EDF accuse me of adding unauthorised credit!

fuzexi

Lots of people, (apparently) buy cheap credit on their pay meter keys, and so EDF sent a letter round to everyone in the area saying not to pay these people, and if we get contacted by them, to tell EDF. Fine. We didn't see anyone, so we didn't need to contact EDF.

Next thing, we get a letter saying that we hadn't been in contact with EDF and that they believe we have added unauthorised credit, and they want us to contact them "to discuss ways of paying the unauthorised credit"... and they are threatening to hand the case over to some debt collectors..... :eek:

They have never been to check our meter, and we have only ever paid to charge our prepay key at the local 7-11. I don't know where they get their ideas from.

I tried phoning them, and after about half an hour's wait :mad:, finally got through, and they said they don't even have our name, just "owner occupier". They want to call me back, but I asked them to email me because I don't want to have to wait in all day for these clowns.

Anyone with a similar experience? Any advice here? Should I be worried?

Peter

fimonkey

I can't help you with your specific problem (sorry) but I can tell you that EDF almost NEVER call you back when they say they will, and you will always have to wait for ever if you call them.

Write a letter and recorded delivery stating what you have stated here would be my advice.

sunflower_2

did the letter have your name on it?
or was it addressed to the owner/occupier?

[Deleted User]

Theres a big fraud going around now on people going around selling "cheap energy " to people on electric prepays, usually £50 s worth of credit for £25. the Police are involved in this because it is classed as fraud. the suppliers can see the fraud has been comitted when people go and top up with their keys. The centres for this fraud, which appears to be on Itron prepays mostly, is London and Birmingham. I suppose the con men will go around with some sort of scam tale saying they are selling discounted energy and target the usual suspects , the elderly. Anyone buying "cheap energy " is blowing their money 100% and leaving themselves open to prosecution. Fraudsters have been able to clone an engineers key then they can add credit to the meter.
I would def be worried about this Fuzexi, because unlike prepay meter bypassing, where the suppliers are incredibly lax about monitoring energy theft, this meter fraud is a whole new ball game where the Police are actively involved in catching the fraudsters and are not as pathetic as the suppliers are to energy theft, so i would urge you to sort it out with EDF asap, I would nt mess about with this because there are dedicated Police sections involved. Much better to sort out the problem quickly with EDF

chanz4

Itron would of flagged you

Krojan

fuzexi wrote: »

Lots of people, (apparently) buy cheap credit on their pay meter keys, and so EDF sent a letter round to everyone in the area saying not to pay these people, and if we get contacted by them, to tell EDF. Fine. We didn't see anyone, so we didn't need to contact EDF.

Next thing, we get a letter saying that we hadn't been in contact with EDF and that they believe we have added unauthorised credit, and they want us to contact them "to discuss ways of paying the unauthorised credit"... and they are threatening to hand the case over to some debt collectors..... :eek:

They have never been to check our meter, and we have only ever paid to charge our prepay key at the local 7-11. I don't know where they get their ideas from.

I tried phoning them, and after about half an hour's wait :mad:, finally got through, and they said they don't even have our name, just "owner occupier". They want to call me back, but I asked them to email me because I don't want to have to wait in all day for these clowns.

Anyone with a similar experience? Any advice here? Should I be worried?

Peter

Personally I wouldn't be worried unless you've done something wrong, they can send debt collectors til they're blue in the face but the fact is unless they can PROVE that you've used unauthorised credit on your meter they wouldn't have a leg to stand on, and the only way they can do that is by accessing the meter and checking your top-up key is a valid one.

The only thing that rings alarm bells is that they apparently have no details for yourselves so they don't know who's currently using their electric so where did you get your top-up key from as they don't usually send them out to "owner/occupier" generic addresses?

[Deleted User]

They can proove it easily, they know exactly if an unauthorised key has topped up. all the details are on the meter. Its happening all over now with people daft enough to fall for the half price electricity scam, just like they did with the fake cards with the older meters. every time they top up at the shop all the details are electonically sent, readings, prices, purchases etc

Terrylw1

Something people don't think about with a PPM is the fact that to a supplier, you need an account just like a credit meter.

So, they need to create & close accounts using the correct dates & readings. If they don't do this, it creates erroneous debt on the account which doesn't tie up with your payments.

Rule this out first.

Are they saying that your meter has been reset all over the place? This could be due to actual visits by their agents so you may need a complete history of visits, readings, payments, resets and the main registers. Otherwise, it could even be a supplier error.

On the subject of illegal key top ups, yes, there are customers actively taking part but there are also people being scammed by these doorstep criminals. They will obviously target deprived areas who are struggling and the elderly who will easily fall for their blagging about them being from their elec supplier. Then there are the criminal gangs who have a policy of intimidation. One consumer was threatened with their home being set alight if they wouldn't pay them! This is why the police are involved and why suppliers are having to work the issue...since the issue of tampers is actually dangerous and they don't seem to care about the does sacsquacco reports.

chanz4

Krojan wrote: »

Personally I wouldn't be worried unless you've done something wrong, they can send debt collectors til they're blue in the face but the fact is unless they can PROVE that you've used unauthorised credit on your meter they wouldn't have a leg to stand on, and the only way they can do that is by accessing the meter and checking your top-up key is a valid one.

The only thing that rings alarm bells is that they apparently have no details for yourselves so they don't know who's currently using their electric so where did you get your top-up key from as they don't usually send them out to "owner/occupier" generic addresses?

Every time you topup, it send meter serial number, read, active credit / debit , total accepted and even where you topped up. So its really easy...and not forgetting the key used.

spiro

The problem with these illegal topups is that even if the customer is not prosecuted they pay for the illegal topup (figures suggest at 50% of real value) and then have to pay the supplier the full value so what started of as £50 of elec for £25 actually turns into £50 of elec for £75.

fuzexi

Thanks for all your advice! I guess I haven't got too much to worry about since we haven't bought any fake credit. The supplier have only checked our meter once, about 2 years ago, when the whole scam erupted, and they didn't even know our names, addressing us as owner occupier.

The key was already in the meter when we moved in, and I had to add £27 just to get it back to zero. The key is genuine, but it doesn't work properly, so when we top up, we have to keep pushing it in and out before it finally registers. We were about to contact them to ask for a new one when we got this letter. As far as I know the meter has never been reset.


My wife is wanting to just switch to British Gas, despite them being more expensive, and I think I am inclined that way at the moment. I personally think they have targeted us simply because we are the only house on the estate that uses gas for cooking, so our electricity bills (about £5 per week) are much cheaper. We're out in the daytime and the flat doesn't use electricity for heating either, so I think they are just taking a shot in the dark hoping we would be using fake credit and admit it to them. If that's so, they really are a bunch of cowboys: yeeeehaaa!!