EOn next back billing

calatibo

I recently received notification from eon that my bills were going up and I was £600 or so in debit. I have always been in credit before and out by DD. I checked my invoice and after much complicated discussion, it turns out that on being switched to eon next in March last year they have not been charging me for electricity (only gas on my fuel fuel) despite having 2 meter readings from me and two from a data collector person (so quarterly as one was at point of switch). I have been told that the additional £1000 added to my bills is not back billing as they have been sending em bills. But they have apparently only been for gas despite the electricity readings. My understanding is that back billing applies where they have not been sending bills, but also if I am “not billed to actual reading in over 12 months and causing unforeseen charges”. Which adding 16 months of electricity charges seems to qualify for. I also understand they are only allowed to back bill for 12 months. Does this count as back billing and does that mean my charges can only go back 12 months rather than 16? Or is the eon position of being able to do this as a gas bill counts, correct?

calatibo

I should add that the previous statement I have that shows gas only is for an entire financial year, not monthly/quarterly, so would not have been able to challenge it during that 12 months anyway. 

MWT

Not sure I follow exactly what you are saying has happened, but if they have been billing you using estimated readings but not collecting the payment, then they are allowed to correct that error without it being 'back-billing'.

The only way that back-billing would come into play is if the actual meter readings resulted in an additional charge over and above the estimated readings during the first 4 months...

.. but not sure if that is what you are describing...

Did your bills mention electricity at all?

Alnat1

Did you not notice that you weren't being charged for electricity when you got your bills? 16 months is a long time to have "not noticed". You also say you've only given 2 meter readings since May 21, you really should be giving them monthly readings and checking they appear on your bills so surprises like this don't happen.

It's your responsibility to check your bill appears to be correct and contact your energy company if there is an obvious error.

calatibo

Thanks. I only got one bill from them (dated March 21-March 22) and no, I didn’t check as they had been taking the same DD amount as previous years, and as I said, I had always been in credit, I guess just not the £300 or so it appears I was in March 22 after that bill.

I was not sure what back billing might include as there had been meter readings (not as many as I should, but enough for them to have been taken between the two dates of my apparent statement), so it is not like I couldn’t have been charged for the electricity, I was providing the agreed minimum number of readings per year.

I guess I was wondering about “but if they have been billing you using estimated readings but not collecting the payment, then they are allowed to correct that error without it being 'back-billing'” as I guess they have had the readings, but not actually billing me. I have had no bill based upon the estimated or actual readings supplied. Not trying to get out of the 12 months I do owe, just seems odd that the bill is back to March, with no ability for me to check the unit cost being applied as I have no charges in my single statement during the e March 21-22 period. 

MWT

calatibo said:

Thanks. I only got one bill from them (dated March 21-March 22) and no, I didn’t check as they had been taking the same DD amount as previous years, and as I said, I had always been in credit, I guess just not the £300 or so it appears I was in March 22 after that bill.

Was that a bill or just the annual statement?

I would expect there to be individual monthly bills visible on your online account, are they not there?

There is another wrinkle which may be impacting the applicability of the back-billing rules...

If the DD payments plus any balance on your account at the time were sufficient to cover the early months then the back-billing rules do not help you as there is considered to be no 'bill shock' as you were already making the payments...

When the tariff rates went up in April you would have gradually slipped behind, and again when they went up in October, then April this year... ... or were you on a fixed tariff for at least part of that period?

calatibo

Thanks. Online account was quarterly statements when with eon (until March 21) then hit a single statement in march 22 with a years worth with eon next, nothing in between with the tariffs. There are monthly “transactions” which are only the DDs going out. Then multiple “costs” in July this year which apparently cover refunds of my previous charges for gas (which were outlined in the March statement but not before) and then recharged the same amounts back along with a charge for gas from March to July and the electricity charges for March 21-July 22, that were not on the March statement. As I said, was reasonably confusing statement in July getting credits, DDs and charges. And have never had statements with tariffs since switching to eon next. My bad for not keeping an eye on my online account when paperless I guess. Been a pretty unforgiving year. 

MWT

I wouldn't assume they have got it right though without checking, but what you would need to do is to track your account balance month by month (if possible) from March '21, applying your monthly DD payment and the gas and electricity charges to see when the account actually went negative for the first time.

It sounds like they corrected all the billing in July '22, so the period of interest is from March to July '21, after that the back-billing rules will not be any help.