edf charging 4 times as much as last year?

tumptyteapot

This is for a friend and it is actually a business account with EDF not a home one as it is his workshop - sorry if I am in the wrong place on here!

Last year for the winter quarter his bill was around £400, this year it is £2000. They estimated the bill but he checked it against the meter and the reading is not far off. He wrote them a letter they didn't acknowledge and now they have passed it onto a debt collection agency.

Any idea what he could do to sort this out? There is no way he can pay the £2k he just was not prepared for that kind of expenditure.

Thank you!

molerat

If he has used it he will have to pay for it. I don't think he has the protection from being disconnected that domestic users do.

Were previous bills estimated ? Has the tarrif increased drastically since last year ?

tumptyteapot

the previous bills were not estimated, it is a dramatic increase.

tumptyteapot

just had a look at his bills, there is an extra digit added onto the latest bill! that would account for it

tumptyteapot

Right, what has happened is that 2 years ago when he changed to EDF they thought he had a 5 digit meter, they are saying now that he has a 6 digit meter and they have adjusted his bills so that it shows the extra that was missing over the 2 years. It amounts to £2k that they want asap and they have handed it over to a debt collection agency.

This was their mistake in the first place but they are saying that he is liable.

Any ideas on where to get help anyone?

KimYeovil

Yes, he is liable. He must have known his bills were ten times lower than they ought to have been. And he could have easily checked his meter. Did he never over the period of two years look at how much he was using and scratch his head over why he was paying so little? What sort of way is that to run a business?

Of course, he should doublecheck that this revised bill is the correct one.

tumptyteapot

nope, the bills seemed fine, it is a blacksmiths workshop so there is not much in the way of powertools being used. And he is a craftsman not a businessman. He checked his meter but unless you look closely there is a red mark that looks like a decimal point - even EDF read it wrong so you are being a bit harsh!, thanks for bothering to reply though :-)

savemoney

I dont think business have the same rights as consumers ie back billing. Even if there was he was still being billed so they couldn't get out of not paying under the 1 years rule for back billing.

tumptyteapot

I understand he has to pay it, can they enforce the period of time it takes him? Slapping a 2 grand bill on him will bankrupt him.

savemoney

It might be best if he gets advice or perhaps plead with them to pay over a longer time

Premier_2

tumptyteapot wrote: »

I understand he has to pay it, can they enforce the period of time it takes him? Slapping a 2 grand bill on him will bankrupt him.

It only takes a £750 debt to petition someone's bankruptcy

It is owed now and needs to be paid within 28 days at the latest ... unfortunately he appears to have already had at least 23 of those days.

Of course he can try to negotiate a delayed payment plan, but he'd probably have had better success the earlier he called the supplier telling them he had a payment problem.