EDF energy - email for CEO?

Retrovertigo

Completely and utterly disgusted with EDF this morning.

Not worked for a while because of an accident and so budget very carefully. My bills with EDF have always seen me in credit (which I didn't mind as it meant at winter I always had a buffer for gas usage - and this has been the case for the last 10 years maybe) but now I find myself owing them money because of their own mistakes.

I pay by direct debit and was always in credit - and so a while back my monthly bills changed to reflect the credit I was in, as it was piling up. Mainly because - as I thought - my plasma TV broke around 8 months ago and so my electricity usage went down a LOT. My TV was rated at just over 500w - which is a lot for a telly.

Since then I have used a small TV that is rated something like 100W. Therefore my usage for my main item in the home - in terms of hours used - should have dropped dramatically.

I get a bill from EDF yesterday and they hadn't actually been putting any charges for electricity on to my account for the last 14 months!

Because of the ridiculous way the website works, they usually show your current balance when you give meter readings. But now they tell me that there had been a problem and even though I was giving meter readings, they were basically being ignored for my electricity usage.

The guy I spoke to tried arguing that they only send out bills periodically because paying by direct debit means you are always on top of your bills. But it means that because of their mistake, my direct debits have supposedly been wrong and so when I'm next billed, my direct debit payments will shoot up by maybe £15 a month. Which for me, not working, is a lot to budget in all of a sudden.

He then tried saying that the difference between a 500w tv and a 100w tv shouldn't affect my bill in the way I think it does. Which is nonsense when it is the only real thing I have switched on during the evenings.

I'm not one for regularly sending out complaints to companies. But for them to have basically not been taking into account elec charges for the past 14 months and so having me thinking I am on budget with my bills is disgraceful.

I'm worried now about what my direct debit will change to when my next bill is due. I'm convinced they have made a mistake somewhere anyway as really, as I say, my usage has dropped a lot.

Somewhere high up needs to hear my complaint. Thanks for your time.

McKneff

I'm no expert, and I'm sure some will be along soon, but your TV usage wouldn't make the difference you think it will to be honest.

yangptangkipperbang

Write to EDF Complaint Resolution Team in Exeter, tell them you wish to discuss your problem. Give them your phone number and they will call you back - the staff who do this seem to be capable of actually making decisions rather than the call centre staff who just follow a script.
I had a similar problem where they weren't billing me - we reached an amicable financial settlement on the phone - they even paid me interest on the DDs which they had taken and not billed against.

Retrovertigo

McKneff wrote: »

I'm no expert, and I'm sure some will be along soon, but your TV usage wouldn't make the difference you think it will to be honest.

My old plasma cost around 6p per hour to run and was on maybe 7 hours per day. £150 per year?

Current Tv costs less than 2p per hour. That is a fair old difference to me with limited budget

A.Penny.Saved

I very much doubt that your plasma actually uses 500watts. That might be an absolute maximum which is extremely difficult to reach. It's more likely around 300-350 mark unless it is absolutely enormous and over 50".

You say that your smaller TV uses 100watts and uses 2p per hour and your plasma uses 6p which is x3 so more like 300watts. That 100 watts might not be a typical usage value either. The power on the stickers on the back of TV's never show typical usage amounts, they are always well over. My PC monitor is the same, the actual is a lot lower than the quoted figures suggest.

When your working, it might be worth getting an energy usage plug in device to measure the approximate energy usage of devices. They are not 100% accurate, they do tend to read a little lower than actual but they certainly give a rough idea and maybe within 15% of the real value.

Terrylw1

This seems common with EDF's poor new SAP billing system. There have been several threads about it.

I would suggest that you remind them of the back billing policy and state that you will only pay for 12 months. If you have not prevented them info to bill, as you gave them readings, and you have not concealed anything then you can qualify for back billing.

Besides if they billed you nothing at all, not even estimates, the Ofgem back billing directive states they can't bill back further than 12 months.

Or, have you had the bills created with readings and its just the fact your DD has remained too low to cover it? If so, its not a back billing issue.

I also suggest you check out Standard Licence Condition (SLC) 27.15 which they have clearly breached if they had billed your elec but not included it in the DD values.

Pick the supplier .PDF from this link to the Ofgem site.

http://www.ofgem.gov.uk/Licensing/Work/Pages/licence-conditions-consolidated.aspx

Retrovertigo

Nothing was actually billed to my account.
They basically ask for meter readings and then adjust payments accordingly. But unless they actually create a bill, you can only go by the current amount which is either in credit or debit, listed under "my account".

I tried looking back at old bills and there aren't any. They just say no bill available. So they did indeed just not bother billing me for electricity from April 2011 to July 2012.

This is why they have consistently decreased my payments. They have only been taking my gas bill into account. Proven by the fact that last months bill I received only covered Gas and said my direct debit would be reduced to £7 per month!

So while I have indeed been providing every meter reading as it has been required, they have been adjusting my payments based solely on how much gas I have used.

because I have always been in credit with them, by up to £200 at christmas, and used far less energy this last few months, I assumed I was just building up credit.

The guy I spoke to was adamant I would soon pay off the £30 odd I now owe - failing to realise my direct debits aren't correct for what they claim I have been using.

I'll have to contact someone who can help me though as they have clearly breached that 12 month thing. My only slight problem is that although I have provided meter readings every quarter - and had meter readers at my property regularly, they have put down all my meter readings since April 2011 as estimated. I'm sure that has been done on purpose so that they can claim I provided no readings?

I did find the CEO's email and have written complaining about all this. But I didn't know the exact details of the 12 month rule. I'll wait and see if they respond on Monday. Or should I just phone them back anyway? Thanks for the replies.

edit: actually it would be difficult for them to deny they haven't had electricity readings, as they have been billing the gas as normal, and there is no reason I would only provide a gas reading and not an electricity one.

I am really angry now as I have just been on google and found people in similar positions, where CS have just been saying they will increase direct debit payments to cover bills going back further than 12 months That has infuriated me to think I was fobbed off by someone who clearly should have known that rule was in place.

Terrylw1

Search this board, there have been 2 identical threads to this in the past 3 weeks. It seems to be a flaw in their new billing system.

In terms of readings, anything taken by a meter reader leaves an electronic audit trail. The Data Collector, an appointed validation agent, validates the read and passes it via data flow to the supplier. The supplier stores this and may also use it create a bill.

You would have to accept that you could have spotted this earlier however they can't justify not knowing about it either and all readings provided to them would have prompted them to take action.

You can look up the back billing policy, however completely unbilled energy is no more than 12 months by Ofgem.

Also, be wary if EDF and DD's, they seem to make a mess of them in general so do your own sums.

You will have pay for it, but perhaps even a small write off is better than nothing for you?
Raise a complaint, after 8 weeks take it further and they will be charged by the ombudsman for the privilege.

If you write to a CEO, he/she will never see it, it will just go to the same complaints dept. It may mean its higher priority in terms of resolving it quickly, but ultimately it will go through the same complaint stages.

Retrovertigo

In my defense tried checking my bill at Christmas when I saw the amount I was in credit. But as I say no bill was available at the time. But it listed the then dates as from Nov onwards (as though I'd been billed up to Nov), so I assumed I would be billed a couple of months or so later. I'm new to paperless billing having only changed it late last year.

The guy on the phone admitted it was their fault as they had had problems with meter readings etc.

This bill I have been sent from April 2011 to July 2012 is actually split into two separate meter readings one from April 2011 - Nov 2011. Then from Nov 2011 to July 2012.

That is why I didn't question it at Christmas as I seemed to have been billed in some way. But then that didn't actually seem to be included properly on my account/ So I now have this bill covering a 14 month period but seemingly two bills merged into one.

I'm losing the plot as to how to look at it (and as I say, I was always in credit by a considerable sum) but I think it works in my favour even more that they are billing me for two bills at once in effect - one of them being that Apr to Nov 2011 period.

I've been with EDF for years and always knew how much I was paying, how much I was in credit etc. And of course was billed every quarter. I never had an issue and now suddenly I'm apparently not paying enough. It doesn't make sense to me.

Retrovertigo

Thanks to folks for replying here, and especially Terrylw1.

Called EDF a moment ago and they have credited me back two months worth of direct debit payments for the extra two months they billed me.

Incredibly annoying though, that I had to stand my ground and argue the toss about back billing. Initially - as with both people I spoke to on Saturday - I was made to feel as though it was my fault.

Again it was insinuated that I hadn't provided a single meter reading since April 2011 which is simply not true - and in fact last night I dug out several letters from them asking for meter readings. I had my readings jotted down and know I called in with them. As someone working to a tight budget I never accept an estimated reading.

Rather worryingly though, they have no record of any meter readings I have provided, nor the readings taken by meter readers when they have visited the property.

I was quizzed as to where I had heard about back billing as the girl I spoke to seemed to think I was pulling it out of thin air. It's such an important issue that I can't believe staff aren't made aware of it.

Thankfully sorted - but not before I had gone and made a single payment on Saturday to cover the small amount of debit I was in

I yet again queried why my direct debits are being altered so often and so erratically. My bill last month after a meter reading put my payments down to £7 a month because of the credit I was supposedly in. The girl I spoke to said this is because bills aren't generated just because I may give meter readings frequently.

Surely what will happen then, is that if they bill once a year- even if I give meter readings once a month - if no bill is generated, the system will just assume I'm building up a ton of credit again and alter my direct debits again. It seems crazy. Isn't the point of quarterly billing to make sure you always know exactly what your usage is? Yearly billing needs to die a quick death. It is confusing for customers I think.

Thanks again.

Terrylw1

The meter reader readings are stored for years by the agent and the supplier.

If they haven't had them, the agent has got them.

If that may affect your consumption predictions, the agent can easily retransmit them if asked by the supplier.

It could be either the person isn't trained properly or their management on the back billing side. I remember years ago, one suppliers attitude on Ofgem's compensation for missed appointments was, don't discuss it unless they know about it...but then Ofgem were and still are terrible at enforcing it...