Thread: Eon threats

Does anyone have any advice?

I've been struggling to pay my gas/electric bill for about a year as my partner was made redundant, but i've been paying what I can. About a year ago, I set up a payment plan and kept to it, and paid off the outstanding balance of £800 by November.

Since then I've been making intermittent payments of £40 when I can, but the bill has built back up to £700. I've tried to set up a couple of payment plans, but they won't accept what I offer as a temporary measure and want me to pay £180 a month or they will go to a collection company.

I have phoned them up recently telling them that my partner has finally found a new job, and that his first pay will be the 7th July, and that after that I can agree to the payment plan they want. However they refused because I couldn't accept a new plan straight away even though I offered a lower weekly installment for a month until he gets his pay.

They said the only thing they could do was get someone to come out and take an up to date meter reading and see if it would reduce the payments.

I live in a maisonette and I don't have access to our electric meter, its in our next door neighbours property, however the gas meter is in ours, so I offered them a reading straight away. They said no they'd like to do it together on a specific date which was the 9th. On that date I was working and told them so , so they said I could leave the gas reading on the door and they would contact my neightbours for the electric. Then I was to phone them back today and discuss a payment plan.

Before I had chance to phone them, I got a phone call from someone saying they were contractors working for Eon, and that they needed to arrange an appointment to do a physical check of our gas meter as its something they do by law and to take a reading. I ageed to a date, but I was a bit concerned so I phoned Eon up and mentioned why they need to do a gas check as its done every year by the council and I wanted to check they actually worked for Eon.

They said the only time they come out to check meters for gas leaks was if we had reported a problem. So I mentioned that a contractor has phoned up and said what he said so they asked for my account details and checked, and said they noticed that someone has accessed my account that day.

She went to talk to a manager, came back and said the person who accessed my account was a member of their gas meter exchange team however there was no notes as to what they had arranged.

So I mentioned that they were lieing to me, telling me they were planning to check the meter when if they are part of a gas meter exchange team, it sounds like they are trying to change the meter probably to a pre-payment one.

They said they wasn't sure, they would try to get hold of the person. They kept me on hold for about 5 minutes, came back said the person who accessed my account was unavailable, but that they had sent them an e-mail asking what they were planning, and then that the eon manager would call me back when they go an answer.

So now i'm waiting for a phone call, and I haven't even had chance to discuss another payment plan and it sounds like they are going to change the meter without permission. I'm 6 months pregnant and I really don't want to be fighting people out of the house if they come to do something I didn't know about. There isn't anything I can do about the access to the electric meter. I don't have access to it.

Can they do this, or can I cancel the appointment I agreed to, as it seems like they lied to me about the reasons for checking the meter? I know I still need to wait for a call from a manager at eon when they get in touch with the person who accessed my account and let me know what's really happening. I have also given them another meter reading over the phone so they have an accurate reading now.

I'd say its just as likely that one department at EON doesn;t know what another is douing (as with many large companies) and they are just looking to do a standard meter change from one quarterly meter to another. Might be wrong but I think this is likely.

hi there, please stop worrying about this.
Once every 2 years we have to inspect the meter to ensure it is safe, although your council are checking your applianes etc anyway.

It will be the meter operators (mops) or the meter asset managers (mams) who want to check this. It certainly isn't part of the field debt team. Any action to fit a prepayment meter under a warrant follows a lengthy debt follow up process, and you would be aware that this was happening from the letters you would receive and also an agent visiting your property on a pre disconnection visit. A letter would be left at this point advising of the costs of a warrant and giving you notice etc

If you have an outstanding balance, please call 0845 301 5866 to discuss your situation and the possibility of a pay arrangement, please make sure to mention any vulnerabilities (children aged under 17 or people with disabilities) this will ensure you are added to the Priority Service Register and you are not disconnected.

I hope this helps

Thanks for that information. I was just reading things and getting worried. I haven't had any letters about warrants and such yet, although they keep asking me to fit a pre-payment meter when I call on the phone. You just see stories about people breaking into houses to fit the meters and not letting them know they have a warrant etc.

please call the number i quoted for 'payment solutions'. we will offer a direct debit to cover consumption and reapy debt, then a prepayment meter and then some other form of arrangement.

sounds like you have a big worry. I'm there from 8am on monday, so if u call, u may speak to someone lovely like me! A warrant isnt reached without going through several processes, so a lot of what you are hearing is from ppl who have tried hiding from their problems and ignored numerous letters, phone calls and upto 4 home visits, with letters hand delivered on each visit.

If you are struggling financially, a prepayment meter may be a good option because the debt can be collected at £3 per week and you wont get into debt again. EON have changed the unit prices to match the standard credit meter tariff.

Yes, there is a standing charge on a ppm, however, with the tariff you are on at the moment, you have to pay for primary and secondary units, there is barely any difference when it is worked out over the year...

Well hopefully I have this all sorted.

I never got a call back from a manager letting me know what was happening. However I explained the situation and they read the notes on my account and the girl I spoke to said they probably wanted to come out because there had been a lot of estimates on my account and they wanted an accurate reading.

They said the phone call I had originally was because it was reported the meter reader who came out had reported that they couldn't access the electric meter. However we don't have access to it either and i've told them on the phone several times this is the case and even though the girl says it is on my account now, it seems the meter reader wasn't informed.

As they now have an accurate reading and it shows that the estimates are correct they've set me up a weekly payment of £41 from when my partner gets his first pay from his new job that I can pay over the phone or by card payment. They've also said there is no visit planned for Saturday to check my meter or do any tests etc so it must have already been cancelled.

However I will phone back tomorrow to check that there is definitely no-one coming to check the meter on saturday just in case they didn't realise it was someone from a different team and the notes weren't there but with someone else.

So hopefully everything is ok. I really think there needs to be some better communication set up though as it seems information is getting lost between teams that Eon has set up. I know I have a debt, but I've done everything I can to pay what I can and also call Eon with information when I've had a problem etc.

With the system that E.ON use, all appointments are visible for any team within Customer Service if they have been booked by another team within the retail sector (ie who you would call to make a payment, give a reading etc)

If the appointment has been booked by a company of E.ON, such as Energy Services or the Central Heating Care team, then it will not show in the main system used by customer service... I would be very interested to have a look at your account and let you know exactly what is going on, however I dont want to give my information so i can be identified, as I'm sure you wouldn't lol

Well as I said the person who called to make the appointment I later found out was from the gas meter exchange team. Would appointments be held on the customer service system to be viewed for this team, or not?

Only asking as you seem to know.

Well I've phoned up again, and was told that even though a payment plan had been set up it wasn't finalised properly as there is no up to date electric reading now. I explained again for about the 10th time that I don't have access to our electric meter , its in our next door neighbours property and mentioned that I've been told every time they've made a note on my account, the lady informed me there was no note on my account for this. So all I need to do is get hold of my neighbours and try to get a meter reading for them.

Also my appointment hadn't been cancelled, and the lady said it was still on her screen plain for everyone there to see. However she was really helpful and contacted Siemens and got it cancelled this time as well as providing reference number for my electric meter etc and said that my account was fine and if I had any problems, just to keep talking to them to keep them updated.

So it seems that I have everything sorted hopefully is just a bit frustrating that everytime I've phoned up which has been a few times a week over this month I've been given different information and I'm glad I phoned to check that everything was ok.

Is there a different number we can call for Eon? We just had our phone bill and it was over £8 of call charges to sort all of this out and these calls were all after 7pm.

0800 096 1516