Issue with E.ON Energy cancelling my agreement

beelzebomb

I am self-employed and suffering income loss due the pandemic. I qualify for all Govt support, like Universal Credit and SEISS. I have just sorted out a major issue with HSBC (with help on here) and within a week I now have issues with EON and my stress levels are through the roof again. I am paying off 3k in EON debt and have an agreement to pay £91 each month (after a previous complaint to the Ombudsman). As my income dropped, my monthly EON payments became hard, and ultimately in March became impossible. I emailed EON asking for more time. The unhelpful response pointed out that my email request was:
"...before the announcement that the Prime Minister had made regarding the lockdown. I can confirm that since this announcement, we've suspended any debt collection activity." 
Sadly this suggests a worrying level of ignorance regarding how the self-employed have been affected: it didn't all begin when Boris said so!
In May my SEISS came through and payments were brought up to date and I thought that was it. Yet, from the constant emails I am now receiving, it looks like EON has yet again cancelled the agreement and today emailed suggesting setting up a new agreement for £330 per month - utterly absurd and unaffordable! It seems that the current pandemic-related income crisis means nothing to EON. What can I do? Phones aren't being answered, live chat seems unusable. The level of customer service is never endingly poor which is a real worry and I really can do without yet more stress so soon after the HSBC-induced batch. I need to be able to concentrate my day on saving my business. Helpful suggestions appreciated! 

MWT

@E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena

beelzebomb

Update: I finally managed to get through on live chat to someone called Avishek who proved knowledgable and helpful. It seems that the agreement has not been cancelled despite the emails I have received, especially this one today saying: 
"Thank you for your email and letting us know about your present financial condition to us.... ....You can set up a monthly direct debit for £330.00"
Honestly, as ever it seems that EON doesn't know it's 'A' from its elbow. God know how many suffer unnecessary stress in this challenging time due to this. I was also advised that some of the contact I received was purely 'promotional'.
I am still not entirely 100% convinced this has been resolved, but at least now I have a live chat transcript in my favour. Once again, I hope that this post serves useful to anyone else in a similar situation.

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena

beelzebomb said:

Update: I finally managed to get through on live chat to someone called Avishek who proved knowledgable and helpful. It seems that the agreement has not been cancelled despite the emails I have received, especially this one today saying: 
"Thank you for your email and letting us know about your present financial condition to us.... ....You can set up a monthly direct debit for £330.00"
Honestly, as ever it seems that EON doesn't know it's 'A' from its elbow. God know how many suffer unnecessary stress in this challenging time due to this. I was also advised that some of the contact I received was purely 'promotional'.
I am still not entirely 100% convinced this has been resolved, but at least now I have a live chat transcript in my favour. Once again, I hope that this post serves useful to anyone else in a similar situation.

Good afternoon beelzebomb,

I'm so sorry that you had such trouble getting through to us, this is the reason we've been asking customers not to contact us, so we can keep the lines free for those that need extra support.

I understand that you've spoken to a colleague on Live Chat and your agreement is in place, if you do need further help with your bills, please ask to speak to the extra support team, there's also information on the website about this team and what they can help you with.

Do you have an online account? If not I would suggest registering, it will help you keep a close eye on your account, you'll be able to see all of your payments on there as well.

Thank you

Helena

beelzebomb

Thank you Helena, yes I do everything online. I just don’t have much faith in EON customer services to be honest from past bad experience (EON seem very trigger-happy in cancelling agreements); but hopefully this will now sort itself out. It’s good to know EON monitor these forums. 

beelzebomb

I have just received another letter from EON: 
"...Even if you can't pay in full, please pay whatever you can for now.
Your electricity balance is £*******"
My 'Live Chat' in early June suggested to not worry and these are just standard letters and they would put a stop to me receiving them.
But I AM worried, as here is another letter once again suggesting that there is no agreement in place and EON has a such poor poor record of not knowing what the left arm is doing from the right. @E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena can you confirm that my monthly agreement is still in place? EON has randomly cancelled before due to departments not communicating with each other.

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena

beelzebomb said:

I have just received another letter from EON: 
"...Even if you can't pay in full, please pay whatever you can for now.
Your electricity balance is £*******"
My 'Live Chat' in early June suggested to not worry and these are just standard letters and they would put a stop to me receiving them.
But I AM worried, as here is another letter once again suggesting that there is no agreement in place and EON has a such poor poor record of not knowing what the left arm is doing from the right. @E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena can you confirm that my monthly agreement is still in place? EON has randomly cancelled before due to departments not communicating with each other.

Hi beelzebomb,

I'm sorry that you've received another letter.

We have quite a few more departments open, so I would ask you to contact us directly and someone will go through this with you. As I said before, it may be worth asking to speak to the extra support department, as they can deal with payment arrangements and get this sorted out for you.

I'm sorry that I can't do this myself.

Thank you

Helena

beelzebomb

This is EXASPERATING! I've now received a mildly threatening letter stating: 'Please pay £**** below. You could be charged debt collection fees if you don't pay or set up a payment arrangement. ' Despite paying my agreed monthly amount on time last week. 
So clearly despite being told on Livechat on 9 June: "I've checked your account and your payment arrangement is active with us." it clearly isn't. I have so far been unable to even get through on the phone as the automated system cannot recognise a single thing that is spoken. Not. One. Single. Word. Nor can I find evidence of an 'extra support dept' online.  I hope other people read this thread ands remember how awful the EON customer experience is when they come to change provider and choose a better company.

beelzebomb

For the love of god, @E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena can you PLEASE give me a number that I can actually speak to someone on? Not the standard number that just keeps repeating my balance and only gives me the option of press 1 to pay in full or press 2 for another amount.

beelzebomb

An update: I spoke to someone if the bereavement team and asked them to transfer me to the right department. He kindly did this and I ended up speaking to someone who I could not understand! The call had to end as I couldn't understand what the person was saying. You just couldn't make this up. This is ridiculous and I am now beyond completely fuming. Yet more work time being wasted. Nobody knows what they are doing at EON - that is clear. What a shambles. My only solace is that other people will be able to read this.

badmemory

Forget phoning.  Write to them with COMPLAINT in big letters!