Eon Next Complaint - At Wits End

TractorFactor

In a nutshell, there was a mess up with my energy export payments. Eon have admitted the fault is theirs but thought a £150 discount on the £1000 owed is appropriate.

The Ombudsman agreed with Eon but later said I shouldn't have to pay the whole cost as the error lies with Eon Next but couldn't change the decision after it had been issued.

I have queried the amount on the account as I don't believe it to be correct. There has been a lot of paying and refunding - I can't make the maths work out to reconcile what is left on the account to pay.

There is no care given of the stress or pressure this debt is putting on our finances and family life.

Eon also seems not to care that despite the Ombudsman investigating, they took a direct debt for the whole debt anyway leaving my partner unable to purchase groceries for our young (3 under 5) family. The bank transferred it back under the direct debit guarantee but that took a few days.

I have emailed the CEO address but the person who has responded has said as I did not agree with the Ombudsman decision that's the end and they consider the matter closed. They have not answered any of my queries.

Short of turning up to their office in Nottingham, I really don't know what else to do to try and get answers from Eon.

I've already had texts reminding me I need to pay them the £1000 but until I know the exact monies owed (it's not the amount that is currently on the account), the I can't sort out a payment plan.

Any advice?

QrizB

Can you provide a bit more explanation?

Based on your previous threads, you were buying your electricity from Octopus. Is that still the case, and the dispute with E.ON Next is solely related to your export account? Or did you switch from Octopus to E.ON Next?

Are you receiving FIT payments, or is this all SEG export?

Are E.ON Next saying they've paid you too much in FIT/SEG payments, and they want the money back?

Vitor

The crucial facts are missing:

Was the £1,000 an export overpayment that E.ON is recovering?
What exactly caused it, and why does the OP believe the balance is wrong?
Did OP accept the Ombudsman’s decision?
What does the £150 represent: compensation, a write-off, or both?

Reed_Richards

Eon Next made a mistake with my export energy payments when they started paying me for export. They took the start export meter reading to be zero rather than the actual reading. At the time the actual meter reading was not large and I have to admit that I didn't notice their mistake but Eon Next did, after about six months. Fortunately, the correction left me still in credit. Maybe @TractorFactor had a similar issue but with much more money at stake?

TractorFactor

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82101517#Comment_82101517

Don't worry about previous posts - they will just confuse the issue.

I have been with Eon for export SEG payments for about 2 years. When I requested a payment in winter last year, either their system or someone manually had the incorrect meter reading so they paid me £1000.

The following February (2026), they took the money back from the account leaving it £1000 in debt. No explanation until I queried it.

It went through about 10 different emails, each time they slowly explained more about how it occurred but didn't answer the direct questions I asked.

I wasn't happy with the outcome of the complaint so asked for a deadlock letter and took it to the Ombudsman.

They have sent a text and I have received a letter today basically saying if I don't pay, they will report this to the credit agencies and destroy my credit rating.

Now I'm panicking.

I've asked them to be clear and open with the amount that is left on the account as I've gone back through the bills for export and can't get any of the maths to finish with what is left to pay.

TractorFactor

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82101524#Comment_82101524

Yes, the £1000 was an overpayment but I'd didn't query it as my supplier (and their app) suggests this is in line with what I should be paid for a years worth of exporting (on average).

I don't know what caused it. Eon haven't fully explained, despite asking many times.

The balance left on my export account doesn't equate to any calculations I can make with the figures from my bills. There have been a lot of charges and reversals to make things more complicated but I can't reconcile any of the credits and reversed charges to be what the balance is left to pay.

No, I did not accept the Ombudsman decision. They made no advance on what Eon had already offered as the old "gesture of goodwill" - £150.

I don't agree the whole debt should be written off but I also don't think it's fair, after their error, I should have to pay the entire amount back either. This is built upon many mis-steps by Eon - someone was looking at the account as when I first requested a payout, it didn't arrive, so a specialist was investigating why and manually triggered a payment.

QrizB

If they overpaid you £1000, you'll have to repay it.

I've asked them to be clear and open with the amount that is left on the account as I've gone back through the bills for export and can't get any of the maths to finish with what is left to pay.

Assuming that EON Next run their energy accounts like Octopus (as they're all using the same software) one account is used for both for SEG and for import, so the current balance on your account is a combination of SEG payments from EON, cash payments from you and charges for energy used.

until I know the exact monies owed ... I can't sort out a payment plan.

The key point is that they're overpaid you £1000 and they want £1000 back. You're going to have to pay them £1000. If that leaves your energy account in credit, or in debit, is immaterial for now.

EON might agree a payment plan where it's spread over several months, but that's for you to agree with them. If it's £250 a month for 4 months or £100 a month for 10 months, it's still going to be £1000.

(Normally an energy account paid by fixed monthly DD would be in credit at the moment, by maybe two months' DD payments. This is to prevent you going into debit over the winter.)

If you don't want to run a credit balance on your energy account, consider switching to paying by variable monthly DD. You'll pay monthly by month for the energy used, and keep the DD prices rather than the higher "standard credit" ones. But the onus is then on you to manage your finances such that you can always pay the bill, even in the depths of winter when it might be 2x to 3x what you're currently paying monthly.

I don't agree the whole debt should be written off but I also don't think it's fair, after their error, I should have to pay the entire amount back either.

They've given you £150, though, as a goodwill payment?

Yes, the £1000 was an overpayment but I'd didn't query it as my supplier (and their app) suggests this is in line with what I should be paid for a years worth of exporting (on average).

At current SEG export rates that would suggest to me that you've got quite a large solar PV system, maybe 10 kWp. Is that how big your system is?

Edit to add: in previous threads you said your annual import was around 4000kWh and you thought you were importing more electricity than you were exporting. On EON Next's 13p/kWh export tariff, 4000 kWh/yr would be £520/yr in export payments

The_Green_Hornet

Assuming that EON Next run their energy accounts like Octopus (as they're all using the same software) one account is used for both for SEG and for import, so the current balance on your account is a combination of SEG payments from EON, cash payments from you and charges for energy used.

E.ON Next create a separate account for SEG and only pay out once a year on the anniversary of the account being opened however you can request up to three extra payments during the year.

Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) scheme

Reed_Richards

I can confirm that Eon Next have separate accounts for import and export, potentially separate accounts for FiT generation and SEG export. It causes them all kinds of trouble because the system does not clearly distinguish between an import and an export account. For example, I got paid a Warm Home Discount to my SEG account last December which they had to remove a bit later. They may have bought their billing system from Octopus but unfortunately they didn't get (or read) the instructions.

QrizB

Since E.ON Next use separate import and export accounts, my advice to the OP (in the absence of any specific instructions from E.ON Next; if there are specific instructions, it would help if OP would share them here) would be to pay enough into their SEG account to bring it back to a zero balance.

If they want a payment plan, they need to speak to E.ON Next and agree one.

Reed_Richards

Eon Next pay their SEG in 12-month contracts at a fixed rate. If the OP started around August 2024 then I think the rate then was 16.5p per kWh and I know it was 16.5p per kWh when they renewed around August 2025 (assuming they bought their electricity from Eon Next throughout). So the calculation of what they should have been paid up until now is really easy:

(Current Export Reading - Start Export Reading) x 0.165 = Total Amount in pounds

Edit. The export rate was reduced to 13p per kWh in November 2025 but that should only apply to renewals once the 12-month contract expires.