Eon keeps issuing threatening demands for payment of an incorrect and inflated bill despite

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

MickMiles wrote: »

Thanks for the replies. But both my daughter and i (and the Letting Agent) have all been in direct contact with Eon about this ( so rest assured, we have not left it to the Letting Agent) and its is Eon's continuing incompetence (or short staffing levels) that is the remaining issue.

The Letting Agent accepted it made a mistake when it misread the dials, but we have been in direct contact with Eon to help resolve their issue without success. In short accurate readings were provided to Eon by the Agent and my daughter on more than one occasion.

As regards supplying a Tenancy Agreement of over 20 pages to Eon, there is no justifiable reason why we should need to do that when the error was the wrong reading initially sent to Eon by the letting Agent. Photos of the meter at the start of the Tenancy and copies of emails from the Letting Agency accepting that reading have repeatedly been provided to Eon.

The following sums up Eon's approach. My daughter received a threatening letter from Eon about Debt Collectors calling (for a bill she did not owe) and she asked me to talk to Eon about the mistake because she has a very busy job and presumably because I'm a natural trouble shooter!.
So I phoned trying to resolve the issue and discussed the issue with somebody at Eon. I asked for the Eon email address that the evidence should be emailed to so that Eon could see the correct figures and admission from the Letting Agency that they had misread the dials. Surprise! The Eon person refused to provide the email address on the grounds that I was not the named customer! This is not about personal details, but simply the best Eon email address for sending information. I found the address myself from their website. In short, the Eon person wanted my daughter to break away from her job and spend time phoning them. In desperation she managed this during her busy day and on all occasions, she could not get through!

Another example is the large backlog of unread/actioned emails that Eon have, that presumably contain evidence to resolve other issues, and yet these remain unread. So regardless of crucial evidence provided by customers, Eon still issue threatening letters .

From my experience, it seems Eon wants to make it difficult for people to resolve an issue and want people to spend many hours phoning call centres. Not what i would call a quality service!

We've sent the documentary evidence yet again and are now keeping a dairy of the hours wasted, number of threats issued in error to add to our case to the ombudsman and for compensation.

I will keep you posted.

MickMiles wrote: »

Cardew
I'm sure you're trying to be helpful but that assumption is false. It strikes me that might be a convenient ruse by Eon to cover its incompetence. I should make it clearer.
1. There isn't an argument over who will cover the cost. The Letting Agent has accepted that it is its responsibility and the previous tenant and the landlord will pay for energy used prior to the start of the new tenancy. There is not an issue. can't see how anyone can think a new tenant has any responsibility for energy used before they even took possession.
2. My daughter did not trust the Letting Agent. As we have repeatedly said we supplied information to Eon and they have ignored it, along with many other emails.

MickMiles wrote: »

Also, the Rep is wrong to presume that the account readings of the previous tenant will be the same as the new tenant. In many cases, as in this one, energy is often used during the period between lets (esp during very cold periods), for which neither tenant is responsible. That liability clearly falls to the landlord, so automatically billing the new tenant is another false assumption by the the company that causes unnecessary trouble for the innocent new tenant.

Hello MickMiles and thank you for the additional information.

You mention in your first post that there's a problem with the previous occupant's account. We don't need to see the full Tenancy Agreement, only the part confirming the relevant dates and only if they're disputing what we're saying to them. Please ignore if not relevant. Many thanks for sending photos. These are always extremely useful.

As there are three accounts involved - your daughters, the landlords and the previous occupants - each one could need revising as some of the meter readings have now changed. Were we told about the interim period between tenancies? Sometimes tenancies pass directly from one occupant to another without an intervening period. If, subsequently, we were advised about the landlord's responsibility, a third account will need creating and inserting between the two tenancies.

We set up accounts to the information we're given at the time and have systems in place to revise these once we're advised the details are different. I suspect these adjustments are what's taking the time and is why it's best to deal directly with our Home Moves Complaints team as above. I totally agree, there's no way your daughter should pay for someone else's usage. This is what these revisions are aimed at achieving.

I'm sorry one of the advisors you spoke to didn't give you an email address. As you've found, this is readily available on our website and is something I often point customers towards. As you say, not having authority to deal with the account has nothing to do with having our email address and they shouldn't have refused this. I totally understand you want to ease the burden on your daughter and, if you're continuing to deal with the account on her behalf, I'd recommend she gives you formal authority. There's a Letter of Authority on our website she can use to do this. It'll make talking to us easier.

You're right, we did have a backlog of emails earlier this year but this has been sorted.

I'm guessing a lot here MickMiles and sorry if this speculation isn't accurate.

Malc

MickMiles

Malc
Thanks for addressing some of the issues and acknowledging some of the errors made by Eon and for also rejecting the bizarre suggestion (made by a previous poster) that a new tenant could/should be liable for energy used by a previous tenant.

This episode has caused huge inconvenience, but after many weeks and a huge amount of wasted time, Eon has finally sent a corrected bill, which is all we were asking it to do. That bill has been paid.

As a learning exercise, I set out some of the avoidable errors made by Eon that caused such stress and inconvenience:!!!8212;
1. Eon was Wrong to assume that the meter reading of one tenant will automatically be the same as the new tenant.
2. Eon was Wrong to blindly accept a meter reading from somebody else (Letting Agent) when billing a new tenant and to ignore the new tenant!!!8217;s evidence, emails and phones calls
3. Eon was Wrong to refuse giving out the key email address
4. Eon was Wrong to lose email attachments sent by customers
5. Eon was Wrong to have a backlog of unread emails while also issuing threatening letters
6. Eon was Wrong to send escalating threats to the innocent customer, even when the customer had notified Eon of the issue with the account
7. Eon was Wrong to ask for irrelevant information, such as Tenancy Agreements, when the parties had previously identified that a meter reading was misread.
8. Eon was Wrong not to offer compensation for time wasted sorting out Eon!!!8217;s errors.

As noted, Eon has finally and belatedly accepted the correct meter readings. The corrected bill has been paid in full. We are awaiting compensation.

I wonder if we will receive further threatening letters....

Cardew

MickMiles wrote: »

Malc
for also rejecting the bizarre suggestion (made by a previous poster) that a new tenant could/should be liable for energy used by a previous tenant.

.

Who made this 'bizarre suggestion'?

If you feel it was myself in post#9 I suggest you read the post again.

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

MickMiles wrote: »

Malc
Thanks for addressing some of the issues and acknowledging some of the errors made by Eon and for also rejecting the bizarre suggestion (made by a previous poster) that a new tenant could/should be liable for energy used by a previous tenant.

This episode has caused huge inconvenience, but after many weeks and a huge amount of wasted time, Eon has finally sent a corrected bill, which is all we were asking it to do. That bill has been paid.

As a learning exercise, I set out some of the avoidable errors made by Eon that caused such stress and inconvenience:!!!8212;
1. Eon was Wrong to assume that the meter reading of one tenant will automatically be the same as the new tenant.
2. Eon was Wrong to blindly accept a meter reading from somebody else (Letting Agent) when billing a new tenant and to ignore the new tenant!!!8217;s evidence, emails and phones calls
3. Eon was Wrong to refuse giving out the key email address
4. Eon was Wrong to lose email attachments sent by customers
5. Eon was Wrong to have a backlog of unread emails while also issuing threatening letters
6. Eon was Wrong to send escalating threats to the innocent customer, even when the customer had notified Eon of the issue with the account
7. Eon was Wrong to ask for irrelevant information, such as Tenancy Agreements, when the parties had previously identified that a meter reading was misread.
8. Eon was Wrong not to offer compensation for time wasted sorting out Eon!!!8217;s errors.

As noted, Eon has finally and belatedly accepted the correct meter readings. The corrected bill has been paid in full. We are awaiting compensation.

I wonder if we will receive further threatening letters....

Excellent news MickMiles. Glad this has been sorted and your daughter now has a correct bill.

Many thanks for the payment and for taking the time to let me know.

Malc

elsien

How do you know Eon have a backlog of unread emails?
If you mean you've requested a read receipt then not everyone (myself included) responds to those.
I'm glad your daughter has finally got things sorted but from how you've come across on here your "natural troubleshooter" manner may not have helped.

MickMiles

Cardew wrote: »

Who made this 'bizarre suggestion'?

If you feel it was myself in post#9 I suggest you read the post again.

"So who should stand the loss?
[..]
C. your daughter for trusting a letting agent and not sending off a reading herself for her account"

**

MickMiles

elsien wrote: »

How do you know Eon have a backlog of unread emails?
If you mean you've requested a read receipt then not everyone (myself included) responds to those.
I'm glad your daughter has finally got things sorted but from how you've come across on here your "natural troubleshooter" manner may not have helped.

No. I mean emails were unread and unactioned! How do we know? Because it fitted the evidence in terms of the unreasonable way that Eon was handling what was essentially a simple issue, an Eon official told us directly and the rep on this forum has also confirmed it.

Surely you're not surprised? Because too often nowadays companies cut back on administration and the consequence is poor customer service.

MickMiles

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc wrote: »

Excellent news MickMiles. Glad this has been sorted and your daughter now has a correct bill.

Many thanks for the payment and for taking the time to let me know.

Malc

Malc
Thanks. What are your views on customers receiving some compensation for having to deal with issues that your company should have sorted out without inconveniencing and threatening innocent customers? We have spent a lot of time on this and would like a donation to a nominated charity. Can you take this forward?

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

elsien wrote: »

How do you know Eon have a backlog of unread emails?
If you mean you've requested a read receipt then not everyone (myself included) responds to those.
I'm glad your daughter has finally got things sorted but from how you've come across on here your "natural troubleshooter" manner may not have helped.

In fairness elsien, we did have a backlog of emails earlier in the year. This was caused by several things including the bad weather that caused us to close offices as access wasn't safe and some system issues. This backlog has been cleared and we're responding to emails much quicker. I suspect MickMiles was referring to this.

Malc

MickMiles

Malc
Thanks. I'm surprised that elsien should even pose the question, when it was already previously confirmed.

Anyway and more importantly, I should add that IMHO your presence on forums like this can help resolve issues more promptly. I hope your role here (also as a "troubleshooter") continues and is strengthened.

Meanwhile, what about the charity donation?