EON suddenly reporting to Equifax

b4by_v

@K_S
I do agree, I will ask about the FCA regulation but am saying no more. I did not expect such a lengthy response after the same lady issued the deadlock letter on Mondau tbh. 

According to Eon, a small amount of debit is okay but apparently mine is not. I will settle the arrears once I have spoken to the Ombudsman but I agree with you. If everyone was in debit even by a small amount, we’d all have markers on our credit file. 

Regarding the direct debit part, agree wholeheartedly. I received the same email from them to increase my monthly payments as prices were increasing and naturally had confidence that they would increase my D/D in line with my consumption after my last review but it was increased by £8 plus the lack of the governments £67. 

I have never missed a payment or monthly direct debit, not contacted them to say I couldn’t pay or anything like that. When I left my previous place in August last year before rejoining (in August at new place), I received a credit refund! It’s amazing how strange this situation is. I just want adverse credit removed from my file :-( 

I will keep you updated on this thread with my progress  

b4by_v

@badmemory
How good would that be to expose their naughtiness!!   
I wanted to move to Octopus (renewable energy) and cheaper but they will run a credit check and I fear I could get rejected as a result so a bit reluctant to move right now.
My mortgage is due for renewal very soon so trying to ride it out for the moment to avoid another search just yet (in case of a rejection). 

b4by_v

@artyboy
I was wondering that, not sure who I would contact at MSE? 

Also, the reason in my deadlock letter (if anyone isn interested) was this:

We had tried to explain the reasons why we run the credit checks but you are not happy with the answer.

There was more in the emails! 

ArbitraryRandom

If you're moving on to the ombudsman, then you might want to start preparing your case. 

It's a bit different than you might expect in that the ombudsman don't actually investigate anything - they only consider the evidence put before them by you and Eon, so you need to make sure you have everything together and in a sensible order. 

There's no limit to what you can submit, but it all needs to tie together into a single account. If you can, start with two or three bullet points saying what exactly you see the issue as being; then write it out an account of why you think it's a problem in chronological order in bullet points, and reference any emails or other documents you attach (you can attach downloaded documents in full or screen shots). 

If it's helpful, I would go with something like (assuming I've understood the particulars):

Basis for complaint:

1: Eon falsely reporting to credit reference agencies that I have entered into an arrangement to pay a debt on my energy account 

2: Poor customer service in handling my complaint - providing false and misleading information when I was attempting to resolve the issue. 

3: (?)

Chronological account:

1. I opened an account with Eon on (date) when I transferred my account from (previous supplier).

2. My account was opened on a fixed term/variable basis, with payment being due via monthly direct debit. My monthly payment amount was set by Eon at (£). Attached to this case is an email (Attached: file name) containing the terms and conditions I received when my account was set up.

3. I understood that, by joining Eon during the winter, I would build up an amount of debt in the first few months of my account, with the payments I made in summer being higher than my usage to bring me back to good standing around the anniversary of my account opening. Attached is my bill from (date) showing that my account was in credit in the summer period as expected (Attached: file name). 

4. When Eon informed me in (date) they would need to review and increase my monthly payments due to rate increases (Attached: file name), I accepted their amended amount and trusted they had calculated it appropriately for my forecast use. From (date) I then paid (£) per month as requested. At no point did Eon write to me and tell me I needed to make additional payments to keep our agreement. 

5. I understood and accepted that if I failed to abide by the payment terms (if I did not make my direct debit payments each month) I could be in subject to debt collection activity. At no point in the process was I advised that by paying by monthly direct debit would be entering into an arrangement to pay, which would be recorded by credit reporting agencies and viewed negatively by lenders. 

6. In preparation for my mortgage renewal in (date), I checked my Equifax report (Attached: file name) and was surprised to see... then detail the back and forth/any contradictory information/incorrect information/any harm or costs their actions have caused you. 

b4by_v

@ArbitraryRandom
Apologies for my delay, covid wiped me out this wknd! It’s a bit up & down.

Thanks so much for all this info, it’s incredibly helpful. I started putting my case together last week with a similar theme but I didn’t realise they don’t actually investigate per se so that’s interesting to know.

I will have everything together bu the end of this week to present my case and hopefully will have a case handler by the end of this week.

Ironcially, after doing some more research into Eon and things like this, there are quite a few people being messed around and there is a FB group on Eon complaints with over 4000 people  This made me laugh because it’s not even funny how much they mess consumers about. 

Keeping everything crossed for a positive outcome and will be posting any relevant progress.

b4by_v

Hi guys,

An update on this situation. My case was taken on with the Ombudmans & Eon only assigned a case worked on Monday. Today I received the following first offer which is valid for 7 days:

My proposal to get things sorted for you:

1. The request has been sent to remove the customers negative markers, This was done in error. the data share team has now rectified this.

They have advised :

This update will be visible on the customer's credit file within the next 2-4 days.
However, the update may not show up straight away on the customer credit file. This relies on the customer manually refreshing their credit report (which can cost them about £7) or waiting for their monthly refresh the Credit Rating Agencies do, with Third Parties like clear score or checkmyfile.com, this can take about 6 weeks for it to feed through from the Credit Rating Agencies to the customer.

I will be providing this good will gesture due to the incorrect credit share

I will also be providing an apology letter for shortfalls in customer service

I also had a call from them this morning but I said I will get back to them.

I am trying to speak to my case handler at the Ombudsman because I’m quite irritated by their very relaxed response. 

I am elated they are removing this from my file so no complaints there but telling me that i can pay to refresh my credit score (not actually heard of this) to fix THEIR mistake is pretty infuriating. They are so relaxed about this entire thing and I have been stressing about it for weeks. The “gesture of good will” to correct their own mistakes is very infuriating especially as they seem to be doing this to multiple people and they shouldn’t be able to brush this off so lightly. 

Any thoughts pls?

Thanks in advance

molerat

I don't see it as a "relaxed" response, just matter of fact and business like. The ombudsman complaint has been pushed up the food chain and away of the front line complaints handlers.

The paid for option from the CRAs will give you an instant update, the free versions may be a month behind.  Any organisations doing credit checks will see the up to date version.

I will be providing this good will gesture due to the incorrect credit share

What is that about, are they offering you a financial good will gesture ?

b4by_v

Thank you @molerat

I didn’t realise you could pay to have this refreshed quicker so that’s useful to know. 

No financial gesture, just goodwill that they are removing this marker from my credit file. 

BobT36

Businesslike and factual response, no problem. 

However I'd also be concerned with how many OTHER customers are affected, and whether they're going to analyse and fix that across the board, or just be allowed to sweep it under the rug.. 

K_S

b4by_v said:

Hi guys,

An update on this situation. My case was taken on with the Ombudmans & Eon only assigned a case worked on Monday. Today I received the following first offer which is valid for 7 days:

My proposal to get things sorted for you:

1. The request has been sent to remove the customers negative markers, This was done in error. the data share team has now rectified this.

They have advised :

This update will be visible on the customer's credit file within the next 2-4 days.
However, the update may not show up straight away on the customer credit file. This relies on the customer manually refreshing their credit report (which can cost them about £7) or waiting for their monthly refresh the Credit Rating Agencies do, with Third Parties like clear score or checkmyfile.com, this can take about 6 weeks for it to feed through from the Credit Rating Agencies to the customer.

I will be providing this good will gesture due to the incorrect credit share

I will also be providing an apology letter for shortfalls in customer service

I also had a call from them this morning but I said I will get back to them.

I am trying to speak to my case handler at the Ombudsman because I’m quite irritated by their very relaxed response. 

I am elated they are removing this from my file so no complaints there but telling me that i can pay to refresh my credit score (not actually heard of this) to fix THEIR mistake is pretty infuriating. They are so relaxed about this entire thing and I have been stressing about it for weeks. The “gesture of good will” to correct their own mistakes is very infuriating especially as they seem to be doing this to multiple people and they shouldn’t be able to brush this off so lightly. 

Any thoughts pls?

Thanks in advance

@b4by_v Thanks for the update. I'm glad they've acknowledged their mistake and are sorting it out.

From your post it looks like they've acknowledged their mistake, requested removal of the markers, and will provide an apology and a ££ goodwill gesture. I think that's about as much as can be expected tbh.

If you're unhappy with the amount of the goodwill payment, you can try asking for xx and seeing what they say. No harm in asking.

I haven't heard about this "manual refresh" either, it's news to me. If I remember correctly, my correction showing through on Clearscore pretty quick within a week or two so hopefully yours will too.