£3000+ gas bill from Eon after change over?

[Esther5]

This is my first posting. Not very good at dealing with bills etc so just do it all online and never check things out. All by direct debit. Changed over to Eon from Atlantic (Electirc and gas ) in March 2008. Had to give a meter reading the other day and got an email so thought I'd do it online instead of over the phone.

 

I checked the bills etc whilst I ws online. Our gas reading given by us on the phone at changeover time was 345. They used an estimated one instead of 6241.

 

The readings since then have been their readings of April: 376, Jul:417 and now our October reading of 450.

 

So according to them we used £3641.24 worth of gas between March and July 2008.

 

Where did they get this estimated figure of 6241 from? When I phoned they said they needed to contact my previous supplier (Atlantic ) to check things out and that it would take 6-8 weeks. Have Atlantic given them this figure? Do Atlantic have a different way of reading meters? Why can't I get it sorted out today!! I'm sure I paid up to date with Atlantic before I left...why would Eon take on their bill if I hadn't...but I did pay it anyway!!

 

Any help appreciated before I phone up Eon/Atlantic and lose it!!

 

Esther5

[Clare_L]

Hi Ester5

 

Eon will not be able to sort it out immediately because they need to contact Atlantic to ask them to agree a closing/opening read. Once these reads have been agreed they need to be sent to the data collectors too as they will also need them. Basically what they are doing is raising what is called an ARD, an agreed read dispute and normally take 3-5 weeks. Eon are NOT taking on any debt that you may or may not have had with Atlantic. All they will be doing is correcting the opening read to make sure you can be billed correctly in the future. In the meantime your account will be placed in dispute until this is resolved and you wont get a bill in the meantime or any reminders to pay the balance. I suggest you put some money aside each month. Contact them again in 3 weeks as they may eb able to chase this up. Some companies will agree a reading over the phone, but not all unfortunately.