Help and Advice sought - Energy - EonNext

southsdide

Hi All,

Apologies - this is long.

This is an issue that my daughter is having - young lady, first home, first energy account. Just to give accommodation size - it's a small bedsit, bathroom and kitchen. She is only there evenings and 1 in 2 weekends.

When she moved in to her property in mid-February she struggled with the Gas and Electricity accounts. She was informed it was account based when it was prepayment. EonNext corrected this mid-March. She also had the previous tenants debt added on to her bill which took a number of sessions to resolve, along with issues of prepayment card problems. By April this was all sorted and she was happily buy gas and electricity on seperate key/cards - you know the drill.

Come mid August, the display on her Electricity meter failed. She contacted EonNext who said, after chasing a few times, her meter needs replacing and promptly scheduled a replacement mid-October. Over concerns for her energy payments she was informed from Mid-August until the meter install her usage would be estimated.

They replaced both Electricity and Gas meters mid October with Smart Meters. Early November she received a bill from EonNext for Electricity. It has a smart meter usage for mid-October to November which is acceptable. They applied and estimated bill for February to mid-October of over £400 usage. With the Government Energy payment received they have put a refund of one of those payments stating they made a mistake in paying twice. The meter reading does not match the meter reading provided verbally on the phone in February (their reading is 1000 units before the actual reading - we have photographs)

Having complained, they have stated the energy bill is correct as it stands. They have no record of any prepayment payments for Electricity. They asked she submits the receipts for energy she purchased. As the energy is on debit card payments it just shows on her bank statement as a purchase in the shop - they will not accept that. Luckily we found one receipt for energy purchase - prepayment with the meter number they have removed. This should validate prepayment for the account and they accepted that as a payment reduced the bill by that amount whilst stating they received no other payments.

Currently they are not moving on the billing stance. We are awaiting the 8 week period to go to the Ombudsman but it is increasingly annoying especially when there is another problem likely to start all over which I'll mention last.

I have, on behalf of my daughter:

1. Requested the account be investigated as to why their systems showed no payments even though we have provided evidence payments were made - they brushed this off stating the system was working and the meter could have gone in to free vend.

2. Asked for the case to be escalated to a Senior Manager - it has not and that request has been ignored.

3. Asked for it to be deadlocked so it can go to the Ombudsman which they will not do.

4. I emailed another email address "unhappy@eonnext.com" with a synopsis of the issue and that was ignored.

5. I emailed proof that the account was prepayment using a confirmation email sent by thier very own team - this was ignored.

They keep sending the same email over and over with no update - this is from an energy specialist and the bill was investigated by a Billing Focal who claim the bill is correct.

There is no method to escalate as a customer to other parties beyond what I deem these idiots.

Any advice on what action we can take other than keep messaging them whilst ticking away time for 4 weeks before an Ombudsman escalation?

The other issue is the Gas meter has not yet been added to the account despite requesting so that is another drama to face with these people.