EDF took money by DD I wasn't expecting

EdGasket

I am in the process of switching to EDF and agreed a Direct Debit with payments going out at the end of the month starting at the end of this month. I had a notification saying payments would commence on or after 28th August.

Having logged into my bank, I find the DD has already been set up and £45 taken on the13th August. I queried this with EDF and asked for an immediate refund. They say:

1) The payment is for Electricity in July; however I was not switched to them until the 28th July so it seems a bit steep and anyway I had not agreed to pay anything on the 13th of the month.
2) The system does not allow us to make a refund. (This I do not believe)

On further investigation there was another notification on the EDF website once I had logged in, that they were going to take the payment on the 13th but I never saw it as having received the original payment schedule which was correct, I saw no reason to log in anymore.

I have again asked for this money to be refunded as I will be making a payment anyway on the 28th August. If I do not receive a refund, can I claim this back from my bank under the Direct Debit Guarantee scheme because as far as I am concerned EDF have simply helped themselves from my bank account as they fancied without my agreement though I had agreed for a DD on the 28th of each month?

Nada666

Yes, technically, you can use the Direct Debit Guarantee - the bank has to take your word you were not given ten days of notice.

But do you actually need to? Have you incurred any charges? You may be bumped off the tariff for a few weeks until a new debit is set up. As that will miss the 28 August deadline you will have another irregular payment in September or October. And that will cover a month and a half not just half a month. And they will have to adjust your monthly instalment size.

It is not unusual for a first payment to be irregular either in amount or date.

Quentin

If they changed your payment date to 13th, why will they take another payment on the 28th?


Irrespective of all this you can use the dd guarantee now to get the £45 refunded into your account today.


(With the dd guarantee the Bank refunds the customer immediately then sorts it out with the merchant - if they end up agreeing you were informed about the payment date then you will just have to pay it again)

System

Beware of unintended consequences. When I left EDF some moths ago, I agreed with CS that as my account had accumulated a significant credit balance that I would cancel my DD. This triggered a standard letter stating that my account was being moved onto the standard tariff etc etc. When I queried this I was told that this is how the 'system' works when a DD is unpaid or re-claimed. Also, bear in my mind, that as you are late in switching to EDF, that it is possible that when your first bill is generated that you may see a big hike in DD payments to cover anticipated winter usage. A bit of credit in your account will soften the blow.

PS. I would take anything that an energy company tells you with a large piece of salt. My advice would be to send them monthly meter readings to avoid the estimated bill trap.

Buzby

Probably not. If your DD was for 'unspecified amounts on unspecified dates' as the vast majority now are, you are already disadvantaged. As you have already stated you did nor check online where this information us provided by your merchant, they can easily reject your assertion that you were not advised

If you play things close to the wire, DD's are not your friend and should be avoided

EdGasket

Quentin wrote: »

If they changed your payment date to 13th, why will they take another payment on the 28th?

They haven't changed the payment date, it is still the 28th. What they have done is taken out an unauthorised (by me) £45 on the 13th for some kind of 'system procedure' reason. I object in principal to anyone helping themselves from my bank account.

The fact that they had informed me that debits would commence on or after the 28th means they should not have taken any money earlier. I did find an additional notice on the EDF website about this £45 however I do not consider that to be adequately informing me; I can't be expected to keep logging into EDF to see if they have changed the payment schedule we had earlier signed up to.

I appreciate I might not come well out of it if I claim a refund and/or cancel the DD however it is the principal that is most important to me i.e. that no-one dips their hand into my bank account as the fancy takes them and gets away with it.

macman

Check your spam filter: when a message is posted in your online account you should receive an email alert.

System

EdGasket wrote: »

I appreciate I might not come well out of it if I claim a refund and/or cancel the DD however it is the principal that is most important to me i.e. that no-one dips their hand into my bank account as the fancy takes them and gets away with it.

If you feel that you have a grievance, then raise a formal complaint. Personally, I would do it by e-mail with COMPLAINT in the subject title. EDF then has to invoke its formal complaints' procedure which, in my experience, it tries to avoid if you call CS.

skylight

I had this with EDF when I joined. The first DD came out OK but then they took money again 2 weeks later there were no emails nor messages posted to my online message system. I got the money back through the DD guarantee with the bank, very easily.

I set up another DD with EDF and they took the money on the correct day but for triple the agreed amount - again, no messages/emails. Not a happy bunny!

So, that amount was also refunded via the DD guarantee and I now stick with EDF but I pay directly each month rather than via DD and supply meter readings every month too. I would be more than happy to pay by DD if they could get it right.

skylight

Hengus wrote: »

Beware of unintended consequences. When I left EDF some moths ago, I agreed with CS that as my account had accumulated a significant credit balance that I would cancel my DD. This triggered a standard letter stating that my account was being moved onto the standard tariff etc etc. When I queried this I was told that this is how the 'system' works when a DD is unpaid or re-claimed. .

I got the same email months and months ago, but they haven't actually moved my tariff at all despite not paying via DD. I would move supplier again if they did, and they may get round to it at some point.

Aquamania

EdGasket wrote: »

I am in the process of switching to EDF and agreed a Direct Debit with payments going out at the end of the month starting at the end of this month. I had a notification saying payments would commence on or after 28th August.

Having logged into my bank, I find the DD has already been set up and £45 taken on the13th August. I queried this with EDF and asked for an immediate refund. They say:

1) The payment is for Electricity in July; however I was not switched to them until the 28th July so it seems a bit steep and anyway I had not agreed to pay anything on the 13th of the month.
2) The system does not allow us to make a refund. (This I do not believe)

On further investigation there was another notification on the EDF website once I had logged in, that they were going to take the payment on the 13th but I never saw it as having received the original payment schedule which was correct, I saw no reason to log in anymore.

I have again asked for this money to be refunded as I will be making a payment anyway on the 28th August. If I do not receive a refund, can I claim this back from my bank under the Direct Debit Guarantee scheme because as far as I am concerned EDF have simply helped themselves from my bank account as they fancied without my agreement though I had agreed for a DD on the 28th of each month?

Under the terms of the Direct Debit Scheme, any application for a refund must be made direct to your own bank.

If, as you did, you contact the service provider directly, they are indeed not permitted under the rules of the scheme to refund you directly, but should refer you to your own bank for a refund.

So in that sense, what they told you was correct, but not very well explained.