciated - or if someone from Martin's team wants to support this and help champion this cause that would be fab!

Thanks

Leigh

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena

Good afternoon genoleigh,

I've posted a couple of times about HEAT accounts, as we're the supplier and I didn't want you to think we (the E.ON reps) were ignoring you.

But, I'm afraid we can't help much at all on the forum with this, as I'm sure you know the HEAT accounts are looked after by an entirely different area of the business and we can't actually see the account.

It does sound like you've done the right thing by speaking to us and following the escalation process.

I'm sorry you're unhappy with the current set up and hope you can come to a resolution.

Thank you

Helena

footyguy

genoleigh wrote: »

Hi All,

I have moved into a property in the last 6 months which is serviced by a District Heating System (provided by Eon) which I was assured was no more expensive than traditional gas boiler (and advertising on their website which is still there). I have spoken to Eon today and lady was very helpful. She agreed that their daily standing costs are significantly more than the industry standards however that because they maintain the boilers in with their prices. They charge around £1.00 per day standing charge and £0.007 for their KWH price. Normal charges are around £0.26 - £0.30 and KWh 0.13 - 0.15 per day (on their expensive standard tariff) so even at price they are are double the cost. Manager will call me back by Friday and will be escalating from there but just wanted to know if any of you have had success in dealing with these systems in the past. There are a fair few of us who could band together to achieve something hopefully but it seems disgusting that we are tied into a deal where we pay so much!

Any advice greatly appreciated - or if someone from Martin's team wants to support this and help champion this cause that would be fab!

Thanks

Leigh

I believe you have already been given the reason by Eon

i.e. "She agreed that their daily standing costs are significantly more than the industry standards however that because they maintain the boilers in with their prices. "

If you compare that to say British Gas who typically charge £19 per month (about 63p per day) for such maintenace cover, adding this to the typical 26-30p typical daily standing charge you quote, suggests this is about correct.
(other prices available are nPower @ £19 per month, HES @ £19.50 per month and Homeserve @ £25pm - all prices are renewal rates as at July 2015 and exclude possible first year discounts. All rates are based on contracts with no additional repair/call out costs)

If the deal you have also covers the capital cost of eventually replacing the boilers when needed (perhaps after 20 years?) then I think you probably have a very good deal as I'm not sure the above alternatives cover such capital expenditure.