Wrongly refunded by energy company. Now chasing money I haven’t got!

rachie0203

Hi - I wonder if anyone can help or advise? I was notified that I was being refunded £483 “credit” I’d built up in my account by Eon in January. I IMMEDIATELY phoned them and told them not to refund as I needed the cushion and couldn’t afford to get into debt. The woman said she’d stop it and keep my direct debit as it was. She said they needed a meter reading to check accuracy of bill so put me onto another man - who told me that I was actually going to be £53 in DEBIT when he took the reading. I paid the £53 immediately via him as I was moving to another company and had to have my balance at zero. Fast forward a month and Eon have now billed me £480 as they apparently refunded me the £483 is told them not to!! I NEVER check my bank account and have mental health difficulties. I have obviously spent most of the money without knowing it! What can I do?? They have the recording of me saying not to refund and the lady saying she wouldn’t - they have the recording of the second adviser saying I was actually in debit and Taking my payment. I can’t find £483 just like that. Anyone advise please? 

JGB1955

I'm sorry that you are struggling with managing your money but, you, and only you, are in control of your bank account and you will have to come to some arrangement to pay back the money that you owe.

Aylesbury_Duck

Call eon and see if they'll make a payment arrangement with you.  If they won't, you'll have to borrow the money to pay them back.
What steps can you take to keep control of your bank account?  Is there anyone who could help you take steps to manage your money?  It's worrying that you spent £483 more than you usually would have done in just the last few weeks, without thinking about where it came from.  If you kept to your normal spending level then logically you still have £483 'spare' you could send them.  e.g. if you normally have £1000 in your account and spend £950 each month and suddenly had £1483 in your account and spent the same £950, you'd have £553 in the account now with which to pay eon.  I can only assume you've spent a lot more in the last few weeks than you normally would have done.  That's not eon's fault, despite their administrative error when originally speaking to you.

KatrinaWaves

If you never check your bank account then if this hadn’t happened you would currently be £500 overdrawn.  This doesn’t quite make sense, do you just use your card until it declines and then think ‘okay I’ll wait for my next income payment’? What happens if you had no food or money to travel home etc? 

gettingtheresometime

I would have thought that Eon would have provided you with a final statement so it would have been clear that the account was in arrears but as they say we are where we are.

Personally I think you need to contact Eon, or authorise someone to speak to Eon on your behalf, raising this as a compliant as it will get 'promote' to someone who actually can agree a payment plan with you.

mattyprice4004

How did you manage to spend it if you never check your account? 
You must have known it was there, or you wouldn't have been able to spend it. Sorry, but this doesn't add up. 
You'll need to pay them it back, but make a payment plan with them. 

powerful_Rogue

rachie0203 said:

Hi - I wonder if anyone can help or advise? I was notified that I was being refunded £483 “credit” I’d built up in my account by Eon in January. I IMMEDIATELY phoned them and told them not to refund as I needed the cushion and couldn’t afford to get into debt. The woman said she’d stop it and keep my direct debit as it was. She said they needed a meter reading to check accuracy of bill so put me onto another man - who told me that I was actually going to be £53 in DEBIT when he took the reading. I paid the £53 immediately via him as I was moving to another company and had to have my balance at zero. Fast forward a month and Eon have now billed me £480 as they apparently refunded me the £483 is told them not to!! I NEVER check my bank account and have mental health difficulties. I have obviously spent most of the money without knowing it! What can I do?? They have the recording of me saying not to refund and the lady saying she wouldn’t - they have the recording of the second adviser saying I was actually in debit and Taking my payment. I can’t find £483 just like that. Anyone advise please? 

Some very good questions have been asked above.

With out taking this the wrong way, does your mental illness prevent you from managing your finances? If it does, then maybe you should consider appointing a Power of Attorney to someone to manage them on your behalf.

I know lots of people with mental illnesses, however they all manage their finances fine. This isn't to say can, however mental illness is a very broad term, Like saying 'I'm ill' could be anything from a cold to the big C, if you catch my drift.

I would try and resolve this as soon as you can, last thing you want is a prepayment meter fitted and running out of money to top it up 3 weeks before your next amount of money arrives.

HampshireH

Have you checked your bank statements now to confirm they did indeed pay you the money?

I get they now want it back but you need to make sure they definitely paid it before going into an arrangement to return the money.

rachie0203

You’re all right I suppose. I have spent slightly more than I would because it’s my daughters birthday in two weeks so I would generally go into my overdraft a bit for that. If I can pay in instalments that’s fine. It’s not that I’ve not got money it that I’ve spent it all - I’ve just not the full amount to pay back immediately. I just went into blind panic that I’d have to find it within the next few days because it said they’d take it on the 19th. I will phone them in the morning to ask to pay in a couple of lump sums. Thank you all. 

dogshome

A £483 credit is a lot money and is roughly equal to one years cost of either the Gas or Electricity - It's not uncommon for suppliers to lose track of one of these fuels on their Computer system and it is not billed, though meanwhile the Customers D/Debit is paying for it - Then Hey Ho the computer see's a big credit and returns it to the customer

Look at the bills to see if either the Gas or Elec is not shown - If one isn't, please report back as depending on the amount of time this account was running, Back- Billing rules would apply to some of the debt

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

rachie0203 said:

Hi - I wonder if anyone can help or advise? I was notified that I was being refunded £483 “credit” I’d built up in my account by Eon in January. I IMMEDIATELY phoned them and told them not to refund as I needed the cushion and couldn’t afford to get into debt. The woman said she’d stop it and keep my direct debit as it was. She said they needed a meter reading to check accuracy of bill so put me onto another man - who told me that I was actually going to be £53 in DEBIT when he took the reading. I paid the £53 immediately via him as I was moving to another company and had to have my balance at zero. Fast forward a month and Eon have now billed me £480 as they apparently refunded me the £483 is told them not to!! I NEVER check my bank account and have mental health difficulties. I have obviously spent most of the money without knowing it! What can I do?? They have the recording of me saying not to refund and the lady saying she wouldn’t - they have the recording of the second adviser saying I was actually in debit and Taking my payment. I can’t find £483 just like that. Anyone advise please? 

rachie0203 said:

You’re all right I suppose. I have spent slightly more than I would because it’s my daughters birthday in two weeks so I would generally go into my overdraft a bit for that. If I can pay in instalments that’s fine. It’s not that I’ve not got money it that I’ve spent it all - I’ve just not the full amount to pay back immediately. I just went into blind panic that I’d have to find it within the next few days because it said they’d take it on the 19th. I will phone them in the morning to ask to pay in a couple of lump sums. Thank you all. 

Hello rachie0203 and sorry for the late reply. Just spotted your post.

Please don’t worry. As others have said, we’ll be happy to set up a payment plan to spread the balance over a more manageable period. There are a number of options including Direct Debit. If you haven’t already, please talk to us.

If it helps, you can use the Live Chat service on our website. Advisors are online from 8am to 8pm Monday to Friday and between 8am and 6pm Saturdays.

It sounds like the balance was based on estimated meter readings and this disappeared when the account was billed up to date using accurate readings. If the Direct Debit arrangement had reached its annual review, a credit balance is automatically refunded. Guessing here.

As I say, please contact us and we’ll set up a payment plan. Thanks rachie0203.

Malc