E.ON Next Meter Reading Blunder

Gas_Bill

Hello All,

Can anyone help with this issue?

I have been an E.ON Next customer since they took over my account from Igloo. E.ON Next incorrectly set up my account with a metric meter instead of an imperial meter, so even though gas meter readings were given, I was under charge over a 2 year period.

This issue was spotted in a recent call with E.ON to charge a direct debt.

It has been noted that several times the issue was missed by an advisor and meter readers, who had an opportunity to see the charges and determine something was wrong.

I have seen a 7 years old Martin Lewis article referring to E.ON, not E.ON Next, I had to write off the complete bill for the same mistake. but since that point, back-billing rules have been introduced where they can't charge for any incorrect or catch up billing beyond a 12 month period, but anything within 12 months you would be responsible for.

At the moment, I am liable for £2102.48, and E.ON Next has written off £1,065.61 under back-billing rules.

They have also offered a customer service gesture of £80.

My position on this is that I pointed out that there was a problem with my account a number of times, so the responsibility for the issue is down to E.ON Next. We are approaching a stalemate situation now; should I escalate this to the Ombudsman?

Let me know your thoughts. Thank you.

ArbitraryRandom

Back billing is a little more complicated than 'they can't charge for incorrect or catch up billing beyond a 12 month period' - in that the money you already paid is factored in. 

If you used £20 of energy every month for 2 years, but paid estimated bills at £10 a month, then you paid £240 and 'owe' £240. If back billing applies then 12 months of the debt can't be enforced.

...but that would only reduce the debt to £120 (as the debt cancelled is the difference between what you paid and what you should have paid). 

molerat

The ombudsman may up your compensation for poor service but they will likely agree with the billing for the past 12 months - have you calculated what you actually owe within the back billing rules ?  If you knew there was a metric / imperial mix up why were you not putting away the necessary additional 2 x what you were paying for gas ?

Gerry1

Remember that back billing is intended only to prevent bill shock.  If credit has built up in the account sufficient to pay the full amount (e.g. because a fixed DD was set too high) then back billing won't apply.  That catches out a lot of people, and also explains why suppliers love setting high fixed DDs.

Better to go for MVDD, but making sure you have enough set aside in a savings account to pay the big winter bills.

Gas_Bill

Thanks for the message molerat,

I didn't know there was a Metric/Imperial Mix up, my issue was the estimated yearly usage was extremely high (£8-£9k). I was paying enough and the account did have a healthy credit.

QrizB

Gas_Bill said:

I didn't know there was a Metric/Imperial Mix up, my issue was the estimated yearly usage was extremely high (£8-£9k). I was paying enough and the account did have a healthy credit.

That's getting on for 10x as much as the average household!

How much gas do you actually use in a year? In kWh or cubic units, whichever is easier for you?

Gas_Bill

QrizB said:

Gas_Bill said:

I didn't know there was a Metric/Imperial Mix up, my issue was the estimated yearly usage was extremely high (£8-£9k). I was paying enough and the account did have a healthy credit.

That's getting on for 10x as much as the average household!

How much gas do you actually use in a year? In kWh or cubic units, whichever is easier for you?

Its now apparent that the estimates were wrong due the metric/imperial mix up. Its only an average 3 bed house. 

MeteredOut

Gas_Bill said:

QrizB said:

Gas_Bill said:

I didn't know there was a Metric/Imperial Mix up, my issue was the estimated yearly usage was extremely high (£8-£9k). I was paying enough and the account did have a healthy credit.

That's getting on for 10x as much as the average household!

How much gas do you actually use in a year? In kWh or cubic units, whichever is easier for you?

Its now apparent that the estimates were wrong due the metric/imperial mix up. Its only an average 3 bed house. 

For people to help, your actual usage (or even better, two readings a year apart) would be beneficial.

SAC2334

Suppliers used to always use a five digit reading for metric meters ( ignoring last 3 in red ) and a 4 digit reading for Imperial ( ignoring last 1 or 2 digits ) 300 metric would be 00300 , 250 Imperial would be 0250 . This was so it would be difficult to get the two readings wrong for billing .

 I used to work for Eon and was supplied by them as SOLR and they were I think the only supplier who did nt follow this rule , so 300 metric would be accepted with just 4 digits  0300 instead of five . They did nt make it clear to their customers to always submit first five digits ignoring the last three in red . No wonder people can go years with a fundamental blunder like this with a big supplier like Eon 

ArbitraryRandom

I just type in the number (always have) with no extra 00's at the front (so I'd input 0300 or 00300 as 300); Never had a problem with the reading being accepted - I can see how a less permissive system would be more likely to catch problems.