Eon forgot to bill for Green Deal

JoRussell55

Hi all, several years ago I qualified for a new boiler under a Green Deal scheme and I've been repaying the costs ever since. On Saturday I received an email from Eon telling me they had forgotten to charge me for the Green Deal repayment and so were going to add almost £300 to my bill. Oh and they would give me £30 credit by way of apology.  The tone of the letter was awful and does not acknowledge the impact this is likely to have! Do I have any rights when this was their mistake? TIA

MWT

JoRussell55 said:

Hi all, several years ago I qualified for a new boiler under a Green Deal scheme and I've been repaying the costs ever since. On Saturday I received an email from Eon telling me they had forgotten to charge me for the Green Deal repayment and so were going to add almost £300 to my bill. Oh and they would give me £30 credit by way of apology.  The tone of the letter was awful and does not acknowledge the impact this is likely to have! Do I have any rights when this was their mistake? TIA

What period does the £300 cover?

Presumably you knew the amount was due but not charged when it didn't appear on the bill?

Mstty

How much in total do you currently owe?

What payment should you have been making each month?

JoRussell55

I've been with Eon for almost a year. I think the Green Deal payment is about £1 per day. I did not know I wasn't being billed for it as I receive a separate statement every year from Green Deal which details my payments.  I am currently paying £165 per month and limiting both gas and electricity use in preparation for being hit by the price cap hike in October. So the small credit I have been accruing has been eaten up by this mistake by Eon.  I will struggle to pay my new amount later in the year

MattMattMattUK

JoRussell55 said:

Hi all, several years ago I qualified for a new boiler under a Green Deal scheme and I've been repaying the costs ever since. On Saturday I received an email from Eon telling me they had forgotten to charge me for the Green Deal repayment and so were going to add almost £300 to my bill. Oh and they would give me £30 credit by way of apology.  The tone of the letter was awful and does not acknowledge the impact this is likely to have! Do I have any rights when this was their mistake? TIA

You have to pay the debt, the payments are due. You could try to ask them to spread the amount out over a longer period, but as the payments were due in the past that might not be an option.

JoRussell55 said:

I've been with Eon for almost a year. I think the Green Deal payment is about £1 per day. I did not know I wasn't being billed for it as I receive a separate statement every year from Green Deal which details my payments.

Just to double check, none of your EON bills have had a Green Deal payment on them?

JoRussell55 said:

I am currently paying £165 per month and limiting both gas and electricity use in preparation for being hit by the price cap hike in October. 

Are you currently overpaying to build up a credit or do you have a debt from winter 21/22? Your usage should be really low at the moment, hopefully less than £100 pcm.

JoRussell55 said:

So the small credit I have been accruing has been eaten up by this mistake by Eon. 

You would have built up less of a credit if you had been paying it on schedule, it is worth looking at it pragmatically, with the £30 "gesture of goodwill" you are actually better off than you would have been. 

JoRussell55 said:

I will struggle to pay my new amount later in the year

Are you on a low income and/or benefits? Have you taken into account the handouts the government has already started making and the further payments they will make starting in October? 

Ultrasonic

I know you're now worse off than you thought you were but overall e-on's mistake has actually saved you £30.

Over what time period are you being asked to repay the money that you owe? That's realistically all you can really try to negotiate I'd have thought. Not noticing you weren't paying the ~£30 per month for your boiler is something you aren't totally innocent of and you are just being asked for money you know you should have already paid.