[jorenejo]

Horrible horrible horrible. This has given me anxiety and stress.

It all started when I requested for a credit refund since my account had over £300 CR and then suddenly E.on started CHARGING me with transactions and now I am left with a £300 DR.

At one point I even had over £1000 CR but then the next day, I had a £1700 DR. Since last December I noticed they have been taking "reversed previous charge" transactions from my account, and when I ask, no one provides me with concrete answers.

I am a fresh graduate living alone and I pay £100+ for electricity every month, some months I am away so I do not even use much, so how come I have been charged so excessively?

I tried calling and texting on their WhatsApp but no one thus far has given me a proper and clear explanation of these transactions. They kept saying look at the statements, but you have made the statements so confusing so how could I even understand? I told them my smart metre readings must be wrong, but they insist the readings are correct. I am afraid they are going to keep overcharging me and I can do nothing about it....

someone please please please please please help.

[JoeSoap]

@jorenejo

Sorry to hear of this distress.

More information will be needed about the nature of the transactions in order for anyone to offer best advice.

Can you post screenshots of transactions without showing any personal account information?

Do the latest meter readings on your account look sensible when considering your current meter readings?

You could try reading your meter and submitting the reading manually in your online account to generate a fresh statement with a reading you know to be correct and take it from there.

[jorenejo]

Hi @JoeSoap

thanks for the reply.

These are screenshots of some of the transactions in my account and in my statements. I strongly feel some readings do not match (ie there was a transaction for month Jan - Mar 2023 where they charge me over £400 but I was not even in the flat as I was out of the country so I don't believe the meter reading....)

In regards to my meter, I am now sending reading everyday (as they suggested I do this for 7 days). Incase this might help, I am on Economy 7 using a dual rate (R1,R2).

[JoeSoap]

@jorenejo

Thank you for the screenshots. Snapshots make it very difficult to work out where any problem might lie. It looks like smart readings are not taken every month and for some reason there has been some estimating along the way. This can all lead to accounts falling out of date and adjustments being made. Looking at the one statement with meter readings from 1 Jan to 1 Apr 23 the usage and charges don't look outrageous to me (I'm assuming the flat is heated by electricity... unless you use some other form of energy). However, you do say that you were out of the country during the period. Was the flat empty for the entire three months? Was the flat still being heated?

Reversed account charges can be very confusing but the figures that really matter are what you are actually being billed for over any given period. You are currently submitting daily readings. Does your daily consumption look sensible to you?

Can you find a previous statement where you were last happy that all was well? You could subtract the meter reads on that statement from your current readings to see what you have consumed since then (according to the statements). Knowing what you would expect to consume when the flat is occupied during the period might help you to see if the consumption and charges are reasonable.

When a credit refund is requested, the account must first be brought up-to-date. I'm wondering if the credit balance that you were basing your request on was out-of-date and with all the adjustments that have been made on the account to update it, it has led to a debit balance. Perhaps your consumption warrants a higher Direct Debit to stop debit balances getting too high.

Sorry I'm not able to pin this down but if it was me I would focus on all previous monthly statements and work through them to see what I think my account balance actually should be and if it agrees with what they think it is.

Try to ensure that meter readings are taken or provided every month. Look at every monthly statement that is being generated to see if it is as it should be. Another worthwhile thing to do is to look at your meter readings for night and day. Boil a kettle or two and make sure the reading that advances is the right one. It has been known for those on dual rate tariffs to have them confused so that they get billed at the day rate for their night consumption and vice versa.

If you can give any more info then please do. Others here will hopefully be reading this and will hopefully have better ideas than I can come up with.

[Mailman]

@jorenejo

I really cannot fathom out which one of your screenshots of your accounts are correct but I'm going to take a leap of faith and guess that you will see £95.90 (Debit) at the top of your account balance page. This is mine showing a balance (green CREDIT of £0.01) :


Not sure why Eon Next are only issuing statements to you every 3 months (that is another matter) but I think you need to verify that the meter readings that are on your very latest statement are close to what your current readings actually are.

The other thing to do is to look at your record of meter readings used in your very last statement and check that the 2 numbers are the same. Here are my meter reads:



The top 2 match to the latest statement

[meldrewreborn]

It all comes down to readings at particular times. Because this is a variable next flex account the prices will have gone up and down every 3 months due to the OFGEM price caps and the Governments energy price guarantee over 20+ months.

If you could post readings as at the first day of each quarter for both peak and off peak supplies for these dates::

17 March 2022
1October 2022
1Jan2023
1Apr 2023
1June 2023
! Sep 2023
1Jan 2023

I might be able to reconstruct the charges you are liable for for the respective periods.. I'd also need to know the standing charge figure and the rates charged for each of the periods detailed above, Plus what region you live in .

Fundamentally if all the previous charges have been withdrawn and new charges applied it seems likely that your consumption has been recalculated so as to reflect the different pricing periods involved. This is important because the prices changed every 3 months and ideally the consumption in the appropriate period should be properly recorded. But if actual readings (either yours or smart meter readings) are not available for the precise day (1st of each quarter) then that reading has to be estimated and estimates can be wrong.

Because the recalculation exercise covers so many months, I suspect that very few actual readings are available apart from the beginning and the ned, which has resulted in consumption estimates having been recalculated for the whole period. Prices have fluctuated quite a bit over that time and if on balance more consumption has been shifted into more expensive quarters than has been shifted into less expensive quarters your overall liability would have grown. And if estimates have been used that would have explained why you are querying a period when you were away having a higher than expected bill.

Going forward you should make sure your readings are accurately recorded at the 1st of each quarter.

You do have to pay for what you use, your monthly Direct Debit is only a contribution towards your bills. which could be higher or lower that that amount you are paying. It seems likely that you have been paying £100 per month, the bills were based on estimated readings at too low a level and you assumed that the credit on your account was realistic. It appears that your actual consumption was higher than your estimated bills catered for and when you had to give actual readings when asking for your credit to be refunded, your account was immediately recalculated and your incorrect credit disappeared and the more accurate debit replaced it.. That's my explanation for what has happened. It would not have happened this way if your readings had been correctly submitted by you - I don't know if you were relying on a smart meter to send in the readings but many don't actually work as they are supposed to.

[Mailman]

Originally Posted by meldrewreborn

Going forward you should make sure your readings are accurately recorded at the 1st of each quarter.

You do have to pay for what you use, your monthly Direct Debit is only a contribution towards your bills. which could be higher or lower that that amount you are paying. It seems likely that you have been paying £100 per month, the bills were based on estimated readings at too low a level and you assumed that the credit on your account was realistic. It appears that your actual consumption was higher than your estimated bills catered for and when you had to give actual readings when asking for your credit to be refunded, your account was immediately recalculated and your incorrect credit disappeared and the more accurate debit replaced it.. That's my explanation for what has happened. It would not have happened this way if your readings had been correctly submitted you - I don't know if you were relying on a smart meter to send in the readings but many don't actually work as they are supposed to.

Agreed my explanation as well - mine do work as they should (accurate smart reads regularly taken) but no guarantee this is the same for all smart meter customers as we are all too well aware of ☹

[JoeSoap]

Originally Posted by meldrewreborn

... And if estimates have been used that would have explained why you are querying a period when you were away having a higher than expected bill...

I would agree with that except during that period there are smart meter readings at the beginning and end of the first quarter of 23 when @jorenejo says they were not even in the flat.

[jorenejo]

@JoeSoap

thanks for clarifying regarding the credit refund. I assumed my account was up-to-date but if it wasn't i can understand why these transactions are happening. It would've been nice to get a notification from EON explaining why my account was out-of-date in the first place? As you pointed out, I have not been sending my meter readings (manually) for each month, so maybe that was part of the reason :(

As for the months i was away, the flat was empty. I even turned off the power supply for the heater and wifi. Only the fridge was still on. I am now looking back on my previous statements to figure out what my balance should look like.

My R1 R2 readings seem to align with the smart meter. Is it normal for my day to be low and my night to be higher?

[jorenejo]

hi @meldrewreborn

here are the screenshots of the dates you mentioned. hopefully these helps? Sorry if its a mess but I super appreciate your help!