eon pre-payment meter problems

[matty2303]

this is quite a long winded one so please bear with me:

6 years ago i had a pre payment electricity meter fitted by eon.After about 2 years it became apparent that the meter was building a debt up , upon calling eon they told me it was only because they had estimated bills and not to concern myself. About a year later again i contacted them again due to the debt rising - this time i was told that the meter could be wired wrong - i was using other peoples tokens or i had tampered with the meter .This was all before the problems with these meters was so publicised. Last year when i requested something done about this situation they informed me as you are a heatwise customer we do not currently have a key meter compatable with this system , but we will change you meter shortly.

i recieved a letter this week asking me to phone them because they are withdrawing paper cards so they could let me know who will still stock them.When i phoned they said the letter is wrong and they now want to change the meter.There is a debt of £2000 that has bulit up due to eons failiure to calibrate the meter for six years. Being on benefits i simply cannot pay this back along with the huge increase in electricity price i'll have , i cannot change supplier due to having heatwise and nobody else being compatable.

is there anything i can do about this? should i contact cab or bbc watchdog?

[mattlamb]

This was a very common problem for EON prepayment customers upon having their cardmeter changed to a keymeter. Most EON customers have already had their meter changed to a keymeter by now. From what you are saying, I assume that you have an E10 cardmeter. EON are right in saying that there is no such thing as an E10 keymeter unfortunately. I imagine they will be changing it to an E7 keymeter with 7 hours instead of 10 hours worth of cheaper electric.

EON unfortunately are one of the suppliers that say the customer has to pay back the "debt" if they haven;t been efficient enough to recalibrate the cardmeter with the up to date prices previously. Plenty of suppliers just write off such "debts" (eg: EDF, British Gas). Furthermore, they don;t cap the level that can be set on the meter (unlike NPOwer).This policy is a scandal and has been in the news before.

 

E10 is a very good tariff to have if you have got electric storage heaters and certainly better than E7. Many old Eastern Electricity staff in the know had this type of meter fitted in the days of regional electric suppliers. Therefore, I would seriously consider trying to get a quarterly E10 meter fitted, instead of having an E7 keymeter. Whether EON would be prepared to do this is another matter. But this is what I would try for.

 

If you hot brick walls, yes you may wish to go to the industry ombudsman, or indeed Watchdog. I seem to recall that Watchdog got their teetch into the scandal of setting cardmeter "debts" onto new keymeters when the meter gets changed, although I may be wrong. So they may be very interested to hear about this. £2000 is an absolute huge amount that it is claimed has been underpaid, the most I have personally seen before in my job as a meter reader was about £1000 and normally the amount is consideraboly less than this.

 

Good luck.

[mattlamb]

Also if EON fail to cooperate, you may wish to refuse to cooperate with them in getting the meter changed (is your meter inside your house?). You could highlight the fact that you should not be penalised by paying more for your electric (as you undoubtebly would with an E7 as opposed to an E10 meter), when they could fit a quarterly E10 meter. I say this because a lot of suppliers don;t like changing prepayment for quarterly meters and will do eveything they can to prevent their having to do this. I think this is unfair and should be outlawed (unless the customer has a justifiable debt to pay back).

[mattlamb]

Also Matty, do you know how long it will be before you will no longer be able to buy prepayment cards for your meter. Obviously, it would be difficult to follow the above advice if it leaves you without electric!

 

PS: Heatwise is another term for E10 (or Economy 10) I think, where you get 5 hours of cheaper electric overnight and a 5 hour boost of cheaper electric in the afternoon-evening. Just in case youu're confused by my ramblings!

[matty2303]

thanks for the advice , not sure about the tokens , but obviously i dont want eon to change the meter and set the repayment as they see fit , until i have made some arangement.Looking on the consumer direct site it states

In order for them to be able to collect this type of debt, they must be able to prove that they made reasonable attempts to update your token meter after every price rise. (eon have never attempted to adjust)

 

In every instance your supplier should not attempt to backcharge for token meter debt older than 12 months (eon are trying to recover the debt in full)

is there any milage in what consumer direct say?

[matty2303]

Just a quick update for anyone else in this position.Eon have said this morning they will only try to recover any debt accrued from 2005-2007 - they are currently calculating this and sending it to me.They have also said that they accept that i will not let them update my meter until we have negotiated in writing the level of repayment , thanks for the help , i will update in due time

[mattlamb]

Be careful Matty - eon may say that but they may not keep to their word. Once a keymeter is fitted, I believe a debt can be fitted to the meter remotely and that they do not physically have to get someone to your home (and meter) to set it. You physically would not be able to prevent them setting it on your meter once you have the keymeter.

[matty2303]

thanks for the advice matt , id already thought of this thats why i'll insist on having it i writing , i'll still probabily fight the amount that they come back with because im now led to believe they can only back bill me 12 months , we'll see in time

[matty2303]

just an update eon have now said they are prepared to write off £1300 of the bill , but i must pay £700 that was accrued between Apr 2005 and apr 2007.When i asked them to justify the amount ,they have simply sent me a statement of account from 2008 onwards and not anything from 2005-2007. They also said they have tried to update my meter on several occasions but cannot get access , i asked them to prove this and they did not respond , my meter has been read by eon on 5-6 occasions while this debt has built up , so how can they say they cant acces my meter , i have put in a formal complaint and i think this could end up being a long drawn out affair!

[mattlamb]

Stick to your guns, Matty! £700.00 is a huge amount of moeny to pay back and they have not provided proof that you owe it.

It is Eon's fault if they did not make suitable arrangements to reset the prices on the old cardmeter. Unless you did not keep to a prebooked appointment or you refused access to the meter, they should not be setting the debt on the meter, whatever their terms and conditions may state. Other companies, as already stated, do not set such "debts" on keymeters.

 

Good luck!