EDF direct debit manipulation

victor2

JackieO wrote: »

The only thing I have been wondering about is I have an EDF chap coming this Saturday to change my electric meter as apparently they are in the process of changing the old meter with the 5/6 dials for newer modals I am just hoping the newer ones won't mean an increase in my bills.I am fairly good about not wasting gas or elecric and have just had my November bill in and for dual fuel it amounts to £92.33 for 95 days which I don't think is too bad.Has anyone else had their meter changed recently at all and did it make much of a differance ?

Changing your meter shouldn't make any difference - unless the old one has been reading incorrectly, which could either be in your favour or against you. You would have realised if it was wildly inaccurate, and probably won't notice any difference.
On the day it is changed make a note (or better still take a photograph) of the old meter reading and the new one as it goes in. The engineer should leave a card on the new meter indicating what the old reading was and the new one started at (may not be zero).
The meter changes don't always get reported back to your supplier's system, which can result in very odd bills due to the new readings being wildly away from the old. When mine was changed a few years back, the difference in the readings would have meant I'd used about £5,000 worth of electricity in one day. I got a letter from my supplier saying I would be getting a very big bill if I didn't contact them to query it. Took them a few months to sort it out, but they did (that was E.On) without any silly bills coming my way.

WestonDave

When I got my last bill with its 40% predicted increase in gas usage I emailed them to ask for a breakdown of the calculation - got an automated "We will respond in 10 days" email. Today 13 days later I get an email saying they've passed it to the relevant department (ministry of made up statistics!) who will respond to me shortly!

I have this mental picture of a room full of EDF boffins trying to come up with an explanation!

That's before we start on the electricity when the change the meter in a couple of weeks time!

Terrylw1

JackieO wrote: »

I am probably one of the few who seemed to have had little trouble with EDF in fact my DD went down by £2.00 per month in September.Mind you I have always had a fairly good 'in credit balance' over the past few years as I like to have a good amount in there in case of a really cold snap in Jan/Feb I do need to keep my house at a reasonable tempreture as I have mobility problems and if I get cold my joints seize up and I cannot get about.
The only thing I have been wondering about is I have an EDF chap coming this Saturday to change my electric meter as apparently they are in the process of changing the old meter with the 5/6 dials for newer modals I am just hoping the newer ones won't mean an increase in my bills.I am fairly good about not wasting gas or elecric and have just had my November bill in and for dual fuel it amounts to £92.33 for 95 days which I don't think is too bad.Has anyone else had their meter changed recently at all and did it make much of a differance ?

Just to add to victor's post, sometimes they are calibrated incorrectly so are too slow or fast when they are put in.

So, on top of victor's advice, a good early warning check is to take daily readings the week before and after. If your daily averages differ but you are sure your usage was the same, there could be a problem.

This is a good way to pick out a potentially inaccurate new meter otherwise it could be ages before its looked at and unless its wildly out, a supplier only knows because you tell them.

Protect yourself by taking removal & installation readings. Also, if you enter readings online you need the meter change putting through before submitting readings on the new meter or it could cause a meter rollover in your bills. If both meters have similar readings, it can be worse as it can simply bill on until someone notices, so be careful if you use online reading facilities until your new meter number is showing.

brewerdave

WestonDave wrote: »

Today 13 days later I get an email saying they've passed it to the relevant department (ministry of made up statistics!) who will respond to me shortly!

I have this mental picture of a room full of EDF boffins trying to come up with an explanation!

...I too, have a picture in my mind...but its a room full of chimps typing furiously away on EDF headed notepaper!!!:rotfl:

Gold_Rush

Tommygun2000 wrote: »

You sound very unhappy with them, why dont you just swap to someone else?

I told them I would move to a different supplier if this happened again.
I really don't think me telling them that will make any difference and I'm sure they factor in a percentage of people leaving!
What I might do is setup a forum or just a thread here and invite people to sign up to all cancel their contract with EDF at the same time next year if they keep using these underhanded money-grabbing tactics!

Maybe the threat of mass loss of customers is the only way to try and stop consumers being ripped off.
If anyone has any views on this be that negative or positive let me know how what you think?
I've been thinking of starting a website to name and shame suppliers for a while now as the likes of Ofgem don't seem to be very effective in stopping companies taking the pee... :mad:

victor2

Gold_Rush wrote: »

I told them I would move to a different supplier if this happened again.
I really don't think me telling them that will make any difference and I'm sure they factor in a percentage of people leaving!
What I might do is setup a forum or just a thread here and invite people to sign up to all cancel their contract with EDF at the same time next year if they keep using these underhanded money-grabbing tactics!

There's already many threads on here where you can see people's frustrations and other problems with utility suppliers.
MSE does get publicity and high search engine rankings. A number of suppliers do monitor these threads and either respond directly in the thread or exchange emails with the posters.
By all means start a thread inviting people to cancel at the same time next year. Which time would that be? People on here generally make an informed decision, when end of contract is approaching, to move by looking for themselves to see what is available and which suppliers are or are not recommended. Just look through earler threads for yourself.

I agree that Ofgem do appear to be pretty toothless, but do you really believe a "name & shame" personal campaign would have any effect? Need to get the big guns and proper research behind you for that IMO.

Gold_Rush

victor2 wrote: »

There's already many threads on here where you can see people's frustrations and other problems with utility suppliers.
MSE does get publicity and high search engine rankings. A number of suppliers do monitor these threads and either respond directly in the thread or exchange emails with the posters.
By all means start a thread inviting people to cancel at the same time next year. Which time would that be? People on here generally make an informed decision, when end of contract is approaching, to move by looking for themselves to see what is available and which suppliers are or are not recommended. Just look through earler threads for yourself.

I agree that Ofgem do appear to be pretty toothless, but do you really believe a "name & shame" personal campaign would have any effect? Need to get the big guns and proper research behind you for that IMO.

Yes I agree with you MSE get a high profile with all the posters airing their various complaints. That's how I found the site a while back finding people with the same type of complaints.
The reason the idea of perhaps starting a thread or even a site dedicated to moving in block to other providers is I spoke to EDF in great detail last year and nothing has apparently changed going on mine and other posts on MSE.
To be honest I don't really want to spend time on something like this, but when it happens over and over it makes my blood boil and the utilities know Ofgem are a toothless dog without a bite.

What time to cancel!
Good question. I guess it doesn't really have to be a set date as I'm sure the DD reviews and contracts are at different dates for everyone depending on when they joined etc.
So it could simply be an invite to cancel your contract if EDF carry on with the same DD review tactics!
Of course it would be better if a large block of people committed to cancelling and moving to a new provider all at once but as I don't know when the DD amounts are reviewed that's a hard question to answer!

I think people would still be making an informed decision based on price and other factors etc. I just think it would help send a message to EDF and other companies if they can see customers pre warning them they will move if they don't stop bad practices like overestimating usage like EDF have done with me for the last 2 years.

No I don't really think name & shame would really work, these companies are just too big perhaps.
But like politicians do listen at the beginning at least then perhaps companies like EDF will listen and change if they think people will leave on mass. If many of us signed up to the idea I'm sure it would get results not only for this company but for others hopefully.
But it's just an idea, and even good ideas can fall flat!

I probably don't have enough posts to start a pole on MSE but maybe this would be a way of gauging interest if customers would consider leaving a company on mass to attempt making them change their bad practices!

GooliesOfFire

I'm puzzled... My first direct debit payment is to be taken on 10 December.. So far I see nothing on my bank account but my EDF online account shows I'm 34 quid in credit :think:

I'm meant to pay 34 quid for electricity and 36 quid for gas per month on the 10th each month.

victor2

GooliesOfFire wrote: »

I'm puzzled... My first direct debit payment is to be taken on 10 December.. So far I see nothing on my bank account but my EDF online account shows I'm 34 quid in credit :think:

I'm meant to pay 34 quid for electricity and 36 quid for gas per month on the 10th each month.

Don't be surprised, besides it's not even due yet. When I first went over to EDF, they failed to take anything for the first two months. They only update the usage balance after they get a reading. The credit will show when they receive the money. I ended up paying the balance over the phone to cover the first few months before they got the direct debit sorted out. They blamed the bank for failing to set up a load of direct debits from customers without telling them!
Just keep an eye on your bank balance and don't spend the money that should have gone to EDF. If it doesn't go the following month, you'll have to phone them up to get it set up again. Of course, you could just let it continue and put the money aside until they start chasing it. Could be interesting to see what they do....

jalexa

GooliesOfFire wrote: »

... My first direct debit payment is to be taken on 10 December.. So far I see nothing on my bank account but my EDF online account shows I'm 34 quid in credit.

Direct Debit rules require that you receive 10 working days notice of a collection from your account or a change to an amount or payment day. Police any failure of that with your bank.

In my experience - note to Victor - the energy account shows a credit as soon as Edf requests the amount, normally about 3 days prior. I'd be little worried about the credit appearing so soon in advance unless that is normal for a first collection. Keep a close eye on your bank account.

Eventually you will have a single payment per month. Initially it is possible separate energy amounts might be collected. Now that you are nearly there study the Edf direct debit failure and ombudsman threads.

Most of us here have experienced random, premature and unsubstantiated DD recalculation following either a customer or meter reader read. Most of us have found the "easy" way to deal with this is to ask (nicely) for the previous payment amount to be restored.

Though I experienced numerous unsubstantiated recalculations, in over a year I never experienced any failures of the Direct Debit notice and collection mechanism. That is for paper-free billing, I would be less confident about snail mail.