EDF compensation for July 2009 Dartford Power Cut

decima_2

Just got a letter today from EDF saying they are offering a futher goodwill payment if you were continuously without power at or after 2am on Wednesday 22 July 2009. They expect you to fill out a form giving day/date/time your power was restored. This was over a year ago and I'm not sure exactly what time power was restored. Does anyone else think that they should know which houses were effected and exactly when power was restored to them. I would have thought they should just send the compensation and not expect customers to request it, are they hoping we won't bother:exclamati

Premier_2

If this happened over a year ago, chances are that some of the customers at that time may have moved away and more importantly, there are probably new customers now in the area.

... and there may be some who, whilst being a customer, were just not in the area at the time (perhaps on holiday, or otherwise moved away temporarily) and so were not inconvenienced in any way.

Of course, only those who were actually inconvenienced by the outage would probably know the details they are requesting.

As this appears to be a further goodwill gesture, presumably they have already paid out all the statutory amounts?

victor2

I would think the power was reconnected to different areas at different times and EDF do know what happened when - they just don't want to give out more than they have to. I'm sure I wouldn't be able to quote the time power was restored under such circumstances, but you can bet I'd have an idea about how many hours I'd been without power. Just put approx by the time it was restored.

decima_2

Good points, well made. I didn't think about people moving! I can now see why I should request the goodwill payment. As for the amount paid previously as a goodwill gesture. They gave myself and other customers who were without power continuously for over 63 hours a miserable £50. I obviously wrote to them at the time expressing my considerable 'dissapointment' that they were not paying amounts payable under the guaranteed standards. I was ignored!!!

Terrylw1

Yes, the distributor would know when power was restored in each area. They have to automatically pay out based on the Guaranteed Standards Of Service.

Have a look at this on Ofgem's site for more info.

http://www.ofgem.gov.uk/CONSUMERS/CI/Pages/Dartfordpowercut.aspx

They know that £50 is the automatic payout they make for 18 hours. However, they also know that they have to pay a further £25 for every 12 hours.

So, you would be more likely £50 + £75.

I would imagine, those who moved don't know and will get stiffed out of this. Ofgem expect each party to manage this themselves and they do very little to check it's enforced. Suppliers for instance often won't mention these compensations to see if you will push them or not. Another one of Ofgem's many failings.

Push them! I advised a member in the arms on a different case that she should get £50 and the Distributor said the power was restored 1 min before the 18 hours so wouldn't pay. they are that stupied...she complaned and still got the £50 though.