EON reduced my payments too much. Want £252.

ray-s · 13 June 2018 at 9:22PM

Hello all. Dual fuel with EON for a few years. From April 2017 to October 2017 I was paying £67 a month and was happy with that. Then they said I was paying too much and reduced my payments to £31 a month. (just as we went into winter) I assumed they knew what they were doing. I now have a bill for £252 and have left them and gone to Bulb as recommended on here.
Is there anyone I can complain to about this?
Can I offer them £31 a month until paid off?
Thanks.

Robin9 · 13 June 2018 at 9:30PM

Has the transfer actually gone through - I would have expected Eon to block it as you are in debt.

ray-s · 13 June 2018 at 9:33PM

Hi Robin. Yes all transferred to Bulb. Final bill from EON
arrived today.

molerat · 13 June 2018 at 9:48PM

How was your account looking when you submitted readings each month and asked for a bill ? What happened when you went into your on line account and tried to amend the DD upwards ?

ray-s · 13 June 2018 at 9:55PM

Meter readings were only asked for every quarter and to be honest I didn't really look at my account. Didn't realise I could amend the DD myself but as I said before I assumed they knew what they were doing.
I am probably partly to blame for the current situation.

kev25v6 · 13 June 2018 at 10:04PM

EDF did the same to me. Moved to the blue price promise and they reduced monthly dd by a tenner I thought it would be because of the cheaper tariff, got to the end of the fixed term and owed 120 quid. I think it!!!8217;s a way of them keeping you from switching to another rival, if you have a large bill not everyone can pay it off in one go so you have to stay with them.

dogshome · 14 June 2018 at 8:02AM

Yes, you can come to an arrangement to clear the debt over time, and the amount of each installment is negotiable - The rule is that it should be something you can afford.

Be aware that with such an arrangement, if you miss a payment Eon will quickly involve Debt Collectors and the Courts
Make sure you get the deal confirmed in writing - there have been instances of customers sticking to terms, but then getting demands pay the whole balance immediately

spiro · 14 June 2018 at 9:51AM

Also if you don't pay the full amount within 28 days I suspect it will appear on your credit file as a debt.

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc · 15 June 2018 at 5:40PM

ray-s wrote: »

Hello all. Dual fuel with EON for a few years. From April 2017 to October 2017 I was paying £67 a month and was happy with that. Then they said I was paying too much and reduced my payments to £31 a month. (just as we went into winter) I assumed they knew what they were doing. I now have a bill for £252 and have left them and gone to Bulb as recommended on here.
Is there anyone I can complain to about this?
Can I offer them £31 a month until paid off?
Thanks.

Hello ray-s and sorry to lose you.

I'm guessing but it looks like we did a mid-point review at the end of summer when, I suspect, there was a credit balance on the account. Our aim is for payment arrangements to have as near as possible to a zero balance by the annual reviews. At the mid-point, it might have appeared you were on course for a significant credit balance by the annual review. As we try to ensure accounts don't have too much credit or debit, we'll have lowered your payments to stop this happening.

The review will have been based on previous usage and current prices. A change to either will have had an impact on the arrangement. The winter of 2017/18 was harsher than in recent years and it could be your usage increased to a higher level than 12 months before this. Also, did you change tariff around this time? If you did, this could also have had an effect.

Did you let us have meter readings regularly? As molerat says, there are tools on our website like the Direct Debit Manager and Real Time Billing, to help customers keep an eye on their accounts and see if anything unusual is happening. This includes being able to change the monthly payments to take account of new circumstances.

I totally accept, this isn't an exact science and sometimes payment arrangements go off course. We'll be happy to look at setting up a plan to spread the final balance over a more manageable period.

You can certainly complain and I'd encourage you to contact us. There are phone numbers on your bills and our website. Alternatively, we've an online Live Chat service and social media channels (twitter/Facebook) with private messaging to protect sensitive information. Or you can email through the website. Advisors are available from 8am to 8pm Monday to Friday and between 8am and 6pm Saturdays.

A Complaint manager will look at what happened and give you an explanation/resolution. If this isn't acceptable, another area of the business will take a second look. They'll either uphold the original resolution or offer an alternative. If this still isn't to your satisfaction, we'll let you have a Final Resolution Offer letter with instructions of how to approach the Energy Ombudsman for an independent assessment. There are more details about how we look after complaints on our website.

Sorry if my speculation is off track ray-s and hope this points you in the right direction.

Malc

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc · 19 June 2018 at 11:06AM

dogshome wrote: »

Yes, you can come to an arrangement to clear the debt over time, and the amount of each installment is negotiable - The rule is that it should be something you can afford.

Be aware that with such an arrangement, if you miss a payment Eon will quickly involve Debt Collectors and the Courts
Make sure you get the deal confirmed in writing - there have been instances of customers sticking to terms, but then getting demands pay the whole balance immediately

You're right dogshome, we're happy to look at setting up payment arrangements to spread outstanding balances over a more manageable/affordable period. These arrangements are automatically confirmed in writing.

With our payment plans, the agreed amount needs to be paid by the due date. Missed, late or partial payments will cause arrangements to fail. If this happens, we'll write to customers to let them know their plan has failed and that debt follow up will start. At this point, outstanding balances become due in full.

Without an agreed arrangement, we look for payment of final balances within 14 days of the bill date.

Hope this explains.

Malc

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc · 19 June 2018 at 11:16AM

spiro wrote: »

Also if you don't pay the full amount within 28 days I suspect it will appear on your credit file as a debt.

Hello spiro and you're right. We do share details of outstanding balances with Credit Reference Agencies but only if this remains unpaid 44 days after the bill and where there isn't an agreed payment plan in place.

Hope this explains.

Malc

EON reduced my payments too much. Want £252.

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