EON and pay as you go meter taking too much

unhappy1Y

Hello everyone, can anyone help.  We have a faulty meter as when the meter falls to 50 pence it should sound a beeping sound to let us know we need to top up.  Its not being doing this July of last year. what has been happening is it will run over to emergency credit without the key being put in.   We complained to EON and no joy as they would not come out and check it. I believe its what you pay the standing charge for as i later found out. Still EON refused and want to put us on a smart meter without checking our connection.  we have gone to the ombudsman to sort this but in the meantime our meter has done it again.  How can we resolve this. we had 2.58 pence on the meter no tumble dryer no washing just telly fridge and freezer on and then the next day it was going into emergency credit in the morning first thing. I am genuinely frightened of putting on the washing machine.  We have gone through the meter and there is no debt on the machine. It taken me ages to find this board to post this properly. Is there anyone that can shed light on what is happening we would be grateful.. Its a screen meter not smart but there is no dial to watch to see if its going round when all things are turned off.  Thanks from unhappy.  
  

macman

What makes you think a smart meter will not operate correctly? It doesn't need a 'connection' via the internet or mobile phone networks, it runs on a dedicated mobile network.
Why not just have a smart meter installed anyway? If it doesn't connect, It'll just run in dumb mode instead, but you will then have got rid of the fault on the old meter.
If the meter had just 2,58p on it, then at midnight it would apply the next day's standing charge, so yes, you would go into debt/emergency credit.

unhappy1Y

Hello Macman, EON standing charge 21/28 pence per day for electric. we had nothing on that would take 2.00 pounds worth or even 1pounds worth first thing in the morning. There was nothing on. The argument still stands the meter needs looking at even to fit a smart meter if we wanted one, they refused to come out, you cannot just turn up with a smart meter and fit it, not in our place anyway. We have our meter under the stairs. Its a  old property and to fit it they would need to move it and find where to put the smart meter. We are vulnerable residents and have asked the meter to be moved. They said they would charge us when we said we are a vulnerable couple the EON rep on the phone said we would have to contact the district company to move the meter. I said its less than an metre to move the existing meter and that its inside the property not outside and she hung up on me.  Would i trust them to fit a smart meter when so many people have said they have been overcharged or that its not connected properly. All we ever wanted was someone from EON to check the meter as its not been checked for years and we wanted an explanation of why its not beeping flicking over into debt without letting us know we are in debt.  Thanks for your reply. 

Alnat1

You said the meter had 2.58p left on it, not £2.58

Spoonie_Turtle

unhappy1Y said:

Hello Macman, EON standing charge 21/28 pence per day for electric. we had nothing on that would take 2.00 pounds worth or even 1pounds worth first thing in the morning.

Are you on a fixed tariff?  The lowest standing charges for the standard variable are in London, 38p+ now for anything other than Direct Debit.

unhappy1Y said:

 you cannot just turn up with a smart meter and fit it, not in our place anyway. We have our meter under the stairs. Its a  old property and to fit it they would need to move it and find where to put the smart meter. We are vulnerable residents and have asked the meter to be moved. They said they would charge us when we said we are a vulnerable couple the EON rep on the phone said we would have to contact the district company to move the meter. I said its less than an metre to move the existing meter and that its inside the property not outside and she hung up on me.  

I don't quite understand this.
Why would they not be able to put a smart meter where your current meter is?
If they will need to find somewhere suitable for a new meter location, how do you know it will be less than 1m?
If you have a smart pre-pay meter, you wouldn't have to physically top-up so that reasoning wouldn't apply to needing to move it.

I understand your frustration at not getting anywhere though, perfectly reasonable to want someone to come out and check the meter.

[For anyone else curious, this is what Eon say about moving meters https://www.eonnext.com/help/moving-meter ]

fishwick

ive been on eon pre payment meters for both gas and electric i had debts of of £5000 billed within a few months of each other so the debt was put onto a prepayment in may 2022 i have a DRO eon we’re sent this Dro and we’re meant to reset the meters but hadn’t my electric has been costing well over £80 a week the gas £13 a day so the £66 given off the government goes in 3 days i looked at my machine and went through all the charges whilst on the phone to eon i found out that to have the meter in the property ida charge of 0.49 a day which is £3 odd a week i found out i was paying £12.86 a week for the meter then the debts haven’t been took off since may also paying weekly debts eon sent instructions for me to top up a £1 for 3 days on the row and it will reset the machine ive done that and it hasn’t they are meant to be sending me a cheque with the money owing the problem is no one can tell me if it has been sorted no one can book a new machine to be fitted and i haven’t received a cheque in the mean time if my electric goes and i’m struggling to contact them it’s a 2 hour wait i don’t know what to do but i’m fed up with any money i have it’s electric gas and struggling i know the prices have gone up but to get my electric they are taking upto £30 a week off me 

macman

unhappy1Y said:

Hello Macman, EON standing charge 21/28 pence per day for electric. we had nothing on that would take 2.00 pounds worth or even 1pounds worth first thing in the morning. There was nothing on. The argument still stands the meter needs looking at even to fit a smart meter if we wanted one, they refused to come out, you cannot just turn up with a smart meter and fit it, not in our place anyway. We have our meter under the stairs. Its a  old property and to fit it they would need to move it and find where to put the smart meter. We are vulnerable residents and have asked the meter to be moved. They said they would charge us when we said we are a vulnerable couple the EON rep on the phone said we would have to contact the district company to move the meter. I said its less than an metre to move the existing meter and that its inside the property not outside and she hung up on me.  Would i trust them to fit a smart meter when so many people have said they have been overcharged or that its not connected properly. All we ever wanted was someone from EON to check the meter as its not been checked for years and we wanted an explanation of why its not beeping flicking over into debt without letting us know we are in debt.  Thanks for your reply. 

You are making complications where none exist. If you just book a smart meter install then they will do the assessment when they arrive: it's not remotely economic to send an engineer out to do a pre-assessment when it takes maybe 30 mins only to fit the meter. If it really can'r be fitted in the existing space, which is very unlikely, they will go away again and no charge will be made. 
Your objections to a smart meter are not logical, because if Eon came out and found a meter fault, as you allege, they can only change it for a smart meter anyway: there are no dumb meters available for fitting now. Faulty meters don't get repaired on site, they just swap them out. Smart meters do not overcharge, they are much more accurate than your ancient electro-mechanical meter. Also, if you are vulnerable and find it difficult to access and top up the meter because of it's location, then a smart meter will prevent you having to do this, as all the info will be on the IHD/app in your living room or wherever you locate it.
Moving the actual meter location is a major job, and there's no way they would do that at their own expense if fitting a smart meter would solve the access issue.

unhappy1Y

Hello Macman

EON says they will change it like for like as the ombudsman have ordered them to do this and they are sourcing a pay as you go meter.  we do not have apps like you say. i can only manage a push button mobile phone. Don;t know what a hd/app.is. I am dyslexic and dyspraxic and my other half has MS. We are on the vulnerable register and EON  are dragging their feet in getting this sorted. The meter has done it again tonight, when the meter hits 50 pence it is supposed to bleep and let me know we need to top up. the meter has not done this. I have to check now more frequently as if i don't it will flick over to debt without us putting the key in. It doesn't matter if the meter is showing 28 or 38 pence. I know there was more than enough on there for it not go so quick when i know i have had no other electrics on apart from fridge freezer and telly. The meter always bleeped and now it doesn't. therefore its faulty. EON say as long as we have electric then its not faulty. Yet smart meter customers have complained they are getting wrong readings and being charged too much. Smart meters not so accurately smart. Also with this company taking out pay as you go meters from residents you would think that EON have plenty now. yet EON are saying they can't find one. How would you top up a smart meter if you dont do direct debit. thanks for all responses. from unhappy.    

t0rt0ise

You can top up a smart meter by credit/debit card on their website or the old way, by paying cash at a shop. Then it automatically gets sent to your meter.  Much easier I'd have thought, than scrabbling about under the stairs with keys.

[Deleted User]

unhappy1Y said:

Hello Macman

EON says they will change it like for like as the ombudsman have ordered them to do this and they are sourcing a pay as you go meter.  we do not have apps like you say. i can only manage a push button mobile phone. Don;t know what a hd/app.is. I am dyslexic and dyspraxic and my other half has MS. We are on the vulnerable register and EON  are dragging their feet in getting this sorted. The meter has done it again tonight, when the meter hits 50 pence it is supposed to bleep and let me know we need to top up. the meter has not done this. I have to check now more frequently as if i don't it will flick over to debt without us putting the key in. It doesn't matter if the meter is showing 28 or 38 pence. I know there was more than enough on there for it not go so quick when i know i have had no other electrics on apart from fridge freezer and telly. The meter always bleeped and now it doesn't. therefore its faulty. EON say as long as we have electric then its not faulty. Yet smart meter customers have complained they are getting wrong readings and being charged too much. Smart meters not so accurately smart. Also with this company taking out pay as you go meters from residents you would think that EON have plenty now. yet EON are saying they can't find one. How would you top up a smart meter if you dont do direct debit. thanks for all responses. from unhappy.    

Please don't take a few posts on this forum as meaning there is an issue with the accuracy of smart meters. These meters are manufactured by the same companies that have built analogue meters for decades. Smart meters are tested and certified by the Government Standards Office in the same way as analogue meters. 

Suppliers do not fit meters that have been previously been used. They tend to go into the recycling skip as the cost of re-certifying a meter as fit for use would most likely exceed the cost of a new smart meter.

Trust me: smart meters do work and in your situation they would be ideal.

EssexHebridean

fishwick said:

ive been on eon pre payment meters for both gas and electric i had debts of of £5000 billed within a few months of each other so the debt was put onto a prepayment in may 2022 i have a DRO eon we’re sent this Dro and we’re meant to reset the meters but hadn’t my electric has been costing well over £80 a week the gas £13 a day so the £66 given off the government goes in 3 days i looked at my machine and went through all the charges whilst on the phone to eon i found out that to have the meter in the property ida charge of 0.49 a day which is £3 odd a week i found out i was paying £12.86 a week for the meter then the debts haven’t been took off since may also paying weekly debts eon sent instructions for me to top up a £1 for 3 days on the row and it will reset the machine ive done that and it hasn’t they are meant to be sending me a cheque with the money owing the problem is no one can tell me if it has been sorted no one can book a new machine to be fitted and i haven’t received a cheque in the mean time if my electric goes and i’m struggling to contact them it’s a 2 hour wait i don’t know what to do but i’m fed up with any money i have it’s electric gas and struggling i know the prices have gone up but to get my electric they are taking upto £30 a week off me 

Whoah - OK, stop, take a breath! You'd do better starting a thread of your own so your issues can be addressed, also, try to type in sentences, punctuated if you can - it makes things a lot easier to understand and will increase the chances of the people that can offer help and suggestions reading your post.

You might want to clarify what you mean by "I had debts of £5000 billed within a few months of each other" - as this is at odds with being on prepay. Is this debt from prior to the switch to Prepay - ie, was the Pre pay meter installed because of the debt?
When did you get the DRO?
The 49p a day charge you mention isn't the charge to "have the meter" it's the standing charge - it covers the general infrastructure - a small proportion of that fee covers the cost of maintaining the meter when required.
What do you mean by "i found out i was paying £12.86 a week for the meter"?

Have you addressed the issues that lead you into debt in the first place as £5k of energy debt is pretty extensive? You may need to post over on the Debt Free Wannabe board for help if you are still struggling.