Eon & their new system/website/billing etc.

[melmerby]

Hi all

Anybody else using Eon for power and managing the account online?

I've been with them some years and always found, although not the absolute cheapest were fairly competitive for their rates. (Hence I haven't moved)

However recently their web system, which has been working fine for me, has been completely changed.

I received, completely out of the blue a final reminder for an unpaid bill for £78 with 1 day to pay! (I haven't paid it)

I don't understand what they are trying to do as I had to change my log-in details to access their "new" system.

Then I found that instead of the nice simple bills based on the units used according to the meter readings they are estimating use continuously and firing off bills based on that. (rather as if I had a smart meter and they were getting notice of usage from that)

 

I hadn't had a request for a new reading since July (my meters haven't been read officially for years) prior to this final reminder.

I've now have had a request for a reading and another bill produced from that which is about £168 but no mention anywhere of the previous final reminder.

Why does it have to be so complicated? They have also changed my account number so I will have to change the details on the bank payment page.

 

Has anyone else found their new system a bit over-complicated, especially compared to what it was?

 

Please no political comments about privatisation of the energy businesses.

 

 

EDIT

They have just sent me the £168 bill again.

 

Second EDIT

Just looked on Trustpilot, seems I'm not alone they get 1*

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 18, 2021 by melmerby

[woodenhead]

Is this anything to do with EON Next?

[woodenhead]

Amazing or planned - on the 5th Sept we got an email telling us our rates will change from the end of the month and we might want to look at switching, then two days later we get another email telling us we are going on to Eon Next and whilst the transfer takes place 2-3 weeks if we attempt to change supplier it may not work because the move to Eon Next (which we have no control over) is classed as a switch and you can only do one switch at a time.

 

Is this a ploy to lock us in or just plain stupidity of planning system moves in the middle of a change in rates.

[MarkC]

I was with Eon for a long time, until they told me that I had to have a smart meter fitted in order to get their cheap tariff. At that point - bye bye...

 

I still have my solar feed-in through them; in fact I sent in the latest reading only yesterday, so I'll see how quickly I get paid this time...

 

Mark

[Izzy]

Not only EON, British Gas have also done the same in recent months. Made you register with a new account. Just assumed it was some kind of ploy to get around the cap regulations now in force somehow.

[melmerby]

2 hours ago, woodenhead said:

Is this anything to do with EON Next?

Yes

They just changed everything over to EON Next, no choice about it.

New account number, new password, new silly billing system etc.

 

Looks like it's bye bye Eon after 10 years of reasonable service, all scuppered by the latest shenanigans.

[Oldddudders]

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-58610561

[melmerby]

2 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-58610561

Yes I saw that earlier today on the BBC text.

They try to get you to swap to smaller companies and they go bust. These are just the latest in a long line of failed energy companies in the UK.

 

[TheSignalEngineer]

Since the market was opened up I have been round most of the main companies. The worst experiences have been with Npower and British Gas. Scottish Power were OK the first time I used them but the second time were useless. Eon were a bit of a disaster. Currently EDF are performing quite well but we'll se what happens in nine months when the present deal ends. 

My experience at renewal times has been that companies try to get you to extend early at your current rate or higher at a time when wholesale prices are falling.

[woodenhead]

2 hours ago, melmerby said:

Yes I saw that earlier today on the BBC text.

They try to get you to swap to smaller companies and they go bust. These are just the latest in a long line of failed energy companies in the UK.

 

Eon Next appears to be a new billing platform that consolidated first a lot of these failed organisations that EON had taken over, now they are moving their own accounts onto it.

[Bernard Lamb]

Also had some odd messages from Eon.

I sent in my meter readings when asked to do so and about 10 days later I received an email saying that my meter readings were due.

A week later I am offered a new deal which they say will be cheaper than the one I am on if I change now. I accepted and am told there will be an increase of around £5 a months fixed for 12 months. In the light of current changes i wonder if this can be true. They also say it is dependent on having a smart meter fitted but I went through that with them long ago and it is not possible to fit a smart meter without EDF who are the mains contractor making some alterations. I see some hilarious communications ahead.

Bernard

[Tony_S]

My Eon account hasn’t changed. We did get a text and email earlier this year about the direct debit being increased. The formatting was poor and the email address looked like spam. Otherwise no problems. We are on a dual fuel tariff with smart meters. Apart from the text and email I haven’t had to change my password or anything similar. 
Tony

[melmerby]

8 hours ago, Tony_S said:

My Eon account hasn’t changed. We did get a text and email earlier this year about the direct debit being increased. The formatting was poor and the email address looked like spam. Otherwise no problems. We are on a dual fuel tariff with smart meters. Apart from the text and email I haven’t had to change my password or anything similar. 
Tony

We are dual fuel but with standard meters. (there's a long tale about Eon replacing tghe meters but not actually doing anything, twice. I won't repeat it here)

I'm not on direct debit because the last time I enquired, the payments were based on fuel used for the winter quarter, which was totally over the top

Paying the same each month and making sure you've overpaid so they have your exceess money in their account is so out of date.

Why can't the go on to a system like all other business where the bill varies and have a varying direct debit (phone, council tax etc.)

That way, they get what you owe, no more, no less.

Edited September 19, 2021 by melmerby

[Tony_S]

42 minutes ago, melmerby said:

We are dual fuel but with standard meters. (there's a long tale about Eon replacing tghe meters but not actually doing anything, twice. I won't repeat it here)

I'm not on direct debit because the last time I enquired, the payments were based on fuel used for the winter quarter, which was totally over the top

Paying the same each month and making sure you've overpaid so they have your exceess money in their account is so out of date.

Why can't the go on to a system like all other business where the bill varies and have a varying direct debit (phone, council tax etc.)

That way, they get what you owe, no more, no less.

They claimed the direct debit is based on an estimate for the whole year and it is supposed to leave the balance at zero at the end of the year. We confused it by getting a really efficient gas boiler and replacing our old freezer, consumption was much reduced and they did reduce the direct debit when I asked them too.

Edited September 19, 2021 by Tony_S

[Reorte]

45 minutes ago, melmerby said:

Paying the same each month and making sure you've overpaid so they have your exceess money in their account is so out of date.

Why can't the go on to a system like all other business where the bill varies and have a varying direct debit (phone, council tax etc.)

That way, they get what you owe, no more, no less.

Ideally paying the same each month smoothes out variations throughout the year, so you're not getting hammered with very high bills in winter. Ideally...

[Izzy]

2 hours ago, Reorte said:

Ideally paying the same each month smoothes out variations throughout the year, so you're not getting hammered with very high bills in winter. Ideally...

Sadly my experience with both BG and Eon is it doesn’t quite work that way…..  Usually they say I’ve too much credit just as it gets to autumn, reduce the amount….and then come spring say - whoops you owe too much and put it up again…  I’ve tried telling them, but it’s been a waste of time.

[Michael Hodgson]

3 hours ago, Reorte said:

Ideally paying the same each month smoothes out variations throughout the year, so you're not getting hammered with very high bills in winter. Ideally...

If you are on a fixed contract that really depends at the time of year the contract starts.  If it's in the spring, your first few bills are overpayments which offset the winter usage later.  On the other hand, if your contract starts this time of year, you quickly start using more than you're paying so you're underpaying actual usage.  If you're in this latter category and switch to another supplier as the government keeps plugging it can to result in a big bill from the old supplier.  And suppliers normally estimate a higher annual usage than necessary, which does tend to result in running up a credit balance - you can ask them to pay that back to you, but most people don't bother unless it gets excessive.

 

Some people prefer to pay for their actual usage as it happens, but many of  those on low pay or benefits tend to struggle in the winter unless their bills are smoothed over the year.

 

As far as those who supplier goes bust, they are put onto the standard variable tariff of another company.  Normally there are much better deals available, but current market conditions are apparently such that the move would work in your favour, a situation which won't last long of course.

 

The real worry is whether gas prices generally are going to rise - there are some suggestions that the Russians might be playing politics with the prices paid in Europe, probably hitting Central Europe harder than us.  Higher gas price also means higher electricity bills as a percentage of our power is gas-fired.

[Oldddudders]

Quote from the BBC website today

 

"It is understood that Mr Kwarteng is "reluctant" to bail out smaller companies but is concerned consumers may end up on more expensive tariffs when they are switched to a new supplier.A new energy provider is obliged to offer its lowest variable rate, but this is likely to be more expensive than the same deal consumers had with their former gas and electricity supplier."

 

[Reorte]

8 minutes ago, Oldddudders said:

Quote from the BBC website today

 

"It is understood that Mr Kwarteng is "reluctant" to bail out smaller companies but is concerned consumers may end up on more expensive tariffs when they are switched to a new supplier.A new energy provider is obliged to offer its lowest variable rate, but this is likely to be more expensive than the same deal consumers had with their former gas and electricity supplier."

All sounds like small startup companies trying to grab customers by using pricing that isn't sufficient to supply the service and inevitably failing when they run out of money to keep that going.

[Oldddudders]

17 minutes ago, Reorte said:

All sounds like small startup companies trying to grab customers by using pricing that isn't sufficient to supply the service and inevitably failing when they run out of money to keep that going.

I infer it is rather more than that, when pundits forecast that the current 70-odd energy companies may shrink to about 10, there is serious change afoot. When the wholesale price of gas has risen from 40p per therm to 180p in 12 months, I feel some sympathy for companies who find themselves insolvent.  

[Ron Ron Ron]

21 hours ago, Michael Hodgson said:

……..The real worry is whether gas prices generally are going to rise - there are some suggestions that the Russians might be playing politics with the prices paid in Europe, probably hitting Central Europe harder than us.………..

It’s more than suggestions.

Germany was warned about total reliance on Russia, with the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

Now as that supply line is about to come on stream, Russia is manipulating the gas market wholesale across a number of fronts, both directly and through Gazprom.

It happens to coincide with unusually high demand for LNG in the Far East.

The result is that the wholesale price of gas has skyrocketed across the whole of Europe and won’t be coming down for a long time.

 

21 hours ago, Michael Hodgson said:

………Higher gas price also means higher electricity bills as a percentage of our power is gas-fired.

Here we are at the tail end of the summer and gas has been averaging around a 45% share of the UK’s electrical power generation, over the last month.
It was around 55% yesterday evening.

Over the last year, it has averaged about 40%.

Electricity prices are only going one way……….

 

 

 

.

Edited September 20, 2021 by Ron Ron Ron

[Reorte]

2 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

I infer it is rather more than that, when pundits forecast that the current 70-odd energy companies may shrink to about 10, there is serious change afoot. When the wholesale price of gas has risen from 40p per therm to 180p in 12 months, I feel some sympathy for companies who find themselves insolvent.  

It's a good point about the rises, and they seem to have happened very suddenly too. The question there I suppose is whether that's a rise here to stay or a short-term blip. Whilst essentially unviable companies hanging on an over-saturating the market isn't good neither is fundamentally sound businesses failing due to exceptional temporary circumstances (Covid's probably responsible for a lot of those).

 

70 energy companies does sound like an awful lot though.

[melmerby]

2 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

I infer it is rather more than that, when pundits forecast that the current 70-odd energy companies may shrink to about 10, there is serious change afoot. When the wholesale price of gas has risen from 40p per therm to 180p in 12 months, I feel some sympathy for companies who find themselves insolvent.  

Therms, there's a name I haven't heard for donkey's years

 

.

[melmerby]

5 minutes ago, Reorte said:

 

 

70 energy companies does sound like an awful lot though.

17 expected to go bust in the near future (days, possible a week or two), five are already beyond saving (BBC report)

The big boys are resisting taking on their customers as it will be an instant financial loss.

 

IMHO the whole energy market in the UK has been unsustainable for some years.

[Hroth]

1 hour ago, melmerby said:

Therms, there's a name I haven't heard for donkey's years

 

.

 

Definitely a blast from the past

When gas came from cooking coal.....