EDF problems

Chris_Marsden

I'm having problems with EDF - Since the start of 2013 they had a computer error and overcharged us for gas. They charged us £506, when it should have been £406 for that quarter. They accepted this to be their error.

Then between February and May....They now want to charge us £920 is gas use alone! We are having them out to investigate our meter, but we feel there has been another huge error!

We have been told time and time again there is a lock on our account to stop any correspondence, yet we received a rather horrible final demand letter saying they will gain forced entry?

We read our own meter for our bills, as their estimates are unbelievable. We are regular payers of bills and never miss payments.

Anybody else think this is not right?

Thanks

dogshome

The £100 overcharge on the (January?) Bill ? - Has this been corrected by a £100 credit on the next bill ?
If not WRITE a letter headed Complaint. Doing this puts the problem into the hands of a dedicated team who must resolve it within 56 days

So far as the £920 Feb to May bill is concerned, nobody can fully comment until you post the meter readings and price detail on the bill
But meanwhile check that the bills Start Reading coincides with the End Reading on the previous bill, and that the Meter No.stated on the bill is the same as that on your actual meter

Chris_Marsden

Thanks.... I'm currently going to get the meter tested.... But in the meantime, getting Ofgem involved by the way I have been treated by them!

Chris_Marsden

According to our meter readings, from July to December last year, in the space of 5 months, we used 122 units. Between feb and may we used 664 units within 3 months?? We didn't have very cold days over those 3 months and we were away 1 week out of those months too! Our water and heating is on timer: 5am to 8am and 4pm to 8.30pm. We didn't have it cranked up, as our house is quite warm as it is! As a comparison, this time last year we used 328 units...and that was one of the coldest winters on record!

Any thoughts? Our meter is quite old.... Could it be the meter? Is it possible to use 664 units of gas in 3 months.... Even if we left our gas rings burning 24 hours a day?

To which we didn't have our rings on 24 hours a day.... That would be totally irresponsible

The kWH rate is 4.042p

molerat

What did you use between Dec and Feb ? 664 metric units is quite possible over 3 months, an average of 7 per day.

Give us your dated meter readings for more comment. Is your meter metric or imperial and does the bill correspond. Are they using your readings or estimated ones ?

Chris_Marsden

Dec to jan 31st we used 108 units!

We do our readings and submit them, as their previous estimates were silly. Our use plan they put us down for is £380 a quarter and that is down to previous use. Not sure about metric/imperial.

Chris_Marsden

We have done an average 7 day read and our use is 1 to 2 units a day

dogshome

OK - From the figures in your post you appear to have an Imperial Gas meter, and during Feb - May used appx. 20,286 Kwh of Gas which is enough to heat an ordinary home for an entire year

1) You say the meter is quite old - Is it the type that has a series of clock-like dials with each one having it's own pointer ?
If so these are not only hard to read correctly, ( Even Meter Readers get it wrong), but they are well beyond their service life and it must be changed - In the meantime get onto EDF and insist on a Meter Reader visit

2) This is a long shot if the meter is old -
A slim chance that your Meter is a Metric model, ( Marked m3), but EDF are chargeing it as an Imperial model ( Marked ft3) - Look at the meter to see which it is. If it's marked m3 get onto EDF immediately

victor2

Was the "computer error" causing an error in the readings they recorded, or in the calculation of the cost?
It does sound like you have an imperial meter, but verify that as said above. Look at your past meter readings - you'll need to have EDF's online billing and look at previous bills if you don't have hard copies - and see what it showed the usage to be. The bills show the kWh equivalent as well as the readings, both will be useful.
How often to you give readings? If it's only every six months, then it's going to be difficult to pin the problem down.
If you are able to tell us dates and readings for the last 12 months or so, then there's a good chance someone will be able to start to identify where things started to go wrong.

Chris_Marsden

Thanks for the confidence boost Wywth!

How do you know you've been with EDF longer than me? And for the record, their system malfunctioned in January and they had to re-set our account to zero!!

Plus - What happened to customer care? If humans had seen that this meter reading was inaccurate to begin with, then they could have got in touch and asked me to do another reading? The clue is in the title "customer care"

Please don't judge me....as the right hand side post says, I'm a newbie here, please be nice and don't persecute

Many thanks!