Advice: Taking Eon to court

Meanmachine1965

Good Morning:
I'm looking for a bit of advice, a good friend, an elderly woman (76) has been harassed and bullied beyond belief in the last 4+ years. Eon have driving this woman in to the ground, I will keep it short as possible.
We are an investigation company and met this woman last year, she told me of this case and told her i would try to help her at no cost. Anyway she had a shop and in 2018 she closed the shop due to cancer, and the shop has not been open since. In 2021 Eon took over the supply in January 2021 from Npower with my client been in a small credit. In 2022 Eon sent a bill of just over £6200, some months later sending another for just under £6700, my client was under going cancer treatment. This caused unmentionable amount of stress and caused a nervous breakdown. Not knowing what to do, she did as Eon asked and set up a direct debit for nearly £800 per month, to get rid of the debt. Eon took 2 payments and would have taken more if it had not been for her bank stating this is a closed shop and has been for 4 years. They told her to cancel the direct debit, which she has done since then a comedy of errors but not for this very sick old woman. She has had cancer again and trying to beat it while having none stop calls, letters and texts with threats. There's a lot  more to this story so will move to when I started helping her 10 weeks ago. She is due a major spinal operation which has already been cancelled due to the doctors and surgeon stating her heart rate and blood pressure is way to high to Eon. They don't respond to my calls or emails, 8 weeks ago i requested all transcripts for mine and her phone to commence legal proceedings, and the address to send court paperwork Nothing as of yet. 4 weeks ago administered in to hospital hate rate dangerously high. I got a letter from her with her authority to act on her behalf, contacted Eon give them the letter and told them no to contact her again due to her very poor health. I sent an email giving my details and the letter and told them to contact me. As said I have cut this very short. She had another date for this operation on the 9th June, but in the last 14 days she has had 5 letters, 4 texts, 2 calls and a letter from a debt collector. Again due to her heart rate and blood pressure this operation has been cancelled and may not get another one, this will put her in a wheel chair for the rest of her life. Her mental state has pushed her in to deep depression. I have much evidence that I have gathered and can prove they in fact owe her money, I can prove of the constant bullying and harassment tactics for nearly 4 years. She wants me to take them to court for what they have done to her and now also have letters from doctors and a surgeon confirming the above. Advice please and many thanks for your time in reading this post. 

pmduk

I'd be contacting her MP, and. should she agree, the press. Press offices regularly achieve miracles that Customer Services aren't interested in

QrizB

There's a lot of irrelevant emotional details in your opening post.

If it's a shop this is a business contract. Businesses are expected to have competent legal advice and don't get the same protections that consumers do.

Your friend (client?) closed her shop in 2018. Did she give up the premises at that time or is she still responsible for them as owner / tenant?

Has she exhausted EONs complaint process?

MattMattMattUK

Meanmachine1965 said:

Good Morning:
I'm looking for a bit of advice, a good friend, an elderly woman (76) has been harassed and bullied beyond belief in the last 4+ years. Eon have driving this woman in to the ground, I will keep it short as possible.
We are an investigation company and met this woman last year, she told me of this case and told her i would try to help her at no cost. Anyway she had a shop and in 2018 she closed the shop due to cancer, and the shop has not been open since. In 2021 Eon took over the supply in January 2021 from Npower with my client been in a small credit. In 2022 Eon sent a bill of just over £6200, some months later sending another for just under £6700, my client was under going cancer treatment. This caused unmentionable amount of stress and caused a nervous breakdown. Not knowing what to do, she did as Eon asked and set up a direct debit for nearly £800 per month, to get rid of the debt. Eon took 2 payments and would have taken more if it had not been for her bank stating this is a closed shop and has been for 4 years. They told her to cancel the direct debit, which she has done since then a comedy of errors but not for this very sick old woman. She has had cancer again and trying to beat it while having none stop calls, letters and texts with threats. There's a lot  more to this story so will move to when I started helping her 10 weeks ago. She is due a major spinal operation which has already been cancelled due to the doctors and surgeon stating her heart rate and blood pressure is way to high to Eon. They don't respond to my calls or emails, 8 weeks ago i requested all transcripts for mine and her phone to commence legal proceedings, and the address to send court paperwork Nothing as of yet. 4 weeks ago administered in to hospital hate rate dangerously high. I got a letter from her with her authority to act on her behalf, contacted Eon give them the letter and told them no to contact her again due to her very poor health. I sent an email giving my details and the letter and told them to contact me. As said I have cut this very short. She had another date for this operation on the 9th June, but in the last 14 days she has had 5 letters, 4 texts, 2 calls and a letter from a debt collector. Again due to her heart rate and blood pressure this operation has been cancelled and may not get another one, this will put her in a wheel chair for the rest of her life. Her mental state has pushed her in to deep depression. I have much evidence that I have gathered and can prove they in fact owe her money, I can prove of the constant bullying and harassment tactics for nearly 4 years. She wants me to take them to court for what they have done to her and now also have letters from doctors and a surgeon confirming the above. Advice please and many thanks for your time in reading this post. 

Having read all of that I am none the wiser to what the actual issue with her energy bills is. Being blunt it is a load of emotional waffle that does nothing to get to the bottom of the issue, nor resolve it.

Does she still own the premises and/or is the leagal renter of it?
Does she still have an energy supply?
Is energy still being used and if so how much?
Has she submitted meter readings, is there a smart reader or is usage estimated?
When paying for that supply or has she built up a debt? (Probably impossible to know unless a recent meter read has been submitted)
What have you done to ascertain the answers to any of the above?

Finally, neither you nor her can take them to court "for what they have done", she might get a small (a few hundred at most) "gesture of good will", but on a business contract that is very unlikely.

elsien

I would also suggest that her doctors are very unlikely to put in writing that her high blood pressure is specifically due to Eon. 

Yes, the debate with them is stressful, but so is having cancer and so is having spinal issues and the prospective of major surgery. I don’t think it’s possible to separate all of that down to one specific cause. 

Has she made a formal complaint to Eon? 

Robin9

Have you lodged a complaint with the Energy Ombudsman who now treat business complaints in the same manner as domestic ?

masonic

So am I understanding from the very long post that doesn't mention anything about meter readings or evidence the billing is incorrect, that you are not looking to dispute the debt, but rather the manner in which Eon has attempted to enforce it?

Is your "investigation company" a legal firm? Could you specify how you believe the communications from Eon were unlawful? Would it not be more fruitful to communicate the information you've gathered to Eon in order to establish the source of the billing error if you believe there to be one?

MattMattMattUK

Robin9 said:

Have you lodged a complaint with the Energy Ombudsman who now treat business complaints in the same manner as domestic ?

The two issues will be that it first requires the energy user to have gone through thr supplier's complaints process, or at least eight weeks from starting that, and it is not clear if anyone has actually make a complaint vs phoning up and arguing with the front line customer service team. Secondly the OP has not explained with any actual facts what has happened here, submit that to the ombudsman and regardless of any potential merits the complaint would fail.

elsien

Plus it sounds like the OP started requesting information from Eon before they had the authority from the customer to do so.

You say she is a good friend, but also your initial contact was via an investigation company of some sort. In what capacity have you been phoning up the provider? 

fatbelly

I couldn't work out what was going on from the first post but my suggestion before launching into court action is

Make a formal complaint to eon in writing as set out here

https://www.eonnext.com/unhappy

Escalate to the ceo and then to the Energy Ombudsman if still not happy.

If still not happy after that have a good think whether your claim would be upheld by a judge, given failure at the previous three steps, and knowing that eon have resources to fight a claim.

You should also keep in mind that the court process can be stressful for anyone unwell.

MWT

I'm still stuck on what exactly E.ON have been doing wrong as there is nothing in the post to confirm that the bills are incorrect...

I also find it highly implausible that her bank would tell her to cancel a DD because her shop was closed...

Hard to take this post as genuine, and if it is, she needs better advice and assistance than she has received so far...