Thursday 25 July 2013

FIT payments from e.on

You know, from the way that e.on behaves, you would almost think that they don't want to pay out the money. I have heard from many people that they are very slow in paying - my last payment was made almost two months after submitting, others have had to wait much longer. My guess is that they get the money from the government straight away and bank it to earn interest. Good business practice? Perhaps. Ethical? Certainly not.
They make it very difficult to apply, I submitted all the relevant documents and had to send them all in again due to a mess up on their side.
They provide absolutely no guidance on how to submit. I only found out the correct email address in a correspondence with a (very helpful) customer service rep who told me (thank you, Hannah Brown).
They give you a two week window in which to submit, so obviously they have systems in place to remind you, don't they? Err, no. You have to put a reminder in your own diary. What happens if you are away over the relevant period? According to e.on, you will simply get the payment next time round, so three months later. I guess that isn't too unreasonable. They also say I should get paid within 5-10 days, so that will be an improvement over last time, if it happens. Oh, and you have to email, no web submission here.
Why the government decided to involve private industry in this is beyond me. OK, it isn't, it's their cronies who benefit from the interest in the bank. In what rational world does it make any sense to have a government subsidy managed through private, for-profit, companies? None at all.