Offsetting one utility against the other

glider3560

I switched my electricity away from my current supplier at the end of November. Had a credit of about £25 on the account. Cheque was apparently sent in December. Never received, so contacted supplier at start of January and they said it would be cancelled and reissued. Again, never received.

My gas to due to be switched at the end of this week (was also with the same supplier). I've worked out that I'll owe them about £25.

Is it perfectly reasonable for me to write to them and do one of the following:
a. Refuse to pay the gas until the electricity amount has been refunded
or b. Ask them to cancel the second electricity cheque and transfer the credit from the electricity to my gas account

I note that my contract for both is with EDF Energy Customers plc (rather than two separate subsidiaries), so I assume option A would be perfectly reasonable.

JasX

why are you on separate accounts for each in the first place? surley getting a 'best buy' dual fuel tariff would not only save you money but stop this kind of nonsense....

yes ask them to cancel the cheque again and instead of reissuing it transfer the credit over to the account in debt.... maybe they will maybe they wont but if they do seems simplest way out of this

brewerdave

Unfortunately this doesn't work with most suppliers - they actually run dual supply agreements as 2 supply agreements in the background behind the apparent single agreement.
When a lot of us left Scot Power last September they worked everything out as 2 accounts - I think someone on these forums asked the question re offsetting at the time but was told by the SP rep that it wasn't possible - they were seperate supply contracts.

glider3560

JasX wrote: »

why are you on separate accounts for each in the first place? surley getting a 'best buy' dual fuel tariff would not only save you money but stop this kind of nonsense....

EDF don't have any 'best buy' tariffs for my area that don't have a tie-in period. I still received a discount, even though they are separate accounts. I'm currently switching to the cheapest supplier for my usage but the gas was delayed as my meter was crossed with another in the same block.

kippen_noedel

JasX wrote: »

why are you on separate accounts for each in the first place? surley getting a 'best buy' dual fuel tariff would not only save you money but stop this kind of nonsense....

Why assume dual fuel is the best option without having all the facts ?

You're probably right but sometimes two suppliers are cheaper than one, it's all down to your usage.

Premier_2

glider3560 wrote: »

I switched my electricity away from my current supplier at the end of November. Had a credit of about £25 on the account. Cheque was apparently sent in December. Never received, so contacted supplier at start of January and they said it would be cancelled and reissued. Again, never received.

My gas to due to be switched at the end of this week (was also with the same supplier). I've worked out that I'll owe them about £25.

Is it perfectly reasonable for me to write to them and do one of the following:
a. Refuse to pay the gas until the electricity amount has been refunded
or b. Ask them to cancel the second electricity cheque and transfer the credit from the electricity to my gas account

I note that my contract for both is with EDF Energy Customers plc (rather than two separate subsidiaries), so I assume option A would be perfectly reasonable.

Why not call them and see what you can negotiate. They may or may not be willing to offset one account with the balance from the other, but creating and cancelling cheques is costing them money anyway, and there's no guarantee you'll receive the next one (if they decide to issue one)

Perhaps you may wish to bring the matter to the attention of the Royal Mail too, as such frequent loss of mail sounds somewhat concerning. You may also wish to tell the police who may be able to add your case to any similar cases in the area to build up a picture of perhaps a certain round/rogue postie operating locally.

glider3560

Premier wrote: »

Perhaps you may wish to bring the matter to the attention of the Royal Mail too, as such frequent loss of mail sounds somewhat concerning. You may also wish to tell the police who may be able to add your case to any similar cases in the area to build up a picture of perhaps a certain round/rogue postie operating locally.

The cheques were sent to different addresses. I had a second correspondence address on the account when the first cheque was issued. The second cheque was sent to the supply address, which is now also my correspondence address. I've had access to both properties and neither have received the cheque.

They said I have to wait 4 weeks for this cheque to arrive, then I can contact them again.

Premier_2

glider3560 wrote: »

The cheques were sent to different addresses. I had a second correspondence address on the account when the first cheque was issued. The second cheque was sent to the supply address, which is now also my correspondence address. I've had access to both properties and neither have received the cheque.

They said I have to wait 4 weeks for this cheque to arrive, then I can contact them again.

I would still suggest bringing the matter to the attention of RM and/or the police as it may be a rogue postie at the sending end of the chain rather than the delivery end.

glider3560

The first cheque has now finally arrived. It was sent on the 22nd December and arrived on 13th March, envelope completely intact. Contacted EDF to chase up the second cheque. Apparently, the old one was cancelled but the new one was never requested, so the balance has been sitting there on my old electricity account. I've been told the new cheque should arrived in 10 working days. I don't have much faith in this actually happening.

The gas account (which switched supplier about 2 weeks ago), still hasn't had a final bill issued. Doesn't really bother me as I'll owe them money anyway.