AN OAP has revealed the shock he felt when he was slapped with a £400 gas bill – despite his flat being all-electric.
Jimmy Hope, 82, says he’s been “hounded” by Eon for months – and now the energy giant is threatening to send in debt collectors.
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The Tyne and Wear pensioner has called his flat home for the past 15 years and in October last year the gas supply was removed as it shifted to all-electric.
Which is why Jimmy couldn’t believe his eyes when he got a letter saying he owed more than £400 for gas in the last three months.
The 82-year-old said the company even sent its own engineer to read the meter – who saw it doesn’t exist.
Yet Jimmy’s still being asked to cough up the cash.
The OAP told ChronicleLive: “It’s just got beyond a joke now.
“I have been an Eon customer for many years and I cannot understand how they will not accept that I have no gas supply, no meter, nothing
“I have had letters, emails and eight phone calls demanding the money, and now there is a debt collection agency involved.
“My meter was taken out on October 17, yet on February 20, there was a £414.66 estimated charge for gas on my quarterly bill.”
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Jimmy said he contacted Eon at the end of February and they asked for a meter reading – so he explained that was impossible.
He continued: “They said they would have to send someone out to confirm this, which they did, and I thought that would be the end of the matter.
“I thought I would get a new bill with all of the gas charges from October 20 taken off, which I could pay and then forget about it. But that didn’t happen.
“Here I am, six months after the meter was taken out, and I am no further forward.”
Jimmy said now feels he’s at his wit’s end, adding: “There is no gas in the building at all now, all of the flats have been transferred to electric.
“I just don’t know what is so difficult to understand and why Eon are persisting in harassing me for money I could not possibly owe them.”
The West Denton man’s son even got the local councillor involved, but has had no such luck yet.
Jimmy added: “I really don’t know what else I can do now.”
An Eon spokesperson said: “We are trying to make contact with the customer to ensure this matter is fully resolved.”
It comes not long after a retired couple discovered their British Gas bill had tripled – but they’d been on holiday.
Pete and Dee Marney had been relaxing in Spain for a whole month, only to return home and see the eye-watering invoice.
