E.on Nightmare

Giblet93 · 29 January 2020 at 2:28AM

When I moved into my flat 3 years ago the supplier for the property was Scottish power but then I switched to british gas, the flat is electric only and so I was paying for my supply by a prepayment meter inside the property, during the first 3 month I lived here I was receiving bills from E.on addressed to the previous owner some of the letters they were sending were quite aggressive threatening to break into the property and installing a debt collection meter so I decided to call E.on in good faith to make them aware the previous owner had moved out and I had taken over the property with a different supplier so what E.on did next was simply put my name on the bill instead and continued sending the bills in my name, I have had 4 engineers at my property from E.on and British Gas to determine who the actual supplier for my property is it turns out E.on have 2 electric metres connected to my property from a communal meter cupboard outside my flat but what they actually supply me is a mystery because when my british gas prepayment meter runs out of credit I have no power at all. I have paid over £5000 for the supply I've used in the 3 years I've lived here but E.on are claiming I owe them over £3000 when there is no evidence to suggest they are supplying my property at all, I been in contact with ombudsman and at first I thought they were on my side but as the investigation dragged out they stopped contacting me and are saying the investigation is closed even so we did not come to any kind of conclusion as to whether I should pay e.on. I dont know why I have 2 suppliers and feel like I'm being conned E.on are now taking court action and I dont know what else to do.

Robin9 · 29 January 2020 at 8:32AM

Is there by the second meter a consumer unit or switch fuse ?

Switch it off and see what goes off.

MWT · 29 January 2020 at 9:44AM

Do you have storage heaters or under-floor heating?

I wonder if you have a 'comfort plus white meter' as well as your normal meter.

dogshome · 29 January 2020 at 10:08AM

What a Mess
You can't have two Electricity suppliers, so if turns out that Eon are the true supplier, Brit Gas will have to repay all the monies you paid to them.

Two Eon meters? - Is your flat on an ECO7 tariff?

Best to check these Eon meters in the service room for yourself
Note the meter Nos on the Eon Bills and turn off everything in your flat
Then with a friend with a mobile phone, visit the service room and look at one of the Eon meters, (Which should not be moving), and then ask the friend to Switch the kettle On & Off to your orders - The meter should advance or stop in exact time to your orders.
And then do the same with the second meter - It you are on an ECO7 tariff only one meter will be working during the day, and the other one only during the night

If these tests do show the meter/meters operating to your commands, then your supplier is Eon, if they don't they are not

Giblet93 · 29 January 2020 at 5:38PM

The E.on meter is recording the same usage as my british gas meter both meters advance at the exact same rate the other eon meter doesn't advance at all and doesn't effect my supply at all whether I turn it on or off, I do also have storage heaters but they dont work.

dogshome · 29 January 2020 at 7:35PM

OK - You seem to be on an ECO7 tariff, but it seems the cheap night rate function on the Eon meter is faulty.

Heaven only knows how, but the Brit Gas PAYGO meter in your flat, is actually a sub-meter taking it's energy via the Eon meter in the service room.

WRITE a joint Complaint letter to both Eon & Brit Gas highlighting the problem, pointing out that till the problem is resolved you can't pay any thing, and that if the BG billing is the erroneous one, you can't afford to pay Eon till BG have returned the money you paid to them'. It's important you do this to get Eon off your back and establish a paper trail as the investigation continues

dogshome · 30 January 2020 at 1:17PM

Could it be that this is what has happened ? Comment appreciated

A block of flats is built with Credit Meters housed in a common service room, with access only by caretaker, or resident with caretaker

At some point in time, the resident in this flat has money troubles and the supplier fits a PAYGO meter, but because there is no 24/7 access to the service room to top up the meter, the supplier opts to put the PAYGO meter inside the flat

So whilst it is in fact a sub-meter, it has it's own account number so the supplier can collect the payments
Over time, a later tenant or even a number of tenants, opt to change the their supplier and use the PAYGO meters details to do so, with the final one to Brit Gas by the OP, and before that it was Scot Power.

The plot gets thicker
I doubt if Eon were the original supplier to block as I don't think they are in the business, (Stand to be corrected), of the heavy work of getting a newly built block of flats hooked up to the grid, in which case some earlier tenant swapped from the original supplier to Eon

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc · 30 January 2020 at 5:21PM

Giblet93 wrote: »

When I moved into my flat 3 years ago the supplier for the property was Scottish power but then I switched to british gas, the flat is electric only and so I was paying for my supply by a prepayment meter inside the property, during the first 3 month I lived here I was receiving bills from E.on addressed to the previous owner some of the letters they were sending were quite aggressive threatening to break into the property and installing a debt collection meter so I decided to call E.on in good faith to make them aware the previous owner had moved out and I had taken over the property with a different supplier so what E.on did next was simply put my name on the bill instead and continued sending the bills in my name, I have had 4 engineers at my property from E.on and British Gas to determine who the actual supplier for my property is it turns out E.on have 2 electric metres connected to my property from a communal meter cupboard outside my flat but what they actually supply me is a mystery because when my british gas prepayment meter runs out of credit I have no power at all. I have paid over £5000 for the supply I've used in the 3 years I've lived here but E.on are claiming I owe them over £3000 when there is no evidence to suggest they are supplying my property at all, I been in contact with ombudsman and at first I thought they were on my side but as the investigation dragged out they stopped contacting me and are saying the investigation is closed even so we did not come to any kind of conclusion as to whether I should pay e.on. I dont know why I have 2 suppliers and feel like I'm being conned E.on are now taking court action and I dont know what else to do.

Giblet93 wrote: »

The E.on meter is recording the same usage as my british gas meter both meters advance at the exact same rate the other eon meter doesn't advance at all and doesn't effect my supply at all whether I turn it on or off, I do also have storage heaters but they dont work.

Hello Giblet93 and welcome to the Forums.

I agree with dogshome, this does sound a mess. To be honest, I'm not sure what's happened here and please forgive my speculation.

It sounds like the metering in the communal cupboard is what's known as a Restricted Hours Tariff (RHT) set up. These were common in all-electric properties with storage heaters. The Comfort Control set up MWT mentions was an RHT installed originally by Scottish Power.

They involve two meters with one wired directly into the dedicated circuits for heating and water heating. This will record electricity used for heating/water heating coming through these dedicated circuits. A second meter records all other electricity used for things like lights, TV, appliances and any heating/water heating (like convection heaters) not going through the dedicated circuits.

You say your storage heaters don't work. This could be why one of the meters isn't advancing.

It seems at some point, as dogshome says, a prepayment sub-meter was fitted inside the flat. This allows you to top-up through the meter in your flat. Even though you're paying for this via a local retail outlet, the supplier should be sending statements showing electricity used and payments made. Are you receiving these and, if yes, are they from us or BG?

What's not clear is how and when we became involved. Scottish Power were the supplier when you moved in and then you changed to BG. Are the bills we're chasing linked to an old debt or do they include recent usage?

There are a couple of things that come to mind. The bills could relate to electricity used in the past. Maybe a previous occupier switched to us before the account moved to BG and didn't settle their final bills.

Another possibility is what's known as a crossed meter. This is where meter details become mixed up between different properties. This sometimes happens in blocks of flats where meters are kept in a communal area. They result in customers being billed for usage recorded on the wrong meter. If another flat is supplied by us and the meter is attached to your account, the bills will be wrong. We've a specialist Crossed Meters team who can sort this.

Follow dogshome's excellent advice and check the meter serial numbers we're billing to are the same as those on the meters supplying your flat.

More information is needed and a good source would be the results of the Energy Ombudsman's investigation. We've a team who look after all referrals to the Ombudsman. Please contact us with the Ombudsman's reference number and ask to speak to this team with the questions you have.

I'm sorry for all the questions and speculation Giblet93. This is an unusual one.

Malc

E.on Nightmare

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