Back billing - opinions please

MWT

kiss_my_face said:

They didn't send us a final bill for electricity until November 2022. The final bill for electricity contained a number of recalculations - to which they say we owe them an amount.

compare the final meter reading they have used to the opening meter reading for the supplier you moved to, are they the same?

kiss_my_face

MWT said:

kiss_my_face said:

They didn't send us a final bill for electricity until November 2022. The final bill for electricity contained a number of recalculations - to which they say we owe them an amount.

compare the final meter reading they have used to the opening meter reading for the supplier you moved to, are they the same?

Yes, they are exactly the same.

Does this make a claim for back billing more of less likely to succeed? 

[Deleted User]

Does this make a claim for back billing more of less likely to succeed? 

Can you provide evidence that you informed the supplier that you had not received a final bill for electricity? If not, your chances of getting one month’s worth of electricity charges written off is pretty slim.

ariarnia

Dolor said:

Does this make a claim for back billing more of less likely to succeed? 

Can you provide evidence that you informed the supplier that you had not received a final bill for electricity? If not, your chances of getting one month’s worth of electricity charges written off is pretty slim.

why does the customer have to contact there old supplier to chase a final bill?

from what i can see the back billing rules set out what the supplier can and can't do and the only thing ofgem says is the customer can't have been obstructive or unreasonable 

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/information-consumers/energy-advice-households/check-energy-back-billing-rules

not that the customer has to do anything to chase it

in this case i'd say the op had no reason to think theres a problem because there opening balance at there new supplier matches the closing balance from the old and the customer had received 'a' final bill for electric so had reason to think they had paid everything owed and the account was closed properly

OP i don't think anyone on here can really say for sure with the info we have but i dont think it would hurt anything for you to read this citizens advice page about back billing and if you think it might apply to you then they have a template letter on the page you could send or tweak to your situation (having already left that supplier). 

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/energy/energy-supply/problems-with-your-energy-bill/you-havent-received-a-gas-or-electricity-bill-in-a-while/

id also add in about the final bill being late and the guaranteed service standards (again because i dont think it can hurt to put it in there). 

it would be great if you could keep us updated as i at least would be interested in if back billing applies and what they say about it

MWT

kiss_my_face said:

MWT said:

kiss_my_face said:

They didn't send us a final bill for electricity until November 2022. The final bill for electricity contained a number of recalculations - to which they say we owe them an amount.

compare the final meter reading they have used to the opening meter reading for the supplier you moved to, are they the same?

Yes, they are exactly the same.

Does this make a claim for back billing more of less likely to succeed? 

If there never was a final bill for the electricity until over a year later I'd go for the £30 for the late bill delivery and if it is now more than 10 days since the final electricity bill arrived and they have not already paid you the £30 they also owe you another £30 for the failure to automatically pay you the first £30...

Personally I'd leave it at that as it is hard to show 'bill shock' when the final bill is based on a reading you have yourself provided...

You can always try though if you want, and see what happens...

If you go down that path it would only cover you for amounts that had not been previously billed accurately, and they would be able to use any balance you had on your account at the time, so if for example you had an account balance or made a DD payment during the last month which partially covered the actual final amount due they are entitled to use that payment and only the remaining partial balance would be covered by the back-billing rules...

kiss_my_face

Update:
I paid the amount owed, as I didn't want bad credit for a period - I was planning to then take it to the ombudsman. But that could take months and months. 
However, after speaking to a third call handler, Eon are now crediting back what I just paid. Simply, they were in the wrong and admit that the final bill was over the 12 month threshold for back billing. 

Until the money is actually in my account I'm not counting chickens. But I can see on my online account it says credit pending instead of debit. 

I haven't challenged the £30 thing for late billing as I just want to get this sorted. But generally good news for me. 

ariarnia

thanks for coming back to update and fingers crossed it's all sorted for you. 

kiss_my_face

The money is back in the account. Eon said "Back-billing applies on this account as the electricity charges presented to you were over 12 months old."

It took 3 call handlers and several long waits on hold, but I got there!