E-on / powergen

[licklelady]

Hi all,

my mum has had a pre payment meter for as along as i can remember and has never been in debt for her electricity.

However she recently recieved a letter from e-on saying they needed to upgrade her meter to a key meter instead of a card meter and then on the bottom it said she was in debt by £435!!!.

I called and they said its due to her meter not being updated with the latest rate etc, and once she gets the new meter installed they will set it so it pays the bill off gradually. However this could take another 6 months... so meanwhile she is still going to be paying the wrong rate.

Surley the debt is there fault... they should have got out and changed the meter sooner... why should she now have to pay a higher rate to pay off the debt.

Is there anything I can do? or do i just agree and let them do it.

[2Grumpy]

Sounds like they need to substantiate that with meter readings, dates, prices at those dates, price change dates and estimates.

Not sure if they can go back more than a year with claiming for that either.

I would suggest contacting e-on first about exactly how they reach that figure, then ask for it in writing.

Contact Energywatch if it is for more than 12 months and ask them how long they can retrospectively bill for with pre-pay meters charging at the wrong rate (due to e-on's negligence)

Remember that it's these idiots fault. A general guide is that they should give you as long to pay as it took to accrue, so for a 12 months bill they need to give 12 months to pay, presumably pre-loaded onto the new meter.

Presumably they have fixed the rate now?

I don't know how old your mum is or whether she would be happy to talk to these ****s. This might get involved. I realise that it is difficult to do things on another person's behalf - e-on will shout "data protection" so you will need permission in writing from your mum. I certainly wouldn't suggest pretending to be your mum in order to sort this mess out even if she agreed.

Grumpy

[ozzywizard]

If your with your mum when she phones then she can give verbal permission for you to discuss the account.
They need to ammend your bill as they can only collect none calibration debt untill April 2007 any more accrued from then they cannot collect from you and need to credit back to your account. Also also they can only go back 2 years from now, so going back 2 years from Dec is Dec 2005 so they can only charge her from Dec 2005 to April 2007. With the token meters it required an engineer to come out and adjust the meter on price increases which was never done causing people to build up a debt. This has been on watchdog and received heaps of bad press so the above agreement was anounced by Powergen and most other companies like BG have announced to write off the whole debt whilst Powergen did not. If there is still a slight debt you can also request they collect it from the new key meter at like a pound a week due to the debt accruing by this amount and it being there fault. Any problems let me know and I will post a number that you are guaranteed to get through to a prepayment manager there, this is a paying number as it is not a customer number but one staff use to phone in sick etc. but goes through to a managers phone (the same phone a customer would phone) .

[licklelady]

Happy ending.....

well I spoke to E-on and they were horrible, says that the bill goes back to 2003 and that she needs to pay all of it. They said that they would set it at £3 a week. I argued for a £1 and they said no.

Her meter was last adjusted in March 2006 !!! I asked why it hadnt been done again and the girl on the phone said the engineer was refused entry...lol... the meter is on the outside of the house so this wouldnt have happened.

By this point i was angry.. so I called energywatch and explained the situation they were great and gave me a refernece number and then trnasfered me through to a department at E-on who have beeen set up to sort these issues out.

The guy was great... turns out you lot were right, they can only claim for between april 2005 and april 2007, so that has brought the payment down to £240... and it is going to be set at £1 a week from the meter.

They are coming out to reset the meter on the 11 january.

thanks alot everyone for your help.

[Bookworm]

EXCELLENT result.

[The GodMother]

hang on the rules say they can only collect for a years worth of debt from july 2007 NOT two years. This means they can only co;eect from january 2007.

[ozzywizard]

Hiya GodMother, them rules only apply for unbilled charges. Kinda differant for none calibration debt on prepayment meters as they pay as they go.

[joe1965]

When was the last time you recieved a bill from them? They can only charge back one year from the date of your last bill. They have done the same thing with our meter and the bill is over £700. But we have had no bill for over four years and even though I have asked for one they won't send one. So longer they leave it less they will get back.

[Badeon]

Problem with E.on, do they know what hey are doing? and how do they get off on sending me a bill for £488.92 between June 2004 and Sept 2007 when I was using a prepayment card meter for the whole period at my old address!!

Apparently the payments I made using my Powergen payment card at the co-op have not registered with them at E.on and they don't know where the money has gone "not my problem". So as I don't have any receipts for the payments they can't determine where the money has gone! This makes me liable for the outstanding amount that I have already payed for " how could they know the amount if I hadn't purchased the cards in the first place" they have said they are not disputing the fact that I purchased the payment cards but the want proof! "Could Shell petrol do that to me because I have thrown away there receipts as well" It also states on the back of my prepayment card (Payments made using this card will be credited to the customer and the account number shown on the reverse!) ha ha. When I purchased an electric card I would keep the receipt up until the point of putting it in their meter to make sure it credited my account and I could use their electricity, if not I would take it back to the co-op and exchange it. END OF TRANSACTION "its commonsense" yeh

The reason I used a prepayment card meter was so I would never get myself into this position. "Whats the point" I spent ages talking to them and I got no where, just next supervisor. "They called my mobile in Europe twice, 45mins at a time they will try to send me the phone bill next"

Anyhow they managed to reduce the bill to £398.00 because they managed to find a few sporadic payments "wheres the rest of the payments I made?"

Funny thing is powergen never mentioned this when I terminated my contract for my old address and I left the premises in credit. I only ever received statements stating how much I had spent corresponding to how much I had used. Then E.on take over in December 2007 and WHAM!!! I also used powergen as my gas supplier and paid them quarterly no problems and when I left the property paid them up to date in full.

Their letter states that they will sent a recovery agency around, I could face prosecution and this will damage my credit rating! "Thats nice of them!" I'm so glad I paid them well in advance. It must be a real honor to be part of the E.on team, well done ladies and gents from another smegged off sucker who bares a grudge.

Signed BADEON

[ozzywizard]

You say you kept the receipts untill it credited your account, unfortunatly crediting your meter does not constitute crediting your account.
That was the biggest problem with the old token meters, that you had a 19 digit PAN number that was unique to your account and any tokens purchased against this PAN number would credit your account. If you used somone elses card to purchase tokens it will credit your meter but not your account, instead it will credit the account of the card holder. Putting you in debt on your account (as no payment made against your account for useage used) and the card holders account in credit as they made way to many payments for consumption. By law the person in credit can claim back the credit whilst the person in debit needed to pay back their bills. This cannot happen on gas or the new key meters as the card used for purchasing supply is unique to both the meter and the account.

It does seem unfair but from the companies point of view electric has been used that has received no payments and there is probably an account sat somwere on the system with loads of credit on it, maybe an old property of yours were you took the card with you or a friends or family member that you asked to pick up some cards for you and they used there card not realizing that topping up your meter would top up their account.

[joe1965]

Originally Posted by ozzywizard

Hiya GodMother, them rules only apply for unbilled charges. Kinda differant for none calibration debt on prepayment meters as they pay as they go.

Something I have been told by energywatch. It is from when you are billed for the electricity you have used.
Prepayment customers receive statements, so they can only go back a year from when they actualy bill you for the money they beleive you owe.
My deadlock letter from them said it was their fault the meter hadn't been changed but they still think I'm going to pay them. Some chance of that.

[Badeon]

I understand that my account could not have been credited if I used somebody else's card. I have my card with my unique 19 digit number in my name with the corresponding 10 digit reference number which has been quoted over the phone. On the back of the card it clearly states (Payments made using this card will be credited to the customer and the account number shown on the reverse) They also checked my previous address which showed nothing.

I have a old letter from powergen Dated 09/12/2005 stating:

My old address, name, date and customer reference number it reads as follows

Dear Mr Badeon

In the next few days you will receive a bill from us, we are sorry for the length of time it has taken to get this bill to you.

Once you have received the bill, if you have any questions relating to it, please do not hesitate to call on 0115 995 5043

Your sincerely A***-M**** C*****l
Customer Services

I phoned them on receiving this letter telling them I use a prepayment card meter. The reply was something like "oh just forget the letter then and discard it" so I did. It is just pure luck I managed to find this old letter.

They have billed three times in total on different occasions twice at the address concerned including this bill one for £488.00 and once at a previous address (nearly 4 years ago) I would phone them explain I use a prepayment card meter the reply would be something like "oh sorry about that just ignore it"

Do we the general public have to pay for their incompetence, put up with the stress it causes with threats of legal action, bailiffs and bad credit ratings. I for one am very upset with the way theses cooperations feel they have the right to use bullying tactics. They invade our peace of mind and we worry how can we stand up to these cooperate giants. E.on needs to remember without customers they have no business. I will not use them again.

All I wanted was some electricity I got it and I paid for it I will not pay for it again, because they never pressed the correct button on the computer or a file got lost.

The Saga continues...

BADEON appropriate name hey!!

[The GodMother]

I know the feeling.

I wont be using them either went they eventually get the mess they have caused with me sorted.