Another Example of Spurious Eon Final Bill

Reed_Richards

If I were the OP, @ColinD1, I would call up Green Customer Services, ask to speak to someone senior and say something to the effect of "Look, we know the handover reading is wrong and this means as it stands I will only be paying you the standing charge for a while but would you rather just leave it and avoid the delay and hassle of an ARD?"  If they say no, well fine.  If they say okay then pay Eon their final bill, have done with it, and be slightly better off financially.

[Deleted User]

I keep hoping that the E.oN Rep will see this thread and agree to review the OP’s account.

Rodders53

Dolor said:

I keep hoping that the E.oN Rep will see this thread and agree to review the OP’s account.

@E.ON_Company_Representative  should draw attention, possibly?
(There are a couple of alternative names, too).

Reed_Richards

Dolor said:

I keep hoping that the E.oN Rep will see this thread and agree to review the OP’s account.

ColinD1 said:
...this mysterious data collector, who at the moment appears to be the villain providing Green with incorrect information that Green appear to have sent on to Eon without performing a sanity check. 

What might a review by E.oN achieve?

ColinD1

Just a brief recap.

My reading was correct if a few days late and not quite 1000 less than the figure used by Eon.

The meter is still recording many 100s less than the reading used by Eon

Green are in the process of querring the false reading. Meters do not go backwards and they not only have my reading they have smart meter readings and photographic evidence.

A lot of the explanation here and the documents referred to do not explicitly cover the impact of Smart Meters. I thought I would look at my detailed usage recorded by Eon, but this is broken and not available.This could be just because I have left them.....

To my mind there are three explanationswhy this has happened:

• Someone transcribed a reading incorrectly
• The data collector is using incomprehensible algorithms that do not reflect the impact of Smart metering. Some of the documentation refers to typical consumption which is outdated when suppliers have scope for frequent readings.
  
• Conspiracy to extract more money from customers

Any other possibilities? I know people have left heaters on in outbuildings etc, but that would be recorded on the meter.
My money is on the first, but I think I am unlikely to find out where.

If it happens to one person it is probably happening to many. As I said earlier I nearly didn't spot it. If there had been a longer interval from the last bill I would have missed it. My suspicions were raised because a bill for 3 weeks should not be more than one for 3 months. It was disguised because they went back to billing for the extended period rather than a simple additional bill as was done for the gas.

I will give Eon another day to contact me about the complasnt I made before I close the DD and pay them something close to what I owe them. Strangely I trust my figures more than theirs.

Ofgem point you to Citizen Advice and use?

E.ON_Company_Representative

Good morning ColinD1, I've just noticed someone has tagged us in this thread. Apologies we didn't pick it up sooner.

Five pages of great advice and to be honest I'm not sure there's much more I can add! I think your most recent post from this morning hits the nail on the head in terms of it likely being an incorrectly transcribed reading. If it is indeed out by exactly 1000, which sounds plausible based on some of the other figures you've mentioned.

You won't be met with much resistance if and when it comes to changing this meter reading. Especially if we have previous readings that show much lower usage, and you have pictures to support the correct reading. This kind of thing, whilst relatively uncommon, does happen every now and then. This is why the 'Agreed Reads Dispute' (ARD) process was created and there's a pretty well defined procedure to follow. 

An ARD can be raised by us and we'll ask your new supplier to use a different reading. Or it can be raised their end and they'll send us an amendment. In this case I'd recommend raising it our end as whilst it's in progress it will stop us chasing up any outstanding debt on the account. It can take up to 6 weeks so it's worth ensuring this is the case if you will be cancelling the Direct Debit.

On the subject of the Direct Debit please do feel free to cancel it your end at your convenience. If the final bill has already been produced I expect we're going to be taking the money from you over the next week or two so we wouldn't want that to happen. As I say if we then raise the ARD it will stop any debt collection activity and allow us time to resolve the reading issue. 

Any advisor you speak with will be able to raise this for you. I understand you may have logged a complaint, and not to dissuade you from doing so, but it doesn't even necessarily need to go that far. Just give us a call today at some point and we'll get on sorting it right away. Alternatively you can email me over your account details to webforumadvisors@eonenergy.com and I can get this raised for you to get the ball rolling.

Thanks, Matt

ColinD1

Thanks Matt, but too late!

First call this morning was to Citizen's advice. They said if I raised a formal complaint Eon would have to put the bill on ice, so that is what I have done in my second call.

Your represenative said the bill will be stopped (and you have until June 10th to do so). It would be easier for all concerned to leave the Direct Debit in place, but I do know Eon had problems with these in December!

This would have been so much easier if your representative (who I phoned on Thursday) had been more helpful and informative. Rather than playing hard ball and not listening.

The ARD is in train by Green already.

I was fully prepared to add money to the account to pay for the undisputed bills up to 10 May, but I am now not so confident that you will not collect the direct debit!

I now know a lot more about meter reading that I should, hopefully, never need again.

Colin

E.ON_Company_Representative

It's great to hear it's being sorted, although I appreciate it could have been made a lot easier by us. Hopefully the revised correct final bill is with you in due course then. If you did want to query anything further then you can hang on to that email address. Cheers, Matt

ColinD1

Just been contacted by Eon and their transfer team agrees with my interpretation that the "reading" is out by 1000.

They should be issuing a new bill and liasing with Green (presumably through the agencies of the data collector).

I will only post again if there is a problem.

Thanks to all of you who have contributed and it may be worth anyone else coming unstuck talking to Citizens Advice as they offer impartial advice and report problems back to Ofgem. Even having an imperfect knowledge of the system behind the scenes helps in not being fobbed off when talking to the Customer Representatives.

Each party blames the other, but I think it is diplomatic to blame the data collector.

Reed_Richards

I'm glad that you have achieved the outcome you wanted.