Yesterday I received my quarterly bill from e-on and was shocked to see the front page said I owed £ 5,065. This is for a domestic house on Economy 7 and I have kept the payments up to date.

When I looked at the 19 page bill in detail they have reversed all bills since I moved into the house in December, 2004 and rebilled them saying I am underpaid £ 5,000.

The difference seems to come from 1 of 3 meters installed. The readings they are using for the 3rd meter have all changed and caused the bills to increase. When I looked at the details of this bill and all previous bills there is a note that they changed the meter in question on 18 October 2007. We were not aware they had done this nor why.

I telephoned the customer service number first thing this morning and was told that he couldn't speak to me because someone else was dealing with my account. Funny they didn't warn me they were going to send me a £ 5 grand bill.

I called EnergyWatch who passed me to another section of e-on who were very pleasant and said they would look into it.

What I am not sure of is where I stand on this:

1) They changed the meter last October. How do I know the readings prior to this are correct and should they not have informed me that they were changing one of the meters and why?

2) ERA regulations state that energy suppliers can not backbill more than 12 months. This seems to normally be where they haven't billed at all. In my case they didn't bill for 1 meter until yesterday even though they state they had the readings for it. Would this fall under the backbill 12 month restriction ?

3) What options do I have as there is no way I can possibly pay £ 5,000 even over 1 year ?

1 - Did you take any readings on any of the meters yourself prior to any exchange? If you did then you would know if the readings shown fall in line with what you had taken. If the readings shown on the bill are labelled something along the lines of "read by us" then the readings used have been taken by meter readers or metering engineer's. While it is possible that the readings may have been inaccurate say for a mis read or input incorrectly, if all the readings again fall in line this would pretty much rule this out. (your own reading owuld have been useful in deteriniming their accuracy).

2 - Your correct energy suppliers cannot back bill for more than 12 months in some curcumstances. I would contact e-on again, mentioning this fact. It is likely that the first agent you speak to won't be able to answer this but make sure s/he either refers to their billing/unbilled/billing code teams, or transfers you through to them directly so you can have adiscussion with them. They will be able to ascertain what deductions if any are to be made on the balance you have owing.

3 - I very much doubt any supplier in their right mind will be asking for the full balance immediately. They will understand that the sum owed is quite considerable. Discuss payment arrangements with them at the very least you should be entitled to aks for a repayment term to match the length of time this problem has occured for. So for example if the readings have been swapped for 4 years you should be entield to 4 years to pay the balance. (bear in mind your payments will be covering ongoing consumption first and then a payment towards the balance - so changes in price and consumption may require an amendment to the figures you are paying).

You could try asking for a reduction in the balance for full payment. i.e 10% of if you pay the remaining in full, or 5% for half the balance up front and the remainder over a payment term. Suppliers usually consider these options.

Although it is a bit too late now, you have to take into consideration that your supplier will have been relying on the information the meter readers have been providing them. If you at no point had called to inform them the readings were the wrong way round (i.e. your night consumption being billed at the dy ates and vice versa) they are just as much a victim as you are. Obviously of course the impact on your is far far greater than the supplier. This is a prime example of why it is very important every consumer of any product or service checks the infomation you are being sent for accuracy.

If the repayment values are still too high despite lengthy payment terms being offered it might be worth considering swtching your meters for pre-payment meters where the debt balance can be allocated to the meter and repaymetns set as low as £5.00 per week, although any figure higher than this will clear the balance quicker for you. I personally would only take this option as a last resort - and in addition i would ask them to allow you to have a credit meter installed again once the balance is cleared (assuming that to date you have never had a problem with payments). If they agree this ask them to confirm this in writing. I mentioned this as it is becoming common for suppliers to refuse to exchange pre-payment meters for credit meters where they have been installed to recoup a debt, this is to protect their revenue of course.

Additioanlly if you remain on a credit meter, consider setting up a direct debit for the extra discounts, and look at the tariff your on considerswtiching to either a capped plan for stability in prices for however many months the plan lasts or their cheapest available tariff (which is uslaly an online tariff) again to reduce as far as possible the payments you will be required to make.

On a more personal note, while i understand you will quite rightly be very angry about this situation remember that it is definatley not the fault of the agnet/s you will be speaking too. Try keepng calm and not shouting at them. From a personal point of view i tend to be far more inclined to go that extra mile to help customers who don't shout/scream and cast insults than just doing the bare minimum for the ones who do.

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The answers I give you may not want to hear. The answers I give may not be easy. The answers I give will be the truth. If your prepared for this - ask away!

Hi:

Thanks for the quick reponse and information:

1) My bills always seemed to make sense with them falling in the summer and rising in the winter. In addition, most bills stated 'as read by us' so there was no reason to open the meter box (outside) and check the readings. The first I knew of a problem was when I received an e-mail last night telling me my online bill was ready and I downloaded it.

There is a gap in usage count on reading 1 on the new meter but reading 2 seems to be continuous. I thought this strange. When I last spoke to e-on the said they didn't set new meters to old meter counts so not sure how the readings could continue unchanged.

2) They called me back since I asked this question and offered to reduce the debt to half and spread it over 24 months. I asked them if using the wrong readings for 3 1/2 years qualified for back-billing restriction to 12 months and they said no. This would reduce the £ 5,000 debt to about £ 700

I have questioned e-ons new figures as it shows usage levels to be higher in 2005 then the past year. In 2005 there were 2 adults in the house and during the past year there were 5 adults. At the moment usage seems to be 65 kwh per day with the average for past 3 1/2 years at 77 kwh per day based on their 'readings' on the new bills.

I have sent copies of all bills to EnergyWatch and asked them if as the error is the fault of e-on if it qualifies for the 12 month restriction for backbilling.

Further information on this massive bill. E-on has explained to me what happened. This is something other users should be aware of.

Even though the meter was read by e-on's agents and the readings entered into the computer they were rejected for being out of line and computer estimates used instead. Even with this happening some of the bills said 'as read by us' for these computer estimates.

What I find hard to understand is that this started with the very first bill and continued quarter after quarter until now without anyone noticing that readings were be repetitively rejected by the computer as being out of line' with previous entries.

The end result is we have been using electricity at a much higher rate than we thought (77 kwh per day since we moved in). Since we were billed around half of what we used we didn't manage electricity usage as we would have if the bills had been higher. We have also been put into a situation where no matter what arrangements are made we will suffer the combined effect of having suddenly higher normal electricity bills as well as having to repay the large outstanding balance.

I fail to understand why in this day of computerisation that these companies cannot provide clear, accurate and regular bills when it seems 30 years ago there were no problems like this.

I realise that it's of no use to you regarding your problem, but whenever a utility bill arrives it pays to check the meter reading and write it and the date on the bill. The reading will not absolutely match that on the bill, but it's easy to spot when things start to go wrong. I would vigorously challenge the bills that EON have said the actual readings were altered to make them coincide with their expectations, if they can do this what is the point of a meter?

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Circumstances alters cases!!

I am in the middle of a similar problem with E-ON. I am on Economy 7

At the beginning of July I received a bill for £475.85 even thought I pay by DD. I examined the bill and found that since I had a new meter installed (starting at zero), on the 7th. November 2007 they had been reading the day consumption as the night and the night as day. I contacted their telephone personel and told them what had happened and asked them to withhold deducting the sum from my current account until the matter was resolved. On the 24th. July 2008 they deducted the above sum from my account, leaving me with a balance of 75p.

I pointed out that I was an 84 year old pensioner and needed most of the money they had deducted, which in my opinion was overpaid. They finally agreed to refund £339.33, which they have now done, twice!!!!!!!!

I would suggest, if you have not done so, to ring the number on the back of your bill under "Our Commitment to You" . I did and I now have a direct line to one of Complaint Advisers.

Further to my earlier reply, may I suggest the you sign up for ebilling and then you can enter you own meter readings. Also you can see if the redings are wrong when they enter them.

I'd just like to point out that E.ON nor ANY supplier owns the meters - usually owned by seimens, accuread etc, or the original elec board supplier. Its THESE companies that change the meters. For safety, they recommend meters are changed every 10 years or so, unless there is a fault.The other thing is just make sure that when you get bills, that they are not estimated, if they are ring your company up and give them accurate reads. We've gotta accept SOME responsibility. Power companies can't always read your meter (mine are both inside for instance) so they have to estimate the bill. If we see they are estimated all the time then its up to us to rectify that. Let's not be lazy!! If we get lazy that's when we get large bills when accurate reads are given. I'm certainly not saying that this is the case here, only that its something for us ALL to be mindful of! I've been stung too!

Thanks for you message. I know that my meter is owned by another company, it had to be changed because of a fault in the timer for economy 7. The meter had been read by a meter reader each quarter, but unfortunately, I assumed that they were correct. A meter reader call today and had to use stepladders to reach the meter. I am 84 years old and live on my own, and due to problems with my legs, I cannot use step ladders to read the meter, which is situated near the roof of the garage.

Regards,

John