Eon billing

Fofozuzu

My son moved in his flat may 21 so nearly 27 months ago , the first 12 month with a fixed contract since then a standard rate contract, he has provided 25 out of 27 monthly reading and in February 23 he was £120 in CREDIT since then he is in debit of £2500/4500/5800 and now last bill was £9800 reduced to £5800
he never had an accurate bill to dates , we have contacted them( useless as always different person asking for more time to look into it) citizens advice bureau, solicitor, energy helpline, his mp s …
why eon never asked during first 23 months any questions and suddenly requesting a huge amount of money different every week putting him at risk of debt collectors and bad credit rating for years, I know he has 3 tariff day/night/off peak for his storage heaters. Even getting 2 daily meters charges( only one meter in the flat) so another waist of nearly £200/ year. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks 

Fofozuzu

Sorry I forgot to say he is single in a one bedroom flat approx 500 sqft.

molerat

You need to sit down and work out how they are arriving at those amounts.  Are they billing to actual meter reads ?  Are they billing to the correct meter ?  Were the previous bills correct ?

Fofozuzu

hi thanks, never had a proper bill in 27 months yet, they use some estimated and some accurate one despite providing the readings in 25 occasions out of 27 .
my question is where lies their responsibility as they never produced an accurate bill plus they can only go back 12 in arrears according to the regulations and why taking 3 months to resolve this and asking today for an extra 6 weeks as the ombudsman should intervene after only 8 weeks plus the stress they are causing.

CSI_Yorkshire

That's not quite what the regulations say (although it's how they are often explained).

You need a starting actual reading, a current actual reading, and some prices.  Then you can try and work out if this bill is likely right or wrong.  Before knowing that, everything else is speculation.

Scot_39

You need to work out - in detail - what was going on throughout this period.

You say bills are a confusing mix of estimated and no actual readings - despite regular submission.

We had a similar problem on mum's account - 4 readings ignored over 2 years on a 6m billing cycle - and she ended up £600-700 in debt.  She, then family as mum's eye sight failed - read the bill summaries - and all looked fine - the calcs from m3 to kWh and the little E for estimate would have meant nothing to any of them - even if had.

So start with simple sanity checks

- do the readings on the latest large bills actually match the physical meter readings - for all 3 registers 

- and do those 3 registers appear in the correct order - consistently or have they somehow flipped (*,**,***).

If they do match and consistent.

The £4000 reduction to £5800 - well that could be the application of the 12m back billing rules.

At best and if readings are correct - sadly - your son will probably have to pay that - either via additions to DD over next 12 months if allowed (but if already gotten to debt agency level maybe too late) - or via a formal debt repayment plan.

There are other meter sanity checks - to check it is actually his meter or not tampered with - but these generally apply to common meter cabinets in blocks of flats - and it's unlikely to be easy to get 25 readings consistently in many blocks.

If not right - and even if is you/he may want to try and see how and when things went so wrong.

So right out a table - for each tariff rate - as they could be applied incorrectly - in each bill / statement period - and then superimpose those 25 readings over 27 months if still has them.

If son PC and office app literate - it could be better to use a spreadsheet - I use free ones at home - one is built into my linux on this pc.

Date -  Reading - Actual/Estimate - Bill Amount  - Tariff (fix/SVT) - as billed  - Tariff / rate expected etc

As a minimum try to capture day 1 move in reading, going on and coming off fix dates and the current bill date as above (you mention having 25 of 27 readings submitted) + supplier change - EOn to EOnNext if applicable.

You say he has 1 meter - but 3 rates - that sounds like some old legacy system - I know likes of SSE do a 1 meter 3 tariff solution (actually 2 tariffs) - not sure about likes of EDF's ECO20:20 - but there was a 3 rate possibly 1 meter system iirc in Liverpool / MANWEB - where 100s were billed incorrectly by new suppler years ago. 

But a lot of 3 rate deals were twin meter. I used to be on old EMEB Heatwise with EOn - that was 3 rates, 2 meters - 2 mpans and for a while 2 electric SC - but not at the same level as now. 

(*) For a long time I couldn't report readings online - that system only expected 2.  

When phoned - I would have normally just written 3 numbers down by available meter registers - the OP's had to skip one input on their system if knew how heatwise mapped to their system - it and my bills had 4 rates, there system expected 4 readings - but my meters only had 1 + 2 = 3 readings.

(**)So it is important to look at what registers / what rates - and if sensible.  

Your son maybe has never checked - but might be worth doing a meter register check - so which register increments during the day, which one night and which one say heating/comfort/off peak etc.  

And check those align with billing rates correctly and consistently.

(***) Even on E7 the most common and widely supported multi-rate tariff - their is no standard order - some meters report day / night in a different register order.  And it can change across suppliers electronic billing systems - so not uncommon for 2 to get mixed up on a meter or supplier change.

Your son may even have been switched from EOn to EOnNext in the last 27 months - that could in itself have triggered an error - on credit / debit carry over - on billing / actual payment etc - cannot remember when exactly I was swapped over but I was already on a more standard 2 rate tariff at the time - so add that to list if happened during the period.

It's sadly easy for your son - or even the suppliers billing - to get into a confused state -  by letting estimates continue uncorrected. It is also not unheard of to get estimated bills, then these in theory cancelled, showing as such on an actual bill - and for errors to compound later on suppliers systems.

Bills of £4000 per year sound impossible for such a flat / single person - but someone heating a lossy - and some old flats are very lossy - to a high temperature 20+ - could sadly hit that level - at EPG pricing - with electric heating - especially the wrong sort of electric heating for tariff.  (Using day panel heaters on E7 peak rate rather than NSH on off peak night rates a not uncommon problem these days - as even social landlords have swapped them out - rather than replace old NSH). I read couple of posts here from elderly heating single bed flats with bills of £400-500pm for months this winter - which on average was milder than last - and complaining they still felt very cold. 

Let us know how the current reading totals compare - new bills vs meters - and we might be able to say or help more.

But there is no automatic way AFAIK of getting out of at least part of the debt - for that 12 months of back billing (and I suspect that is from revised billing - not now - so be careful the debt isn't increasing) even if the previous billing was in error.

Scot_39

Fofozuzu said:

hi thanks, never had a proper bill in 27 months yet, they use some estimated and some accurate one despite providing the readings in 25 occasions out of 27 .
my question is where lies their responsibility as they never produced an accurate bill plus they can only go back 12 in arrears according to the regulations and why taking 3 months to resolve this and asking today for an extra 6 weeks as the ombudsman should intervene after only 8 weeks plus the stress they are causing.

Don't understand - the distinction - between a proper bill vs comment some accurate - if some had actual readings - why do you think not accurate and proper.

Fofozuzu

thanks all for all the advice, not denying those storage heater are not economical but to say that in February 23 he was in credit by approx £120/150 after providing readings from day one HOW 3MONTHS LATER WHEN PROVIDING READINGS EON SAID HE OWES £9800 REVISED TO £5800
but I will tackle every bills again to make sure and understand how this happened,
i haven’t heard in my life a supplier let you run a bill of that size for a one bedroom and never contact you to see what is happening.

QrizB

Fofozuzu said:

I know he has 3 tariff day/night/off peak for his storage heaters. Even getting 2 daily meters charges( only one meter in the flat) so another waist of nearly £200/ year.

Three rates often mean two separate meters, one for day/night and one for heat. Two meters then means two MPANs. Suppliers are not meant to charge two standing charges, but occasionally they do.

See this post for more info:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/79346279/#Comment_79346279

Fofozuzu said:

thanks all for all the advice, not denying those storage heater are not economical but to say that in February 23 he was in credit by approx £120/150 after providing readings from day one HOW 3MONTHS LATER WHEN PROVIDING READINGS EON SAID HE OWES £9800 REVISED TO £5800

Until you read the bills and share the meter readings they've used when calculating them, plus the actual readings that your son has taken, it's impossible for any of us to say.

Fofozuzu said:

i haven’t heard in my life a supplier let you run a bill of that size for a one bedroom and never contact you to see what is happening.

We get a couple of threads a month where people have unexpected four-digit bills. This is why people need to read their meters and check their bills.

victor2

Fofozuzu said:

My son moved in his flat may 21 so nearly 27 months ago , the first 12 month with a fixed contract since then a standard rate contract, he has provided 25 out of 27 monthly reading and in February 23 he was £120 in CREDIT since then he is in debit of £2500/4500/5800 and now last bill was £9800 reduced to £5800
he never had an accurate bill to dates , we have contacted them( useless as always different person asking for more time to look into it) citizens advice bureau, solicitor, energy helpline, his mp s …
why eon never asked during first 23 months any questions and suddenly requesting a huge amount of money different every week putting him at risk of debt collectors and bad credit rating for years, I know he has 3 tariff day/night/off peak for his storage heaters. Even getting 2 daily meters charges( only one meter in the flat) so another waist of nearly £200/ year. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks 

Surprised the various people you say couldn't help don't seem to have been able to cast some light on the problem.

You say you are being charged for two meters, despite there only being one in the flat. Maybe he is being billed for another flat's meter?

You can lookup the electricity supplier through https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/energy/energy-supply/moving-home-your-energy-supply/find-out-who-your-gas-or-electricity-supplier-is/

Then, depending who the supplier is, you may be able to lookup the address for a meter by its MPAN or serial number. The National Grid website certainly allows it by serial number

If both meters come back as your son's address, then you have a basis for your complaint.

CSI_Yorkshire

victor2 said:

If both meters come back as your son's address, then you have a basis for your complaint.

If he actually has 3 rates as the OP suggests, having two meters would be relatively common.