Hi mishymoo

A number of things come to mind. Firstly, as Jalexa says, actual meter readings are vital.

Was the account opened to an actual meter reading and is the latest bill also based on actual readings? If they are, it does sound like a catch up bill as my colleague advised. Previous bills would have been under estimated and now we have the correct figures an accurate bill has been issued.

If this is the case, give us another call and ask for a payment arrangement. We will be happy to spread the debt over a similar period to that where we were sending estimated bills.

Do you have any meter readings at all? If you do, let us know what they are and ask for your bill to be re-calculated using these. In this way you will pay for energy at the prices applicable when it was used.

Also, check your tariff is best suited to your needs. For instance, are you on a two rate Economy 7 tariff but not using much at night so are not benefiting?

Did you inform us when you moved into the property? Did you give us meter readings at the time? Was your account started from this date and readings?

If this is the case any outstanding bills from before this time are not your responsibility. They are the responsibility of the previous tenant and should not have been mentioned to you. If this is not the case, you need to contact us to make sure your account is set up correctly.

Look at your usage in terms of kWh rather than money spent. This will give a better indication of how much electricity is being used. If you do have any actual readings during your time in the property it may be possible to compare different periods to see if there have been any major changes.

We have an Energy Efficiency team who specialise in helping customers reduce the amount of kWh used. Give them a call with details of your property and appliances to see if they can help. You may also find the interactive house on our website helpful for tips on how to save energy.

Hope this helps.

Malc

mishymoo:

Hello

I have also received a joint gas and electricity bill from eon for £376.27. The gas side of the bill seems to be

ok but the electricity is a whopping £274+p of which I do not understand at all.

The only bill which is worth discussing is a bill in which the previous readings and the recent readings are all actual readings. Is that the case with your £376.27 bill?

If the latest readings on the bill are estimates you are entitled to provide customer readings and have the bill recalculated.

Regarding the outstanding bill that is potentially more worrying but as long as you provided customer readings when you took over the supply there should not be a problem. But if that had been done properly it would be a Data Protection breach for you to have been informed of a previous account so I'm slightly worried. In the first instance you should check with EON what they think the position is regarding the outstanding bill and take it from there.

Hello

I have also received a joint gas and electricity bill from eon for £376.27. The gas side of the bill seems to be

ok but the electricity is a whopping £274+p of which I do not understand at all.

When I phoned eon the lady said it was a catch up bill and considering we had a cold winter (aint they all!!)

my last bill of £123 was pretty low. Maybe I told her but it is my electric usage that I am querying.

I have lived at the property for a year now and previous bills were no more than £160 for the quarter and this is my first

winter bill as such. The property is a two bed flat with electrical items but we are at work all day.

I have also been informed that there is an outstanding bill on this property for unpaid electricity which was from before I

took over the property.

Any advice as to what I should do now would be very helpful.

Hi maro3maro

You are right to query this. It sounds a bit unusual and there could be a number of reasons why your account has been re-billed.

How long have you had an account with E.ON? Check the meter reading used to start the account. Has this changed on the latest statement?

If the account was started to the wrong meter reading it may be this has now been corrected.

We have a duty to provide accurate bills. Therefore, after three estimated bills accounts are reviewed. It may be we have readings from meter readers which were not used at the time. The agent reviewing your account would use these readings to increase the accuracy of the bill.

Have you kept a record of your readings? If you have we can use these to make sure you are paying the prices applicable at the time the electricity was used.

Has your meter been changed? If it has, it may be your account has only just been updated with the correct details. This would produce a revised bill.

Also check your tariff. Is this different on the latest revised bill?

As you can see, there may be a number of reasons why your account was re-billed. It is important you contact us so this can be investigated.

If a mistake has been made this can then be put right quickly to stop the situation carrying on into the next bill.

Equally, if the revised bill is correct we need to explain the reasons why.

Malc

maro3maro:

This has been triggered because following a price change a meter reader has discovered the actual meter reading to be less than the billed estimate and they didn't want the customer to be paying (less) at the old rate. Happenned to me once.

The lesson is never accept an estimated bill. For most people it's an online or telephone submission, costs the customer nothing but the company perhaps a £ to produce a new bill. A no-brainer.

That said, the Terms & Conditions and the Code of Practice for Accurate Billing to which EON subscribe, appear to be silent on the practice. If so you are right to think there is a point of principle. I would ask them to provide customer provided documentation which describes the process which they invoked and when you were first provided with it. If they don't provide it complain in writing in accordance with the EON complaints procedure.

You could also claim there is no absolute evidence that the second last estimated reading was not 100% accurate but they have gone back 4 readings. Another thing you could do is to challange the "accuracy" of their seasonal adjustment of the revised estimates.

Up to you how you proceed but if you follow the complaints procedure scrupulously and are not satisfied with the outcome eventually you are entitled to take the issue to the Energy Ombudsman Service. I cannot promise you the EOS will agree with your complaint and it may take a long time but it will cost EON a substantial case fee and you nothing regardless of the outcome.

I pay by monthly DD for my electric. I recieved an ebill a couple of weeks ago from eon dated 28th March and am £80 in debit. As normal, I checked the meter readings as they were estimates and they were over a couple of hundred kw on the electric. As long as they over estimate and it is not by a lot, I normally do not do anything about it.

My bills have been estimates since June last year and always slightly over what I use.The last time they had an accurate reading was in September when I supplied it.

Yesterday, I recieved another ebill dated 10th April. It had exactly the same meter readings from the 28th March bill, but I am now £190 in debit.

Nothing is very clear on this bill or why they have done this. What I can see is that they have credited my last 4 bills. recalculated and then charged me more. They have put a breakdown of what electricity they have estimated had been used during each price change period since June.

They have not estimated any higher readings, but it seems they have adjusted the times when I used the electricity, so I have used more when the price went up.

I am unable to check exactly what they have done as this last bill is broken down into price change periods and my old bills are broken down into quatrely periods.

Can they do this? Estimate that I have used more electric when the prices were higher? My quatrely estimates were always slightly higher, so I never provided my own readings (apart from September).

I know £100 over is not a lot of money, but it is the principle. Does anyone have any suggestions?