EON - fraudlant bill

akkers

We moved into a new house at end of Dec 2020. The previous owner was with Scottish Power for his energy (I have seen his last bill).

We continued with Scottish power temporarily, and then we switched, the switch to Shell Energy took place middle of Feb. However, we have been getting threatening letters from E-ON demanding payment of over £350 without any details of energy consumed etc. I have contacted them by telephone and explained that I never joined E-ON and the previous owner was with Scottish power but the person at the other end just passed me to another line with music which went on and on and on. I cant get any answers out of them.

Is this some kind of scam? Isnt this fraud (sending phantom bills)?

I intend to take this to the regulator but was wondering if this qualifies as fraud and possibly a police matter.

Robin9

Are the letters addressed to you?

Write to Eon  - letter headed COMPLAINT - don't bother phoning.

Hasbeen

akkers said:

We moved into a new house at end of Dec 2020. The previous owner was with Scottish Power for his energy (I have seen his last bill).

We continued with Scottish power temporarily, and then we switched, the switch to Shell Energy took place middle of Feb. However, we have been getting threatening letters from E-ON demanding payment of over £350 without any details of energy consumed etc. I have contacted them by telephone and explained that I never joined E-ON and the previous owner was with Scottish power but the person at the other end just passed me to another line with music which went on and on and on. I cant get any answers out of them.

Is this some kind of scam? Isnt this fraud (sending phantom bills)?

I intend to take this to the regulator but was wondering if this qualifies as fraud and possibly a police matter.

The owner was with SP for what Electric? or Gas? what did his bill that you have seen say. Dual, Both, Electric, Gas?

I assume you registered with SP at move in day and provided readings? for both gas and electric?

Are you positive that you were not in a deemed contract with EON. For one of the utilities?

Probably not fraud. Or a Scam. The regulator will not be interested  and neither will the police.

You will have to investigate further. To see if this is indeed as you say?

E.ON_Company_Representative

akkers said:

We moved into a new house at end of Dec 2020. The previous owner was with Scottish Power for his energy (I have seen his last bill).

We continued with Scottish power temporarily, and then we switched, the switch to Shell Energy took place middle of Feb. However, we have been getting threatening letters from E-ON demanding payment of over £350 without any details of energy consumed etc. I have contacted them by telephone and explained that I never joined E-ON and the previous owner was with Scottish power but the person at the other end just passed me to another line with music which went on and on and on. I cant get any answers out of them.

Is this some kind of scam? Isnt this fraud (sending phantom bills)?

I intend to take this to the regulator but was wondering if this qualifies as fraud and possibly a police matter.

Hi akkers, hope you're well. Sorry to hear this is happening.

As Robin9 has mentioned the most important question is are the letters addressed to you? 

It's very likely that this bill is for a previous occupant and we don't have a forwarding address for them so the bill is being sent to their last known address. As Hasbeen mentioned it could be that the previous owner was only with SP for one fuel and had their other fuel with us. It could be that they were with us for both fuels and had only moved to SP a few weeks/months before you moved in. It could an address mix-up. It could be a previous tenant if the previous owner rented out the property?

Many possibilities but it's definitely not a scam. These bills/demands are sent automatically so it hasn't been sent in spite or anything like that. People move in and out of properties all the time and there can be a bit of confusion over liability, especially if we're not provided with information at the time, or a forwarding address. It's never usually too difficult to sort out thankfully. 

I do apologise you weren't able to get an answer when you spoke to us the other day. I know the phone wait times aren't ideal at the moment. Try getting in touch through Live Chat as we might be able to help on there and you should get through, most times of the day, within about 5-10 minutes. 

If you wanted to come back on here and provide any further information (staying away from sensitive customer data) I'll keep an eye on this thread. Cheers, Matt

akkers

Thanks for that Matt. It appears that I was misled somewhat; the previous owner was with E-ON for gas only and with SP for electric. SP lied to me when they said that the previous owner was with them for both. Anyway they opened an account for me and should have switched for both electric and gas. However, it looks like the switch was not notified to E-ON.

Anyway, I am going to contact E-ON again, if I can get through, and explain the whole situation and clear this mess up.

Cardew

When you see situations like this, it is understandable why some customers, particularly older people without the internet, chose to stay with their legacy provider(usually BG) on the most expensive standard tariff.

E.ON_Company_Representative

akkers said:

Thanks for that Matt. It appears that I was misled somewhat; the previous owner was with E-ON for gas only and with SP for electric. SP lied to me when they said that the previous owner was with them for both. Anyway they opened an account for me and should have switched for both electric and gas. However, it looks like the switch was not notified to E-ON.

Anyway, I am going to contact E-ON again, if I can get through, and explain the whole situation and clear this mess up.

Glad to hear you got to the bottom of it. Get in touch with us on the 'Moving Home' section of our website to avoid having to wait to get through to General Enquiries, and then having to wait to be passed over to the Moving Home Team as well. We'll just take your move-in date and meter reading and then get an interim bill produced for you. I believe there's a form on that page of our website as well so you can fill the details in on there if needed and it will be picked up within a couple of days. Thanks, Matt

theoretica

Check your Scottish Power bill in detail - if you were paying them for gas for the same time as EON will charge you for you will want to get them to refund too.