EDF Energy-uncontactable, final demand letters but no bill!?

Amyce

Hi, I was wondering whether anyone could share a similar experience or offer advice...

We moved into our new place 4 months ago-just the two of us (no kids, no pets), little 2 bed flat, all electricity with storage heaters and we signed up for EDF on one of these blue motion tariff things.

Now both of us work a bit more than full time (we average 45 hours weeks), we're seldom here during the day at weekends as we go out, sometimes one or both of us work away so are not here at all, we've had several weekends away since we moved in and a full week on holiday.

We've just received a series of really threatening Final Demand letters from EDF threatening court action or to force entry to our flat to cut off the electricity supply. I have tried several times to call them about this but they just stick me on hold and after about half an hour of listening to terrible music I have to say I give up! We don't have a phone line so calling them off our mobiles costs money. We can not get hold of them for love nor money.

I have been on to our online account thingy and it says a payment is overdue but we have no bills to view? I sent in a meter reading a couple of weeks ago but have had no reply and its not registered on the account? The amount we are being billed for seems a lot, when we signed up we were quoted around £700 for the whole year and the demand for less than four months is over £300, which seems especially steep given how little we've actually been here. All our appliances are energy efficient, lightbulbs are energy saving, we don't have a tumble dryer or dishwasher-I don't even use a hairdryer for goodness sake!

Does anyone have any similar experiences with EDF and can you give us any advice for sorting it out? I've always been careful never to fall behind with bills before (had it drummed into me so much by my parents) so this is quite a shock?

Amy

Wail

Did you provide an opening read to EDF?

Did you get any welcome pack?

It is possible that either letter has not been sent to you or the account has not been set up properly.

macman

So were EDF the existing suppliers when you moved in, or did you switch to them from the existing deemed supplier? Did you not receive info from EDF confirming the amount of your monthly DD, and that it had been set up?
Have they taken any payments at all by DD? If not, did you not think to query this after the first month was missed? You must have had a series of chasers before you get to a final Demand letter.
PS: £700 for an all-electric tariff is unfeasibly low, even on E7. The type of light bulbs you use is not important, what matters is how you heat and hot water the property-that is what the vast majority of your electricity is used for.
If you can't phone them, why don't you use the messaging facility in My Account to send a query?

dogshome

Final Demand letters for 4 months use, with no bill to view even on the 'My Account' facility, smacks of a c*ck-up by EDF.

It won't be long before you get letters from a Debt Collector and a black mark on your Credit Score, so you have to resolve this now - Forget the phone or Emails - WRITE a letter headed Complaint to EDF

admania

did you know that over half of the calls are answered within 1 minute?, does that surprise you?, i can tell you that no one has been on hold for 30 minutes for about a year now , biggest queue i have seen is around 13 minutes

Wywth

Amyce wrote: »

Hi, I was wondering whether anyone could share a similar experience or offer advice...

We moved into our new place 4 months ago-just the two of us (no kids, no pets), little 2 bed flat, all electricity with storage heaters and we signed up for EDF on one of these blue motion tariff things.

Now both of us work a bit more than full time (we average 45 hours weeks), we're seldom here during the day at weekends as we go out, sometimes one or both of us work away so are not here at all, we've had several weekends away since we moved in and a full week on holiday.

We've just received a series of really threatening Final Demand letters from EDF threatening court action or to force entry to our flat to cut off the electricity supply. I have tried several times to call them about this but they just stick me on hold and after about half an hour of listening to terrible music I have to say I give up! We don't have a phone line so calling them off our mobiles costs money. We can not get hold of them for love nor money.

I have been on to our online account thingy and it says a payment is overdue but we have no bills to view? I sent in a meter reading a couple of weeks ago but have had no reply and its not registered on the account? The amount we are being billed for seems a lot, when we signed up we were quoted around £700 for the whole year and the demand for less than four months is over £300, which seems especially steep given how little we've actually been here. All our appliances are energy efficient, lightbulbs are energy saving, we don't have a tumble dryer or dishwasher-I don't even use a hairdryer for goodness sake!

Does anyone have any similar experiences with EDF and can you give us any advice for sorting it out? I've always been careful never to fall behind with bills before (had it drummed into me so much by my parents) so this is quite a shock?

Amy

Are these demands addressed to you in person (i.e. by your name) or simply to a non-specific person (e.g. "The occupier") or even someone else's name (e.g. the previous occupant)?

In your are on the EDF Blue+ tariff, you should be paying monthly by DD.

Also you can supply a meter reading online as frequently as once per day. A meter reading will produce a bill/statement within 1 working day (assuming you've not had one produced within the last 28 days)

Why do you say in the title that EDF are uncontactable??? :huh: What methods have you tried? (and when). You say you don't have a phone line? Well as they say "Calls from mobiles will cost considerably more"!

Try 0800 buster or use a payphone! :cool:

Sounds to me more of a case of 'Won't contact' as opposed to 'Can't contact'

macman

OP has not confirmed if the DD was ever set up, or if any payments have been taken over 4 months..

Amyce

The 'final demand' letters are addressed to me personally-when we moved in we signed up to the Blue+ tariff and supplied a meter reading-this is recorded on the account but (until earlier today) not our most recent one.
We were never asked to start up a direct debit, nor for our bank details and have never received a 'welcome pack'. The only letters we have had from them were two asking to install a smart meter and then the final demand letters-nothing in between.
As for the £700 quote-that came from the staff member whom we looked to set the account up with on the phone. I had used several comparison websites which had had varying results for what would be best with us.
I now assume whatever this staff member said was just total rubbish to get us to sign up.

I sent them more than one very stern email and now magically the meter reading I sent has appeared on the account but no changes to the amounts owed. I'm waiting to hear back from one of their managers-to date no one has asked me to sign up for a direct debit?

Still none the wiser as to what on Earth they're playing at?

macman

This makes no sense. How did you sign up? If it's done online then your bank account details are entered there and then and the DD request sent to your bank. Your bank would then send you a confirmation. If it's done by phone then the CS agent takes them there and then and the same process then follows
If no such bank info was taken then how did you intend to pay them?
To opt for non-DD payment on this account costs you a swinging 6% surcharge, so I can't believe you opted for that?
I don't understand why you didn't chase the at the time you went on supply, which was presumably about 4 weeks after you signed up. Did your original deemed contract provider (the provider when you moved in) confirm the transfer out?