EON switch problems

Shellbell107

I applied to switch to EON on 30th November through MSE cheap energy club. I switch most years so expected this all to go smoothly but EON are a nightmare! I supplied an electricity reading when asked, but couldn’t supply a gas reading online. Fine - so I sent it to them using that option on their website. I got a couple of emails telling me to supply readings after that and tried to contact them but couldn’t get through. Then I got an email saying my supply had moved over on the 10th December. But only my electricity has moved. My gas is still with Scottish power. I went to my online account and still couldn’t include gas meter readings, so I contacted eon on their awful online chat service (keeps cutting out, don’t get replies for ages) and gave them gas readings that way. This was mid December. I still haven’t heard anything and while eon are saying they have supplied me from the 10th December, they haven’t given the reading for gas to Scottish power. Scottish power are now asking me for meter readings for the gas supply and I don’t know if I should provide them or not. Eon have said it can take up to 42 days from the switch date for everything to complete, but ofgem say it’s 21 days. On top of this, eon have started billing me for my electricity but not my gas, meaning if the switch is backdated to 10th December then I’ll probably owe them money. I don’t understand why it’s taking so long and what the issue is. Has anyone had similar issues and can advise if they were resolved? Unfortunately I’m outside the cooking off period now or I would have cancelled the switch - not holding out much hope for the service if they can’t even get the switch right!

Shellbell107

 Cooling off, not cooking off lol!

Gerry1

You'd probably have found better deals if you'd started comparing with Citizens Advice and 'Switch with Which?' and checked separate suppliers as well as dual fuel.

[Deleted User]

From the time that you initiate a switch, the gaining supplier has up to 35 days to takeover your supply (14 days cooling off plus 21 days). Most of the bigger suppliers have signed up to 17 day switching (14 days cooling off plus 3 days). That said, there are industry procedures that come into play once a transfer has taken place. For example, the gaining supplier has to validate your meter readings - a process that takes 5 to 10 days. Once all these Dickensian procedures have taken place, the supplier will set up your online accounts. FWiW, my recent experience is that my new online gas account was set up within a week but electricity took nearly 4 weeks.

Shellbell107

Thanks Dolor. Im definitely outside either of the timescales then so I’ll be complaining to EON and OFGEM. The online account is set up with EON but it’s not letting me input gas readings - there’s an error message when I try. All the issues with EON taking direct debits early hasn’t helped either as can’t get hold of them for love nor money at the moment! 

Gerry1 - as I’ve said in my original post, I’m outside the cooling off period so there’s not much I can do about that now. And I do check other sites and with suppliers when I switch - this was the best deal based on what I was looking for. Just been burned by going with the cheapest deal last year with Tonik so I thought going with a larger company this year was a better bet - how wrong I was!

barker77

I believe you can switch to eon standard tariff without paying exit fees. This then allows you to move without charges  

Shellbell107

Thanks Barker77. I might try that. Just had my final electricity bill from Scottish Power with estimated readings, meaning they’ve overcharged me £20! This was despite me sending actual readings to EON. What a farce.

Robin9

Thats £20 you won't be paying to EON - but check your first EON bill closely

Shellbell107

Robin9 said:

Thats £20 you won't be paying to EON - but check your first EON bill closely

I contacted Scottish power on their web chat this morning and got it sorted. Super easy to do which is making me wonder if I should have stuck with them despite the higher cost! They’ve checked the national database for my gas though and said their is no incoming supply from EON. It’s ridiculous. And they closed their phone lines etc for Christmas and are now keeping them closed to ‘catch up’. I’ve never heard of a company like that just shutting down customer service for Christmas. It’s bizarre.

E.ON_Company_Representative

Hi Shellbell107, hope you're well. I am sorry to hear that the switch over to us has been a bit of a palaver. I know it doesn't necessarily help in this instance but 99.9% of switches go ahead without a problem, unfortunately it's the nature of the beast that issues such as this can occur with the 0.01%.

Initially from reading your posts it sounded like we HAD taken over the gas and electricity, but there were just delays in processing the gas meter reading and getting this sent to your previous supplier. Please note a switch will take 17-21 days but then the allowance for you to receive your final bill is up to 42 days. Only once it gets to day 43 would we class it as overdue. Despite this we do of course endeavour to have everything sorted much quicker than this. 

Although looking at your most recent post this morning it's starting to sound like we've not taken over your gas supply at all? Typically this goes 1 of 2 ways; we've started taking your gas meter but a problem somewhere in the switch has caused it to fail and cancel, or we have taken a gas meter under your name but it's not yours (i.e. could be a neighbours).

Whatever the case may be we'll be happy to get this rectified for you. To get the ball rolling our end we'll need confirmation of your meter serial number and MPR (you can find this on any bills from your previous supplier) and in some circumstances may require a picture. 

We have been extremely busy over the last couple of weeks due to a few different reasons but we're about caught up now. If you need to contact us please do so in the usual way. If you connect with us on chat you can attach pictures online.

Thanks, Matt

badmemory

When I was leaving SP it took way too long.  I rang & asked what the problem was & they told me the receiving co hadn't been in touch.  So I rang the receiving co, basically ready to go to war & wishing I hadn't tried to tranfer to a very small co.  So glad I didn't go in ranting.  I was told they had been in touch 3 weeks before & (& this was crucial) gave me the ref no they had used.  I rang SP again & gave that ref no & the reply was oh but in the tone of whoops.  Less than 48 hours later job done.