EON Bill

Irish_Ram

Hi All,

I am hoping someone can help me with regards to a dispute I am in with EON.

Basically we moved into our new build house in October 2014 so a very energy efficient house and it is a 3 bed 3 storey house. There are also only 2 of us(myself and my wife) living there.

When I checked my online bill the other day expecting to see what credit it was in as pay a regular DD every month which usually leaves us in credit I was shocked to see my bill was nearly £900. On looking further it was one month between May and June where the bill went up this high.

After several conversations with EON it was discovered that my Electricity meter has not been working since we moved in and for some reason only kicked in around May time hence the reading shooting up massively and a bill of nearly £900 being registered. Also the reason why the bill is this high too is because when we moved in we had a DD of £96 a month but they reduced it to £56 and then £38 which although low I was not surprised as our previous household we were paying around £60 and this house was more energy efficient. But with the 2 issue above it has amounted to the fact we were only paying for Gas all this time up until May and probably a reason why we were in credit a lot.

Now EON's answer to this is to offer us a £10 goodwill gesture and to ask we set our DD going forward to £160 which they did then agree to lower to £130!!!

Now I have scanned the bills and am 99% sure that yes the bill is correct in that we have used that Electricity but why when their meter has been faulty for nearly 18 months am I now having to up my DD from £38 to £130 especially in the run up to xmas and the fact I am saving for a trip we just booked to NYC for New Years Eve.

So my question is where do I stand on this even if it is to say I will up my DD in January when xmas is over or even go further to say it has been faulty all this time and you cannot just now slap me with this bill as it was their fault.

Thanks in advance for any help

dogshome

What was shown as the charge for Electricity on the bills from when you moved in till the meter error was discovered - just the Standing Charge ?

Reason for asking is that there is a 'Back-Billing' agreement that prohibits suppliers chargeing for Energy supplies for anything beyond 12 months if they have failed to bill - The entire reasoning for this is based on households being protected from 'BILL SHOCK' when a large sum is demanded by the suppl;ier

This usually applies in cases where the supplier has failed to send any bill/s over a long period
In your case it seems they did send bills, but did not bill for Elec useage.
If no useage charges were listed on your bills, you have a strong case to claim relief from BILL SHOCK

SammenForLivet2

Hi there

Don't fully understand by what you mean as meter 'kicked in' around May? Do you have a smart meter that was installed around May 2016, that only became live around that time? Or, was it back in May that you only provided readings.

And, to help us most accurately provide guidance, could you tell us:

• Have you provided E.ON regular readings?
• Have you done a meter reading diary over seven days?
• Have E.ON personnel (or contractors) visited your property, and if so, have they swapped/checked the meter?

If there was a meter fault, and E.ON had to replace the meter, then E.ON should bill based on your usage with new meter readings or EAC.


Otherwise, it seems that it could be an E.ON system error, which I would then agree that a £10 GOGW is slightly on the low side.

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena

Good morning Irish_Ram and welcome to the forum.

There's some good information on the thread, so thank you for this.

It sounds like you've started the ball rolling with opening a complaint, it means the account will be investigated and we'll be able to see what's [FONT=&quot]happened [/FONT] and what's gone wrong.

You'll have a complaints manager that will have done this work, however, if you're not happy with the offer, you can take your complaint to the next stage, the details of this are on the website, I'm sorry I can't post links.

It sounds like we've set the Direct Debit now, to cover your ongoing usage and pay off the balance, have we advised how long this has been spread over? You can also ask us about the billing code of practice that dogshome mentioned.

I do hope this is resolved for you, but you're doing the right thing.

Thank you

Helena

Irish_Ram

dogshome wrote: »

What was shown as the charge for Electricity on the bills from when you moved in till the meter error was discovered - just the Standing Charge ?

Reason for asking is that there is a 'Back-Billing' agreement that prohibits suppliers chargeing for Energy supplies for anything beyond 12 months if they have failed to bill - The entire reasoning for this is based on households being protected from 'BILL SHOCK' when a large sum is demanded by the suppl;ier

This usually applies in cases where the supplier has failed to send any bill/s over a long period
In your case it seems they did send bills, but did not bill for Elec useage.
If no useage charges were listed on your bills, you have a strong case to claim relief from BILL SHOCK

Looking at my first bill there were charges on it for Electricity and Gas but only very small and on the massive hike in charges bill my Electric reading went from 00313 as an estimate to 06425 which was an Actual reading. My gas was fine and normal so it was the Electricity.

So it seems they did charge electricity but from my 1st bill it was 00039 and until my big bill which was 18 months later it had only risen to 00313. So not sure where I stand here as they did bill me but I paid all my DD and it was the result of them lowering my DD and the meter outside not giving them readings back for 18 months that eventually caused this large bill

Irish_Ram

SammenForLivet2 wrote: »

Hi there

Don't fully understand by what you mean as meter 'kicked in' around May? Do you have a smart meter that was installed around May 2016, that only became live around that time? Or, was it back in May that you only provided readings.

And, to help us most accurately provide guidance, could you tell us:

• Have you provided E.ON regular readings?
• Have you done a meter reading diary over seven days?
• Have E.ON personnel (or contractors) visited your property, and if so, have they swapped/checked the meter?

If there was a meter fault, and E.ON had to replace the meter, then E.ON should bill based on your usage with new meter readings or EAC.


Otherwise, it seems that it could be an E.ON system error, which I would then agree that a £10 GOGW is slightly on the low side.

Sorry so what I mean is they advised me the main meter outside was apparently not sending them any readings to do estimates on I presume until 18 months after we moved in when an Actual reading was taken and the estimate reading they had of 00313 shot up to around 07425

In terms of reading I probably provided them a couple over the 2 years I lived here but never thought anything of it as in my previous house the estimates were always pretty close to my actual readings

Have not done a meter reading over 7 days but since March when the actual reading was taken and produced a massive bill the readings ever since seem pretty normal.

Not had anyone out to check or swap the meter at all and they said over the phone it was their mistake for lowering my DD and also their meter not working for the 1st 18 months

D_M_E

If the meter has not been working for 18 months then suddenly starts operating after this period, you should dispute whatever reading has been provided by the meter as the meter is probably still faulty.

Irish_Ram

D_M_E wrote: »

If the meter has not been working for 18 months then suddenly starts operating after this period, you should dispute whatever reading has been provided by the meter as the meter is probably still faulty.

That is what I thought and today because I missed one call from them they have automatically put my monthly DD up from £38 to £174!!!