EDF Review

smallfry1983

I was wondering if anyone knew how they calculated monthly payments?

We have just had our annual review, and they are increasing payments from £102 a month to £220 a month.

This is despite the fact that after a full year of our current payment, we are £352 in credit!!!

We are also still owed our 'welcome credit' which we need to phone them about anyway (I didn't realise this until looking through our bills recently), while doing so we will be asking to reduce our payments back to what we currently pay.

How on earth they got that number I cannot even begin to guess!

Does anyone know if they will reduce our payment and also refund us the credit back? I am going to figure out the new prices with our usage and get them to reduce the payments to that, surely they could have done something similar in the first place, since that is what they claim to have done on the front page of the recent bill.

jalexa

smallfry1983 wrote: »

We have just had our annual review, and they are increasing payments from £102 a month to £220 a month.

This is despite the fact that after a full year of our current payment, we are £352 in credit!!!

A relevant supply regulation says this...

"The licensee must provide to each such Domestic Customer an explanation in clear, plain and intelligible language of the basis upon which a fixed amount (and any variation of that fixed amount) has been determined. "

... so if you do not get agreement on payments at the first time of asking raise a formal complaint in writing - or by email - asking for an explanation and quoting the *exact* words above.

Welcome to the forum club on this issue.

You say "annual review" but are you sure it is not an "interim review" (and was it generated by a meter reader reading or a submitted customer read)? Credit balances are only automatically returned at "annual" review" not at an "interim review". You are entitled however to request a credit balance refund at any time and the supplier must explain their decision.

There have been several recent Edf (and Eon) threads on this issue. I cannot say whether the calculation is right (in their terms:(), that is why you need to seek an explanation. Be aware that possibly your previous tariff may have matured and market rates have increased. That, and spring "annual review", can conspire to produce a "sudden excessive payment" hike. I would say that is "unreasonable" even if accurate. Unfortunately it has not yet been determined whether it is permitted by regulations.

Up to you how you proceed.

hex2

smallfry, worth a phone call. They did something similar to me a year in, in credit - doubled the monthly DD. Rang to object, politely pointed out that my usage had actually dropped, that my tariff can't increase and they agreed to leave it as it was, and apologised for the inconvenience.

rockin_plumber

I was ready to give you a review of how terrible my experience of being an EDF customer has been over the past year

But... obviously not what you wanted :rotfl:

smallfry1983

Thank you for your replies!

jalexa wrote: »

A relevant supply regulation says this...

"The licensee must provide to each such Domestic Customer an explanation in clear, plain and intelligible language of the basis upon which a fixed amount (and any variation of that fixed amount) has been determined. "

... so if you do not get agreement on payments at the first time of asking raise a formal complaint in writing - or by email - asking for an explanation and quoting the *exact* words above.

Welcome to the forum club on this issue.

You say "annual review" but are you sure it is not an "interim review" (and was it generated by a meter reader reading or a submitted customer read)? Credit balances are only automatically returned at "annual" review" not at an "interim review". You are entitled however to request a credit balance refund at any time and the supplier must explain their decision.

There have been several recent Edf (and Eon) threads on this issue. I cannot say whether the calculation is right (in their terms:(), that is why you need to seek an explanation. Be aware that possibly your previous tariff may have matured and market rates have increased. That, and spring "annual review", can conspire to produce a "sudden excessive payment" hike. I would say that is "unreasonable" even if accurate. Unfortunately it has not yet been determined whether it is permitted by regulations.

Up to you how you proceed.

I assume it's an annual review as it has been exactly a year since we signed up with them. We've never had any interim reviews, and I always submit meter readings in time for the quarterly bill.

We were on Online Saver 7, and just switched to the Fix for 2012 (is that the name, I cant remember?). Using our last years usage as 16000 kwh for gas and 5000 kwh for electricity, rounding up to the nearest thousand, I calculated our monthly payments for the next year at £110, and that's not even including any discounts.

I am very uncomfortable with them demanding such a high payment increase while also holding on to so much overpayment credit, not to mention the discounts they have never added to our account.

I am very well versed in how bad they are, we've had our fair share of phone calls, and only last month finally got signed up online :T. I would switch, but they are cheaper than everyone else in my area.

robotrobo

smallfry1983 wrote: »

I was wondering if anyone knew how they calculated monthly payments?

We have just had our annual review, and they are increasing payments from £102 a month to £220 a month.

This is despite the fact that after a full year of our current payment, we are £352 in credit!!!

We are also still owed our 'welcome credit' which we need to phone them about anyway (I didn't realise this until looking through our bills recently), while doing so we will be asking to reduce our payments back to what we currently pay.

How on earth they got that number I cannot even begin to guess!

Does anyone know if they will reduce our payment and also refund us the credit back? I am going to figure out the new prices with our usage and get them to reduce the payments to that, surely they could have done something similar in the first place, since that is what they claim to have done on the front page of the recent bill.

are you sure that the electricity is up running & live ?, i have no live gas account yet 12 months on, but i have the electric up & running , so i have recieved the £100 joining credit. my mate down the road as the gas live , but the electric is the same position as my non existent gas account , so he as not recieved the £100 , we have been haveing great difficulty with this bum company for over 12 months now .
i have spent days on the phone & even had my own advisor ringing me to get my gas up & running ! but they still have not been able to do so.
i have had the d/d taken from my account for the electric & the non existing gas account, i have had 2 electric bills in the 12 month period , which are paid & i am £340 in credit which is some of my d/d gas money.
I am for a better word now really !!!!ed off with the bad service or no service that they have not provided over the nearly 12 months that me & my mate , who lives 200mtrs from me as the same problem only his is electric & mines gas. My d/d are open & the last money taken was on august the 1st , i am guessing they have not taken any more money for the reason i am £320 in credit.
I have submitted a electric reading yesterday for aug -now to see what happens next, they have altered my d/d on a few occasions on there own with no consultations from me whatsoever , i thought that was illegal to do without the owners consent.
And yet i can ring them up & quote my non existant gas account number & they recognise it!, but i have no such number on my online account & because of this i can not give a gas reading, i hope its free for the rest of my sick life that i have left, they had better not demand money from me with what i have tried & tried , should i give up or what?, i have proof of final gas & electic final bill payment & i know my first gas reading & i have kept all letters .

TO answer your question , you will not get the £100 if the electric account as not gone LIVE.:mad: PS I HAVE GOT MINE!!!!

smallfry1983

Hi,

Yes, the accounts are all setup correctly, the welcome bonus credit had been added to our first bill, but at that point they had us on the wrong price plan. They then recalculated the bill with the correct price plan, but just didnt add on the bonus credits.

We called them today, they reduced the payment to what we requested (£110), are refunding the overpayment credit. We asked about the welcome bonus, but the girl seemed unable to understand that the welcome bonus was not for our current price plan, but our previous, so we left her to 'look into it and call back later' (which she didnt) so will be phoning again tomorrow for the bonus.

madmum33

A metre reader turned up here this morning and we had an interesting conversation! I said I hoped EDF wouldn't increase my DD again, he replied that they had a habit of doing that just so they could have our money in their accounts. He also said that they sometimes ignore the metre readings he gives them and estimate instead to give them an excuse to change DDs! I can't say I'm surprised, I wish I hadn't signed up with them until 2014 now!

jalexa

madmum33 wrote: »

I wish I hadn't signed up with them until 2014 now!

If it is FP 2014 you are on you (like me) probably have an extremely good deal until 2014. I say stick with it.

Regarding the "random" DD hikes, well covered in this forum, the "throwaway" reasons given by the meter reader are not grounds for an increase. Regulations require that suppliers clearly explain the basis for any increase. Hold them to that if necessary by using the complaints procedure.

If you can argue the increase is not accurate, my experience is it is not difficult to get the previous payment restored, but please post your experience of that.

madmum33

jalexa wrote: »

If it is FP 2014 you are on you (like me) probably have an extremely good deal until 2014. I say stick with it.

Regarding the "random" DD hikes, well covered in this forum, the "throwaway" reasons given by the meter reader are not grounds for an increase. Regulations require that suppliers clearly explain the basis for any increase. Hold them to that if necessary by using the complaints procedure.

If you can argue the increase is not accurate, my experience is it is not difficult to get the previous payment restored, but please post your experience of that.

It is FP 2014 and yes, the deal seems good, just the company is dodgy! I suppose I have been fortunate before now with getting excellent deals with better companies (5 year fixed price with Powergen saved me a fortune, then a year on Eon's price protection which was good), I didn't expect EDF to be so poor at the basics!

I had a review last week after I submitted my own readings, they wanted to increase my DD from the original £84 to £113. My actual usage from last year suggests that the £84 is correct, but I called EDF and told them I would be happy to pay £90 to be safer. I was quite surprised that the CS didn't want all the figures over the phone to check!

I hope this reading doesn't trigger another recalculation, I don't want to spend half my life on the phone getting DDs sorted out. :mad:

victor2

EDF bless'em. I've only been with them 6 months and have had 4 different DD amounts. They've always put it back to where it should have been when I've phoned them and had the patience to wait for a human. When you do get the aforementioned human, they are very apologetic and helpful. Unfortunately, they've given me a variety of explanations, which contradict each other.
The best approach seems to be avoid telling them how much gas and electricity you are using, but track your costs yourself. Mind you, I suppose that will result in an estimated reading and corresponding random DD adjustment. Unusual business model!