huge edf bill

mrsdymond

Last year I sent up a payment plan with edf to pay my outstanding gas bills. These were paid off In june this year with some help from the edf energy trust. Once my account was clear I switched onto the blue price promise tarrif. All was fine until I received a bill this morning for £481for the pperiod may 2012 - june 2013! the bill had lots of estimated readings on too, eventhough ive got bills from them during that time with actual readings on and when I spoke to edf this morning she told me they were on their system too. I rung them to be told it was correct. Apparently when I switched to the new tarrif they looked over my bills from the last 12 months to see how much energy I use, cancelled the old charges, recalculated them using these estimated readings and then put the payments ive made in the last year towards the amount.

Im completely floored by this, when I checked my account after I received the payment from the energy trust I was actually in credit. I really dont know what to do. Were living on benefits at the mo so I really dont have £481 lying around. They've offered me a payment plan but I'm still going to continue to get gas bills every quarter.

Please help I really dont know what to do.

Nada666

Did you read your meters between May 2012 and June 2013? Did you work out how much you were using and how that compared with what you were paying? When applying to a charity to have your debt written off (and paid by other paying customers) part of the promise you make is that "you will change your ways and be able to benefit from this gift". Surely you agree with this condition and did know you were underpaying £500 - you must have known sooner or later this would end up on your bills.

mrsdymond

Edf came and read our meters during the time I have been billed for, and I have the bills to show they have read the meter. I did not know I was underpaying, I paid what they told me to pay.

macman

The supplier only needs to read the meters once evey two years. Intermediate reads are down to you (at least every quarter is wise), in order that your DD keeps in line with your actual usage. Otherwise they have no idea what you are using.
Is the closing bill reading an estimate or an actual? If the former, submit your current readings and get rebilled.

Nada666

Rereading your original post - are you saying they are trying to charge for older reads on a more expensive new tariff that you changed to? Or that the changeover read was substantially different from that was on your original bills?

Do you still have both sets of bills?

mrsdymond

Edf have been coming out regularly to read my meter and the woman I spoke to today confirmed the readings are showing on my account and I do have both bills. We don't pay by direct debit, but standing order every fortnight when our benefits go in. I dont kniw why they have billed us to be honest when all I did was change tarrifs.

macman

What do you mean by 'regularly' though? How often?
This does not make sense, because you said that the June bill had lots of estimated readings on it-neither your readings nor the agent's.

mrsdymond

Every couple of months. I been getting bills every couple of months for the last year with actual readings on. So im confused as to why they have sent me a bill for a year with lots of estimated readings on it. It doesnt make sense

victor2

It doesn't make sense as you describe it. Are you sure you're not confusing actual bills with an annual review?
Get all your past bills, speak to EDF and ask them to explain what you've received and what they believe you actually owe them. The switch in tariffs could have resulted in a final bill for the old tariff and a new start on the new one, but it still doesn't make sense with your reference to estimated and actual readings.
Also read your meters yourself now and make sure you know where you stand and that they line up with your latest bill.