[bad2]

Hi. I have not used any gas for (very approximately) about 4 years and I'm unlikely to have a new central heating system installed for some months yet (maybe winter 2022/23). Can I please arrange to stop paying the standing charge and also to have the standing charge that I've paid since being switched by Ofgem to EON Next refunded? Many thanks.

[meldrewreborn]

@bad2

You will probably need to be disconnected and then reconnected again when you require a gas service. Whether that is economic you'll have to decide when you ask for the prices.

[bad2]

@meldrewreborn Actually, seemingly that's not the case. At least according to a couple of other supplier's websites that I've been reading (EON and SSE for example). The criteria is prolonged zero unit usage though. I'm hoping that someone from EON Next will read my request here, but otherwise I will have to queue on the phone!

[theunknowntech]

I'm not sure on the policy myself, but I'll ask @PeterT_EONNext to stop by for you.

[bad2]

@theunknowntech Thank you.

[theunknowntech]

No worries.

I can say this much. If the gas/electric supply is totally disconnected then the MPRN/MPAN will usually be disabled as well, which would terminate the standing charges for sure. However, you'd have to pay a disconnection fee to terminate services and then a reconnection fee to restart them later on. Some suppliers may allow you to pay no standing charges if you leave the supply connected but use no energy, but it all depends on supplier policy. I've heard there's a handful out there which never charge for standing charges and instead bundle them into the unit rates, but their unit rates are higher to make up for it.

That's all I know.

[PeterT_EONNext]

Hi @bad2

If you haven't used any gas since your account started with us, and you haven't switched to a fixed rate tariff, you will qualify for not having to pay for any standing charge until the gas is in use again.

We'll still bill you for the standing charge as we have no way of stopping this, you may also receive a bill for estimated usage if we don't receive your reading each month. The best thing to do would be to provide the same reading (as long as it is the same of course and the gas isn't being used) let us produce your bill and then we can wipe the bill for you. If you've paid for any standing charge since your account started with us, we can also refund this.

Please get in touch with us 🙂 We have Digital Energy Specialists available on both Facebook and Twitter who can usually get back to you quite quickly, they're also available 24/7 over there.

If you don't have Facebook or Twitter, please send an email to hi@eonnext.com or call us on 0808 501 5200. The lines are open weekdays 9am - 5pm and at the time of writing, the current wait time is 56 minutes (we're very busy due to the increase in prices at the moment)

Thanks - Pete 😊

[bad2]

@PeterT_EONNext That's brilliant. I will make contact via Twitter. Thank you!

[bad2]

Sadly a disappointing response from the EON Next Twitter representative:

"Hi, sorry my colleague was mistaken, you still have to pay a standing charge even on a fixed tariff, sorry for the inconvenience."

"Hi, Ive double checked with a colleague to make sure Im correct, the only way you'll not be charged standing charge is if you have the gas supply disconnected"

I appreciate that they were having a tough day yesterday due to the recent announcement of tariff increases, but this is somewhat at odds with both the positive response I received here and also EON's (not Next) publicised policy:

https://www.eonenergy.com/help/billi...ng-charge.html

[theunknowntech]

That policy is for a different supplier and is therefore not valid. I suspect Peter is probably right though, so I'm going to call in @Beki_EONNext to verify.