Nightmare leaving EdF

malcolmffc

I am one of the many who fled EdF OS v7 after the massive price hikes announced in June. I told EdF I was rejecting the increase the day it was announced and promptly signed up wih NPower for their cheapest fixed tariff.

NPower said they would be supplying my energy from 18th July onwards and asked me to submit an initial reading, which I promptly did. They said it would be passed on to EdF to produce my final bill. I've calculated it myself to be about £80 so my balance with EdF (£200 in credit) was more than enough to cover it.

Three weeks on, and not only have I not had a final bill from EdF, but they took a DD payment from me on 1st August! This despite them no longer being my supplier as of the 18th and being £200 in credit. Moreover, NPower haven't taken anything from me, despite them now being my supplier. Has this happened to anyone else? What is the quickest way of getting my money back and sorting this out? EdF are now earning interest on about £200 which should be sitting in my bank account...

keith1950

Hi, just to clarify, you say npower informed you they would be supplying you from 18th july, but did you actually receive confirmation after the event that it had switched?

Have you received an account number from npower? They initially provide you with an application number to start with until you switch.

Not all switches go through when they are supposed to and the gas and electricity can be days apart.

Have you checked your online banking to see if the npower direct debits are in place?

The fact that EDF are still taking dd and npower did not could suggest that the switch has been delayed.

Once you receive the final bill from EDF you would normally receive a cheque within 2-3 weeks.

Just to recap, have you had an actual account number and received written confirmation that that the proposed switch ( 18th july ) took place.

If so , sign up for npower online accounting and see if it accepts your details.

jalexa

malcolmffc wrote: »

Three weeks on, and not only have I not had a final bill from EdF, but they took a DD payment from me on 1st August! This despite them no longer being my supplier as of the 18th and being £200 in credit. Moreover, NPower haven't taken anything from me, despite them now being my supplier

You can't have it both ways stating Edf is no longer your supplier and in the same breath being concerned at certain NPower inactions.

I have no idea what is going on though there are plenty recent forum posts describing Edf "dysfunctional" customer service. Do you have an Edf online account? If so does it shed any light on your Edf account status? Ditto NPower online status?

Did you receive a Direct Debit mandate confirmation from NPpower? If so what payment dates were specified? Almost certainly the NPower online account will have something to say about the payment arrangements for the account. Have you checked?

If you have an Edf online account "set a trap" for Edf by sending an email. Only promised to be responded to in 10 working days but if and when they breach that deadline raise a formal complaint.

Until you have that reponse it's impossible to apportion "blame" for (possibly) supply registration and (definately) final reading transfer issues.

Premier_2

malcolmffc wrote: »

I am one of the many who fled EdF OS v7 after the massive price hikes announced in June. I told EdF I was rejecting the increase the day it was announced and promptly signed up wih NPower for their cheapest fixed tariff.

NPower said they would be supplying my energy from 18th July onwards and asked me to submit an initial reading, which I promptly did. They said it would be passed on to EdF to produce my final bill. I've calculated it myself to be about £80 so my balance with EdF (£200 in credit) was more than enough to cover it.

Three weeks on, and not only have I not had a final bill from EdF, but they took a DD payment from me on 1st August! This despite them no longer being my supplier as of the 18th and being £200 in credit. Moreover, NPower haven't taken anything from me, despite them now being my supplier. Has this happened to anyone else? What is the quickest way of getting my money back and sorting this out? EdF are now earning interest on about £200 which should be sitting in my bank account...

Yes, this is quite normal.

You should not cancel your DD mandate until after you receive your final bill from the supplier (which if they have done their job correctly will mean that they will have already cancelled it for you)

Any credit accumulated will be returned to you. See your final bill for details.

Edit: Regarding nPower, they cannot collect any funds from you via DD until they have notified you of the amount and date (and such notice needs to be at least 10 days in advance)

malcolmffc

jalexa wrote: »

Do you have an Edf online account? If so does it shed any light on your Edf account status? Ditto NPower online status?

I have an NPower account number and they have set up a direct debit against my account. When I login to EdF it says the contract has ended but there is no sign of my final bill.

Caistar

If I had to guess a reason for the delay, EDF may be waiting for the final meter readings to be passed to them. When you provided these to NPower, they then send them to their meter readers to be verified against previous records held for your property. Once verified, these are then sent to EDF's meter readers, who in turn send it to EDF to produce your final bill. This process sometimes stalls (various reasons), meaning a delay to the final bill. If your anxious about it, give EDF a call - as nobody else would be able to give you a deffinitive answer.

chanz4

it may take a few weeks for your gaining supplier to filter your read through, only then will edf close it down

Irratus_Rusticus

malcolmffc wrote: »

...contract has ended but there is no sign of my final bill.

Curious. I too left EDF a few months back to go to BG.

My dual fuel went across on the forecasted transfer dates and my final EDF electricity bill came three weeks later...I had a few quid credit due back.

I use very little gas, so my gas transfer reading was the same as my EDF bill's (National Grid reading) three months earlier. As it happened EDF also had a routine NG reading six days after the gas transferred - one unit higher than the one I'd supplied to BG - so the only room for dispute was ONE meter unit, about 11 kWhs.

Weird thing was, though the gas transferred on the forecast date, after a longer delay and various phonecalls from me, EDF came up with a still unexplained "estimate" reading that just happened to exactly use up all the £100 or so credit on my gas account.

I wrote letters to BG and EDF and each blamed the other. Came to the conclusion EDF had simply manufactured the estimate despite one unit being well within :rotfl:industry tolerance for suppliers agreeing/disputing final readings.

I learnt a lot about the way transfers SHOULD happen!

I got £75 goodwill overall by complaining to both companies, so didn't bother to pursue EDF's explanation further, but reading this thread seems I wasn't the only EDF transfer refund 'victim'?

Trust no one, grasshoppers!

jalexa

Irratus_Rusticus wrote: »

I got £75 goodwill overall by complaining to both companies, so didn't bother to pursue EDF's explanation further,...

Well done. That's the way to deal with customer service failure.

I am assuming you also got your own £100 refunded...

Irratus_Rusticus

jalexa wrote: »

I am assuming you also got your own £100 refunded...

Yes

Just on a rant, left with impression transferring energy isn't as straightforward as it should be.

EDF argued for weeks they'd not received the closing gas reading I'd given BG (as is the process). BG argued they'd sent the closing reading.

EDF then claimed BG gave them the estimate they wanted to apply (which would have needed ten years at my gas consumption to reach). BG argued back that the system did not work like this. BG wouldn't have given an estimate. They said the "Industry" steps into a dispute and suggests an estimate.

BG pointed out there could not be a dispute when EDF had an NG reading taken six days after the gas had gone over to BG and this was only one unit higher than my reading (due to the time lag as customers are told to ignore 'fractions' even up to .999). There are agreed dispute triggers, but these aren't clear either.

I demanded that EDF prove their assertions. They sent me a Transco "FLOH" print-out to prove the estimate, claiming it came from BG. EDF said they didn't dispute BG had sent the original reading, just that they never received it. And this point reveals a bizarre part of the process...

There is a statutory duty for your existing supplier to supply key info to the new one within a short timescale (as they know your meter numbers etc). It is then for the new supplier to ask for a final reading and pass it to the old one. But, the process isn't like the public might think...

BG entered the final reading on their computers and 'sent' this to EDF. But this screen apparently isn't what EDF can read...not a central database? EDF kept talking about an "Industry" go-between. I asked if this was a computer, a human, or a team of monkeys in a locked room randomly keying stuff into various keyboards. They both said they didn't know what "the Industry" actually did in practice!

In the end BG were more convincing as 1) there was no explanation for EDF disputing their own NG reading, 2) one unit was in no way justification for EDG not using that reading if they didn't like BG's. 3) BG insisted they didn't supply an estimate and pointed out that logically wouldn't as only EDF knew my recent consumption of gas.

What a mess. I never let these guys off without asking for compensation. As I see it, if I can keep to my side of the contract, they should too. :rotfl:

My advice to anyone is not to accept suppliers know what they are doing. Demand evidence in writing and demand compensation too.

jalexa

Irratus_Rusticus wrote: »

Yes

Just on a rant, left with impression transferring energy isn't as straightforward as it should be.

Fascinating. I would suggest that you bring this to the attention of Consumer Focus. And report back what you make of *their* effectiveness.