EDF - You've got to laugh!

GingerBob_3

Just had my annual statement. They owe me over £800. Yippee! Funny thing is though, they're putting up my DD by £18 pm.

On closer inspection, the statement only relates to gas (I'm dual fuel), so I guess the £800+ will be swallowed up in part when - or if - they send the electricity component of the bill.

The only mention of leccy on the (gas) bill is their annual consumption estimate for next year. They have is as 91,540 KwH (over £13k pa). They must think I live in steel mill or something. Bloody idiots!

I thought EDF were okay, but I'm having second thoughts. The worst of it is, I might have to ring them up, and I DO NOT LIKE doing phone calls to organisations. I can't be doing with all this "data protection" s-h-i-t-e and the rest of it. So maybe I'll just leave it. No doubt it will sort itself out in due course.

Fruit_and_Nut_Case

GingerBob wrote: »

They must think I live in steel mill or something.

Or have a marijuana farm in the attic. Watch out for a visit from the boys in blue.

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

My nephew doesn't like speaking to people either. He's six, but I'm sure he'll be able to soon enough.

somethingcorporate

They are a bunch of numpties. I just got my annual statement back a hundred quid or so in debit but given we're using less leccy over summer (as it powers our heating) that's fine. They decided they should halve my DD to £50 a month even after a year it's worked out pretty much spot on - when I rang up they couldn't even tell me why - "computer said so". I'll be leaving when my fix is up next month!

brewerdave

My final statement from EDF before I left them, had a forecast monthly usage the same as my actual annual usage!! In the same document, however, they suggested I could save £1000+ (on a total bill of ~£1300!) by switching to one of their new tariffs:rotfl:Glad I moved!

faineant

GingerBob wrote: »

I thought EDF were okay, but I'm having second thoughts. The worst of it is, I might have to ring them up, and I DO NOT LIKE doing phone calls to organisations. I can't be doing with all this "data protection" s-h-i-t-e and the rest of it. So maybe I'll just leave it. No doubt it will sort itself out in due course.

Letting it sort itself out can be a good idea as long as you keep an eye on it and watch it resolve rather than get worse. I moved to a longer fixed tariff but the actual rates were the same and they increased my DD then reduced it and sent me a refund as if they were drawing a line under the older tariff, just took a little while to sort itself out. Worked our fine for me and I'm sure it could only have got worse if I had asked them to interfere with 'the computer'. Good luck! If you do need to contact them try the online chat service and then you have a record of the conversation.

System

EDF is responding to the flawed OFGEM policy; however, its implementation is also flawed. When I decided to leave in March, they sent me an annual gas projection showing that my projected gas consumption for the following 12 months would be £889.34 and that I could save £417.44 by switching to one of their new tariffs. When I queried this (as my annual gas consumption had never been more than £500) I got an e-mailed response to support the £889 figure which had the correct SCs but a vastly inflated Kwh cost; i.e., someone had made it up!

Sadly, whenever a bill is produced a recalculated projection is carried out. There are clearly gremlins in EDF's algorithms which results in these massive swings in monthly DDs. When I discussed this with EDF, I was told that they were just complying with OFGEM's rules. They went to say that annual projections are meaningless until they are discussed with CS.

Norman_Castle

Just had my annual statement. They owe me over £800. Yippee! Funny thing is though, they're putting up my DD by £18 pm.

Your £800 is in their bank earning interest and covering losses from late payers. The £18 DD increase is because you've done nothing to stop them borrowing your money.
If you phone them and ask for your £800 its likely they will offer to reduce your dd payments to a low amount and slowly take the balance from the £800. This will be offered as a good solution for you as your outgoings will be lower, but they wont mention its good for them as they keep your money for longer.

I got tired of the annual, unnecessary dd increase and phone call to correct it. With little interest and using basic maths I could accurately work out my projected monthly payments accurately. Why couldn't they?. EDF always expected overpayment. Their bills also always headlined my credit as a debit. I was glad to leave them.

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

Norman_Castle wrote: »

Your £800 is in their bank earning interest and covering losses from late payers. The £18 DD increase is because you've done nothing to stop them borrowing your money.
If you phone them and ask for your £800 its likely they will offer to reduce your dd payments to a low amount and slowly take the balance from the £800. This will be offered as a good solution for you as your outgoings will be lower, but they wont mention its good for them as they keep your money for longer.

I got tired of the annual, unnecessary dd increase and phone call to correct it. With little interest and using basic maths I could accurately work out my projected monthly payments accurately. Why couldn't they?. EDF always expected overpayment. Their bills also always headlined my credit as a debit. I was glad to leave them.

If you actually read the OP's post, they've omitted the electricity element of the dual fuel bill, so they aren't £800 in credit whatsoever.

As has been stated many times on this forum, choosing to pay by DD offers a financial advantage far greater than the interest payments any bank will offer. If you use a Santander 1-2-3 account as a bills account, you'll earn cashback on top.

Norman_Castle

As has been stated many times on this forum, choosing to pay by DD offers a financial advantage far greater than the interest payments any bank will offer. If you use a Santander 1-2-3 account as a bills account, you'll earn cashback on top.

Presumably the benefits of dd payments and cashback are available with or without accurate (or honest) annual consumption estimates.

GingerBob_3

So, picking up on this (see post #1), the electricity component of my dual fuel bill has finally arrived and the £800 credit is now reduced to just over £300. Funny thing is though, they've increased my direct debit by over 10%, even though their estimate of my usage for the next 12 months is just about the same as it was last year. I rang them up to ask for the credit to be repaid. Here's their answer:

Ah yes, but your billing runs from February to February, and at the end of the billing period we expect your account to be at zero, and according to our calculations your DD needs to go up and we've also included your credit in the calculation. Now of course a £300 credit could - will - dwindle over the winter months, but it seems to me what these clowns are saying is that "we'll keep your £300 just so that you don't owe us money in six months time". I don't effing think so! You know what, it was all I could do to persuade them to pay me this money back. Only when I threatened to take my business elsewhere did they relent, but they're still putting up the DD (I'm ok with that).

They claimed that if the credit was repaid my DD would go up to about £260 pm, which is way, way in excess of what I need to pay based on my usage over the last few years. From my perspective it's perhaps unfortunate that my billing period closes at the end of winter, but no way am I going to lend them £300 for six months. If I owe £300 in February that's when I'll pay it!