EON and high bill based on estimates, and that Morrisons did not report my telephone readings...

stepheye

Dear Malc,

Thanks for responding. I am on the cheaper tariff, although there had been some confusion on the sign-up process, and the resolution centre did fix this and will backdate to the time it began earlier this year, which I am grateful for.
However, I am not too happy about the original reading in 2018 being an estimated one only. Is there any way that E-on or NPower will tell me what they agreed to? I believe that there is a limited high and low amount for this, but as someopne who doesn't really understand energy measurements, I don't have much idea to what was actually agreed. My final debit payments to NPower were approx £56 per month, and the initial Eon monthly debit was £42 (I think) on the Version 7 plan.... My bank account helps me to confirm this, and I would have been on NPowers recommended low cost plan.
At present I can only find one of my readings cards to Morrison from November 2019, so there must have been others from 2018 onwards... but I have had a chaotic life in the past couple of years due to serious illness, and had built up tons of paper, which I was fairly brutal  about destroying a few months ago. 
I can't see how Eon can bill me when the strat reading in 2018 was an estimate (or at least I should be told what they had estimated), or indeed how they can be telling me that the surplus energy worth £750 for which they have billed me, was produced over the last 12 months, when it began from 2018? Ofgem says that companies can only 'back-bill' for 12 months, not 24, or are Eon implying that I would have had about £750 in uncharged bills in 2018 to 2019 also? If so, I think that would make Eon's low cost plans actually quite expensive?

Are you able to explain this please?

Many thanks, Stephanie

giraffe69

Assuming the paper has been destroyed do you have access to your account online? This enables you to see back bills and to submit readings and to adjust your direct debit. I'm no longer with Eon but when I was this all worked perfectly well.

stepheye

giraffe69 said:

Assuming the paper has been destroyed do you have access to your account online? This enables you to see back bills and to submit readings and to adjust your direct debit. I'm no longer with Eon but when I was this all worked perfectly well.

Thanks, seems a good idea, but the problem is that Eon are saying that they didn't receive the Morrison readings, so my bills are not based on my readings...

stepheye

stepheye said:

giraffe69 said:

Assuming the paper has been destroyed do you have access to your account online? This enables you to see back bills and to submit readings and to adjust your direct debit. I'm no longer with Eon but when I was this all worked perfectly well.

Thanks, seems a good idea, but the problem is that Eon are saying that they didn't receive the Morrison readings, so my bills are not based on my readings...

Or at least I assume they aren't as they would have updated the amount I needed to pay to as higher amount presumably, rather than me cruising along thinking that I was within my direct debit (naive perhaps not to realise that my bills were only estimates?) 

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

stepheye said:

Dear Malc,

Thanks for responding. I am on the cheaper tariff, although there had been some confusion on the sign-up process, and the resolution centre did fix this and will backdate to the time it began earlier this year, which I am grateful for.
However, I am not too happy about the original reading in 2018 being an estimated one only. Is there any way that E-on or NPower will tell me what they agreed to? I believe that there is a limited high and low amount for this, but as someopne who doesn't really understand energy measurements, I don't have much idea to what was actually agreed. My final debit payments to NPower were approx £56 per month, and the initial Eon monthly debit was £42 (I think) on the Version 7 plan.... My bank account helps me to confirm this, and I would have been on NPowers recommended low cost plan.
At present I can only find one of my readings cards to Morrison from November 2019, so there must have been others from 2018 onwards... but I have had a chaotic life in the past couple of years due to serious illness, and had built up tons of paper, which I was fairly brutal  about destroying a few months ago. 
I can't see how Eon can bill me when the strat reading in 2018 was an estimate (or at least I should be told what they had estimated), or indeed how they can be telling me that the surplus energy worth £750 for which they have billed me, was produced over the last 12 months, when it began from 2018? Ofgem says that companies can only 'back-bill' for 12 months, not 24, or are Eon implying that I would have had about £750 in uncharged bills in 2018 to 2019 also? If so, I think that would make Eon's low cost plans actually quite expensive?

Are you able to explain this please?

Many thanks, Stephanie

stepheye said:

giraffe69 said:

Assuming the paper has been destroyed do you have access to your account online? This enables you to see back bills and to submit readings and to adjust your direct debit. I'm no longer with Eon but when I was this all worked perfectly well.

Thanks, seems a good idea, but the problem is that Eon are saying that they didn't receive the Morrison readings, so my bills are not based on my readings...

Hello stepheye and, as giraffe69 says, the readings we used to start your account will be on your online account. Alternatively, we'll be happy to tell you what they were.

Have recent bills been estimated up to the latest one which has created the debit balance? If this is the case, an accurate reading will lead to what's known as a 'catch-up' bill. These usually come about after a series of estimated bills where charges have been lower than the energy actually used. Catch-ups can give a bit of a false picture as they lump more usage than would be expected into a shorter period of time. As above, we'll be happy to look at spreading this balance over a longer period.

Can you remember the number you used to phone readings through to Morrisons? As I say, we're keen to use as many accurate readings as possible and will replace estimated readings with actual ones wherever possible.

Back-billing rules apply in certain circumstances where we've failed to bill accurately. Where we're at fault for a customer not receiving an accurate bill, we cannot charge for any unbilled energy used more than 12 months from the point the problem was fixed. Examples of where it wouldn't apply include where energy has been used and the customer has made no attempt to arrange payment; wilfully avoids payment; or doesn't co-operate with attempts to take meter readings or resolve any queries we might have. This includes denying us access to meters. Please let us know if you think this applies and we'll look into it for you.

Hope this is of interest stepheye.

Malc

stepheye

Dear Malc,
You said:

"Back-billing rules apply in certain circumstances where we've failed to bill accurately. Where we're at fault for a customer not receiving an accurate bill, we cannot charge for any unbilled energy used more than 12 months from the point the problem was fixed. Examples of where it wouldn't apply include where energy has been used and the customer has made no attempt to arrange payment; wilfully avoids payment; or doesn't co-operate with attempts to take meter readings or resolve any queries we might have. This includes denying us access to meters. Please let us know if you think this applies and we'll look into it for you."

I think this may apply to me, as I have never evaded bills or deliberately denied access to any meter readers. I didn't even know that I was building up a bill in addition to that covered by my direct debit payments. I think this is part of the issue for me. I thought I was acting in 'good faith' even if I was being a bit stupid, and disorganised so that I didn't take a photo of the initial meter readings in January 2018 when I transferred from NPower to Eon, or check to see that my bills were based on estimates and not actual readings. Part of me thinks I would have made a record of the numbers by writing them down somewhere, perhaps on an old NPower bill, but I just can't locate anything, although I will try going through my remaining paperwork this evening. It's unuisual for me not to keep something important, but as I said there were personal illness issues which made other things less of  a priority - at the time.

stepheye

Update: I compared my phone estimated card to a bill that I received around the same time, and I *think* that my reading is higher than the one on the bill, which proves that my phone estimates (verified as being received by Morrison) were not passed to, or used by Eon. Of course this doesn't mean that I wasn't using the energy that Eon have now billed me for, but it does 'prove' that I wouldn't have necessarily realised that I was 'over-spending'. I don't think it's unreasonable of me to think that the card reading and telephone reporting system would be a problematic system! At the very least it is misleading. In this instance I think I should be only back-dated for 12 months of the current bill, so approximately £375, but minus my current direct debit credit of £200, so effectively my bill shouldn't be more than £175, although arguably I wouldn't have 'built up' this amount either if the card/telephone system had been working as one would assume it would. It's misleading, and consequently I have spent more money than I thought I had.

stepheye

I have emailed Eon but still not had any response to this issue.

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

stepheye said:

Dear Malc,
You said:

"Back-billing rules apply in certain circumstances where we've failed to bill accurately. Where we're at fault for a customer not receiving an accurate bill, we cannot charge for any unbilled energy used more than 12 months from the point the problem was fixed. Examples of where it wouldn't apply include where energy has been used and the customer has made no attempt to arrange payment; wilfully avoids payment; or doesn't co-operate with attempts to take meter readings or resolve any queries we might have. This includes denying us access to meters. Please let us know if you think this applies and we'll look into it for you."

I think this may apply to me, as I have never evaded bills or deliberately denied access to any meter readers. I didn't even know that I was building up a bill in addition to that covered by my direct debit payments. I think this is part of the issue for me. I thought I was acting in 'good faith' even if I was being a bit stupid, and disorganised so that I didn't take a photo of the initial meter readings in January 2018 when I transferred from NPower to Eon, or check to see that my bills were based on estimates and not actual readings. Part of me thinks I would have made a record of the numbers by writing them down somewhere, perhaps on an old NPower bill, but I just can't locate anything, although I will try going through my remaining paperwork this evening. It's unuisual for me not to keep something important, but as I said there were personal illness issues which made other things less of  a priority - at the time.

Hello stepheye and please ask the question about the back-billing rules. If you haven't already, I'd suggest raising a complaint. A Complaint Manager will be appointed to look into the claim and liaise with our Back-billing team to see if this does apply to your account.

stepheye said:

Update: I compared my phone estimated card to a bill that I received around the same time, and I *think* that my reading is higher than the one on the bill, which proves that my phone estimates (verified as being received by Morrison) were not passed to, or used by Eon. Of course this doesn't mean that I wasn't using the energy that Eon have now billed me for, but it does 'prove' that I wouldn't have necessarily realised that I was 'over-spending'. I don't think it's unreasonable of me to think that the card reading and telephone reporting system would be a problematic system! At the very least it is misleading. In this instance I think I should be only back-dated for 12 months of the current bill, so approximately £375, but minus my current direct debit credit of £200, so effectively my bill shouldn't be more than £175, although arguably I wouldn't have 'built up' this amount either if the card/telephone system had been working as one would assume it would. It's misleading, and consequently I have spent more money than I thought I had.

As I mentioned last week, if you're able to let us have any accurate readings for the time you've been with us, including up to date ones, we'll be happy to rebill to these.

stepheye said:

I have emailed Eon but still not had any response to this issue.

Sorry for the delay replying to your email. I do know there's a bit of a backlog in that area at the moment. You might like to try the Live Chat service through our website. Advisors are online from 8am to 8pm Monday to Friday and between 8am and 6pm Saturdays.

Thanks stepheye.

Malc