Complicated electricity bill problem

Josh1u

Hello,

I have an ongoing problem with EDF Energy, and I wanted to ask some knowledgeable people on here what their advice would be.

I will tell you the whole problem. I apologise in advance for the length of it, but it has been a lengthy series of problems.

At my former rental address, EDF Energy were charging me based on an incorrect estimated period - calculated when the property was empty. I did not realise this until I provided them with a meter reading months later, which generated a huge bill. At the time I was working and so agreed a monthly direct debit with them to include usage and to gradually remove the amount I owed..

This was fine for a couple of years until I left work because of a disability and struggled to keep up with the direct debits. However, at that time I paid off a third of the bill by cheque. The bill at that stage was more than £2000. After this, rather than reducing the monthly payments, they tried to increase them, thereby causing me to have to complain. After a couple of letters, this was sorted out, and I agreed to pay monthly as previously.

Then came the major problems. At the end of 2011, I could not afford to pay a monthly payment and so cancelled it, and called EDF Energy to set it up again. When I did so, they told me that because of a new computer system, they would set up two direct debits, one for the outstanding amount and one for the usage. I didn't think this would be a problem and so agreed. However, when they tried to take the amounts from the bank, it was rejected because of the method they were using. Firstly, the bank told me that this was EDF's problem for trying to take two direct debits on the same day using the same account number, and EDF told me that while they had experienced some problems with other customers using the same bank, it should be possible. I knew was that it wasn't my fault. However, after it happened again, EDF advised me that it was a problem at their end. I insisted that I wanted to pay by direct debit because they offer a 5% discount for doing so.

For the next four months, EDF tried to take various amounts which were rejected. They even tried to take the whole bill amount despite my not agreeing to that. They sent me letters telling me 'thank you for cancelling your direct debit' which I had not cancelled. They sent me letters telling me they would be taking amounts which were neither the full bill nor the agreed direct debit amounts. A man at their call centre liaised with me to try to solve the problem, refunded the bank charges I incurred when they tried to take the whole bill, and told me to wait until their Italian technical department had solved the issue. Then in April, the same man told me that he was leaving EDF, that the problem should now be solved and that a manager would keep a check on it.

It wasn't solved. I called and reset the direct debit again in May having received another 'cancellation' letter, spoke to a manager who again said they would keep a check on it but never did, and still the 'cancelled direct debit letters' came through. By this point I had virtually given up. As far as I was concerned I had done nothing wrong.

Then, no contact from EDF for until November that year, when I received a letter saying 'thank you for setting up a direct debit with us, we will take the amount next month'. Sure enough, they did take the amount the next month - twice! So I cancelled the direct debit and asked for a repayment of the charge that this had caused with the bank. They set up the direct debit again, apparently, but nothing was taken.

Then I moved out in March. The debt over that period had increased, obviously, as EDF had made a series of errors and I had not paid them anything. I didn't think that I should until they sorted their mistakes out. Since then, EDF have been contacting me at my new address with demands for the full amount. In August this year, I phoned them to ask for details of all of the phone calls I had made to them and received from them, so that I could put in a complaint and that I wanted my account to be put on hold for three weeks to go through all of the errors and put the complaint together. The person I spoke to told me she would email me the details that same day. Two weeks later, I had not received anything. I used their online chat facility and requested them again and then received them by email a few days later. I called again to ask them for the three week period so that I could write the complaint, and they put the account on hold again for three weeks to enable me to do so. Or so I thought.

I received a call from EOS Solutions, who refused to tell me who they were calling about and expected me to tell them my details over the phone. I refused to talk to them without knowing why they were calling. I suspected EDF and the next week called and asked them, and they advised that my account had been put through to the debt company. I asked them how this had occurred because my account was supposed to be suspended while I wrote a complaint. They told me that their debt system had overriden their suspension system, and so it had been put through to EOS Solutions in error. When I asked them to retrieve it, they said they would try, and would call me back when it had been retrieved. I called them again, because they didn't phone me, and they told me they had put the request in but were unsure if it would be accepted because it required extenuating circumstances. I told them that it was their error which should be enough extenuating circumstances.

I called EOS Solutions after receiving a letter from them in the post, and explained that they should not have my account on their records and they told me that EDF had requested that they suspend action on it until a complaint had been received. However, in the phone call, their member of staff asked me my personal details for security reasons. I didn't realise until after the call that she was actually gathering information that EDF did not have!

I wrote my complaint, sent it off to EDF Energy and a week or so later had a call from someone in their 'Chief Executive Complaints Office' who told me she was in their highest level of complaints department. She asked me how I would like to resolve the problem, and I told her I would like the bill waived. When she advised this was not possible and asked me what amount I would like to pay, I suggested that she revert the bill to amount it was at before all the direct debit problems began, which seemed like a reasonable compromise. She did not agree nor disagree, and instead said that she would go back through the account and would see where and why all the problems had occurred and write to me. She extended the suspension on the account for another month.

I received nothing. Nearing the end of the month, October this year, I called to ask them why she had not sent a letter. While speaking to her colleague, to my horror, I discovered she had sent the letter to my former address, now occupied by my former landlord, even though I had specifically made it clear at the top of my letter which was my address at the moment. Knowing that my former landlord would probably have opened the letter I was very annoyed and told one of her colleagues that it was a very poor error from a member of staff at a 'chief executive' level to have made. That member of staff told me that she would escalate it to the manager - so evidently there was a higher level of complaint - and would forward the letter that I should have received on to me.

I received the letter which did not make an offer of the amount I had suggested i.e. before all the errors started, and instead offered a small gesture for the errors. Having received nothing from a manager, I complained again by letter, asking for the bill to be waived because of the series of errors and their effective providing of my personal details, including my address and financial bills to someone else's address. Apparently, the complaint I made over the phone had not been escalated to a manager, so in my letter I reiterated that I wanted that to be done.

I received an email from the same member of staff who made the error today, not from her manager, offering an increased gesture of £25 and an acknowledgement that she had made an error in sending my details to the wrong address. As yet, no reference has been made to my questions about the mistake in providing the account and my details to a debt collection company. The emailed letter stated that while she had made the error she was not responsible for someone else's actions should they have opened the letter and obtained my personal details. What's more she has stated that they 'cannot keep the account suspended continually' and will proceed to debt collection should there be no agreement for payment. The letter does not say it is a final response. What's more, it asks for a reply by Monday, which is one working day!

So here are my questions..

- Do you think I should write back within a day and repeat my demand for the bill to be waived or if not, reduced to the amount it was at before all of the EDF mistakes.
- Have they broken the Data Protection Act with any of these errors?
- Do I have the right to demand that my details are removed from the records of the debt collection company?
- Are they allowed to put it through to a private company for debt collection prior to sending me a Final Offer letter, and if so, what if I then take the matter to the Ombudsman?
- Is there a more senior department or person that anyone knows of that I should be complaining to, or should I complain to the Ombudsman now?

Josh1u

Their telephone number is freephone, so I don't think I could reasonably ask for phone call costs to be refunded, although I agree about letters.

With the data protection question I was referring to sending my details to the wrong address.