EDF didnt bill me and I was daft

insanegloss

I certainly would encourage anyone to get the best deal they can, that after all is what having a competitive market is all about. What I was more referring to is avoiding payment, or more specifically knowingly avoiding payment.

After all, using the OP as an example, they only got a small write off as they had mostly paid enough to cover the energy costs. Whereas someone who wouldn't have paid would get a larger write off for knowingly avoiding payment, and if we as society encourage those types of people not to pay as they could get away it, is that really fair on everyone?

I'm all for entitlements, but what I disagree is with people playing the system in order to 'profit' from it at the expense of others.

Also, I'm not accusing anyone of giving that type of advice here, but its an observation of things that I see in my day to day work.

JimmyTheWig

insanegloss wrote: »

Payments made prior to the 12 months will go towards the cost of energy during that time, and the supplier will not charge for the rest. Payments made after the 12 months will count towards to bill after the 12 months.

Interesting.
When British Gas messed up our bill they only charged us for the prior 12 months and the amount we had paid before this was counted against what we were charged for. I.e. despite having physically paid for it, the energy used more than 12 months ago wasn't charged for at all.

Don't know what the rules are, OP, but it's worth finding out for definite!


Incidentally, I agree in part with both insanegloss _and_ t0rt0ise. Insanegloss is right that it does seem fair that the OP pays for the energy they have used as they were paying for it at the time and so aren't in any way out of pocket. But t0rt0ise is right in that if the OP is entitled to a better deal than they are offered (whether we think they deserve it or not) then they should get that better deal and this website is the right place to help them get it.

undaunted

I didn't find the opening post entirely clear but if you are saying that the Ombudsman told them to write off more than they actually did you should go back to the Ombudsman and ask them to address it. Suppliers are obliged to follow their resolution.

ValHaller

undaunted wrote: »

I didn't find the opening post entirely clear but if you are saying that the Ombudsman told them to write off more than they actually did you should go back to the Ombudsman and ask them to address it. Suppliers are obliged to follow their resolution.

I agree with this. On the face of it, the back billing rules are that energy cannot be billed further back than 12 months. So EdF are entirely in the wrong to apply the credit to energy before 12 months prior to the resolution - because technically that energy is unbilled. I think that some clerk in EdF has misapplied the rules and a further complaint is in order.

David_Partington

bob_bank_spanker wrote: »

This is a money saving website, advising people to pay quarterly to accrue interest whilst at the same time forgoing DD discount is somewhere between stupid and irresponsible.

Well not really; I'd say its more responsible to stay in control of your finances and pay slightly more for your energy. DDs are the reason many people go overdrawn.

jalexa

smudgesmum wrote: »

... I built up a large credit in my EDF account. When the ombudsman sorted it out I was told that I wouldn't have to pay for the gas for 10 of the 22 months because they couldn't bill me for more than a years supply. However, because I had behaved in a responsible way and put money into their account they only wrote off the small amount of debt not 10 months worth...

It is true that the (ERA) commentary does give that impression but the actual Code clauses are less clear. Anyway it is a code of practice for accurate billing (binding signatory suppliers) not the code of practice for customer conduct that some "apologists" represent it as.

All that said, given that you elected to go to the Energy Ombudsman and assuming that you accepted the Decision, the only issue is whether Edf implemented the Decision in full as they are required to do. That is not clear from your post but the Energy Ombudsman final decision (whether right or wrong legally or contractually) has precedence over the supplier's interpretation of the billing code.

smudgesmum

t0rt0ise wrote: »

Getting back to the original point.. how can they choose to use your money to cover more of the bill than is necessary? Surely they shouldn't do that. You should be charged for just the 12 months and any extra refunded to you. I'd raise a complaint.

I have been back to EDF and pointed out that they did not actually make my account dual fuel until Nov 2012 when they finally registered me as a gas user. Therefore I could not of made payments for gas only for electric which is what the credit on my account up until that point must of been for. The ombudsman said that they should go by the rules on fair billing but left the interpretation of that rule to EDF. I am glad I went to the ombudsman because I did get a reduction just not as much as I would have got if I had not paid money into the account. I will now wait for EDF's response .

smudgesmum

insanegloss wrote: »

I certainly would encourage anyone to get the best deal they can, that after all is what having a competitive market is all about. What I was more referring to is avoiding payment, or more specifically knowingly avoiding payment.

After all, using the OP as an example, they only got a small write off as they had mostly paid enough to cover the energy costs. Whereas someone who wouldn't have paid would get a larger write off for knowingly avoiding payment, and if we as society encourage those types of people not to pay as they could get away it, is that really fair on everyone?

I'm all for entitlements, but what I disagree is with people playing the system in order to 'profit' from it at the expense of others.

Also, I'm not accusing anyone of giving that type of advice here, but its an observation of things that I see in my day to day work.

I didn't actually go to the ombudsman to try to avoid payment but to get an inefficient energy company to sort my account out. Every time they gave me a bill for electric they reduced my direct debit and I put it back up again so that I wouldn't get into debt with them. Surely the rule on fair billing is to encourage the energy companies to sort themselves out and run their companies more professionally to save themselves money as well as protect consumers.