Debt collectors chasing for disputed Eon debt - what do I do next?

smileysal67

Tl;dr - I moved house X years ago and gave my final meter reading to the energy supplier. Now, I’ve been contacted by a debt collection agency about a debt relating to the energy supply to my old house. The energy supplier (Eon) had made no attempt to contact me about this, and everyone I’ve spoken to at Eon and at the debt collection agency accept that this is a mistake. Eon will not correct it, and I’ve been left to pay a bill I did not incur. I don’t know what steps I can take next to make sure I don’t unfairly have to pay for Eon’s negligence and mistake, and to make sure this doesn’t affect my credit history.

Apologies in advance for the length of this post! 

I owned a property in the Midlands where E.on was the gas supplier. I sold the property on 30 April 2019, at which point I took a photo of the meter reading, and notified E.on of the reading and of my new address. In mid-May 2019 I received a refund of approximately £65, so thought that was the account closure. I continued to be a customer of E.on at my new address, and yet another address since then.

On 31 December 2020 I received a letter from a debt collector, chasing me for a payment of a little over £220 for an unpaid bill for the Midlands property. This was the first I'd heard of any outstanding debt on the property, so queried it with E.on. They said that a debit amount had been added to the account for approx £200 in August 2020. A late payment fee added in October 2020, and the debt then immediately sold to a debt collector. They said this was an error, but the team I needed to speak to wouldn't be in the office until the New Year so I would need to call back then. I also contacted the debt collector to let them know I was disputing the debt - during that call they told me the two readings on the statement were estimates, they also told me they were unable to dispute meter readings that were more than 12 months old.

I called E.on again 4 January, but after holding for 2 hours and talking to various teams, none of the teams I needed to speak to were available. I called again later that week and was told that despite them having the final meter reading on record, I'd need to submit through their website. I tried while I was on the call - it failed (I took screenshots of the error) and asked me to send an email... I agreed to do that after the call and asked the (now third) representative to raise a complaint on my behalf. The email address failed when I tried to send emails to it after the call (again, I have copies).

The debt collectors emailed me a copy of the 'statement' for the Midlands Address. It clearly shows the account close date as 31 April 2019, at which point £13 was owing. Then a refund of approx £65 from E.on. Then a 'final bill' date of August 2020... followed by the £10 October late payment fee mentioned above.

I sent two recorded delivery letters to E.on complaints, both copied to the debt collectors, detailing the chain of events and challenging the debt. I've heard nothing from Eon yet, other than a standard 'we've received your complaint' letter, but have had an email from the debt collectors today to say that E.on have written to say it's nothing to do with them and that I need to speak directly to the debt collectors.

I've had postal redirects on the Midlands property, and subsequent property, so haven't missed any letters. I've continued to remain a customer with E.on, so they know where to contact me. The debt collectors have my current postal, email and phone number (I assume from E.on) so, they have multiple ways of contacting me if there was a problem.

What do I do next? Do I lodge a complaint with the debt collectors, contact the energy ombudsman, or something else?

Any advice or guidance about the situation would be very much appreciated. Thank you.

smileysal67

smileysal67 said:

Tl;dr - I moved house X years ago 

Sorry, that should have said 'nearly 2 years ago'

E.ON_Company_Representative

Hi smileysal67, I'm sorry to hear about this problem.

It's very strange that an account was billed to actual readings and settled a couple of years ago, and then all of a sudden an amended final bill comes out with estimated readings showing you owe us more. We would usually see it the other way round - where we replace a historic estimated reading with an actual reading. 

It sounds like you're very organised with this sort of stuff and it's great that you've kept a record of things. I would hope that this is a system error but there's a few other possibilities, it's quite difficult for me to comment without being able to see the account in question.

In the first instance it's definitely correct that you're referring to us. You won't be able to submit or resubmit any meter readings online as the account is now closed. At this stage you've done everything you need to do and my recommendation would be to wait for an advisor to pick up your emails/letters. Over the last few weeks we've been mainly servicing emergency demand but all departments are now open again. Ultimately, not that we would usually advise this off the bat, the best place for you to be would be with our complaints team. Give it a few days and someone should be in touch.

Thanks, Matt

smileysal67

E.ON_Company_Representative said:

Hi smileysal67, I'm sorry to hear about this problem.

It's very strange that an account was billed to actual readings and settled a couple of years ago, and then all of a sudden an amended final bill comes out with estimated readings showing you owe us more. We would usually see it the other way round - where we replace a historic estimated reading with an actual reading. 

It sounds like you're very organised with this sort of stuff and it's great that you've kept a record of things. I would hope that this is a system error but there's a few other possibilities, it's quite difficult for me to comment without being able to see the account in question.

In the first instance it's definitely correct that you're referring to us. You won't be able to submit or resubmit any meter readings online as the account is now closed. At this stage you've done everything you need to do and my recommendation would be to wait for an advisor to pick up your emails/letters. Over the last few weeks we've been mainly servicing emergency demand but all departments are now open again. Ultimately, not that we would usually advise this off the bat, the best place for you to be would be with our complaints team. Give it a few days and someone should be in touch.

Thanks, Matt

Hey Matt,

Thanks for getting in touch.

Apparently the complaints team have looked into it and have sent me a letter (I don't have it yet as they've sent it to my old address, so I'll need to wait for the redirect to send it to my current address) to tell me that they're closing the complaint and that I have to deal with the debt collector directly. The debt collectors have emailed me to tell me this, so I'll need to wait to see the specific details of the letter

Any advice?

Thanks,

Sarah

E.ON_Company_Representative

Good morning Sarah. Can you send me a message on here please? Don't include any account info but I'll let you know my email address so that you can email it over. Really think I just need to see the account to be able to advise further. Thanks, Matt