EON debt- what should i do?

[JS33]

Hi,

I changed my gas & electricity supplier from EON to NPower a couple of months ago. I have pre-payment meters for both and had no debt on my meters.

 

After the switch i was sent a final bill by EON totalling £41.60. It says on the bill that this is based on an estimated meter reading. At no point during the switch did EON ask me for meter readings and I have had no explanation of why I owe this money.

 

It rubs salt into the wounds when the reason I left EON in the first place was because their high prices meant that, even with a 2 year old in the house, we couldn't afford to have the heating on for more than a couple of hours a day as it was!

 

I admit i buried my head in the sand about this final bill and ignored it instead of ringing EON. They have now passed the debt to UDS who have now sent an 'intention of court action' notice which says a rep (bailiff?) could call to my address to collect the money.

 

I've read about recalibration charges - when tariff prices change but the meters are not updated to reflect them? - and think this may be why they claim i owe them money. But at no point did EON ever contact me to say my meter needed updating or try to arrange this.

 

So where do I stand on this? Can they take me to court for a bill that is only an estimated one? Is it too late for me now to contact EON themselves seeing as it is in the hands of UDS? Can a bailiff remove items from my property for debt like this?

 

I know, compared to some on here, my debt is a pitiful amount but for me it is the principle that's the issue here more than the actual amount. This is due in part to the fact that quite a few years ago i changed supplier from Yorkshire Electricity to Scottish Power. That time i was sent a final bill of (I think from memory) £190 - despite again having no debt to them and being on prepayment meters. In the end (after numerous phone calls back & forth and getting no explanation of why i owed this) I ended up borrowing this money from a family member to pay them off & rid myself of this "debt" - money i could ill afford to borrow.

 

Any advice as to what I should do now - especially now it has gone as far as threat of court action - would be greatly appreciated.

[rebel11]

Hi JS

 

Welcome to CAG

 

The guys will be happy to advise as soon as they are available.

 

Thread has been moved to the correct forum.

[JS33]

Thanks

[2Grumpy]

When you switch suppliers with a credit meter the company you are moving to sends the one you are moving from the changeover meter reading. They should not be using estimates.

 

How this works for pre-pay I don't know. It might be possible for the payments & meter readings to be out of line.

 

I would write or email to EON & ask why they have sent a bill for a pre-pay account, why there is an estimated reading and why they are pursuing this. Also contact the company you are moving to & ask what the process should be

[E.ON Company Rep: Malc]

Hi JS33

 

Don't worry about this account being passed to bailiffs, it hasn't reached that point.

 

As 2Grumpy says, it's the responsibility of the new supplier to send the old supplier the meter readings they'll use to open their account. The old supplier will then use the same readings to close their account. This ensures you're only charged once for the same energy. This is the same for both prepayment and credit meters.

 

If, after a certain time, we haven't received readings from the new supplier then the account will automatically close to estimated readings. However, we'll re-bill the account accurately as soon as we receive the correct readings.

 

We won't ask you for the readings because, by this time, you're not our customer.

 

The outstanding amount may just be down to incorrectly estimated readings. There used to be an issue with the old token prepayment meters. These needed re-calibrating by an engineer each time prices changed. However, these have nearly all been replaced with key meters.

 

We're able to re-set key meters by sending an electronic message to the meter each time there's a price change. This allows us to up date them immediately. There's the odd token meter still around, though, so I'm not discounting this totally but it is unlikely. Do you top up using a key or buy tokens?

 

Was there a delay when you changed suppliers? If there was, did you use the new supplier's payment device to top up the meters before the account actually switched to them? If you did, these payments may have gone to them for energy used whilst you were still with us. This would also lead to a debit balance showing on the account.

 

Don't worry if this did happen. There's an industry wide process in place to make sure this type of misdirected payment is returned to the correct account.

 

Talk to one of our prepayment teams about this (contact details are on your bills). Give them the readings your new supplier has used to start your account with them. They'll re-bill your account to these. If there's still a balance showing, they'll be happy to explain where it comes from.

 

Sorry for all the questions JS33 but hope this is of some use. Give me a shout if you need any more info as will be happy to help.

 

Malc

[JS33]

Thanks very much 2Grumpy and Malc,

 

I'm not long home from a 12 hr shift so have only seen your replies tonight. I'll ring NPower & EON tomorrow though & try to get to the bottom of it.

 

There probably was a delay with my account as I submitted both my gas & elec readings to NPower via their website facility - then received a letter maybe 2 weeks later (?) saying they hadn't received my gas reading so i had to ring them up & provide this one again over the phone.

 

By that time I think I already had used my new NPOwer key & card to top up - so hopefully you're right Malc and this is what has happened. But that was all weeks ago now and EON haven't sent me any revised bills - the amount still says I owe them £41.60 on the most recent letters I've received.

 

I have a key for my elec meter but my gas one is still topped up with a card. Not sure what type but my meter looks exactly like this one:

(Sorry couldn't submit link as I don't have enough posts yet!)

Don't worry about asking me questions Malc, I really do appreciate your help. I'll update as soon as i've spoken to both companies.

Thanks again to both of you

[dx100uk]

we also have eon rep here

he should pickup on this thread tomorrow

 

dx

[E.ON Company Rep: Malc]

Hi JS33

 

Gas prepayment meters are usually topped up using a card. These generally work in a similar way to electric key meters, in that, electronic messages pass between the meter and supplier. This allows us to update meters with the correct settings.

 

Have you spoken to us yet? Would be interested in the outcome.

 

Malc

[JS33]

Hi Malc/everyone,

 

Sorry only just updating this...

 

I spoke to NPower who confirmed the date they were charging me from. These tallied with the dates E-ON had billed me up to...but didn't really explain why i still owed anyone!

 

Then i spoke to a nice lady Carol at E-ON & she said their estimate appeared to be too high. She put me on hold a couple of minutes then came back on the line to tell me I don't owe anything as their estimate was too high.

 

Still don't really understand the how & why ....eg. how & why I can threatened with court action 'unless payment is made in full within 7 days' for money i don't even owe!....and I still feel that something dodgy has occurred!...but i don't owe E-On any money so that's good enough for me.

 

Just to add though - my 'debt' was only a small amount & had I been liable for it wouldn't have had too much trouble finding this kind of money. Can't help but wonder though how an old age pensioner or someone equally vulnerable would cope with receiving such threatening letters!

Edited March 7, 2012 by JS33

[E.ON Company Rep: Malc]

Hi JS33

 

Sorry for the late reply. Have been out of the office for a couple of weeks.

 

Glad this is sorted. As I suspected, we'd closed to estimates and this resulted in a debt because they were too high. Once re-billed accurately, the false debt disappeared.

 

I do understand how disconcerting some of our debt letters can be. I've fed back about the tone of these letters before and will happily do so again.

 

We do have a responsibility to make customers aware at the earliest opportunity of the possibilities if debts are ignored. Consequently, the letters can sound harsh.

 

Anyway, happy you're sorted and many thanks for letting me know.

 

Malc