E:On Excessive Bill - what to do?

gallifrey_2

Hi there,

I received a gas and electricity bill from E:On over the weekend that seems completely wrong to me and I wonder if anyone can give me some advice as to how to proceed?

I live in a 2 bedroom flat on my own and my previous bills have been for £99 (for Feb to Dec 06) and £87 (for Jan to August 07). The bill I received on Saturday is for £503 (for Sept 07 to Mar 08)!

It is clearly wrong so I called them on Saturday. I was asked for an up to date meter reading which I gave them (it wasn't far off the estimate). The advisor was actually quite helpful at first saying it did look very strange given my past usage and that he couldn't understand how it could have jumped so high.

He spoke to the consumption department then came back to tell me that they had advised him my consumption was normal and that I should expect this size bill for this period of time. When I pushed him as to how they can explain the 2 previous bills of less than £100 and then a £500 bill for a much smaller period of time, he got quite flustered and said it was difficult to explain.

The conversation ended after he tried to get me to set up a direct debit for £96.00 a month! He said £54.00 of this would be towards my on-going power charges and the remainder would go towards paying off the £500 bill I have just received. I said I wasn't prepared to commit to anything and that I would be in touch next week.

Can anyone advise what I should do next? They are adament they are right but I know there is something wrong - there's only so much power 1 person in a flat can use!!!

Any help much appreciated ....

Quentin

As you have your consumption figures, then calculate the bill yourself. If there is a discrepancy you will be in a better position to argue your case (than relying on their calculations). (Your previous bills do look low, so maybe this latest bill includes a correction from the previous ones).

StevenP_2

Feb to Dec £99 !!!

Sounds too good to be true

EnergyMan_3

£503 is high for a 2 bedroom flat but if the meter readings are correct, and you haven't had previously estimated bills then chances are the bill is correct. Remeber this bill is for 6 months, not your normal quarterly bill. Think what you have used during that period...How long have you been having the heating on, how often do you use the tumble dryer etc etc. And how much of that £503 is for gas and how much is for electricity?

moonrakerz

I agree with you, something is clearly wrong - your ludicrously low first two bills ! Do you have any idea of what gas and electricity cost ?

Your combined gas and electricity consumption has averaged about £10 a month for 18 months - do you honestly think that is correct ?

Your total energy bill appears to be £689 for two years, that is less than £1 per day - and you are complaining !

gallifrey_2

moonrakerz wrote: »

Do you have any idea of what gas and electricity cost ?

Nice to see people are friendly and polite to people asking genuine questions when they are unsure of something.

Thank you to all of the people who have posted genuine replies - THEY are appreciated.

espresso

gallifrey wrote: »

Nice to see people are friendly and polite to people asking genuine questions when they are unsure of something.

Thank you to all of the people who have posted genuine replies - THEY are appreciated.

Genuine question. How many kWh have you consumed and what price do you pay per kWh?

:rolleyes:

DGJsaver

gallifrey wrote: »

Nice to see people are friendly and polite to people asking genuine questions when they are unsure of something.

Thank you to all of the people who have posted genuine replies - THEY are appreciated.

to be fair it`s not rocket science to do a little research into whats going on in your life financially

gallifrey_2

Update:

I have just registered online with E.On and checked my meter details with them and they have the wrong meter number for my gas. To make it worse I contacted them last month to confirm both meter numbers as other people in my block of flats had had similar problems with being charged for other people's consumption. The advisor I spoke to said that the details they had were right - which they clearly weren't!

I've just called them and they are now investigating and said it is likely an engineer is going to have to come out to verfify which properties supply is being recorded on each meter.

Am so glad I checked now .... I was almost resigned to just pay the bill without investigating further.

And to answer questions above, previous bills were based on actual readings not estimates so the jump in price is out of the ordinary.

gallifrey_2

espresso wrote: »

Genuine question. How many kWh have you consumed and what price do you pay per kWh?

:rolleyes:

This is the summary of meter readings clealy showing something is wrong! Can't believe they didn't think to question a reading of 156 on 20th April against a 1062 reading on 31st March!

Gas

Date Source Reading Type
31 Mar 08 Customer 1062 Normal
20 Feb 08 Meter Reader 156 Normal
17 Nov 07 Meter Reader 31 Normal
21 Aug 07 Estimated 310 Normal

gallifrey_2

A further update!

Just had a call back from E.On. They believe that all of the meter numbers they have for the 10 properties in my block are wrong as they only have 5 digits on record when the meter numbers are actually 6 digits long!

The account has been frozen and no payment is required apparently as it can take months for an engineer to come out!

What a nightmare!