It took a lot of energy to sort out their faults (Powergen)

Member Name: dbarcl10

Product:	Powergen
Date:	25/05/09 (71 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: None

Disadvantages: Poor customer service, don't check details, not as cheap as they seem

Powergen is now known as E.on and this is my experience of E.on.

We decided to switch electricity suppliers in August 2008, and after using a few comparison sites and visiting suppliers website, we decided to go with E.on, both as they were the cheapest and had the added benefit of Tesco Clubcard points on my monthly spend.

The registration process with E.on was quite easy, requesting the usual details (name, address, email address, phone number and bank details) and details of my meter number and supply number from my current electricity supplier.

Unfortunately our supply number and meter number didn't match on their system, so rather than coming back to us to check the numbers we gave them, they chose which number to go with, without paying any reference to our address.

A few months later, we received a letter from our old electricity supplier saying that we owed them over £400 as we had cancelled our direct debit. Obviously thinking we were with E.on we immediately phoned to complain to be told that they had received no notice from E.on to take over our account.

Back to E.on, they quickly agreed that they were not our electricity supplier, especially as every time they entered our meter number into their system it was bringing up details of an account holder in England (we live just outside Glasgow) and probably in a breach of the Data Protection Act, told us the name and address of the people that they thought they were providing electricity too.

E.on raised an erroneous transfer to cancel the account they had and refund all payments we had made to them in order that we could then pay the correct electricity supplier and then start the process again for E.on to take over the account.

Once again we gave them our meter number, supply number and address, and once again E.on mucked it up. This time they took over our neighbours supply! Once again an erroneous transfer was started, although this time we hadn't paid any money to E.on.

Talking to Scottish Power we found out that the problem seemed to stem from when our apartments were built, the electricity meters were put into different apartments from where they were planned so the meter that was supposed to be in our flat ended up in our neighbours. A few months later the mistake was noticed and all the meters in the building were checked to identify exactly which meter was in which flat.

Supposedly electricity suppliers have access to some system that shows the meter number in every property in the UK, so when our meter number didn't match the system, instead of looking into the address details, they took over the supply they assumed was ours, even though if they looked at the system in more detail they would have saw that the meter number had been changed a few months after the record was created.

Scottish Power also said they had a new tariff that would save us money (about 40% cheaper!) so given the poor service we had received from E.on we decided to stay with Scottish Power and cancelled the transfer to E.on.

We told E.on this on the phone and in writing, and told Scottish Power to reject any attempts by E.on to take over the account. For weeks, E.on kept sending us letters asking for meter readings, and other information. Eventually the letters changing to 'Sorry you're going' letters. Finally we were free of E.on. This was in February 2009.

This week, we received a final demand from E.on saying we owed £539.42! Once again we were straight onto the phone to E.on, where a rather condescending girl (she sounded about 12) said we had not responded to any emails we had been sent requesting money and denied that they had any other accounts in our name that showed a refund had previously been made. Even when we gave her our meter number which still didn't match the one they had taken over, she said I was making up the meter number to avoid paying what we owed!

Speaking to her manager, we were told that E.on had 5 accounts for us, yes 5! After a long conversation it appeared that E.on had taken over the original account again (for the people living in England) even though their details were nothing like ours.

E.on were claiming that the £539.42 was due for January and February 2009 (they must think we live in a mansion to use that much electricity in 2 months) and even said that although E.on thought they were supplying a house in England, we were still due to pay the bill!

Eventually the manager saw sense and realised that if they weren't supplying us, we weren't due to pay them anything. The charges have supposedly been written off and another erroneous transfer been raised. We should, hopefully, receive a letter in the next few days confirming that the account has been cancelled and confirming that our credit rating will not be affected as we had not missed any payments.

From my experiences, I would not recommend E.on - it just goes to prove that the cheapest does not always represent best value. If you want to reduce your energy costs, your first call should be to your current suppliers to see if they can offer a better tariff that suits the way that you wish to manage your account and the way you use energy.

As I stated previously, our electricity bill reduced by nearly 40% just by changing tariff as a special tariff was available for our meter that gives us 18 hours of off peak power a day.

E.on may be a good supplier once the account has been set up, but if you chose to go with them, I'd recommend that you check, double check and check again every detail to ensure that they have actually taken over the correct supply. It'll save you a hell of a lot of trouble in the future.

I have given E.on one star, purely because I can't give them no stars.

Summary: Cheap isn't best