EDF problems

macman

But why did you stay on the WarmWise tarrif all those years unless you were using much electricity off peak? If you've got oil heating/hot water, presumably you are not. All these tariffs work on the basis that you pay less off peak (primarily to power storage heaters which heat up off peak), but the trade off is you pay more 'on peak'.
EDF have a responsibility to make sure your meter works, but it's your own responsibility to select the most suitable tariff for your needs, and to check your bills, which must have shown zero off peak consumption. You said you have had issues over high bills before, so how could you not have noticed this?
Your refund calculation is not correct, because it assumes that your consumption is the same 24/7, whereas most of it will be during the day (or at least morning and evening). All you can reasonably expect a credit for is the difference in price between the standard tariff and off peak price for your (presumably minimal) off peak usage.

dogshome

Hi Reverand 2009. Glad that with your Complaint letter, you at least you got EDF to recognise the problem, - I'm afraid that my remark on asking for a rebate on the overpriced power you had been paying for, was really a bit tongue in cheek.
The thing to do now is make sure that EDF have now put you on a 'Standard' tariff, and if they want the meter changed, it's at their cost. Write again asking what the details are of the new tariff you are being transferred to, and give them your present meter reading - If you get any flack about meter change costs, remind them that you have been paying excessive electricity prices for 7 years, and that they as the professionals, should have recognised that there was a problem during a 7 year period in which they issued appx. 28 conscecutive bills, each of which recorded Zero use of cheap rate overnight power.

macman

How do you know that the standard EDF tariff is the most suitable for the OP? It's usually the most expensive. It's up to the OP to choose what tariff to switch to.
Do you really think that EDF check the bills manually before they send them out? They get a meter reading, enter the figures, the system calculates the bill.
And if 28 bills have shown no off peak consumption, then how come the OP has not noticed? I really hope that they can get something refunded, but you can hardly put all the blame on EDF in this situation, and I supect that the main reason for the high cost is the wrong choice of tariff, not the timeswitch failure.

dogshome

Hi Reverend 2009 - Overnight I've had further thoughts on your problem - Your move into your present house 7 years ago was right on the cusp of changes to the Utilities Act, that were made by Ministerial Order in the Spring of 2002. When privatisation first took place, private companies took over the old state regions and thier customers, with prices being controlled by Ofgem. The new regime allowed these companies to take on customers from other regions, and this 'competition' was supposed to act as the price regulator, however to allow 'new' companies enter the market and grow, the distributors were not allowed drop prices in their original distribution areas, so if you have not changed your supplier since you moved in, the chances are you are paying a premium price no matter what tariff you are on.
Now the real point - In the change overs from State to Private ownership and then from private company to private company, errors were made with customers data, (And still are, this site is littered with them). The previous owner of your house spent at a guess, around £5,000 to get rid of electric heating and replace it with oil, and the only reason for doing so was save running costs - So we have the situation of this owner spending a heap of cash to cut his electricity costs, but then not informing his electricity supplier of the change which was the one final step that would reduce his electric bills - A likely story ?
I'm afraid it's going to take a lot of homework to check the history of your current tariff, if it was me I would try to contact the previous owner, the chances are that the swithch to oil fired heating was a major decision and he'll remember the details. Next I would contact EDF and find out if thay have inherited by dint of takeovers, the original State Distribution area you live in - If they did there is a chance you are on an artificially high tariff, in which case you must switch suppliers.
To macman I can see little point in your critisism of Reverend 2009 for not checking his bills down to the last decimal point - It's what we all did pre-privatisation - and a line on a bill that reads "Night rate £00000000" is hardly likely to raise a query in the mind of someone who's innocently sailing along in the largly unpublicised minefield of present day utility supplies

macman

dogshome wrote: »

Hi Reverend 2009 - Overnight I've had further thoughts on your problem - Your move into your present house 7 years ago was right on the cusp of changes to the Utilities Act, that were made by Ministerial Order in the Spring of 2002. When privatisation first took place, private companies took over the old state regions and thier customers, with prices being controlled by Ofgem. The new regime allowed these companies to take on customers from other regions, and this 'competition' was supposed to act as the price regulator, however to allow 'new' companies enter the market and grow, the distributors were not allowed drop prices in their original distribution areas, so if you have not changed your supplier since you moved in, the chances are you are paying a premium price no matter what tariff you are on.
Now the real point - In the change overs from State to Private ownership and then from private company to private company, errors were made with customers data, (And still are, this site is littered with them). The previous owner of your house spent at a guess, around £5,000 to get rid of electric heating and replace it with oil, and the only reason for doing so was save running costs - So we have the situation of this owner spending a heap of cash to cut his electricity costs, but then not informing his electricity supplier of the change which was the one final step that would reduce his electric bills - A likely story ?
I'm afraid it's going to take a lot of homework to check the history of your current tariff, if it was me I would try to contact the previous owner, the chances are that the swithch to oil fired heating was a major decision and he'll remember the details. Next I would contact EDF and find out if thay have inherited by dint of takeovers, the original State Distribution area you live in - If they did there is a chance you are on an artificially high tariff, in which case you must switch suppliers.
To macman I can see little point in your critisism of Reverend 2009 for not checking his bills down to the last decimal point - It's what we all did pre-privatisation - and a line on a bill that reads "Night rate £00000000" is hardly likely to raise a query in the mind of someone who's innocently sailing along in the largly unpublicised minefield of present day utility supplies

Who mentioned last decimal points? One line for peak rate and one line for off peak, not a lot of checking. More to the point, the OP says they have had issues with EDF over the last year due to persistently high bills-so wouldn't reading one of those bills fully have been a logical step?