[TOTALLYPO]

Thanks to all who welcomed me to this forum and lent advice.

To update, my current credit situation is now quite different.
Apparently, the customer service agent who was dealing with my request is no longer an employee.
My credit of £340, included government payouts, so is reduced to £219. Through the delays of repayment, they have manged to further work out an up to date set of accounts that results in my current credit to be £87.41.
I am so confused, and insulted, at the moment, that I really do not know how much this shower actually should refund me.
When offered this final amount, I was asked by the agent, "Is this alright?"
I was impressed by the level of loyalty to Eon that your posts seem to demonstrate. I wonder if the next Energy supplier I move to will have a forum.

[retrotecchie]

@TOTALLYPO

I'm no more loyal to E.On Next than to anyone else. They just happen to be my energy supplier, although as last resort rather than actual choice. I have been greatly helped by members of the forum, and just try to reciprocate where I can, but my powers are limited, being 'just another punter' rather than having any special access.

Your experience has not been a positive one, and I just hope you can at least get everything done and dusted now.

[meldrewreborn]

I’m not loyal to any supplier - it’s a 2 way relationship loyalty.

i don’t see that government contributions can be ring fenced in this manner but bringing the account is completely normal. It’s also normal that bills in the summer months are comparatively low and those in the winter much larger. So the summer months build up you cr ex dit and the winter quickly erodes it. Add in for most a 25% increase in prices from October and credit can rapidly disappear.

you do not have to have a fixed Direct Debit, you can pay actual bills after they are generated by DD, if you wish. This would ensure any government contributions are rapidly used up.

these are complicated matters and account balances are always changing. Understanding the changes are key to appreciating what is happening. While you feel I suspect that you are being disadvantaged, apart from the ring fencing of your government contributions, I don’t see too much wrong in what you have posted.

[TOTALLYPO]

@meldrewreborn

As noted, loyalty should be a two way street, but there is little choice here anyway. If you try to get a better deal, you run the risk of signing up to a supplier, who goes into liquidation within a year.
If a company with a name like Occtopus could be trustworthy, the name alone puts me off, plus they are French and that is a cause for concern to any woad daubed nationalist.
Perhaps I should just retreat to British Gas, but they are English and I am a Taff. I migrated to EON from BG anyway, so no choice again. As Retrotecchie says "Here as a last resort".
Anyway, life is too full of joy to let this organisation get me down. I just feel that I have been jerked around because I let them have access to my bank account. So your solution is clear. No fixed DDs

[retrotecchie]

@TOTALLYPO

E.On Next are a British subsidiary of a German conglomerate and BG are now part of Centrica, who are fully British.

E.On next took me on after Igloo collapsed last year, but I moved to a property supplied by EDF so I brought E.On over as the lesser of the two available evils...because that lot are French and nationally owned and they use our bills to 'subsidise' much lower prices in France.

As it's turned out, everyone costs the same now, so there's no benefit in switching for price reasons and the days of competition in the energy markets are long gone. I'm calmly sat waiting for one of the new Welsh 'community energy companies' to set up in my area. Until then...here I am.

[meldrewreborn]

@TOTALLYPO

i personally don’t have any issues with a fixed direct debit. I understand how they should work and that they don’t result in me being over or undercharged, but simply shift payments in time, evening them out across the year.

what has really complicated the normal situation has been 3 consecutive price rises which has meant that any time a fixed direct debit was reassessed the result was almost certainly an increase. Suppliers were preparing for the most recent of these increase when the government stepped in to reduce the increase , invalidating previous calculations.

Whereas most people here see fixed direct debits as a kind of satan, I view them simply As a budgeting mechanism . At least here you can pay after a bill is raised by DD @ the DD tariff, something that OVO don’t permit - instead you pay on average another £215 if you pay in receipt of bill.

Credit balances should be monitored and excessive credit avoided. But the system as a whole is beneficial to most customers.

[retrotecchie]

@meldrewreborn

This article on the BBC yesterday discusses the matter.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63773595