Eon billing shambles - 4 years & counting

ceanothus

Hi all, new to the boards and asking for advice already :-(

I've got a bit of a billing nightmare with Eon (electricity supply only), dating back to when they were still PowerGen. To cut a really tedious story as short as possible, we sold a property 4 years ago. Gave a final meter reading by phone and sat back to await the final bill.

When the bill came it was sky high (£600+ and we were expecting somewhere in the £40 - £50 mark) and quite obviously contained billing for usage on the new meter that the new owners had fitted. I rang them to complain, was told not to pay anything as the bill was clearly wrong, and they would be back in touch. We got subsequent bills for over £800 and over £1000 respectively, and finally got the account put into suspension while they went away to sort it out.

A year went by with no contact. Then a debt collector's letter arrived demanding £860. I flipped out, rang Eon and told them to write off the bill for the sake of decency, to confirm this in writing and to never contact us again about this or I would go straight for costs against them for my time. I received a manual bill in June 2006 showing a zero balance. All good.

So 3 weeks ago, we start getting phone calls from an unknown number that turns out to be Intrum Justitia. Collecting £860 on behalf of Eon!! Out come all the papers again, phone calls to Eon, them agreeing that we don't owe them anything and promising to call off the bulldogs. However, 3 weeks on we are still getting hounded by telephone calls, letters from Intrum Justicia and now letters from their solicitors, all threatening court action.

I've demanded a formal letter from Eon apologising, confirming that we owe nothing and guaranteeing that this has finally been sorted. I told them they had 10 days to do this, and have heard nothing back. So I've now filed a complaint with EnergyWatch (yesterday) to get the billing sorted, and we'll see how this goes.

I've now reached the point where I am utterly fed up with them, I have spent hours and hours dealing with it, I have a whole heap of papers, endless telophone call logs and I am considering going for compensation. I would be looking for recompense for time, hassle and passing our personal details to 3rd parties in breach of the Data Protection Act (I have yet to check if anything has been put on our credit file about it).

Has anyone had experience of a billing shambles like this, and any advice on whether it's worth pursuing a claim for costs? If so, any tips on the best way to proceed? Any advice gratefully received.

deanos

Just ring Energywatch, i had a proelem with them and it was resolved within a week when they got involved

Terrylw1

Yeah, I've seen customers get stuck in the middle of this before.

The important part is that Eon, your Supplier, have agreed to the write off. From their, they just need to contact the DCA and get it cancelled. They are not doing this from your post.

Energywatch will sort it for you. Demand compensation for your costs. You may get £20/£50 back off them.

They are not breaking the DPA passing your details on, but they have passed your details in error due to their mistake which is a slightly different issue. Energywatch will have come across it before but I've never heard anything about DPA based fines.

You really should make sure your credit file isn't affected though.