E.on - Dispute - infringements on credit report

Jacqui_Rough

Hi, any advice please.      I was paying my DD monthly to E.on for a house i owned for 2.5y, only occupied for 1y. I received a bill for 3500 when i closed account, i asked for this to be looked into as they property only had security lights on for best part of 1yr, its a small cottage.  While they carried out there investigations, which they said would be 28 days, they put a missed payment on my record, when questioned them they said it would be removed.  i have struggled to get anyone to own up to the case.  I have always stated i was willing to pay, i just wanted it to be looked into as it was excessive.  this has been ongoing for several month, E.on admitting poor customer service and offered me £100 compensation when it went to ombusman.  my issue is that they informed me by email they would correct my credit record, then said they wouldnt, they where the ones that wanted time to investiage and i do not think its fair that i have to suffer with a default on my record for there poor customer service, which they have admitted. I understand ppl have limited resources through covid but why should these big companies get to do what they want with your records and you have to accept it.  I pride myself in having it clear and all bills paid on time. 

MWT

Has the bill now been paid, and if so, was it the same amount (£3,500) ?

Jacqui_Rough

They have now reduced it to half when i informed them i was going to Ombusman, i asked them why, but once again got no reply or able to speak to someone to discuss and arrange payment once i understood why or how they came up with the figure. The credit ref agency part is so upsetting given they they have admitted bad customer service

MWT

Have you actually checked that the meter readings on the bill are correct and are not estimates?

When you have a long period where the property is unoccupied the industry process that validates closing meter readings can get it wrong and adjust them to something a long way from reality....

The usual problem with these markers is that generally the Ombudsman will not rule on them as they are considered to be a matter of business policy, and once issued the supplier will normally state that they are an accurate reflection of the fact that the bill was not paid and cannot remove them for that reason.

Jacqui_Rough

unfortunately the house has been sold, i was paying £115pm for a small cottage, i did think at end there would be a bill to pay, but as the house wasnt occupied for 1y of this and the dd was still paid, i didnt expect that size of bill.   
 what was upsetting is that one of the E.on team had send a email to say they would look into sorting the markers.  When i emailed them again looking to resolve they informed me that they wouldnt honor the email.  I alwasy throught Credit ref where to be a accurate account of your credit rating, i feel this is not    and there seems to be nothing i can do, these big companies can impact lives and the little people cant do anything to save it. 

thank you 

Jacqui_Rough

i wonder if there is anyone i could contact regarding being mislead with the informaion given by Eon and how they can make these un fair infringments. 

MWT

Jacqui_Rough said:

I alwasy throught Credit ref where to be a accurate account of your credit rating, i feel this is not  

The rating itself isn't all that meaningful when it comes to things like mortgages for example as the lenders never even see the number, they just look at the events on the file.

So the credit file should be viewed as an accurate record of events that occurred, and if you feel that a recorded event is not accurate then you can challenge it with the credit reference agency directly.

The problem you seem to have though is that the event is accurate, in that you didn't pay the bill, but that you believed the bill was wrong and so were challenging it.

That is going to require E.ON to accept that it was wrong (which is not the same as offering a discount) and to remove the credit reference because it was incorrect.

Feels like you are going to have to continue with a complaint to E.ON on that basis..

Re the bill, do you not even have an actual closing meter reading for the house you sold (preferably a photo) ?