Eon energy reviews: Give your feedback

Zostan · 16 May 2018 at 7:07PM

Hi Malc,

Question for you.

Me and my brother have just moved home, so we received final catch-up bill. We had set direct debit to pay our bills based on estimated usage. According to our useage of gas and electricity, we supposed to pay extra £99,82 exactly (we've checked meter readings)... meanwhile eon has sent bill for over 420 pounds and it was said, that money will be taken from account shortly. Eon representative keep ignoring our calculations and didn't even try to explain why bill is so high. Is there anything we can do to deal with this situation apart from concating Citizens Advice Consumer Service. I'd rather solve this problem directly.

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena · 17 May 2018 at 10:48AM

Zostan wrote: »

Hi Malc,

Question for you.

Me and my brother have just moved home, so we received final catch-up bill. We had set direct debit to pay our bills based on estimated usage. According to our useage of gas and electricity, we supposed to pay extra £99,82 exactly (we've checked meter readings)... meanwhile eon has sent bill for over 420 pounds and it was said, that money will be taken from account shortly. Eon representative keep ignoring our calculations and didn't even try to explain why bill is so high. Is there anything we can do to deal with this situation apart from concating Citizens Advice Consumer Service. I'd rather solve this problem directly.

Good morning Zostan and welcome to the forums.

Malc is on his holidays at the moment, so thought I'd hop on and reply.

I understand that you've received a final bill, is this charged to the actual meter readings that you've provide from your move out day? And are the dates correct?

It sounds like bills previous to this were estimated and now we've had some actual reads we've billed the account accurately and this has caused the balance.

If the meter reads on the final bill are estimated, you need to provide us with the correct ones, did you take any pictures by ant chance?

You need to contact us again and we need to go through the calculations of the bill to you, if you're not happy you need to say that you'd like to raise a complaint.

Thank you

Helena

Zostan · 18 May 2018 at 11:50AM

Hi Helena,

Thanks for response.

We do have pictures of readings. Dates are also correct. The only problem is the amount on our bill.

'It sounds like bills previous to this were estimated and now we've had some actual reads we've billed the account accurately and this has caused the balance.' - It's not the case as well. We've included it in our calculations too.

I'll try to contact eon one last time. I hope I won't be ignored again.

Bloblik · 19 June 2018 at 3:23PM

For a German owned company I get none of the efficiency, spent nearly 2 hours talking to various departments (including complaints) trying get a clear explanation as to why my 90 year old mum has received an extra bill one month after the previous quarterly bill and receipt of her payment, despite the website telling me billing is 3 quarterly.

Asking a simple question, I get back a long complicated explanation with call staff thrusting an answer down my neck, that leaves me none the wiser.

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc · 21 June 2018 at 10:31AM

Bloblik wrote: »

For a German owned company I get none of the efficiency, spent nearly 2 hours talking to various departments (including complaints) trying get a clear explanation as to why my 90 year old mum has received an extra bill one month after the previous quarterly bill and receipt of her payment, despite the website telling me billing is 3 quarterly.

Asking a simple question, I get back a long complicated explanation with call staff thrusting an answer down my neck, that leaves me none the wiser.

Hello Bloblik and I’m sorry you’re unhappy with the explanation we’ve given about your Mum’s bills.

There could be a number of reasons for a second bill. How long has she been with us? If the account has recently started following a change of supplier or home move, the billing could’ve been out of synch initially with the second bill bringing it into line.

Was the original bill estimated and we’ve now re-billed accurately following the receipt of accurate meter readings? Did the first bill cover less than a quarter's usage and this has now been made up by the second bill? Have there been any exceptional circumstances like a meter exchange or a dispute we’ve needed to sort? Has your Mum changed the way she pays for her energy?

You mention our website says quarterly billing. Is your Mum registered with our website and this refers to her personal account or are you seeing a general term used to describe one of the payment frequencies we've available?

Sorry for all the questions Bloblik. The main thing is to make sure we’ve billed up to accurate meter readings. If we have, the charges will reflect how much energy your Mum has used. If not and you let us have readings, we'll be happy to re-bill accurately.

Malc

Bloblik · 21 June 2018 at 11:11AM

Thank you for your reply.

I run an online account for her, at 90 years of age its a bit beyond her to do that.

Very frustrating, I would ask a simple question, what dates did you require the first meter reading, then be returned a blizzard of information by the person at the call centre, round and round we went.

I am told a quarterly bill is not a quarter, so despite giving readings on 27th Jan, I was told the quarter would then start on 1st Feb, so my next reading on the 24th April was a few days early, forcing the system to send out an additional bill, I should have waited a few days, until 1st May, to then give my reading.
However they also explained that there is a 2 week window either side of the billing period in which to give readings, which makes it 15-04 to 15-05 when readings would be accepted, every time I questioned this I just got a blizzard of information, and no answer to my question.

The call assistant wanted to close the case as 'resolved', and so to move on the simplest answer from them was for me to only give meter readings when the system sends me an email asking me to do so.
Which is fine, I would have done that if I'd known at the start, I thought I was doing the right thing giving meter readings 5 days before the end of a 3 month period, nothing complicated about that is there ?

With quarterly billing not actually being a quarter, it is difficult to know otherwise when to send the reading in, so my mum will go on receiving bills, only weeks after her paying one, and then receiving subsequent demands - causing a lot of stress for her.

Seems the customer has no control over this aspect of billing.

So I've not had satisfactory explanation to how your system works, are you willing to explain it here if I give you all the dates.

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc · 22 June 2018 at 12:04PM

Bloblik wrote: »

Thank you for your reply.

I run an online account for her, at 90 years of age its a bit beyond her to do that.

Very frustrating, I would ask a simple question, what dates did you require the first meter reading, then be returned a blizzard of information by the person at the call centre, round and round we went.

I am told a quarterly bill is not a quarter, so despite giving readings on 27th Jan, I was told the quarter would then start on 1st Feb, so my next reading on the 24th April was a few days early, forcing the system to send out an additional bill, I should have waited a few days, until 1st May, to then give my reading.
However they also explained that there is a 2 week window either side of the billing period in which to give readings, which makes it 15-04 to 15-05 when readings would be accepted, every time I questioned this I just got a blizzard of information, and no answer to my question.

The call assistant wanted to close the case as 'resolved', and so to move on the simplest answer from them was for me to only give meter readings when the system sends me an email asking me to do so.
Which is fine, I would have done that if I'd known at the start, I thought I was doing the right thing giving meter readings 5 days before the end of a 3 month period, nothing complicated about that is there ?

With quarterly billing not actually being a quarter, it is difficult to know otherwise when to send the reading in, so my mum will go on receiving bills, only weeks after her paying one, and then receiving subsequent demands - causing a lot of stress for her.

Seems the customer has no control over this aspect of billing.

So I've not had satisfactory explanation to how your system works, are you willing to explain it here if I give you all the dates.

Hello Bloblik and thanks for coming back to me with the additional information.

I'm sorry our advisor didn't explain the billing properly. We use a billing window which, for quarterly billed customers, is open 14 days either side of the next bill date. The first set of readings entered whilst this window is open automatically creates a bill. Readings entered outside of the window are logged but don't automatically lead to a bill unless manually done by either the customer or one of our advisors.

Once logged in to your Mum's account, you'll be able to see the next bill date on the first screen. It's in the red box on the right near the top of the screen.

I understand where our advisor was coming from when talking about it not being a perfect quarter. It depends when the readings are entered in the billing window. I don't understand, though, their comments about readings entered on 27 January not being billed until 1 February. Readings entered during the billing window result in a bill almost immediately and certainly within 24 hours.

To make sure your Mum's bills are as near as possible to a perfect quarter it's best, if you can, to enter readings around the same time during each billing window. This will leave you with one bill per quarter.

Just a thought but there's also a Real Time Billing facility on our website. This lets you enter readings outside of the billing window and either see the balance that would result or issue your own bill. It helps give you more control over the account.

Sorry again for the frustration caused by our advisor's inadequate explanation and hope this is a bit clearer. Thank you also for giving us readings on a regular basis. Let me know if you're still unsure as happy to help.

Malc

Bloblik · 22 June 2018 at 2:46PM

Thanks for your reply.

Went to find where this real time billing is, but can't find it under 'enter meter readings', is that the wrong place to look ?

Now we have opened this back up, guess I would really like to know why this additional bill was created, here are the dates:

Bill 1 - dated 27-01-2018 for £49.49
FIRST Meter reading given 24-01-2018
Paid in full 19-02-2018

(I am told this first meter reading starts the quarterly billing period, I am told to give meter readings 3 months from 24-01-18, with a 2 week window ether side.
I am then told this week that the quarter in fact started on 01-02-18, however should that make any difference - I was within the 'two week either side' period).

Bill 2 dated 17-04-18 £74.98
Meter reading given 17-01-18
Paid in full 04-05-18

Bill 3 dated 17-05-18 £24.82
Estimated

Why did my second meter reading on 17-04-18 give rise to Bill 3 ?

I would have expected to give my next meter reading two weeks either side of 17-07-18, and receive my next bill on or around the 17-07-18, instead I am told my next bill will in fact be on 1st August.

EON seems to not have accepted meter reading 2 as being within the two week period, which I think it is, and as a result spewed out this extra bill.

Ironically, yesterday your debt collection department was chasing payment for Bill 3.
It was agreed to leave it unpaid until the next bill in August, so why chase in the first place, the electricity bill for the house has been paid regular as clockwork every quarter for the last 50 years !

Personally I can live with all this, but trying to explain it all to a frail 90 year old recently widowed woman, has just been made impossible by your company.
Your bills or website do not give any guidance of when the quarter starts and ends, and so you do not know when to give meter readings ... even your email reminders do not give a suggested window of dates for readings ...

I find it all very vague ....

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc · 22 June 2018 at 5:53PM

Bloblik wrote: »

Thanks for your reply.

Went to find where this real time billing is, but can't find it under 'enter meter readings', is that the wrong place to look ?

Now we have opened this back up, guess I would really like to know why this additional bill was created, here are the dates:

Bill 1 - dated 27-01-2018 for £49.49
FIRST Meter reading given 24-01-2018
Paid in full 19-02-2018

(I am told this first meter reading starts the quarterly billing period, I am told to give meter readings 3 months from 24-01-18, with a 2 week window ether side.
I am then told this week that the quarter in fact started on 01-02-18, however should that make any difference - I was within the 'two week either side' period).

Bill 2 dated 17-04-18 £74.98
Meter reading given 17-01-18
Paid in full 04-05-18

Bill 3 dated 17-05-18 £24.82
Estimated

Why did my second meter reading on 17-04-18 give rise to Bill 3 ?

I would have expected to give my next meter reading two weeks either side of 17-07-18, and receive my next bill on or around the 17-07-18, instead I am told my next bill will in fact be on 1st August.

EON seems to not have accepted meter reading 2 as being within the two week period, which I think it is, and as a result spewed out this extra bill.

Ironically, yesterday your debt collection department was chasing payment for Bill 3.
It was agreed to leave it unpaid until the next bill in August, so why chase in the first place, the electricity bill for the house has been paid regular as clockwork every quarter for the last 50 years !

Personally I can live with all this, but trying to explain it all to a frail 90 year old recently widowed woman, has just been made impossible by your company.
Your bills or website do not give any guidance of when the quarter starts and ends, and so you do not know when to give meter readings ... even your email reminders do not give a suggested window of dates for readings ...

I find it all very vague ....

Hello Bloblik and many thanks for the extra information.

I've not been working on MSE this afternoon and have only just seen your post. I'm away in a few minutes until next Tuesday so don't want to rush a reply. I'll go through all the details carefully and advise more on Tuesday. Just didn't want to leave you hanging.

Quick one before I go. Once you've logged in to the online account, choose Give us a Meter Reading in the red box on the first screen I mentioned earlier. On the next screen, enter readings and you'll be given the option of seeing the balance that would come about or issuing a bill to the readings entered.

Have a good weekend Bloblik.

Malc

Bloblik · 22 June 2018 at 8:14PM

Hi Malc,

I am concerned to try the meter reading option you suggest in case the system sends my mum another bill.

No rush with the answers - when you get back, thanks.

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