Eon won't stop sending threats about a bill that is not mine

GingerBob_3

badmemory wrote: »

I find it interesting that so many replying to this, including Helena of course, want the OP to give their own name to EON as a way forward to proving this is not the OPs bill. When to me the only outcome from that will be that EON then have a name to send the bill to a debt collector.

Excellent point. Don't give them your details or those of previous occupiers. Send all stuff back that's addressed to 'The Occupier'. You have no obligations whatsoever, and if scum do turn up on your doorstep simply point to the line at which your property begins and order them beyond it.

Cardew

badmemory wrote: »

I find it interesting that so many replying to this, including Helena of course, want the OP to give their own name to EON as a way forward to proving this is not the OPs bill. When to me the only outcome from that will be that EON then have a name to send the bill to a debt collector.

In the opening post the OP indicates they are an Eon customer.

In any case all they need to do is return a 'the occupier' letter with the details of the previous occupier and there is no need to give their name(the OP's name).

Bear in mind that many people run up a debt on their gas/electricity/water bills in their own name, and then continue to live in the property but put the account in a partner's name. (not suggesting that is happening in this case!)

If the debt is passed to a Debt Collection Agency, it will take them minutes to find out the name of the current occupier(the OP) in fact they will get it from Eon.

The evasive and uncooperative attitude of the OP is simply causing themselves a problem of their own making.

Cardew

GingerBob wrote: »

Excellent point. Don't give them your details or those of previous occupiers. Send all stuff back that's addressed to 'The Occupier'. You have no obligations whatsoever, and if scum do turn up on your doorstep simply point to the line at which your property begins and order them beyond it.

We have had this discussion before! If the scum(I agree with that term) turn up, and the OP follows your advice, the OP should wait a while and take a look at their credit record!!

Why should the OP protect someone who left the property owing money?

Alter_ego

How come EON have forgotten the name of the consumer they were supplying?

Cardew

Alter_ego wrote: »

How come EON have forgotten the name of the consumer they were supplying?

They haven't! How do you get that impression?

As I understand it the OP seemingly has no difficulty with their own Eon account.

The customer objects to getting letters addressed to 'The Occupier' for an outstanding bill for a period before they were in occupation.

They believe that if they answer security questions for their own Eon account to establish that they are the occupants of the property, somehow this will connect them to the disputed bill.

They also for some reason won't give the name or any details of the previous occupant.

Sosumi

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena wrote: »

... as when customers move out they would normally contact us with their final meter reads and forwarding address.

Not if the customer had lived in the property alone and departed it toes up.

Which would render redundant all the outraged protestations of Cardew (and others) above.

Cardew

Sosumi wrote: »

Not if the customer had lived in the property alone and departed it toes up.

Which would render redundant all the outraged protestations of Cardew (and others) above.

Why outraged? I merely cannot understand the OP's logic.

The Eon rep did say 'would normally contact us'.

If death were the reason, why would the OP not tell Eon.

Wantingtobesolvent

It's not that I want to cover up fraud, or be deliberately uncooperative. I always pay my bills and would not even have thought of changing the bill into someone else's name to avoid paying. I have not been impressed by Eon as a past customer and I am simply not willing to be associated with another account that is being chased, by linking my name to that account. Eon are only the current supplier to my address until the transfer to another supplier is complete, hopefully sooner rather than later.

I have tried to communicate with Eon to try and get this resolved on more than one occasion, and have been given different stories. I was told nothing can be done without me going through security for my own account by one person, with trickery to try and get me to confirm details. Clearly this person was accessing my account on the basis of the address and was trying to verify my own account, which I explicitly asked not to be done. I was told by another person, who said he could do this without security questions, that the bill would be written off and there would not be any further correspondence, as the amount is so small. Therefore, I have no confidence in having this resolved satisfactorily without consequences for myself. The latest letter does not even give a breakdown of money outstanding, or the dates the bill relates to, it's just an account number, an amount and a 'you must pay or else' demand. There is no information about disputing bills, only about hardship. I think that is not the greatest customer service.

The bill does not actually relate to any energy used, it is simply for standing charges for a period of time the property was empty. How do I know whether or not standing charges even apply? In addition, the previous owner of the property is not the same as the previous occupier. The property was owned by someone who lived in it and who then rented it out. I have no idea who would be liable for the bill, the owner or the tenant and to be honest, that is not my concern. I do not have forwarding addresses for either. The tenants have moved back to their country of origin, and I do not know the previous owner's address as they moved out before the tenant moved in. Even if I did, and I gave all these non-details to Eon, this is too complicated a story for computerised systems operated by people who do not seem to have full knowledge about them. I am the occupier, I am the easiest person to chase for the bill, that will then have my name attached to it. I cannot get this through to Eon,

For those who are telling me that I am covering up fraud or being obstructive, I was trying to be collaborative by communicating with Eon, but I am not going to risk making things more complicated for myself. If I did not have an Eon account, I would not be able to provide security information either.

As the correspondence does not have my name on it, and it pre-dates our ownership of this property, it's simple. I will just bin it, and hope it goes away. I can raise a complaint with Eon if need be, though that was not possible last time without needing to go through security questions for my own account, so I guess I will have to do that by old fashioned letter. I understand Eon wants to be paid but in cases where this is not possible, it would be so much easier if people could communicate about this without having to link their own account details, and where advice was consistent and accurate.

Cardew

People are trying to help you.

1. Just keep binning the letters, but be prepared for a Debt Collection Agency(DCA) calling. The very fact that you live in the property with the outstanding bill is the start point for the DCA. Deal with the DCA as described in post#12.

2. Put in a complaint to Eon, although I cannot see the grounds for your complaint. Unless it is that Eon won't discuss an account unless I prove my identity on the phone.

Wolf3

Hi Wantingtobesolvent

It sounds like your fed up with the current state of affairs and your previous experiences with Eon haven't been the best previously.

I don't know Eon's process with regards to Debt Collection personally, however i would like to point out a couple of items.

As other people have pointed out if you were not responsible for the property at the time this bill was accrued , you will not be liable for this bill.

You have made a couple of assumptions in your last post, that i hope i can clarify.

I will just bin it, and hope it goes away.

As you are already agitated about these letters arriving demanding payment, this would not be the course of action i would advise. Depending on the information Eon have about your account and from previous experience, these letters should be from their internal debt collection departments. This "debt" could then be "passed" to an external debt collection agency for them to chase the person responsible. If the only information they have is an address and possibly telephone number, i would expect you to then receive some brusque telephone calls from this DCA.

Did you contact Eon with your meter readings when you bought the property? If their dubious about the dates they could potentially ask to see details of the sale, so they can stop chasing you for this payment.

Secondly, if you weren't responsible for the property at this time, you should not be worried about confirming security details. As i said earlier, from previous experience i have queried why they need DPA, Eon are required by Ofgem to record a complaint as you are calling because you are not happy you are receiving these letters. They should record this complaint on "your account" and take action to resolve this issue, otherwise you can take this complaint further to the ombudsman after 8 weeks.

I would humbly suggest that you take this course of action to sort the issue