Eon-next Customer Services gone AWOL?

Tealights

Hi elsien, sure yes I know non DD rates are traditionally higher - but I haven't chosen to not pay by DD - it's being imposed on me ...

.... looks like that's because the figure at the DD price would come to less than £1 when the government EBSS payment is factored in ... they're apparently creating DD payment holidays and pausing payment by DD instead of just setting the DD at zero for a few months and letting the a/c build up credit.  

Here's the quote I found on their site again ...

• Fixed Direct Debit customers will receive the money automatically as a deduction to their monthly Direct Debit. If a customer's EBSS payment takes their Direct Debit below £1 we may put them on a ‘payment holiday’, where we temporarily pause the Direct Debit.

I guess it makes it easier for their billing systems but it's not fair for them to then charge the higher rates. Even if those rates are not as steeply higher than it initially looks, as per SparkyGrad's post. It's not as if I've cancelled my DD status. They have!!

Tealights

And good luck elsien with your complaint. Hope the ombudsman can help!

Marypw

Join the Eon Next community forum  - Eon staff do look at that. Under the Service Updates tab, there is an ongoing investigation into some fixed tariffs e.g. v19 for me, not showing as having transferred onto the EPG on the on-line accounts.

I did get an email back from Eon, but it took nearly 2 weeks to answer, but just said I am on the EPG.  It is both worrying and  infuriating when the customer can't see any evidence of that!

Tealights

Morning Marypw and thank you - ha yes I've been trying to join the eon-next community forum - but have been repeatedly unsuccessful! When I try and Register I get an error message ... so I wondered if I'd maybe registered sometime in the past and put through a forgotten password request but got an auto email saying it didn't recognise my email address ... so I can't get in - argh!

I'll have a look at the service update tabs thanks. My current fixed rate is still in place till 6 November - they are asking me to select the new standard variable tariff but I haven't done so yet because of the discrepancies in what they quote me in the email and what it quotes when I click through to transfer/select the new SV tariff.

SparkyGrad's input here has been very helpful in part, clarifying why the detailed breakdown of the new tariff shows such massively higher rates than the EPG - as in they reflect the OLD pre EPG announcement rates - so what they would have been had the EPG and EBSS payments not been put in place .... and that the billing should (in theory at least!) be the corrected EPG aligned prices.

However there is still the fact that I'm being put onto a non-direct debit scheme which means my rates will still be higher than they would be if I was still a direct debit customer ... I understand that the billing/banking system maybe can't cope with a direct debit of less than £1 - perhaps they cant set it to zero - so they are putting customers whose bills after the government payment would be less than £1 onto a direct debit payment holiday ...

But I don't see why that should mean they can charge me a higher rate than they would have done. It may be that I'll still end up with bill to pay of less than £1 - I haven't done that calculation yet ... Either way, they should have explained that far far better - been more clear and transparent, not have little snippets of info dotted around on different bits of the site.

Details of the DD payment holidays and thus transferring affected customers to "pay on receipt of bill" policy should be put on the tariff details screen to prevent such customers being baffled as to why they are suddenly being shown a non DD payment tariff (which is higher than the DD tariff).

And, I'd like to see rates for affected customers have their rates adjusted down so that during this temporary suspension of payment direct debit their tariff rates will be the same as if they were still direct debit customers ... Yes the rates will be adjusted down to factor in the EPG/EBSS rates but at present the adjust rate will still be higher than it would be as a direct debit customer. Apols if this all sounds very convoluted - and maybe in the end it will make little or no difference - but I think better communication on their part could have prevented days and hours of anxiety and cut down their customer services workload immeasurably ... anyway yes I'll look at the service updates tab. Thanks!

_Jem_

I'm with EonNext, I'm still paying by direct debit nothing has changed for me still on the cheaper tarrif, and at the moment I'm not paying anything monthly as I'm in credit.

Tealights

Thanks Jem. Interesting .... So my fixed rate tariff comes to an end next week. I'm not being given a choice to fix again - the only option offered is to move to the standard variable tariff. My account is also in credit as I've been very careful with my electricity use and used less per month than my direct debit.

The final direct debit payment would have been in October and yes they took nothing as the EBSS paid by the government covered it as well as it already being in credit.

It's what happens next when I have to migrate to the standard variable tariff for who knows how long that's been causing all the confusion. Fortunately, with the help of one of their community forum managers, I have now finally managed to register for the community forum. I've had a hospital appointment today but plan to log on and put my questions there soon. 

_Jem_

@Tealights you sound like me that with the EBSS paid into the account you won't be paying anything at all, my fixed tarrif ended the 3rd of October and all that was on offer was the Standards tarrif, so i picked that one as long as you still have your card details on your account it should automatically continue as a direct debit. My account is just saying Direct debit 0.0 each month. 

Tealights

@Jem thanks that IS interesting! The "more info" details say it's a pay on receipt of bill rate SV tariff but maybe that's not actually the case ... maybe I should just select it anyway and see what happens ... I have asked a question on the eon-next community forum but not sure if they've approved it yet. I need to check but thank you for the tip!

_Jem_

 it is strange that it's saying pay on receipt, you can always select it and if its still saying pay on receipt you could cancel it. maybe once you selected it you can then choose to pay by DD. 

_Jem_

@Tealights How has everything gone with eonnext? is everything sorted now?