Edf - 2+2=3

Simon7685

SwanJon
I appreciate that SP may have made their assumption on 9 months. However I have offered them the last 9 years worth of data if they want it but they refused. My hypothesis on the 3 to 5 year idea would work and could easily be standardised to cover everyone. All it would need is energy companies to share data with each other when people switch. Or accept date from the customer if offered or available. If no data existed then they could revert to an average, which they do now in those situations, reviewing every 3 months.

Also I do have to dispute that with accurate meter readings they will still get it right. My Mother is with N Power has been in the same property for 14 years and always been with them. They have all her actual usage for 14 years but every 3 months I end up ringing up to get her DD reset because they insist she is going to use more energy. 14 years worth of data and they still cannot get it right!

I have seen situations where she has been hundreds and hundreds in credit and they have had to refund her before I started monitoring it for her. She lives in a block of 32 flats - over half of those have continual problems of the same nature. All you ever get is the computer says she will use this in the next 12 months. She never has in 14 years, she never will but still it goes on and on.

Regarding DD's, I think you will find that the majority of people do not even understand properly how they work. All they know is when the energy company says its going up by £30, £40, £50 a month they have to pay it.

I appreciate that energy companies have millions of accounts to control but that does not absolve them of looking at things more closely. If they know a customer is vulnerable and/or in fuel poverty there should be asafeguard built in that they can't increase payments automatically without it is looked at by a specialist team. It is a duty of care. However the word CARE does not fit into their vocabulary, only profit and greed in wanting more and more.

The bottom line all of the energy companies take the P155 and are allowed to do it because of lack of regulation, it needs people to stand up to them to get anywhere but too many people do not understand enough of how to sort out their usage and track their bills, they know this and that's why they get away with what they do.

brewerdave

..you are all missing the real reason for EDF's mysterious calculations .....the Commodore 64 has broken,SP have borrowed the Sinclair Spectrum and they are back to monkeys with abacuses:rotfl:

SwanJon

Simon7685 wrote: »

SwanJon
I appreciate that SP may have made their assumption on 9 months. However I have offered them the last 9 years worth of data if they want it but they refused.

And what did you expect them to do with it? The vast majorityof your readings were for a time when you were not their customer. Should they re-write their whole billiung system to include your old readings?

Simon7685 wrote: »

My hypothesis on the 3 to 5 year idea would work and could easily be standardised to cover everyone. All it would need is energy companies to share data with each other when people switch. Or accept date from the customer if offered or available. If no data existed then they could revert to an average, which they do now in those situations, reviewing every 3 months.

Suppliers can't share data directly - I'm sure if it happened someone would complain about DPA.
However, there are intermediaries in the industry that will collect consumption data from the rest of the industry, and use this to create a figure that can be passed on to new suppliers (Annual Quantity/Estimated Annual Consumption). However, these are blunt tools as they are only figures, not patterns, and are at least six months out of date when released. I'm not sure how much climate modelling goes into these, if any.
Again, rewriting the billing systems of 14+ suppliers to accomodate your wishes? This would probably destroy some of the smaller suppliers.


At no point disbelieving what you say, I could give you anecdotes of suppliers getting it spot on - but where's the story in that? Who starts a thread saying they got it right?

Simon7685 wrote: »

Regarding DD's, I think you will find that the majority of people do not even understand properly how they work. All they know is when the energy company says its going up by £30, £40, £50 a month they have to pay it.

I appreciate that energy companies have millions of accounts to control but that does not absolve them of looking at things more closely.

Customers agree to the DD payment scheme - and only have a few to manage - are they absolved of looking at things more closely?
I agree that customers in general need to pay more attention, and challenge where appropriate (and challenge appropriately).

Simon7685 wrote: »

If they know a customer is vulnerable and/or in fuel poverty there should be asafeguard built in that they can't increase payments automatically without it is looked at by a specialist team. It is a duty of care.

One of the conditions of suppy is that suppliers must do all they can to avoid customers building up a debt balance. You'll see plety of threads accusing suppliers of doing it deliberately to stop them moving for a better deal.
And you want this for vulnerable customers?

What would your specialist team do?

matelodave

We have an electricity consumption that goes up and down like a yo-yo (we are all electric). Our worst month last winter was 1500kw in January and our best month this spring was 142kw in May. It actually averages out at 8500kw a year (it's usually about 8000kw but last winter was a bit longer and colder but will still be within my 8500kw estimate).

Scottish Power, E0N before them and EDF before that felt that my DD should go up & down to track consumption which means that they want it to swing between £150/month in the winter and £30 in the summer which really defeats the object of a direct debit which is to smooth out fluctuations - they might just as well send me a monthy bill.

I really just want to pay £75-80 every month and I'll be somewhere between £3-£50 in credit at the end of 12 months but they seem to have a real problem understanding this concept.

Their re-assessments only seem to work over a two to three month window and then assume that my usage will remain constant at that level for the rest of the year - until the next reassessment has another guess at it. I've usually managed to sort it out over the phone and get the £75 DD re-instated but it's a pain to try and explain it to the call centre staff who usually have to get someone to help them out