E.on UNREASONABLE DEMANDS

chrisandanne

A few days ago my father who is 91 years old received a final notice from a debt collection agency for £634.15 E.ON claims he owes this amount up to 31st March 2007 for electricity at his previous address. My father has lived with us since December 2005 and his property was sold in April 2006 although it has not been lived in as the new owners are refurbishing it. I phoned E.ON and they are saying that his Staywarm contract was never cancelled, although we know it was and we gave a final reading to them and the new owners. In the past two and a half years we have had no contact from Staywarm or E.ON. The new owners have passed on any mail. They have had further meter readings and paid for any electricity used also to E.ON. I have written to the debt collection agency and my father vowes to fight to the bitter end, as he knows he does not owe them anything. What suprised me when I logged on to this forum is that this situation has happened to many more people, i.e. being asked for money for a previous property. To be honest it smacks of a scam and is bizarre when they are being targeted by the government for their attitude to the elderley and less well off. We are not going to be intimidated and my Father is willing to go to court if necessary, I have also written to the Daily Mirror and hopefully we can bring this practise under scrutiny.
:mad:

Cardew

Welcome to the forum.

You are absolutely right to take on E.ON.

That said I don't believe it is a scam, the companies have too much to lose by deliberately setting out to defraud customers - and that is what it would be.

The main problem is the company's over-reliance on call centres, and that almost nobody writes letters these days or, having telephoned, do not demand written confirmation of account settlement.

Without that written confirmation, it is impossible to prove that you closed the account.

To be fair to the Utility companies I am certain that many people simply move out without telling the Utility company knowing that they must have an outstanding balance; and the company have no way of tracing them.

That is compounded by people moving into property and not getting utility bills set up. In fact with the new legislation it is an incentive for them not to tell the company; if they don't get a bill for 12 months they don't have to pay.

What is disgraceful is that Utility companies pass accounts to Debt Collection agencies without any investigation, and that inevitably means a black mark against your credit rating. Not that credit rating would bother a 91 year old I suppose!!!

Good luck - let us know how you get on.

hellokitty08

Hello,

I am sure you have also read my post. It seems to me that they are chasing any accounts with arrears on, regardless of whether or not you closed your account. And not even trying to investigate the problems first, just refering you straight to the debt collection agency. My advice is to have no contact with which ever agency you have sent a letter from, phone or write to e.on direct.

Contact Watchdog www.bbc.co.uk/watchdog as i am hoping we will be able to get them to pick up on this issue and how terrible E.on are hadnling it. As they are my current supplier i am determined to leave them immediatly as well. See how they like that!

I have made no progress so far and I am not sure what i / we can do. I still have my letter to send, but I aim on sending them e-mails to. I have been advised to stay off the phone. Let me know if you make any developments.

hellokitty08

im going to try this http://www.insolvencyhelpline.co.uk/debt_factsheets/liability_for_debts_and_the_limitation_act.htm#h2

chrisandanne

Thanks

I will certainly contact Watchdog and anyone else I can think of to bring this matter to light. We are lucky in that my Father is 91 and therefore it doesn't matter to him about his credit rating. Also as he now lives with us he isn't frightened of having his electricity supply cut off if he doesn't pay this bill. If he were on his own this demand would be a nightmare for him and he would not have the resources to sort it out, and as Cardew says to go straight to a debt collection agency is appalling.
Just another question...I have heard that credit ratings are applied to addresses rather than individuals, would a black mark against my father at our address affect my or my husbands rating ?.

Cardew

chrisandanne wrote: »

Just another question...I have heard that credit ratings are applied to addresses rather than individuals, would a black mark against my father at our address affect my or my husbands rating ?.

That certainly used to be the case.

My daughter at University changed digs, and cancelled a credit card at about the same time - and(typically) didn't bother checking her account was settled.

It transpired that she owed £20 or so. This had grown to an unbelievable £400 by the time they traced her to my address. (£25 a time for letters to her old address - which were not forwarded, plus penalties, plus interest) Dad sorted it out!! - not I hasten to say paying £400)

My wife applied for a M & S charge card a year or so later and was refused. After checking with the Credit Reference agencies, it transpired that myself, wife, other daughter and son were all 'blacklisted' for sharing the same address as errant daughter.

It took forever to sort out.

I have heard that this should not happen now??? However if your father's surname is the same as yours(assuming you are Chris not Anne) there is probability of confusion.

A 'Mr Smith of 2 Arcadia Ave Croydon' could cover both of you!!! The checks are not exactly extensive!

P.S.
Just re-read and have seen the 'my husband' comment - but the point is still valid.

chrisandanne

Thanks again,
It sounds as if it will not affect us as we have a different surname, that at least is reassuring !! I sometimes take up store cards to get the discount or credit with an interest free period then pay the balance off in full... apart from that we save and pay cash also asking for a discount !. One thing I hate is paying interest. It would be a nightmare to be stood at the till in a shop and have your application refused !! I trust your daughter was suitably reprimanded !!.

Gen979

Hi

Seems like I am in a similar situation too, except that I never opened an account with E.ON and they want to pay for a debt anyways....

chrisandanne

Hi Gen979

That is awful....I take on board what Cardew said about not daring to defraud customers but I think that if a small firm down the road made demands on customers two years after contracts were cancelled or where no contract had ever existed they would be in the newspapers as fraudsters and investigated by trading standards....why do companys like E.on think they can bully and harrass people with debt collection agencys. There will be a proportion of people who do owe money to them for electricity they have actually used but before they make final demands they should investigate and sort the wheat from the chaff. I have sent off an e mail to the Watchdog website and hope you will too, I haven't had any reply (yet ?) but surely if enough people complain someone will start to take notice, if anyone can think of any other people we can write to about this please post. I am oing to contact our councillor and local paper as well. I am on a mission :mad: ........watch this space !!!!

Cardew

The methods of the Debt Collection Agencies are appalling. They intimidate and bully, often using quasi legal letters that imply court orders have been made.

However my biggest objection is that companies pass what they consider to be delinquent accounts to the Credit Reference Agencies far too readily; and the damage is done, in that a person’s credit record is damaged, often without them being aware of the situation.

So without you knowing you even have a problem, you can - in effect - be accused, found guilty and sentenced. Hardly compatible with the ‘innocent until found guilty’ principle!

Having said the above, I am certain that there are many people who knowingly walk away owing the Utility companies money, however the account departments of these firms are so dreadful that there must be a sizeable proportion of customers wrongly ‘accused’.

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.