Eon

SiM99

Hello again Malc,

Just wanted to post an update and ask for some information.

I given up on trying to get E-ON to do anything as nothing at all was happening. I re-iterate. Nothing. At. All.

I followed up with our previous provider a few times, as they needed to get readings into their system so they could provide us with a final statement and refund the money owed to us. They had a hard time getting things finalised because it seems E-ON weren't confirming what was needed for them to do so. Same experience as I'm having. They ended up producing a statement based on an estimated electricity reading which was incorrect. I contacted them back and they were happy to sort it out.

This is another chunk of time I had to invest into switching to a provider that's supposed to have signed up to the Energy Switching Guarantee, ensuring that the customer has a "reliable, hassle-free switch".

To recap: I switched energy suppliers on 16/10/2019 and the switch completed 01/11/2019. I immediately reported issues with submitting the electricity reading, via multiple routes. I was told it was all fine, no matter how many times I reported that I couldn't enter readings. I was getting really frustrated and angry that no-one seemed to care so ended up giving up trying to get it sorted for my own mental health. I knew that I'd reported everyhting to E-ON so they know there's a problem. They also need readings in order to send any bills. I thought surely they'll eventually notice this and sort it one way or another, even if they are just ignoring me. I assume you'd agree that seems sensible?

Since then, I arranged to have a smart meter installed in March. If nothing more, I thought that would at least get readings from both meters through to E-ON so things could progress. When I log into my account I see that there's a reading history now, but we set it up to read daily (I think) and the reading history shows one from 25th of each month for electricity and one from 25th and 15th of each month for gas. This seems wrong to me, as we definitely selected to provide more meter reading that that, but again I assume that E-ON are getting what they need as they haven't contacted us about it. Incidentally, I also noticed that I would be able to enter an electricity reading now. At least, it looks like I could. The text boxes where the numbers are entered are enabled now where they were hidden previously. I'm not going to try it because I shouldn't need to. Oh, as a side-effect of having the smart meters installed, the readings were reset (well, electricity shows 0 on 18/03/2020, followed by 45 on 25/03/2020 and gas shows 99999 on 18/03/2020, followed by 14 on 25/03/2020, I assume that constitutes having been reset) so that makes it rather difficult for me to determine our total usage.

We still haven't received commnuication, including reporting back to me that something was changed to allow me to enter electricity readings. We also haven't received any statements. My account page states Your first statement is 25 August, which is two months before we'll be leaving. Well, technically, that's two months before out fixed-term contract ends, but I can't really see us staying with E-ON unless something drastic happens very soon in order to change my opinion of them. I'm sure anyone reading this would agree with that point of view.

I believe it's supposed to be billed quarterly and we're to receive the first statement after 10 months. Even if there was something stopping us from being billed due an issue with the electricity (ignored by E-ON, if that's the case) then I would have expected that to have been cleared once the smart meters pushed readings through. The first readings shown in the history of both meters are from 25/03/2020 so we should be receiving a statement this month. Is there still something wrong on our account that's messing with the statements?

Whatever response I get to the question above, the following stands:

• E-ON have not provided regular statements, as they were contracted to do so
• We have no idea whether we've been over-paying or under-paying
• We can't really work it out due to the meters being reset

Should E-ON send us the first statement that we've received ten months into the contract and two months before it completes, requestingn that we make a big payment because we've been using more energy than initially thought when we first switched (which is likely considering the current lockdown) then I feel like I'd be well within my rights to refuse to pay extra considering that this should have been highlighted via statements we were supposed to be receiving on a regular basis.
Having said that, the account page actually says that were in a decent amount of credit so it seems that we may be covered or even owed some money. On the other hand, if that's the total sum for all of the direct debit payments made against the account then I suppose it's possible that it won't cover all of the energy used. Actually, I don't want to try and apply my own logic and potentially give myself a false sense of security considering that I've been given more reason to doubt that E-ONs systems work (i.e. electricity reading not accepted, no statements received, irrelevant security measures) than to believe that they'll acutally apply logic.
Could you provide any clarity please, Malc?

Having just spent a lot of time (that I had intended to spend doing something else) writing this and having been reminded of all of the frustration and anger that I've already felt when attempting to deal with these issues previously, I think I'm going to go and perform some price comparisons now. I'm also wondering if the Energy Switch Guarantee website have an email address for customers to submit their experiences/complaints to.

My final question for you, Malc, is would you also expect more from an energy provider?

MWT

Carrot007 said:

The change date is effectivly random, it cannot be chosen. This is why you wait till you can switch to do it (39 days before end of old?). Gas and electric switch dates are often different too.

49 days, but this isn't a switch between suppliers from the look of things, just a change of tariff within E.ON so the 49 day stuff wouldn't apply.

SiM99

MWT said:

Carrot007 said:

The change date is effectivly random, it cannot be chosen. This is why you wait till you can switch to do it (39 days before end of old?). Gas and electric switch dates are often different too.

49 days, but this isn't a switch between suppliers from the look of things, just a change of tariff within E.ON so the 49 day stuff wouldn't apply.

Hey MWT,

Based purely on the timing of your post, I assume you were responding to my post from earlier today. If not then this can be ignored.

If so then I seem to have mis-communicated, as I definitely wouldn't be looking to switch to a new tarriff within E-ON. I'd want to move to another provider that actually listens to the customer and produces statements at the time they're supposed to, like Tonik Energy who we used prior to E-ON. They've been really helpful throughout the whole process and even tried to help me get everything sorted with E-ON.

I was aware that I'd be attempting to switch before they'd be expecting me to and that it's likely the early exit fee would be involved, but I'll just take that into consideration as part of my price comparisons. Thanks for the heads up though.

Greenenergy

I would take a look at this thread - E.on themselves confirm that you can move to their standard tariff, and then move without any exit fees.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6153662/e-on-website-non-user-friendly-unable-to-find-information-on-tariffs-that-makes-any-sense#latest

SiM99

Greenenergy said:

I would take a look at this thread - E.on themselves confirm that you can move to their standard tariff, and then move without any exit fees.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6153662/e-on-website-non-user-friendly-unable-to-find-information-on-tariffs-that-makes-any-sense#latest

Good to know, thanks.

MWT

SiM99 said:

Hey MWT,

Based purely on the timing of your post, I assume you were responding to my post from earlier today. If not then this can be ignored.

It was a reply to another couple of posts that look like they have been split out from this thread now, no worries, it was clear enough that you were not intending to stay, unlike the person I was actually referring to.