E-on / Powergen buyout Nightmare

hellokitty08

Hello,

I am not sure what to do so I have come here for help and advice.

Problem number 1.

I last week received a letter from a debt collection agency saying i owed them money for an unpaid electricity bill to powergen, who have now been taken over by e-on. ( I assume) I rang the debt collect agency for some details and they started asking for all types of personal details that i thought was suspicious, so i said i was going to phone E-on direct.
I phoned E.ON and they said it was in relation to a property that i used to live in, so i checked the dates with them and it was for after i had moved out. They said that they could not close the file unless i could prove to them the dates that i moved out. Even though when i left the property i had phoned up Powergen to let them know i was moving and that i had vacated the property and I had paid all the bills up until the last day of the month i was there. This enabled me to get my damage deposit back from the letting agency. Now E.on says i have to prove to them that i was not living there after this date. (which is proving difficult as they letting agency do not want to pay the bill so will not give me a letter confirming when i moved out, and seems as i thought there was no issue from nearly two years ago, i no longer have the paper work to say i paid my final bill, not that they would accept that anyway)

Problem (2) I lived in as shared house 5 / 6 years ago. The landlord was a total idiot. Anyway, when we left we had also paid all our bills. A year later we got a letter forwarded on from Powegen saying we owed them £500 as the tenants that had moved in after us had never paid a bill and powergen had left our names on the details. I phoned Powergen up and got the matter sorted and kept this paper work until recently when it was 5 years out of date. I assumed because it had been resolved we would no longer need it. My boyfriend has now got a letter from another debt collection agency saying he owes them £500 and there is no way we still have the paper work from this house. And no way of even contacting the landlord even if we thought he could/would help.

I know i am not helping myself by not having all the paper work, but E.on said that providing a paid Bill would not help anyway!!! They need confirmation about when we vacated these properties, even though on both occasions we rang powergen to inform them we were vacating the properties and all our final bills were up to date. And even in the case of the 2nd problem, we thought this issue had already been resolved about 3 years ago.

Any advice would be gratefully received as i have no idea what to do. Thanks

Cardew

I would:

A. Write to Energywatch and ask them to take the matter up with E.ON & Powergen. - copy to the Utility Companies.

B. Write to Newspapers, TV etc - again copy to the Utility Companies.

Please note: WRITE - stay off the phone - you will only get call centre staff who don't want 'problem cases' and nothing will be done.

Do not deal with the Debt Collection agency vultures - they are not interested in explanations.

Obviously the problem is that you will now probably have entries on your credit file.

Can you not prove when you moved to the property you occupied after the disputed accomodation addresses.

If all else fails I would take E-On & Powergen to the Small Claims court claiming a 'nominal' amount for the time off work, phone calls, stationary etc. They will not want to attend court to prove their case.

hellokitty08

Hello,

I said i could probably provide proof of when i moved in to my new property, but they said that this wasn't good enough!!!! Nor were any final bills that i might have.

I will try writting a lettter, not to sure what else i can do.

Gen979

Hi Hello Kitty

When I went to see a Citizens Advice Bureau advisor the lawyer did assure me that proving you had been at another address and providing a contract for that other adddress would be sufficient proof. It is just E.ON trying to play hardball and making it more frustrating for us. I was in the same predicament as I have misplaced this contract, in a house which I occupied 2 years ago! You could join all of your proof when you send them a recorded letter.

hellokitty08

hello,

My nan told my mum that there was a story about this in the paper this week. she has saved the article for me and im going to get it tomorrow so i will post the details on her once i have had the chance to watch it. I so far have put in a complaint to E.on and i am awaiting a relpy. If nothing is forth coming within the 10 days they have promised, i will have to think what else to do. I am totally with you on anything that you want to do. I already sent my details to Watchdog.

Gen979

I'll look into watchdog....have time Sunday to send them my concerns!

Gen979

Have you seen the advice that London Law has placed on my thread. looks like it is worth writing to that Commissioner seeing the way things are going.

hellokitty08

Hi,

i think that would be a good idea for you. Your case seems a little different to mine in the fact that you have never been an E.on / powergen customer. I would be 1000 times more lived if i were you. Go for it.