Getting to provide Eon readings on statements

Brie

I recently signed up to an Eon electricity tariff that has peak and off peak charges. So during the weekdays it's really cheap working on the assumption that most adults are at work and not doing laundry, heating off etc. And in the morning and late afternoon through the evening (peak kitchen use and TV time) the charges are higher.

I have asked Eon repeatedly to provide me with something that tells me what meter readings they are using for billing. Now supposedly the smart meter gives them a reading every half hour and I wouldn't expect them to give me every single reading. But it seems to me that they should give me at least the starting & final reading for a billing period. This way I can do a sense check to ensure things aren't completely off track.

The biggest problem many people seem to have with energy bills is the use of estimated readings which are too low and eventually there's a massive bill to pay and I want to avoid issues like this.

I first raised the issue of no readings being visible to me on 3rd June when they provided a gas statement but not one for electricity. After a week of waffle from them about how the readings were available both on line and on their app (they're not) I changed the subject line of my emails to include the word COMPLAINT. Since then they have finally managed to provide me with an electricity statement but without actual readings on it - just "you have used X units which cost you £X". There's no way for me currently to check if the statements are correct.

So first off - is my request for confirmation of what readings they are using reasonable? And then if someone raises a complaint with an energy provider aren't they supposed to acknowledge that complaint?

Swipe

If you are on a Time Of Use tariff, you are billed by 30min slots rather rather meter readings.

Brie

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82042941#Comment_82042941

yes but they are still reading my meter and I would like confirmation they aren't messing it up completely.

we had a smart water meter and the water company billed us for nearly 3 years before they/we noticed the meter was actually broken. with that one it wasn't something I could check (under a metal plate in the middle of road) but I'm a bit more cautious now. The water thing worked in our favour as it turned out that they couldn't prove we'd used a single drop so had to give us a massive refund - but it could have easily happened quite differently.

Swipe

I would expect a full breakdown of charges and unit rates for each slot if they are billing by TOU. I'd raise a formal complaint with them.

QrizB

EON use Kraken, Octopus's billing platform.

Octopus ToU tariffs are billed like this, without index readings:

So I'm not surprised that EON can't provide them either.

(There are 30 more bill pages, one for each day, that show how much electricity was used in each half-hourly slot and what rate it was charged at. But that doesn't use index readings either.)

ConcernedBrummie

How's E.ON's app - Does that at least show you your daily usage?

Being billed on half-hourly data is slightly different as it'll be the consumption each period and not an advancing meter read. They can still pull register readings manually though.

If you really wanted they could provide you with a csv/xlsx file for a week or so and you can gauge it that way.

squirrelpie

Octopus ToU tariffs are billed like this, without index readings

Depending on whether Brie's tariff is a TOU tariff it might be different. I'm on an E7 tariff with Co-Op (powered by Octopus) so it has two rates and the printed statements give me the actual day and night smart meter readings each month. So I can check those readings. I can also download the individual half-hour consumption values (kWh and £p) for the whole month from their website if I wish. Maybe Brie can do the same.

Reed_Richards

I am with Eon on a TOU tariff (for EVs). I have never trusted them to bill me correctly so I signed-up to download my half-hourly data free from https://glowmarkt.com/pages/property/energy-data . I then use a spreadsheet to divide the data into the two different time slots that apply in my case. I have been doing this since 28th September 2023 and I have never yet found any discrepancy between this downloaded half-hourly data and the totals Eon have charged me for. You can do the same to check your bills

Eon never provide me with actual meter readings; I haven't had a bill with a meter reading on it since the one for September 2023. You could try a complaint but they might well tell you that this is the way the tariff is implemented and if you don't like it you should change tariff.

molerat

It would seem that smart metering is bringing a new era of billing where we have to take their word for it that the bills are accurate and calculated correctly. I am coming to the end of an ombudsman dispute with Fuse over their gas billing methodology and it seems that this approach is acceptable to the regulator.

MWT

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82043119#Comment_82043119

It isn't hard to keep track of your own register readings if you want, but it is perfectly legitimate for a supplier to bill based on HH readings or on register readings, but never using both.

If that is not acceptable then you can pick a tariff that uses register readings instead.

Qyburn

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82043119#Comment_82043119

You can make a rough check by taking your own meter reading. I say "rough" because I take my readings in the morning, it should be exact if you take them at midnight.