Problem with Eon... we don't know where we stand!

[HippoSleek_J]

Hi everyone.

I’m hoping I can get some advice, last time I used this forum, the help I got was great!

Anyway, this is regarding a situation that has arisen at my partner’s bedsit with Eon’s electricity supply. I will give a little back ground to this as I feel it necessary.

 

She has not had a reading for 18months (since May2011 till November 2013), so has had estimates ever since up until 4th November when Eon came to take a reading. They have now sent her a back bill of £330. Her normal monthly bill has been £30 at the most, per month, for a period of last year. However since she moved in, almost 2 and a half years ago, the normal monthly bill has been £15-£20… obviously most of these have been estimates that Eon says are based on the average electricity usage of a property that size.

 

She has had 1 letter requesting she is in to allow them to come and take a reading, about 2 months ago, which she tried to arrange but they said they could only come in the day when she is working. At this point she looked for the meter, couldn’t find it and left it to ask me to have a look when I went round. On looking, I couldn’t find it either. In this time Eon came round and took a reading, without our knowledge, then sent the back bill. So we got in touch with the land lord to find out where it is to check the reading and discovered it isn’t actually inside her bedsit but outside the building. When we rang Eon, the guy I spoke to was so unhelpful! He twisted my words and was so stand off-ish that I ended up putting the phone down… the rate for calling them is a joke!

 

Anyway, he told us that they can back bill as long as they like and he wouldn’t tell me the last actual reading date, which seemed very strange. He told us it was our responsibility to get readings and when I told him we didn’t even know where the meter was, because as far as we knew, they should have been coming, he told me that we must have been there to let them in to the property to get a reading on the 4th. It turns out that the meter had been outside so they didn’t need to enter the property.

The problem with the back billing is that the amount of electricity they say is being used is a lot. We worked it out at about 10KWh a day, 7 days a week.

She works full time so is out from 7:45am to 6:30pm 5 days a week. We have also been on holiday in this time and she travels out of the country back home 4/5 times a year for between 4-7 days so this bumps the daily average up even more. I have done calculations for the appliances that are used for the amount of time they are used and we can only just get to the 10KWh usage on the weekends and that is ONLY if we use a fan heater! Bear in mind most of the year we don’t use the electric heater due to the warmer weather!

 

Eon told her to do her own investigation and only then could they send an engineer out and it not cost (which turns out to be a lie, it will still cost us unless they find something wrong with it which we found out about in the next call to them with the update on our investigation).

 

We kept a track of the other same size, and even bigger, flats in the building while doing our investigation and only 1 of the other 4 on a meter is using anywhere near (about 11KWh a day) but he doesn’t work so is in all day. The others that live a similar time away were using between 2.6KWh and 3KWh per 24hour period.

 

Since we have been keeping track of how much is used, we noticed 2 strange spikes in the usage. One in a period of time where it had been consistently using 3KWh (upon returning home and using the oven, lights, kettle etc.) there was suddenly 7KWh used! This happened again another night when we had previously recorder around 2KWh being used and it jumped to 5KWh!

So, here are the questions:

 

Does this sound like a lot of KWh’s for a bedsit considering the amount of time spent out of the property in the week days when there is 1KWh being used by the fridge and freezer (which need leaving on 24/7 obviously).

 

Can we put it to Eon that they haven’t made enough effort to get an actual reading…. Especially now we know they didn’t need access to the property.

 

Is it good practice to put a customer over 10 times their monthly bill in debt?

 

Can they really charge £93 for an engineer to come round and check the meter after our very specific investigation and obvious proves of it might being wrong? If they come and find nothing wrong, puts the bill over £400!

 

Are these spikes in usage normal? If not, surely this should be reason enough for Eon to come and check it.

 

Also, I’m no electrician, but there is a wire that runs from all the other meters in to hers then back out again… a green and yellow one which looks quite recent…

 

We have no idea what tariff this is on, there is no info on the bill and she was never provided with which tariff or even her options… she had no idea you could even have a different tariff!

 

I know this is a LOT of info but we are seriously worried about this. Her bill has gone up to over £40 since she started checking and gave Eon an actual reading last time she called. There is just no way we have £330 to give them for a daily usage of something that just isn’t possible!

 

Thank you in advance

[tezza1234]

Wow, something not right here, That wire you described sounds like a Earth wire, Is her box at the bottom of the rest or at one end.

 

Can you confirm is this for gas or electric or both.

 

And this i assume is a typo 'She has not had a reading for 18months (since May2011 till November 2013)' as this would be 30 months not 18 months.

[HippoSleek_J]

Hi Tezza,

Sorry yes that is a typo... stress doesn't make for good maths lol.

Her meter is in the middle actually, I thought it might be an earth but was just checking in case!

This is ELECTRIC ONLY I should have pointed that out at first. Her gas is on a card that needs topping up so only the electric is paid for monthly.

[tezza1234]

Hi Tezza,

Sorry yes that is a typo... stress doesn't make for good maths lol.

Her meter is in the middle actually, I thought it might be an earth but was just checking in case!

This is ELECTRIC ONLY I should have pointed that out at first. Her gas is on a card that needs topping up so only the electric is paid for monthly.

 

There are many possibilities really such as

 

A. She could be paying of a previous tenants debt (although i doubt it as usually it would be a key card meter)

B. There has been a increase in the bill (some have gone up rather a lot over recent years)

C. Someone in one of the other properties in tapping into her supply

D. Faulty meter

E. She really is using that much lol

 

And no doubt countless other reasons, I live in a 2 bed flat which has gas and electric and my electric bill is £60-£70 per month and gas about £20-£30

[E.ON Company Rep: Malc]

Hi HippoSleek_J

 

I'm really sorry you didn't find our advisors helpful when you called.

 

We're only obliged to read electricity meters once every 2 years, although we do like to do this much more often than this.

 

It sounds as though the usage has been under-estimated for quite a time and we've sent a catch up bill now we've an accurate meter reading.

 

You say the meter is outside the bed-sit. Is it in a communal area? If it is, is access to this area restricted?

 

I ask this because there might be a case for the Billing Code. This is where we're at fault for not providing an accurate bill. If this is the case, we'll only bill for 12 months back usage from the date the problem was put right.

 

If we haven't read or attempted to read the meter for a long time, this may be classed as being at fault - depends on the actual circumstances. However, if we've tried to read the meter but been prevented, then this wouldn't be down to us and the Billing Code wouldn't apply.

 

I'm not saying the Billing Code will apply to your situation. It's just something to be aware of.

 

Going forward, I'd suggest taking regular meter readings. To start with, take them daily for a week. Then, weekly for a month and then monthly. This will help you build up a picture of the ongoing usage. Talk to our Consumption Team. They specialise in helping customers understand their usage.

 

To be honest, the spikes you mention don't seem particularly unusual. If I've read your post correctly, and apologies if I haven't, what you describe is fairly consistent when turning on appliances like kettles. As I say, have a talk to our Consumption Team. They'll be able to help much more.

 

The charge of £93 is to fit a Check Meter. Check Meters run alongside the existing meter and monitor consumption for a couple of weeks. This charge needs to be paid in advance but will be refunded in full if the meter turns out to be faulty.

 

There's also another possible test. This is called a Standard Load Test. Here, an engineer will visit the property to carry out certain tests on the meter itself. This takes about 30 minutes and isn't as thorough as a Check Meter. There's no charge for a Standard Load Test.

 

I suspect the first advisor you spoke to was talking about a Standard Load Test whilst the second was referring to a Check Meter.

 

The tariff will be on the bills. It's usually on page 2 under 'The Details' and 'electricity charges.' We'll have also sent out a 'Welcome Pack' when the account was first set up. This will have given details of the tariff, too.

 

Once you've a good idea of your usage, pop this on to one of the comparison sites. This will list details of all the tariffs available, both with us and with the other suppliers.

 

I do understand the anxiety receiving a large bill can cause. Therefore, ask for a payment arrangement to spread the balance over a more manageable period. We'll be happy to do this.

 

Hope this is useful HippoSleek_J. Give me a shout if you need any more details.

 

Malc