EonNext repeatedly overcharging.

CSI_Yorkshire

hollytee9 said:

CSI_Yorkshire said:

hollytee9 said:

I hoping someone can give me some advice relating to my energy supplier repeatedly overcharging me.

The first issue is eon repeatedly keep increasing my direct debit payment. It is set as a monthly direct debit of £240 which we stay well within. But for the third time eon have increased it, and I'm not talking about a small amount. Last year they upped to from £240 to £320 which after a few months I requested be reduced back down to the original direct debit. A few months later they again raised my DD payment to £390 per month. We ended up nearly £2000 in credit. Again I told them to reduce it back to £240 and to use the credit up. I've had another seven months where we have not exceeded our £240 monthly DD and I look on my app today and despite being nearly £400 in credit find they've increased it to £295 per month. So for the third time I've had to tell them to reduce it back to the original monthly DD amount.

This is not overcharging.  Your direct debit is not your bill and is not how much you have been charged.

hollytee9 said:

Since they finally fitted a working gas smart meter I now have 3 weeks of usage and can see we currently use less the 60p per day in gas, that's with three people taking showers daily, hot water for washing etc, and the gas kitchen hob being used occasionally. Approx £18 - £20 per month. Even in the cold weather with the central heating on we couldn't come close to what they estimated we used,

My gas usage in the summer is about £20 per month.  In the winter it is about £200.  Quite easy to average £82 per month when winter is involved.

I think saying it's "not overcharging" is open to debate. The fact is eon are taking money from my bank account that is far in excess of the energy I am using. Having £2000 of my money sitting in an eon account as credit is pretty much inexcusable. The direct debit I agreed to was £240 per month, as a household we go moderately above that usage in the depths of winter, but the credit we accumulate during the summer easily covers the winter bills.

My issue was eon unilaterally and repeatedly raising my DD for no legitimate reason and without my consent. Over course of 12 months my account is in debit about two or three months of the year, the other 9 or 10 months it's in credit. I could understand if my account was constantly in debit, but it not.

As for the large gas bill... The bill covered "estimated usage" from 1st December '22 to 27th July '23. Looking back on the stats on the app from our our Hive thermostat, I turned off the central heating on 11th March '23, so the central heating was only on for 3 of those 7 months.

Also, it's my fault for not mentioning that the gas central heating isn't the only thing we rely on for heating, we have a wood burning stove that provides the bulk of our heating, the gas central heating is used much more passively. Even in December when our boiler died, the annoying thing was not having hot water, the wood stove chucks out so much heat we were hardly freezing.

Not open to debate at all.  They haven't charged you that money.  It's sat in your credit account at the supplier.  It's still yours.

As I said, the terminology becomes important if you want to take any complaint further - that's why I try and make sure people are precise here when we are helping them understand the issue.  As soon as you tell the supplier or Ombudsman it's a complaint about "overcharging", they will just focus on unit rates and meter readings then prove that you have been charged exactly what you should have been - complaint closed.

I understand your issue, but it is not overcharging, it is a perceived excessive direct debit.

They have your consent to change the DD, it's in the T&Cs of your contract with them.

Can you blame them for overestimating a gas reading if you don't even remember to tell us that you have a wood burner doing all your space heating?  Did you actually tell them?  They will use previous occupancy history for your property and for similar size/occupancy properties plus some weather compensation to estimate the bills.  When you have had the new meter for a winter, go back and challenge their estimates with actual evidence.

Scot_39

As post above - what was the timescales from being £2000 in credit to £400 in credit ?

As that clearly suggests £240 is not enough to cover your usage - but I would expect the calcs to factor in excessive credit to the calcs - but excessive might mean more than a month or two in some cases.

As annual consumption varies year to year its not simply last winter lower use for many driving it.

Or how many months at £390 - to build up the £2000 - was that summer months or winter.

And how much do your winter bills vary cf summer - many will be say 3x due to heating - yours might be much lower due to second heat source - but as above does your supplier factor that in ?

And certainly some can put overrides on DD revisions - they did so for one of mum's account to allow a zero DD to run down a large credit. But it then failed to restart the DD once that credit used - so ran up near  5m debt on a 6m billing cycle -  my mum hadn't checked bank for it as had a letter from supplier telling her payments restarting and new amount.

How long have you relied more on Woodburner than gas ch  - and have you told gas supplier you have alternative heating source ??

Any refunds made or lower than £240 DD taken.

I can see your annoyed, but honestly cannot see enough clear information to even hazard a guess what your true DD needs to be set at.

So calculate your true annual usage in £.  

Write down exact dates DD changed, account balances, credit payments and billing cycle deductions (monthly, 3m , 6m etc).

Then using say monthly usage - calc your likely credit / debit cycle levels vs your monthly DD level.

Without a clear concise summary you have no chance of persuading supplier to abandon their system defaults - but it does seem poor model to get £2000 in credit if that's many winter months at the end of winter - or any complaint to Ombudsman succeeding to try to ask them to.

EOn recalculated my DD in Apr - to use up epg related credit over winter - if I use
(Last Years Use at Apr rates - Credit adjusted for use at time of calc notice letter date)/12  - I calculated a £5 credit balance after 12m - seemed pretty accurate to me. 

And as I used nearly 10% less last winter than some previous years - I have monthly records going back 3+ years, was on 3m or 6m statement cycle before - so trickier - but have that going back decade plus - but certainly their calc on the low side cf what I would normally set myself.


And if fixed DD not working well for you, given you have alternative heating to smooth winter vs summer billing, have you considered monthly variable direct debit instead ?

You pay monthly exactly what you have used - but at DD unit rates - so no standard credit rate penalty.

Not all suppliers offer (BG stopped supporting on new accounts system ?) but many do including iirc EOn Next.

And that would run credit down, before taking a penny in many cases, if your supplier offers.

And moving would force a refund of course.

hollytee9

Update - 16/09/23

After pushing this through customer service they elevated the issue and found they had indeed over billed/charged me during those disputed 7 months.

I received a £545 refund for gas and an additional £165 refund for electricity.

So if anyone reads this and is thinking their estimated bill is wrong, I would urge you to pursue the matter. If I hadn't kept pushing this I have no doubt I would have never seen that money again.

Thank you to everyone that replied and provided help!

SVts

hollytee9 said:

I had no idea about variable DD, that was incredibly helpful!

I will call them ASAP and get that done. Thank you!

Is there a catch to variable direct debit? 

Additional charges? 

Alnat1

SVts said:

Is there a catch to variable direct debit? 

Additional charges? 

No additional charges as you're still paying by DD.

rp1974

SVts said:

hollytee9 said:

I had no idea about variable DD, that was incredibly helpful!

I will call them ASAP and get that done. Thank you!

Is there a catch to variable direct debit? 

Additional charges? 

Depends largely on the individuals abilty to budget according to their consumption amounts,usually substantially higher payments in the Autumn/Winter vs Spring/Summer,no other catch,no additional charges.
A Direct Debit is a Direct Debit,the discount on offer remains the same wether fixed or variable amount.

SVts

Alnat1 said:

SVts said:

Is there a catch to variable direct debit? 

Additional charges? 

No additional charges as you're still paying by DD.

Surprised as EoN must make a few ££ investing the ‘credit’ money.