Gas switch to EON - Very confused

AndyCF

This is turning what should of been easy to quite complex. I'm sorry its a long read. I do not have all the papers to hand to be 100% with the dating however I do have it all.

Background:

Electric is from EON via Smart PAYG (prepay)
Gas is from B.G via card meter (prepay)

I spoke to EON a while back as I've always been happy with their services and due to several things B.G did last year that even now play on my mind*** I wanted to move to EON for gas supply. The fact it might be a tad more (I've not looked) was not really a mass concern due to the fact if there would be a problem I could of got it fixed.

*** B.G Stuff: I may decide to post a topic about that at some point, I'll be honest I'm unwilling to post it until after I've moved and yes I have a paper trail to prove it


Anyway moving onwards: I wanted to move it over to EON, so I called. This was around 10th May roughly.

I explained what I had and that I wanted to retain the card gas meter, this was not a problem. I also explained there was a bit of debt on the gas meter, as in about £65 give/take a £ at that time, paid off weekly per the usual from the credit or topups. No problem.

As per what I can recall from the conversation as its well well under 200 there's no problem with this and yes I could retain my legacy meter and yes I'd just get a new card from EON and I was good to go.

I'd need to use up the credit on the meter as otherwise I may lose it when the 'new' card arrived. I asked if I needed to speak to B.G but was told no, nothing to do.

A couple of days later a letter from B.G arrived, usual "sorry you are leaving etc" thing. Then a day after that another one from B.G saying there might be a problem as I owe money but then it also said as its under 200, to quote B.G's letter:

"If you're paying off your outstanding balance through your meter your switch should automatically go ahead. Please contact your chosen supplier if you experience any difficulties with this switch"

^ All good, so I waited and then got an EON letter saying they could not open my account but at the *same* time an email from EON telling me to set up an online account for it (despite it being a dumb card meter that I want to retain for the moment) , so quite why that was needed I'm not sure, unless its the fact that its not going to be a Smart for now so a separate acc is needed, trouble is its a legacy meter so there's no need for an online account, it would not really help much.


I thought at that point I'd just leave it for a bit to see if any more paper arrived. It did not.


As I'd not heard anything more up till today, I then called EON to get some form of update as it was really obvious there was a problem of some kind and I needed to find out if the problem was at EON or at B.G


I spoke to someone who put me on hold despite me wanting to talk to the switch team, they then came back saying I could not switch and I said I wanted to speak to the team about it so I went on hold again.

A few minutes later (to be fair they don't keep you on hold long) the same person came back and told me I could not switch because they could not do it as there was debt I could not go to a credit meter and they did not offer prepayment! :rotfl:

I pointed out (again) I wanted to stay with prepayment and I had mentioned it before and the tiny debt I was told would transfer over. The letter from B.G is saying (in black/white) the problem is with EON ?

I was not able to get any more sensible answers from them Which is very unusual, slightly disappointed here as things have generally been very good and when there has been a problem its been usually fixed quite quickly.

I think someone was just having a bad day perhaps, I have worked in Customer Service so I've been "both sides the desk/phone" so to speak so I do fully know how things can happen. However I made it 100% clear I was staying with PrePay with the gas supply, to then be told I could not move it as they did not do prepay, um lol.

I could do with either someone calling me or a direct number to the switch team (not via a third party dept) to deal with this really.

Thanks. Any advice greatly appreciated.

AndyCF

At least there is no rush for this given the fact that the credit would likely be zapped when using the new suppliers card, so I need to run that right down first which will take at least two weeks I suspect.

I am very very confused and (to be honest) a tad annoyed.

B.G are basically saying the issue is not with them, but EON said they don't do prepayment meters as there's an outstanding small debt on it, he did say to clear it first but given that the time before when I spent a while going through it all the transfer of that was not a problem. I'd simply get a new card (and keep my meter) and pop that in and be ready to go, I'd likley give meter readings that day too.

I've given up to be honest as what I was told on the phone was clearly untrue, as there's plenty of prepayment key/card meters so saying they don't do them (or words to that effect) is well. At that point I realised the phone call = pointless.

I did re-explain I was keeping the prepayment meter so the fact that he kept mentioning credit for a new account made no sense at all, especially since I already have one for the Electric. I do understand I have to have a new one for the gas given the elec is Smart and the gas is not, something I wanted to keep that way until the next gen of smarts appear, at least.

As first paragraph does not matter tbh as given that the credit will go when the new card is used I need to use that up or almost up first. I won't lie I'm starting to consider moving both to a new supplier now, I say consider as I can't do anything for a few weeks anyway.

AndyCF

Since posting this, an email has arrived from EON

Telling me tis complete and switched, "Your gas has been supplied by us since 29 May 2019."

Question is then why was I told a couple of times on the phone the other day it was not and it was stopped and why was I told you did not do prepayment gas ?

Does not matter I don't have a card as of yet, so I can't help with readings until I have:

1. A new card to use
2. Either use the existing credit up or get assurance *in writing* it won't go away/be wasted
3. Some kind of explanation for all this as given what was said and conflicting responses I'm not 100% sure if it really is right or not.

I'm just going to carry on with it for now until I've used up the credit on the meter (its about two weeks worth at least) then worry about it. Too annoyed unless someone can fix this.

I'll be 100% honest I was expecting the fun/games from B.G not from EON.

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena

Hiya AndyCF,

Well, to be honest I don't know what to say, except sorry that you've been given some very confusing and wrong information

I think the best thing to do is to, pop your details to me. Full name, address, account number and date of birth because I need to see who you've spoken to and get some feedback sent.

I know a couple of colleagues that deal with pre-payment accounts so I'll ask them to have a look at your account as well.

send your details to WebForumAdvisors@eonenergy.com

Thanks AndyCF

Helena

AndyCF

Thanks Helena, I greatly appreciate your reply.

I've complied with your request email.

I've had to put two account numbers in it as now i have two ( ! ) as I put my electric one in and the 'new' one that appeared on the "we can't do it" letter from yourselves too. I did say at the time why did I have to have a new acc but I think it was because this was a legacy gas meter vs the smart electric one.

Anyway all the information is in the email along with a link to the topic/thread here.

I'm not angry I'm just very very confused now.

Kindest Regards, thanks again.

Andy.


EDIT... Just realised I'd missed my DOB off the email, sorry. No matter I put all the other details in as requested, I guess if its needed I can reply to a reply with it.

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena

AndyCF wrote: »

Thanks Helena, I greatly appreciate your reply.

I've complied with your request email.

I've had to put two account numbers in it as now i have two ( ! ) as I put my electric one in and the 'new' one that appeared on the "we can't do it" letter from yourselves too. I did say at the time why did I have to have a new acc but I think it was because this was a legacy gas meter vs the smart electric one.

Anyway all the information is in the email along with a link to the topic/thread here.

I'm not angry I'm just very very confused now.

Kindest Regards, thanks again.

Andy.


EDIT... Just realised I'd missed my DOB off the email, sorry. No matter I put all the other details in as requested, I guess if its needed I can reply to a reply with it.

Thanks Andy.

Got the email, will reply this morning

Helena

AndyCF

Thank you Helena.

Seen the reply. I actually had another letter today from yourselves!

This one is just literally a couple of lines saying the transfer is going ahead (as the last one said the opposite but lets not worry about that) but as per the email instructions I'll try to call tomorrow if I can to deal with it all.

It does actually answer one question but not another (quite important one) but that is something for the phone conversation I think, basically what happens to the existing credit on the meter as its currently about £15-£16 in credit, well it was yesterday when I glanced at it. As I say that's something for the phone call.

Thanks again for your assistance.

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena

Hiya Andy,

It sounds like you've now received the correct letter.

That probably is a good question for the pre-payment guys. You could just start to use our card once your current credit has pretty much run out, or you could speak to them about manually adding it, this isn't my area of expertise as you can probably tell.

Thanks again

Helena

AndyCF

Thanks Helena,

I somehow missed your reply up until now, although yes I'd just likely not use the old BG card and merely wait until the meter was empty or near empty (as in 50p or less ideally) then pop the new card in. I use very little gas anyway, I'm mostly electric inc heating.

Moving forwards to this morning: I did manage to gather all my paper work , email and bits together today with a timeline of everything and called. Its taken me a few days to gather things as I've not been brilliant and I wanted to be sure I had *everything they might want to know about* to hand etc, given the small issues.

I used the number you provided but the options were not quite what I thought so I merely waited until I got to speak to a person. He was a very nice chap and I explained what was going on briefly etc and he said he'd had to transfer me to the appropriate people, all well and good.

Unfortunately I ran out of credit on hold after about 15 minutes wait So I'll have to try it again in the morning as I'll have some then. It is my own fault in a way I probably should of said I only had about 20 mins 'time' left, but to be fair its unlikely to be kept on hold that long anyway, you are usually pretty quick. :T

So I'm not really any further forward today, apart from having everything (well almost) to hand now.

There is a weird discrepancy in the dates though but that's something to talk to them on the phone about I think, tomorrow. In theory ( lol ) it 'starts' tomorrow according to EON, according to B.G it started last month ( ! ) :rotfl:

I don't have a new meter prepay card anyway for some reason so its not really that relevant I suppose just yet, no card = I can't pay you.

AndyCF

I'm actually no further forward with this. :undecided

I'll try to find some phone credit to call about it tomorrow if I can.

No one has asked for any readings or new card either. Mind you I did not manage to stay on the phone long enough last time so I just gave up completely I don't have the energy (no pun intended) to chase things too much these days anymore. I was half hoping for a call back over the past few days to resolve it but hmm. Oh well. :undecided


There's going to be a problem here anyway as I've *had* to put some monies in a few times via the old card, (small amounts to keep it alive and reduce the GD) despite that meaning its going to the wrong supplier I had little choice it seemed. Yes I know but the alt was no gas.

I do not want to be in a situation where I have to repay this to the new supplier then myself try to claim it back from the old, as I see this now its up to the suppliers to pay each other what is due not for me to be the middle-man. Ultimately the records from Paypoint will show what/when.

I'm slightly in despair as to this situation now to be completely honest, wish I'd never bothered. I'll try again tomorrow morning afresh and go from there.

I do know I don't want to be in the same situation I was with B.G initially where several erm lets say 'incorrect human error adjustments' were made, resulting in me having to make three trips to a "not the nearest but the one we picked for you" shop to do a zero balance card swipe to update the information once I'd realised the mistook (typo deliberate). This does annoy the shopkeeper no end actually and I'm not surprised, feel half obliged to buy something while in there.


EDIT... I knew it was one of those days lol, the automated electric Smart service took my card details, paused to verify then told me they were closed via automated message! :rotfl: hmm. Something else for tomorrow if its eaten the money, its not given credit anyway. I can't actually tell that for 24hrs if its taken it out the bank or not.

AndyCF

Tried to use the form to get a card but it won't accept any explanation, so I'll have to call tomorrow I guess. Stripped the explanation down and removed all punctuation etc as well but despite it being 508 characters in length (limit 512) it won't accept it.

One thing I forgot to mention in the initial post actually: I am on the EON PSR (I think that's what it is called?) I recall they mentioned that a while back too, given my 'situation' , can't go into that on here obviously.


On a positive note , the electric concern I had late last night was all working this morning, and it had not 'eaten' the money.