Hi every one I wonder if any one can help me.

I am with EON for electricity and gas.

I have had nothing but problems since moving to them a few years ago.

They always over charge and seem to help themselves to money from my account.

It got so bad that I had to cancel direct debit after a while and paid online via their website.

then I was in control as to what I was paying not them.

I logged a complaint and thought things were sorted.

at beginning of year set up a new direct debit but they started over charging again.

I always submit regular readings but this makes no difference they still seem to make up there own numbers,

I contacted them and told them I would not pay bill until they corrected it and cancelled direct debit again.

Instead of correcting bill they just start adding fees to it making it go up and up.

I made a small payment and contacted them again by phone

I explained situation and told them I wanted bill corrected before I would pay rest and wanted fees removed.

Again instead of helping they add more late payment fees.

I try phoning again to be told they have no record of last call or my problems.

I explained every thing again and they promised to sort it.

But bill was never corrected and more Late payment fees were added.

The next thing I know some one from EON knock on my door

I explained every thing to them

they say that there is nothing they can do and I have to agree to set up a direct debit and make a payment there and then or they will disconnect me.

I reluctantly agreed as realised I was going to have to pay too much and fees as they won't help

made a payment and set up a direct debit.

A £75 charge was also added to my bill for this visit.

They took payments for several months but then EON cancelled direct debit for no reason.

I did not know for a while as at this point my youngest son was very poorly and in hospital and had been at hospital with him for many weeks.

As soon as I realised I contacted them by phone but they were just rude.

I made a payment online via their website but again this was not good enough for EON.

Some one from EON came to my house again and again threatened to disconnect me.

I again explained situation they made me speak to some one on phone who was again very rude spoke to me like I was a child and made me repeat what they said. It was humiliating.

I again made a payment and set up direct debit.

And again was charged £75 for visit added on to bill.

They took payment for one month then again cancelled direct debit for no reason.

Despite the payments I have made my out standing bill is still very high because of all the fees and charges and because they are still over charging.

I can not afford now to pay it off in one go.

As don't have much money at moment as son is still poorly and are spending a fortune getting my son medical treatment.

I wish I wish could as then I would leave this awful company.

EON are now threatening to disconnect me again.

I have told them I will not speak to them by phone any more as am sick of the rudeness or being told we have no record if you cotacting us before.

I have made a formal complaint a week ago it writing via email and post.

I explained every thing again and stated twice I would only communicate in writing as want a paper trail and evidence now.

They ignored this and started harassing me by phone, phoning again and again.

They then started sending threatening emails saying I had to phone or email.

I email them explain again and say I won't speak on phone.

I just get emails back accusing me of not answering phone or getting in touch.

They say they need more information but won't tell me what information they want.

I have emailed them back again and again to ask what information they need

they just keep ignoring my emails and accusing me of not contacting them just because I won't Speak to them on phone.

( and yes I am sending to correct email I have checked and double checked)

It is one week since I made formal complaint

recieved a email this morning saying they have stopped working on my complaint and I have to pay in full or will be disconnected.

I just don't know what to do.

I made a payment of £200 via their website

and have offered to pay £200 each month to pay off remainder

I'm not refusing to pay and have never refused to pay.

Where do I go from here?

What do I do next?

Can they force me to speak on phone?

Also when making a formal complaint shouldn't they work for 8 weeks to sort out not just 1 week.

Any advice would be very much appreciated

Thanks in advance

It sounds like a very nasty story and I'm sure that you must have had a very difficult time and feeling very distressed about it.

I suppose that we are going to have to start off with a slapped wrist – because although you've been here since 2008 and you should know that we are always nagging people to record their calls, you haven't done any of that so that all of the extremely useful telephone calls you have had have gone completely unrecorded so you have no useful evidence to support what you say – unless Eon decide to confirm your version of events or else they are prepared to release the telephone records to you (fat chance of that).

Now that you have understood how important it would have been to have all of this recorded and logged, you had better start undoing the damage and get to control the situation. That means that you should read our customer services guide and then you should implement the advice there. This is very important. After that, have as many telephone calls as you can with different people and get all the different versions of story/excuse/promises that you can safely recorded – and then safely backed up – as per our customer services guide which has been posted up for several years.

Also, as soon as you can – meaning the next working day, send them an SAR. Send accompanied by a cheque so that you can keep a close eye on whether it gets cashed and when.

You're going to have to build up of everything that has happened to put yourself in a position where you can deal with it.

I'm appalled at the £75 visit fees. Where does this come from? Has it been agreed? Were the visits made by appointment?

Of course there are rules about the way they should handle formal complaints – but they are a big energy company and you are just a customer. Not only that, in their eyes, you are a customer who is trying to pull a fast one over them. They have complete faith in their systems – and they know that you don't have any systems because you don't bother to record calls or take any precautions and therefore they know that they can crush you any time.

While you are waiting for the SAR to be satisfied, make the calls that I have suggested over a period of time. Not only record the calls – but also logged the calls so that you got a commentary on each one in your notebook.

Log all calls – time day et cetera. In fact, follow the advice in our customer services guide.

If you have any of the paperwork, then start calculating what you should have paid – against your bank statements to see what you did pay. You have kept a note of the readings you gave them, haven't you?

Have you still got all the bills and paperwork they have sent you?

Hi,

Thanks for your reply and for being honest. But I don't have the equipment needed to record calls why should I have to spend out money on special equipment to be able to record calls. It's rediculous. I have copies of my phone records that show every call I made to EON and dates and times.

I also have copies of every letter and every email I sent. I have every meter reading I submitted written down. And have all bills and bank statements showing payments I've made.

When they turned up at my house it was un announced. So no they did not make a appointment.

Is none of the above any good for evidence.

I don't want to speak to them on phone just for them to be rude again and again and not listen. And should not have to.

I guess the only way to sort this out is to try and find money some how and pay in full. Will be busy trying to sell things over Christmas to try and get the money .

It seems so unfair though that customers can be treated so badly and have no rights.

Only companies have rights and it's perfectly acceptable for them to over charge there customers and take what ever money they like and threaten customers when they like.

I Guess lesson learned time to find money asap pay off and move on.

Thanks any way

you havent indicated how much they say you owe.

You say you have meter readings,

you can look up historic standing charges and fuel cost rates

you can calculate how much fuel you have used

and thus what you have actually paid for

then hit them with your figures rather then relying on their word about all of this.

Agree that £75 charge is unlawful.

To disconnect they have to get a court order and that can be fought.

If it gets that far you are likely to get the judge to deny them their application as you can show

willing,

their unreasonableness and

unlawful billing

it sounds like a scare tactic that has worked once rather than a genuine desire.

Hi,

 

Thanks for your reply and for being honest. But I don't have the equipment needed to record calls why should I have to spend out money on special equipment to be able to record calls. It's rediculous. I have copies of my phone records that show every call I made to EON and dates and times.

 

I also have copies of every letter and every email I sent. I have every meter reading I submitted written down. And have all bills and bank statements showing payments I've made.

 

When they turned up at my house it was un announced. So no they did not make a appointment.

 

Is none of the above any good for evidence.

 

I don't want to speak to them on phone just for them to be rude again and again and not listen. And should not have to.

 

I guess the only way to sort this out is to try and find money some how and pay in full. Will be busy trying to sell things over Christmas to try and get the money .

 

It seems so unfair though that customers can be treated so badly and have no rights.

 

Only companies have rights and it's perfectly acceptable for them to over charge there customers and take what ever money they like and threaten customers when they like.

 

I Guess lesson learned time to find money asap pay off and move on.

 

 

Thanks any way

of course you are quite wrong. You do have rights. But they are only useful to you if you assert them. The reason why you should get a recorder in place is because it will help you assert your rights not only against this company but against every other company that tries to shaft you.

I'm afraid that what you are saying here doesn't make sense. You prefer to pay the money that you don't actually owe to EON to get them off your back rather than pay a much smaller sum of money to get a recording device in order to defend yourself against them and all the others. I really don't understand your economics.

Not only might you be able to avoid paying money which according to you you dont't owe, but also you may well be able to get back the excess money they have charges so far including the visiting fees.

Yet you prefer to give up all of this and even to pay money to a bunch of bullies, rather than stand up and defend yourself with a fairly small outlay.

We are happy to help you – and here you will get thousands of pounds worth of advice for free – that you have to do it yourself. It is enormously satisfying when you finally beat them – but you have to do muster the strength and also the persistence to do it.

It's excellent that you seem to have so much of the paperwork and telephone logs et cetera. Many people don't even have that so you've made a good start. However, the SAR is essential because you have no idea what else is lurking there that you don't know about and yet which will be extremely helpful to you. The telephone recordings will also be useful to you because they will say a lot of things which they shouldn't do and you can use against them.

When you have finally assembled a useful file of information then you can decide whether to make a complaint against them through the energy ombudsman or through the courts. I'm afraid that I always favour the courts. The energy ombudsman is weak and limp wristed and won't be very helpful to you.

The County Court route is recently straightforward, cheap, and if your evidence is well-prepared it will be almost risk-free. Once EON receive court papers you will find that they generally start paying attention to what has gone wrong.

However, all that is some way away. You need to start preparing yourself.

By the way, just because you pay EON the money that they say you owe them, doesn't mean that you're suddenly going to have a trouble-free life. You have no guarantee that they will suddenly start to get things right.

If you decide to swap providers – then there is no guarantee that your new provider is any better.

The best thing you can do is to attack the people who are oppressing you now.

It's all up to you

Bank Fodder again thank you you reply. You keep going on about recording phone calls and how I can use it as evidence against them. Do you know the laws around recording phone calls. Because as I understand it you can legally record calls but if you don't get permission from the company or person you speak to to record call you can only use it as evidence when contacting company. You would not be able to use it as evidence if for example you complained to a third party like ombudsman and certainly would not be able to use in court as evidence if you did not get permissions.

I'm pretty sure if I told them I'm recording call they would just hang up. Meaning getting permission would be hard to impossible. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Secondly 2 of the many phone calls took place when they turned up at my door( yes they did have ID) and they made me use there mobile to speak to EON how am I meant to record from some one else's phone and with out there permission.

The reason I would rather just pay it off is that there seems like no other option. Also like I said my youngest son has been and still is poorly. He is currently in hospital and I need to be with him. I have 3 other children with medical conditions I need to be there for my children especially my youngest, I don't have time to waste spending hours on phone just to get no where and be spoken rudely.

I'm not scared of standing up for my rights and fighting but can't see why I can't sort thing out in writing. I can't turn back the time and record all the phone calls from the past.

I understand that once Its paid off they will probably still over charge me. I will just have to accept this and pay the over charges and let them take what they want each month.

Like you say there is no magic fix and no way I can stop them with out going through a whole lot of nightmare. Which I can't be dealing with right now as need to concentrate on my son.

Especially if it means wasting my time and money on stupid phone calls and recording them

I'm sorry if you don't understand this.

You can record phone calls and it is up to Ombudsman or Judges whether they accept or not. Remember that you have rights under the Data Protection Act. Most companies won't deal with you by phone unless you agree that they will record phone calls. You can't opt out.

Or course, ideally you should confirm that you are recording a call for future reference and confirm that you are happy for the company you are calling to record the call as well.

In your position, I would have threatened to sue them by now and be dealing with their CEO's office. If I have a complaint like this, then I don't take any prisoners going straight to someone senior who can get it sorted. If you allow their customer service muppets too much time to resolve, it just seems to drag on getting worse.

And there are plenty of ways of contacting companies these days. EON have a site rep Malcolm who posts on CAG and he might be able to intervene.

I can well understand you being nervous and also of course it's a complete nuisance to have to go around taking these kind of precautions and watching your back all the time. Most people are very reasonable and would prefer a quiet life.

Unfortunately you haven't come here because you are getting a quiet life. You pay your money for your energy – and you would expect them to do their job properly and leave you alone. I'm afraid that for thousands of people every year that's not how it works.

You are quite right that if you warn them then they will either hang up on you or they won't say the things that you need them to say. However, you don't need to warn them. You don't need to let them know at all that you are recording the call. You don't need to let them know that you are recording the call unless you intend to use a recording in some way such as publishing it on YouTube or putting the file up on this forum so that we can all listen to it.

If you use a recording for your own private purposes then there is no problem at all. Private purposes would include making a complaint to the ombudsman or bringing a court case. These are entirely legitimate reasons for making a call and in effect it amounts to – self defence.

If you really feel that you can't handle any of it and if you have the money then by all means settle their bill. I notice that someone asked you how much we were talking about – but I'm not sure that you gave an answer. However although I would hope that if you settle their bill that will put an end to the matter – if it doesn't then you will be back to square one. It's up to you. Whatever you decide to do I would certainly invest £10 and send them an SAR. The information you receive could be very useful for this complaint – or if you decide to make a complaint in the future because the problem continues then it could be very useful for that.

I'm not sure what else we can usefully say here. You came here to ask advice and we have given you our very best advice – and you seem reluctant to take it. I'm not too sure in that case why you simply haven't paid off the company instead of bothering to come here.

Anyway, let us know what you want to do. You are always welcome. You won't be the first and you won't be the last that has had their life wrecked by EON or Npower or SSE – or any of the rest.

Unfortunately, it will only get better when people take the trouble to complain against them. If you simply pay them off then effectively you are giving them the green light to continue. They aren't dishonest but they are hopelessly incompetent. It's clear that their management is rubbish and their executives are rubbish because as far as the management is concerned, they allow this to go on and of course the executives have no idea what is going on because nobody tells them. If the executives did know what was going on then they would be horrified – but you probably find that they wouldn't have the skills to sort it out.

Either now or some other time you will start recording your calls because you will realise that it is the only way to stick up for yourself. You can probably sort out the recording equipment for less than £50. If you invest the £50 now and start using it then it will start to earn its keep more than if you do it in a years time.

Keep us informed if you hear anything more or if you want any help.

I am with EON for electricity and gas.

I have had nothing but problems since moving to them a few years ago.

They always over charge and seem to help themselves to money from my account.

And that is when you needed to kick them in to touch and got rid.

If you have all of the records of the DD's you have setup, you should be able to invoke the DD guarantee for the times EON helped themselves?