EON: Ignoring manual meter readings, estimate £3500 higher than true usage

[Squaddy_2078]

An elderly relatives EON account shows a balance due of over £3000, entirely from the gas account. Letters from a debt management company have also been arriving. 

I do not think he owes EON a penny and they are massively overestimating his usage despite frequent manual readings being submitted.

The estimate is a huge 2800m3 above the actual reading that I have checked myself today. Each month he submits a reading and they proceed to estimate it much higher. The meter is in full working order and is not that old. 

2800m3 is approx 31,500 kWh based on the 10.99p tariff (which includes the Gov "help") its £3500 more than it should be. He could run a bakery with that sort of usage.

His account history shows even when a meter reader came to the property in June 2022 the figure he gathered was seemingly ignored by the next months bill and it was estimated much higher. 

I've asked for a meter reader to attend the property and sent them photos of the meter to rectify.

Should they continue to ignore the readings, what would be the next steps?

EON are a bunch of scumbags. As soon as this is resolved I will switch supplier. 

[BankFodder]

Start off by sending them an SAR immediately.

If the disclosure supports what you say, and I expected will, then we can consider a claim for inaccurate data processing which would be quite a serious matter

[Squaddy_2078]

Thank you. I will send one off by post and report the findings. 

Data Protection Officer:

Westwood Way  
Westwood Business Park  
Coventry  
CV4 8LG  
dataprotection@eonenergy.com 

Hopefully in the meantime it can be resolved now it has my attention. 

[dx100uk]

you say you/they are sending readings?

are you doing this on their online portal for his account after logging in and submitting the readings?

if so, this is a very serious matter as @BankFodder says.

there was a guy a couple of years ago with i think EON NEXT? that had the same type of issue.

they got severely fined by the ombudsman (into the £10k's) or OFGEN or someone and had to pay them over £1000 in compo too.

 

dx

 

 

[Intrepid]

Which ombudsman? The Financial or the Energy.

That doesn't sound like the sort of action the Energy Ombudsman would take which acts more as an industry prop.

I would be very interested in this case if you have further information, is it on CAG?

[Squaddy_2078]

That's right, we submit the meter readings online. The problem is, while the readings are saved onto their system they don't use them to calculate the bill, preferring their own estimates.

The system basically rejects them coming up with a warning that "it seems a little low".

Compo? That will music to his ears.

I'll persist with this come Tuesday once they pickup our email. 

[dx100uk]

58 minutes ago, Intrepid said:

I would be very interested in this case if you have further information, is it on CAG?

no from memory 

i've not got the mental time to search but it cant of been that long ago and i'm pretty sure it was EON next 

the issue with them not accepting customer readings as they are outside of projected reading is because their IT system will only expect a reading within 'their' estimated figures.

the comms log from the SAR will be very interesting as i expect this to  reveal a historic error from years ago.

do you know for how long he has been inputting his readings but they have been rejected? i expect well previous to 2022.

 

dx

 

 

[BankFodder]

8 hours ago, Squaddy_2078 said:

The problem is, while the readings are saved onto their system they don't use them to calculate the bill, preferring their own estimates.

The system basically rejects them coming up with a warning that "it seems a little low".

 

Any chance that their system is waiting for readings for a different meter?

Probably worth checking serial numbers on the account and on the bills against the actual meter and also when you get the data disclosure, make sure that you are all talking about the same meters.

[Squaddy_2078]

I had a bit of communication with them this week, calls and emails.

The balance showing is now £0 .

Though no bill has been produced, just credits on the online account. Once the bill shows up I'll be sure they accepted the reading. 

Seems if you give these people (and DCBL) an arm they take a leg, ripping off our most vulnerable and even sending the debt collectors "SoFi" after him. 

You have to keep attacking but that's not too easy when you're 92. I've got his back. 

[dx100uk]

SoFi???

 

dx

 

[Squaddy_2078]

Emails come from "SoFi". 

I see its Sonex Financial but that is the sender name. 

[dx100uk]

urm..touters for offering loans to pay off fake debts.

 

not a dca.

 

dx

[BankFodder]

You say that you had a communication which gave you a zero balance.

Was this in writing or on the telephone

[Squaddy_2078]

Both, confirmed via email :).