Eon unfair billing

NealM

Hello, First let me explain that I am writing this on behalf of a friend and next-door neighbour who is dyslexic.
On occasion he asks me to help with formal letters/bills and the like. Last year he wanted to swap energy supplier an I recommended the MoneySavingExpert Energy Club and so together we went through the process and chose a deal with E.on (Fixed Online Exclusive v19). He has been paying the recommended payment of £33 monthly by direct debit since then. Yesterday he asked me for assistance to explain the figure of £758.04 shown in the top right hand corner of his 'My Account' page. See the attached Home.png. I could not explain the figure when looking at his bill, also attached. The bill shows a credit balance of £213.79 and it carries the message "You don't need to do anything". 
When he phoned E.on to ask about the figure of £758.04 he was told that this is what he owes because he had not been providing readings.  His dd has now risen from £33 to £144.
I am angry in that I feel E.on have allowed him to get into this situation because the information they have provided has not made it clear to him what was actually happening. He is separated with a new mortgage and has been furloughed in the last few months. He is careful with his money as he is renovating his flat and now his plans have been up-ended. He is now worried about his finances and I feel I should do something on his behalf.
If anyone can provide me with guidance on how to go about complaining it would be appreciated. I know I should write to E.on in the first instance but can I do it on his behalf or do tell him what he must do? I would like for the £758 to be rescinded. Is that feasible? Would citizens advice be able to help me?

The_Fat_Controller

You need to ascertain exactly how much energy has been used since the account was opened.
Actual readings must have been given at that point.
Go round, read the meter(s) and get your calculator out.
If the arrears are as bad as Eon say, get in touch with them and agree a plan.
Your neighbour will have to pay for what they have used, Eon are not going to write off the bill.

stewie_griffin

Without being rude I think you've caused part of the problem here. You helped him switch and part of that would have been to provide his annual usage to make sure the quote was accurate. The £33 a month clearly hasn't been enough and now actual readings have (presumably) been taken it's resulted in a large catch up bill.

I don't really see what e.on have done wrong. They probably would have only attempted to read the meter twice a year at most but wouldn't have been able to do this due to Covid. 

What date did e.on start supplying, what were the readings at the time and what are the current readings? This will help check if the current balance is correct and if it is the only option will be to arrange a payment plan

stewie_griffin

Looking at the second screenshot it looks like a bill has only been produced today which is probably why you can't see it yet.

Is the property in question electricity only and if so what type of heaters are there?

Gerry1

Unfortunately it seems that you probably didn't do your friend any favours at all.

• Firstly, it's unlikely that E.On were the cheapest.  The CEC isn't the best site to use because it often doesn't show all suppliers. Citizens Advice and 'Switch with Which?' would have been better.
  What annual consumption figure did you use?
  Did you provide an accurate closing / opening reading?
  What is the kWh rate and what is the standing charge, including VAT?
• Secondly, you should have explained that a Fixed Direct Debit is definitely not All You Can Eat.  £396 p.a. is far too low if he's all electric.
• Thirdly, you should have helped him to read the meter and send monthly readings, or have done this on his behalf.  As he didn't send meter readings the bills will have been estimated so the first actual reading has probably triggered a reality check.
• Fourthly, you must shoulder much of the responsibility of allowing him to get into this situation because you didn't make it clear to him what was actually happening.

The moral of the story is that poor and / or incomplete advice is worse than no advice at all.  Sorry if that does sound very harsh, especially as you were asked to help and no doubt acted with the best of intentions.  However, it does have to be said, for two main reasons.

• There's no mileage in challenging E.On to reduce or waive the charges.  The energy has been used and must be paid for in full.  He will need to resort to arranging a payment plan if he can't afford the higher DD.  Don't give him any false hope.
  
• Others will benefit by being made aware of the pitfalls.

Finally, where are the meter readings on the bill? If it's still estimated then the outcome may be even worse, or it may turn out to have been a false alarm. Best send a meter reading PDQ otherwise there may be further shocks.

Robin9

If he has been with Eon for 18 months then he has been underpaying by £45-£50 ie his DD should have been about £80.   What was it before you switched him ?

Sorry @NealM but you are going to have a restless night.

MWT

It seems likely that when you 'helped' your neighbour to switch, you didn't use his actual previous years consumption and you didn't advise, or help, him to submit meter readings each month...

Net result he has been under paying since then against estimated bills based on the information you gave them when helping him switch.

I suspect they have recently sent a meter reader round to check and the result is the large catch up bill which you should be able to see on his account by now...

They will work with him to agree a repayment plan if he is unable to pay it in one lump sum, but they will certainly not be writting it off, nor is it 'unfair billing'.

E.ON_Company_Representative

NealM said:

Hello,....

Hi NealM, there's a couple of us guys from E.ON that monitor these forums every now and advise where best we can. 

As other commenters have mentioned a lot of this is likely to come down to the 'annual usage' entered at time of switching over to us. We will always ask for this in terms of kWh's so we can predict how much you'll need to pay each month to ensure you're covering for usage. The idea is we want you to reach the end of the 12 month tariff with a balance of exactly £0, having paid no more or no less than you need to. Sometimes when quoting online you'll have the option of providing this annual usage, or selecting whether you believe you're a Low, Medium or High user. If the Direct Debit was initially set at £33 per month this would indicate quite low usage.

From the attached screenshots I can see that after the bill in September everything seemed OK, and all parties involved believed that a sufficient level of credit had been built up to cover for the imminent increased winter usage. However this is the danger of estimated readings and bills. 

The December statement sounds like it might be a "catch-up bill" which can arise after a few months, or even years, of UNDER-estimations. In the first instance I would recommend double and triple checking the meter readings. If you have access to your neighbours online account, or sit down with him at some point, you can view the meter reading history either on the statements or through a separate tab from the homepage. Of course if the readings differ please get in touch. 

If the meter readings are indeed correct, and therefore the charges are, then as others have mentioned it is energy that has been used so will need to be paid off. However we wouldn't want this to cause any financial difficulty especially at a time such as this. We can always look at spreading the debt out over a longer period of time so that each monthly payment is split into £XX for usage + £XX for debt. If for example the Direct Debit has recently been changed due to the 6 monthly review then we'll be trying to recoup the debt over the next 6 months. We can extend this to 12 or 18 or discuss even further if appropriate.

Unless you're named on the account we would need to speak with your neighbour regarding this. If you want to be there at the time he can ask we speak to you and provide verbal permission either for that phone call or indefinitely on the account. I know the bills can be a bit difficult to decipher so we'd be happy to explain things further with you. We're not here to catch you out in any way and always only want you to pay for exactly what has been used; no more no less. Hopefully this helps and we'll look forward to hearing from you in due course. Thanks, Matt

welshmoneylover

He hasn’t been paying enough nor supplying any meter reads so that his payments can be adjusted to cover his usage.
he has had a catch up bill and you won’t be able to ask eon to rescind it either.
doesn’t sound like you have done your friend any favours at all by signing him up to an unsuitable tariff or sufficient payments.

NealM

The reason he chose this tariff was because the deal was available with the energy club at that rate. We used the online estimator and this is what it came up with the various deals available. This was not way lower than other tariffs displayed. I myself live in an identical one bedroom flat next door and my bill does not average what E.on say he has used. Apparently he has averaged £90 a month usage. He has brand new double glazing and radiators which I do not have. 

MWT

NealM said:

I myself live in an identical one bedroom flat next door and my bill does not average what E.on say he has used. Apparently he has averaged £90 a month usage. He has brand new double glazing and radiators which I do not have.

None of which proves anything.

Read the meter daily or weekly and check the consumption that way.

... and submit the monthly meter readings to E.ON...