EDF tried to take £6,841 from my mother's account

Syvia_Jeanette · 23 April 2009 at 5:03PM

via a direct debit. Fortunately, she didn't ahve enough money and the bank returned the DD. IT transpired that they have billed her for that amount for gas. Quetying this huge amount ( the most a DD had been before was £650 per quarter), I was told that they took a reading in July 2002 which was 7982, then did another reading in May 2006 which gave a reading of 5740. They thopught this must be amistake so didn't bill her and kept on taking money via the direct debit based on estimates. They came and did a reading in February 2009 and got a reading of 8611, which led them into trying to take the £6,841 from her bank account.

I've checked the reading myself and its now 8914. This means there has been a consumption of 303 units between 4 February and 23rd April.I phoned EDF back with this reading and they've asked me to check the serial number of the meter and get back to them.

My Mum's house is a 3 bed detached. Does anyone know how gas consumption works? I've no idea if these amounts are usual or not. I'd appreciate any help from someone who knows something about gas meter readings.

Regards

Sylvia Jeanette

Cardew · 23 April 2009 at 5:14PM

Welcome to the forum.

For a 3 bed detached a very large bill for gas would be £800 a year - should be less. In 7 years since july 2002 a total of £5,000 would be exceptionally high

You need to find out what reading from July 2002 are they using?

How much she has paid since July 2002

Has the meter been changed since July 2002

Is the meter Imperial or Metric. Imperial will have cubic feet on the dial(ft3) As she has used 303 units since 04 feb, she has used approx 3350kWh if Metric or approx 9,600kWh if Imperial.

epsilondraconis · 23 April 2009 at 9:26PM

Good feedback from Cardew.

FYI: My wife and I (plus a cat) are in a 3 bed detached and our spend for gas and electric is £71 per month. So £852 per year on average. Our house isn't particularly hot or cold.

Raphael · 23 April 2009 at 11:10PM

Sounds similar to the problem I had with Scottish Gas.

They were chasing me up for a bill with an alleged meter reading (supposedly a real one, not an estimated one!) that said I owed them about £400-500 more than I thought I did (when my annual gas comsumption is only about £15), I thought I'd finally got them to acknowledge the fact that no one had ever come in to take a meter reading in during that period, and gave them the right meter reading and thought it was all sorted, but the next thing I know I got a bill for over £4000, and this time it was debt collectors asking me for it and threatening to break into the property to get my supply cut off.

I was lucky to get it all sorted in the end when I met someone who worked for Scottish Gas and offered to help me and got it all cleared within 48 hours, the original wrong meter reading was quite clearly a mistake, but when they got the actual meter reading (which was less than the previous bill), it appears they'd just billed me for the meter going one full round and starting from zero again.

I think that's probably what's happened to you as well, it sounds like the May 2006 reading makes no sense so it was probably someone mistyping... And since it was more than the next reading you got, they're now trying to charge you for the meter going one full round to the actual reading...

Dunno how you can correct that though, it was only because I was just lucky to meet someone who worked for SG at the time and offered to help me out that I got it all sorted...

EDF tried to take £6,841 from my mother's account

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