EON Scandal

Stephanie77

Hi,

I am new to this forum, but am reaching out as it feels like I am getting nowhere at present with EON.

I moved into a new home on 21 December 2017 and called EON to inform them and arrange for the to supply me at my new address on a fixed term contract.
I had made regular monthly payments of £60 every month in my previous address.
EON set up a new fixed term contract for my new address and ensured the £60 payments where the same as my previous address.
The new owners of my old address dropped some post round on 27 December and there was a ‘Welcome to EON’ Fixed Term Contract lack addressed to me with my previous address details on.
I rang EON and they apologised for the mistake in adddress and said they would rectify and update my address details.
On 01st January 2018, my first payment of £60 for my new property was taken from my bank via direct debit.
On 19th January 2018, I noticed another payment of £87.69 come out of my account to EON. I stopped this payment and immediately rang them. Thy claimed this was for arrears on my previous property, but on further investigation, they informed me they had made a mistake and I had NO arrears on my previous property.
On 01st February 2018, my payment of £60 was taken
On 02nd March 2018, EON requested a meter reading for my new property, which I duly supplied.
On 03rd March 2018, I noticed that no payment for EON had been called for so I rang them. EON informed me that I had NO supplier set up for my current address!! They reset this up for me and requested that I paid £27.69, as this was arrears from my previous address (I paid this, despite them informing me that there were NO arrears from my previous address on 19th January 2018.
On 03rd April 2018, I paid EON £60 and received my ‘new’ fixed term contract for my current address
From 01st May till 01st October 2018, I have been paying monthly payments of £60 per month
On 06th October 2018, I received a letter from EON, informing me that I owed them a total of £976.38! And that my direct debit payments would need to be adjusted from £60 per month to £260 per month to pay the arrears.
They also said that £733.44 of this total was attributed to arrears from my previous address up to and including April 2018?

I have now spoken to numerous EON reps about this and am getting nowhere. One of the EON reps (Briony), told me she would investigate the issues and she would personally be dealing with this issue. I have heard NOTHING back and am at my wits end with this issue.

I am seriously thinking of taking this issue to the papers and reporting EON. This is causing me a great deal of stress and worry and don’t know what to do next or where to turn to.
Every time I ring EON, I have to go through all of the above over and over again.

I would be really grateful if anyone on here can advise or help me?

Merlin139

No where do you mention anything about a Final Read for your meter at your previous address. Were you ever sent a Final Bill for your previous address? If you have been billed till April at your old address then I guess you are paying for the new occupants energy till then.

You have kept accurate records of when things happened so are you be sure you have only been using £60 per month of energy or is it more. Is you new property the same as the old one in size and does it have the same appliances/heating?

Have you been taking readings of your meter at your new address? Are you using Gas or Electric or is it both? I could not see it in your post.

Not much point in going to the papers as I think they might laugh at you. Who are you going to report them to? To go to the ombudsman you need to complain to Eon first.

matelodave

As Merlin says - its not a lot of use going to the papers, the BBC or even Theresa May, having a rant will not solve your problem

All suppliers have a complaints process which has to be followed.

Do not keep phoning them, write it down clearly and accurately and send them an E-mail (and ideally a recorded delivery letter) marked COMPLAINT. keep clear and accurate copies of all communications with them.

They then have eight week to try and sort it out. If they can't or don't then you can complain to the Ombudsman and ask them to sort it out.

Nothing else will work.

Stephanie77

Hi Merlin,

I couldn’t take a final meter reading at my previous property due to the meter being outside and it was unreadable due to condensation. This was explained to EON and they said it was not a problem and they would send someone out to read it.
The new property is smaller than the previous property and I am very energy conscious (every penny counts)
I have been taking regular readings at the new property and I am using a lot less energy than in my previous property, it is gas and electric as per my previous property.
I have complained to EON several times, but each time has ended with them being unable to explain the charges.

Merlin139

Do you have a photo of your meter at the previous property and which is it the Gas or Electric meter that could not be read? Do you still have details of the reading of that meter when it could be read? How much difference is there from that to the reading that EON are giving you when they say you owe over £700?

When you say you have complained to EON have you made a Formal Complaint and been given a reference number?

From what you say you are on top of your energy at your new property so the problem is the reading from the old one.

Do you have details of who you spoke to and when on which days? As Matelodave said you need to put this in writing marked complaint.

Lay it out in a logical order with only what is relevant. Your 1st post has too much information in it and a lot of it seems to be irrelevant now.

D_M_E

The problem seems to be that they never closed your account at the previous address and, as a result, have benn/are charging you for energy used at both your current address and your previous address.

As others have suggested above, you need to stay off the phone - as you have found, phoning just gets you grief, frustration and high blood pressure - and write a letter headed COMPLAINT in big bold letters telling them when you moved out, that you could not read the meters bacause of condensation on moving and that they are trying to charge you for energy used at both the old and new properties.

Have you checked that the tariff you selected and agreed to at the new property is the one you are actually being charged for at that property?

Were EON the suppliers when you moved in, or did you just ring them and ask to be set up there?

ballisticbrian

You have my sympathy, these companies seem to do ok when there are no problems, but as soon as something out of the ordinary, they are unable to cope, or worse still their systems are designed to operate on the basis that YOU are trying to defraud THEM. Had npower saying they were going to break my door down because I temporarily had two properties and they would not listen to common sense.

As above, write it in a letter because the front line call handlers are ill equipped to deal with it, even if they begin to understand the story and match it to what they can see on their screen.

welshmoneylover

Ha, please go to the papers, they really won’t be interested.

Problem has arisen due to your old account not closing properly.

The_Big_Bamboo

Stay with your thread Stephanie77;...hopefully Malc, who is the EON rep on this forum, will pick this up in due course.

His username is “E.ON Company Representative: Malc”

System

The situation described by the OP is, unfortunately, all too common. Two years ago, I returned to a supplier that I had used 12 months previously and the supplier's IT system blocked the switches because it assumed that my property was already on supply. Recently, I moved into a new build and I took my supplier and tariff with me. Unfortunately, they managed to use my closing reading for my old home as the opening reading for my new home.

Mistakes do happen and the real test of a supplier is how they address and deal with a problem. In both cases, the suppliers dealt with the problems efficiently.

[Deleted User]

It is not uncommon for gas meters to become unreadable due to condensation especially in semi submerged outside boxes. This is a faulty meter and should have been reported to the supplier as it outlines in the lengthy T/C s which no one reads..
There is a way of getting a reading from a gas meter suffering from inside condensation on the index with a little gentle tapping of the plastic face with something like a metal box key, (thats what I use) and in a few minutes most of the condensation would have cleared enough to reveal the vital numbers. I have to do that on dozens of gas meters, mostly semi cons .
Ending a supply on a guess/estimate is hopeless !
If its still possible return to your old address and get the proper reading. Eon may owe you money