Claiming credit back from Eon Next

boldaslove

Just wondering if anyone else is having a headache with this? We’ve massively overpaid since we bought our house in January ‘22 as we’ve been renovating it and it’s unoccupied - in fact the boiler has been switched off since May.

We requested a refund of the credit which is over 1K and Eon insisted we go to the house to take photos of the meters (despite the fact they’re smart meters and send readings to them?). We did this and were told a refund would be processed within 14 working days, and when I emailed to chase it after that time elapsed they told me the refund was cancelled due to “gaps in our billing schedule” and that we now need to go and take photos of the meters again before they’ll submit another request for a refund.

Why are they asking for photos when we have smart meters? Has anyone else had this issue with them? We’re having a bit of a tough time financially at the moment due to my partner’s ill health so we could really do with having the money back to cover other bills.

nekr0mantik

I would switch suppliers when things calm down in the market later this year.
EON Next are useless and they ended up charging me for £80 more electric and I was not able to get any money back.

MattMattMattUK

boldaslove said:

Just wondering if anyone else is having a headache with this? We’ve massively overpaid since we bought our house in January ‘22 as we’ve been renovating it and it’s unoccupied - in fact the boiler has been switched off since May.

We requested a refund of the credit which is over 1K and Eon insisted we go to the house to take photos of the meters (despite the fact they’re smart meters and send readings to them?). We did this and were told a refund would be processed within 14 working days, and when I emailed to chase it after that time elapsed they told me the refund was cancelled due to “gaps in our billing schedule” and that we now need to go and take photos of the meters again before they’ll submit another request for a refund.

Why are they asking for photos when we have smart meters? Has anyone else had this issue with them? We’re having a bit of a tough time financially at the moment due to my partner’s ill health so we could really do with having the money back to cover other bills.

Probably for verification processes, nothing hugely unusual when a usage pattern is well away from normal. I understand it may not be ideal but I can understand why they are asking. 

boxedin

I am with OVO I went online to ask for a refund and the page said that they couldn't give me a refund because I hadn't given them a meter reading for 28 days when my last meter reading was updated on 23rd Jan.. I contested their request to up my DD by £50 per month (600 in credit  all electric 5599 kwh per annum) , half way through the conversation they cut me off. It could be a coincidence but I am getting the impression that a lot of the remaining energy suppliers are desperate for a bg cash buffer. 

Astria

I'm with EON Next (well, Sainsburys, but same everything) and when I asked them for a refund they said they needed to ensure that all billing was upto date so I would need to submit photographs of meters to ensure they had accurate billing information. Once they had this and checked my account they issued a refund for half of the balance, which was about £400.

If they've not been able to collect readings regularly, they can't predict how much energy you are using and so will likely not know how much to refund. If you try later in the year they'll be more happy to do it as you'll be using less.

SlinkyWeevil

Astria said:

I'm with EON Next (well, Sainsburys, but same everything) and when I asked them for a refund they said they needed to ensure that all billing was upto date so I would need to submit photographs of meters to ensure they had accurate billing information. Once they had this and checked my account they issued a refund for half of the balance, which was about £400.

If they've not been able to collect readings regularly, they can't predict how much energy you are using and so will likely not know how much to refund. If you try later in the year they'll be more happy to do it as you'll be using less.

Same happened to us when we were with sainsburys.  Their justification was that needed to ensure we were completely paid up to date.  They were overcharging us about £200pm and refused to change the direct debit, so I used to just phone them every month with a meter reading from that morning and ask for my money back.  We’ve switched now, but no doubt it’ll be a job to get the remaining £300 credit back 

Astria

SlinkyWeevil said:

Astria said:

I'm with EON Next (well, Sainsburys, but same everything) and when I asked them for a refund they said they needed to ensure that all billing was upto date so I would need to submit photographs of meters to ensure they had accurate billing information. Once they had this and checked my account they issued a refund for half of the balance, which was about £400.

If they've not been able to collect readings regularly, they can't predict how much energy you are using and so will likely not know how much to refund. If you try later in the year they'll be more happy to do it as you'll be using less.

Same happened to us when we were with sainsburys.  Their justification was that needed to ensure we were completely paid up to date.  They were overcharging us about £200pm and refused to change the direct debit, so I used to just phone them every month with a meter reading from that morning and ask for my money back.  We’ve switched now, but no doubt it’ll be a job to get the remaining £300 credit back 

They've actually suspended DDs into the account until I've used up all the credit on the account, or that's what they've said anyway. We'll see.

Gerry1

You could switch to Monthly Variable Direct Debit so that you pay for only what you've used.  That does mean bigger bills in the winter but it would trigger your credit refund, summer is coming so bills will be lower, and you're not using much at the moment anyway.

However, that would depend on E.On Next's co-operation, so progress might still be glacial.  Might be better to force their hand by voting with your feet (see what I did there?) and switching to a better provider: Octopus seem to get good reviews.

E.On Next would then be obliged to issue a closing bill and refund your credit promptly, or pay you one or more £30 penalty payments if they missed the deadlines.