Energy bill how to dispute officially (eon next)

matelodave

I'm with Eon-Next and I get a bill/statement every month and I can download any or all of them as PDF's whenever I want to. In addition, I can send in a meter reading and they'll produce another bill usually with hours but certainly within a day or two.

Each of those bills has the tariff and rate that corresponds to the period that I use the energy and even when the tariff has changed between billing dates, the bill shows the correct consumption for each tariff, but that's probably because I made sure that I gave them a reading on the day the tariff changed, even though I've got a smart meter which they read remotely.

If you dont send in readings and the tariff changes for whatever reason then they have no alternative but to guess your consumption both before and after the changes.

They dont know when you are out of the country, on holiday, too busy or any other reason or excuse for not sending in a reading so all they can do is make a guesstimate based on what most people use in those periods - ie more in the winter than in the summer so it's tough if you are away in the winter and they overestimate your consumption during that period and it coincides with a higher rate.

Energy prices have been very volatile for the past year or so, especially for those who are either on the SVT with varying price caps or who have had fixed deals and its even worse for those who are on multirate tariffs (E7, E10 etc) where the caps dont always apply so you need to keep up to date with readings and bill checking to avoid problems and confusion.

Leverologist

Your readings on 30/09/22

Have you just typed them wrong here or is that what Eon have? Your day and night readings are swapped wrong way around.

BUFF

You appear to have transposed the day/night readings for 30/9/22 compared to previous - is this really what you sent them or just an error posting here?

Post October 1 you should be benefiting from EPG pricing support (hence the rates in their latest communication) plus you should also be getting the £400 (at £66/67 per month for 6 months).

pochase

Is this the meter reading you send to them

30/9/22: 

Day 36860

Night 23046

You mixed up day and night, so it looks to them like you used over 15000KWh in the last 8 months at day rate.

JadeGurl

pochase said:

Is this the meter reading you send to them

30/9/22: 

Day 36860

Night 23046

You mixed up day and night, so it looks to them like you used over 15000KWh in the last 8 months at day rate.

Hi thanks for your response, 
I just send them photographs of my meter, I am not sure which is day and night, the meter changes three times, and I send them three pictures, and they upload them onto their website. I copy pasted what they uploaded onto my online account. Can I ask how you know which is day and which is night? 

Thanks 

JadeGurl

BUFF said:

You appear to have transposed the day/night readings for 30/9/22 compared to previous - is this really what you sent them or just an error posting here?

Post October 1 you should be benefiting from EPG pricing support (hence the rates in their latest communication) plus you should also be getting the £400 (at £66/67 per month for 6 months).

Hi thanks for your reply, I send them pictures of my meter, and they upload the readings onto the site and send me a bill. 
I copy pasted what they had uploaded onto my account on the site. 

I am not sure what EPG pricing support is? Does that mean the rates are different now? 
They gave me £60 for this month, but it doesn't make a dent, as it's still over £500. 

JadeGurl

Having just gone through all my meter readings, I only sent them three manual readings, the rest are estimates, but there are three that say 'meter reader', one is from August 2021, which was around a month after I moved in and one from August this year. The readings on those appear to be swapped as well. I have been raising again and again that I think they are billing me wrongly but no-one looked into this. I am wondering if I have been overpaying them last year too (I have not paid since January this year because the bills seemed all wrong to me). I'm wondering if the swapped meter readings are grounds to raise an official complaint and ask them to review all my bills? 

molerat

Your meter should have an indicator to show which register is currently being used so you need to check or note the readings around 9am and go back every couple of hours and see which one is increasing.  You need to get all your information together before asking them to do anything, front line staff have little in depth understanding other than what is on the screen in front of them

jbuchanangb

It has been noted that in this forum you have transposed the day & night readings for 30/9/22. Hopefully that is not also the case with the energy provider.

The apparent discrepancy between rates you have quoted and rates they have quoted is the Value Added Tax.

For example, night rate April to October 2022, you say 18.469p, they say 19.39p. VAT is 5%, so 18.469p is excluding VAT, and 19.39p is including VAT. You say they are charging you more than £500 per month. It may seem like that, but the vast majority of people manage their energy bills by agreeing a regular monthly payment into their energy account, out of which the charges for the energy consumed and the standing charges are then deducted. The £500 is not your charges, but the amount which you are paying into the account. Energy prices have doubled since this time last year, so energy suppliers are proposing increases to monthly payments to ensure that the charges will not take consumers into debit.

With effect from 1 October, a government limit on unit rates has been imposed, which E.ON will show on your bill/statement as a discount. This is called the Energy Price Guarantee (EPG), and lasts until 31 March next year. This explains the difference between what you say they are charging you currently, e.g day rate 61.763p exc. VAT and what they say, i.e. 47p inc VAT. The 47p is the 61.763p, less the 17p discount, equals 44.763p, plus VAT, giving 47p.

Also from 1 October, all domestic electricity users are in receipt of a £400 grant from the government called the Energy Bills Support Scheme (EBSS). E.ON have handled this by reducing monthly payments by £67 for six months, at the same time applying an equivalent credit to the electricity account.