EDF price hike dishonesty

peaksoft

Today, I received a flashy 12-page A5 booklet from EDF Energy, with four full pages of colour photographs of happy smiling families.

The cover reads: "Pay less for your energy until September 2011."

Good news, eh?

Tucked away on page 8 are details of the company's charges from August 1, but nowhere does it compare them with the current rates.

The reason for that?

It turns out that the headline is a complete, utter, unvarnished lie.

My Online v5 Direct Debit charges will RISE from 12.02p for the first 225 kWhs to 20.19p - an increase of 68%, and the charge for the remaining units will rise from 7.75p to 9.8p, up by 26%.

I'm still trying to work out the increase on my gas bill, as the new rates are presented in a different format.

I can reduce the charges by 2% if I go to their website and sign an agreement to stay with them until September 30 2011.

Many people will take the bumf at face value - and who can blame them? How on earth can EDF get away with such appalling trickery?

tbourner

I think they all lie to get your business. Not many people (including me) actually go through the figures like you have and find out the truth.

KimYeovil

No need to turn to page 8. There is a subhead right there on the front cover!

"Pay less for your energy until September 2011 with the Energy Saver tariff"

You are currently on an energy saver tariff (so does not apply). You will no longer be on the energy saver tariff come next month (so will apply unless you choose to change back to an energy saver tariff).

Where on earth (or in the booklet) is the dishonesty?

EDF have decided to remove the unfair subsidy from some tariffs and restructure their tariffs back to a more standard and equal fashion. How hateful.

peaksoft

Well Kim, sending me a message stating: "Pay less for your energy until September 2011" couldn't be any further from the truth, which seems to fit any definition of a "lie" that I've ever encountered.

Quite simply, there is no means by which EDF's rate hike would permit me to "pay less" for my energy.

Whatever choices I make, it will cost more.

They know that, but they have decided to attempt to con me.

Quite simply, they are liars.

If, as you say, EDF have chosen to remove "unfair" subsidies, that's a business decision for them, and I can't really see the relevance to the point at issue - which is that they have deliberately set out to mislead their customers by sending them documents that (a) make statements that are untrue and (b) fail to give them the information they need to make an informed decision.

Plushchris

Are you just missing out the "with the energy saver tariff" part to make it sound like a con though?

I wouldnt know as I havent got the booklet but if it does say it how Kim suggests then you WOULD be saving money if you moved to the energy saver tariff.

Care to post a scan of the booklet so we can all see the con?