[MAW]

Was told by an operative E.ON Next was E.ON. "We aren't E.ON, we are a much smaller company"

Yes it is, clue is in the name. If you have E.ON in the name, You are an E.ON company. I don't care how E.ON have technically structured it to distance themselves from having to invest in front line customer service resources. If you aren't E.ON, don't call yourself E.ON.

Its now being used as an excuse for not answering the phones in good time, or having operatives who have a clue what they are doing.

[Actual]

Originally Posted by MAW

Was told by an operative E.ON Next was E.ON. "We aren't E.ON, we are a much smaller company"

Yes it is, clue is in the name. If you have E.ON in the name, You are an E.ON company. I don't care how E.ON have technically structured it to distance themselves from having to invest in front line customer service resources. If you aren't E.ON, don't call yourself E.ON.

Its now being used as an excuse for not answering the phones in good time, or having operatives who have a clue what they are doing.

I agree.

Organisations that make a profit from the public should be forced by law to provide adequate customer services or be punitively penalised to the amount of £1M per complaint.

It is NOT acceptable to substitute customer forum message boards as actual customer services provision.

Requiring or suggesting that customers communicate using WhatsApp, Twitter or Facebook must be a joke.

[meldrewreborn]

@Actual @MAW

We all know that E.on Next is a subsidiary company owned by E.on. Its not a new idea - there must be millions of subsidiary companies operating in similar structures. The regulator is OFGEM. In time they will hit those with poor customer service records with fines. We get claims almost weekly of this or that company ripiing off the public. Of course the true test would be to put those throwing the stones into positions of power to see how they would perform. My guess is that they'd do very poorly. Its easier to throw accusations from the side-lines rather than be in managerial control - a football crowd illustrates that perfectly.

But OFGEM will not take action quite yet.

The problem is that many suppliers are on the brink of insolvency because of thin profit margins (yes look up what the price cap allows!), wholesale costs, the price caps and, most importantly the level of customer debt, which is threatening to bring them down. I often think that if the people complaining could do so much better, why don't they set up a company to sell energy to domestic customers , with low prices and high customer satisfaction? Why do Unions representing workers think they know best how the employing company should be run and how much the workers should be paid?

Given the chaos caused by the wave of company failures in the 2nd half of 2021, and the costs of that to us as consumers, OFGEM will not want to bring any more down anytime soon, so my prediction is that heavy handed compliance action is some way off.

On the other hand I really don't know why action isn't taken internally to improve matters, particularly when customer facing pricing is akin to a cost plus contract, and support costs are passed straight onto consumers. Its perplexing, but there is an answer, just that i don't know what it is.

[Actual]

Originally Posted by meldrewreborn

@Actual @MAW

I often think that if the people complaining could do so much better, why don't they set up a company to sell energy to domestic customers..

It seems that at least 30 chancers already did setup their own energy companies seemingly run from their bedrooms and financed from customer budget accounts only to go bust although the persons involved undoubtably made £M's.

Meanwhile multinational Eon splits their operation presumably to ensure that the parent company isn't dragged down by the carnage.

The blame must rest with the government which allowed a vital national industry to be so structured.

[retrotecchie]

@Actual

I wonder how many of us were former customers of these 'fly by night' operations?

[meldrewreborn]

@retrotecchie

I was of two. One of them did everything seemingly right but when their wholesale gas supplier went belly up, so then did they. The costs of these failures was passed on to all other electricity customers, which included customer account positive balances AND monies owed to other parts of the supply network.

Customer debts remained with the failed companies, which might mean those customers got away with that - you don't hear of stories of such customers being pursued for the debt during this cost of living crisis do you? A good reason not to maintain a positive balance on one's account!

And these companies were regulated by the totally useless OFGEM!

[MAW]

@Actual

completely agree