EDF gas problem

Anthillmob

not sure if i have mentioned this before.

basically when we moved here there were pre-payment meters for gas and electric installed already both of which are supplied by EDF.

as we are on a combination boiler and rarely use the gas cooker i have noticed we are paying less on pre-payment than we were monthly with british gas in the last place. however we shall see i spose when winter comes.

anyway, the problem i have with the gas is such:

when we moved in i put £20 of credit on the card and when i put it in the meter it took £7.

i assumed it was taking for the emergency for 'future use' as ive never had a pre-payment meter for gas before.

then when i topped up again it took another £7. so i called EDF, had a rant and they came up with various excuses but did send me a cheque for £14.

the next time i topped up it took £6.

so i called them again and they said that we had obviously used the emergency. i know for a fact we have never used any 'emergency' credit. i argued with them and they said they would send what they call a 'dump card' which will see if there is a fault with the meter by first class post which would arrive by the monday [this was on a thursday evening].

no sign of the card but we have a crap postal service so i give it a week. call them and some snooty cow informs me that i will have to wait 28 days like everbody else and we get no special treatment.

in the meantime i top up again and it dont take anything! problem solved [i hope]. so i call EDF and they refuse to send me £6 reimbursement until ive had and returned the dump card.

in the mentime while i was waiting for the dump card to arrive an engineer called round [they refused to send one out to me when i requested one] looking for the prev tenant. he looked at the meter using my gascard and went away. i wonder if he did anything to the meter before this dump card arrived? ]

ive had letters from them asking for the whereabouts of the prev tenant, ive sent them the way of the council.

the card finally arrived and i did what i had to with it and sent it back. never heard anything from them.

so i call them last week and ask them whats going on and they said there is no problem whatsoever with the meter and thus i cannot have my £6 reimbursement. i had quite a 'heated' conversation with the operative because she kept saying 'well you must have been using your emergency'. you cannot use emergency unless you physically go out there and switch it over.

[i only know this as we ran out one sat morning. i did switch over to £6 emergency and then went and topped the card up and the meter still read £6E so no gas had been used thus we havent used the emergency so we dont owe anythibng. and having a combination boiler the gas cut itself off anyway for the 5 mins i was at the shop coz it took me half hour to figure out how to switch it back on when i got back!!

so ive emailed them and told them reimburse me or i take it further.

any tips on how and where to take it further? coz i bet they come back and tell me no.

dellxps

hi,

don't know the answer to your question but you'll probably get more answers on the gas and elec utilities board.

Honeydog

Just a Heads Up Anthillmob but I recently did some voluntary work during the school hols and the vehicles we drove were sponsored by Ebico.

Apparently (according to the guy who talked to us before we started) they are a not for profit energy company and don't charge people on pre-payment meters any more than your average punter. I know from TV progs that some companies fleece pre-payment folk.

If changing supplier is an option you or anyone else might want to check them out. I don't have any experience of using them as a supplier myself but the guy who spoke to us seemed genuine enough.

Anthillmob

reading mine back its a bit confusing. believe me im very confused.

could a BG kindly move this perhaps if you think it would be better suited on the utilities board?

i know its only £6 but its the principle of the matter. they owe me and yet are accusing me of using emergency when i havent. seems im paying someone elses debt and im sure that when that engineer turned up for the other tenant he did something to the meter.

Godders

As requested, hopefully you will get a decent response over here

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