What are EDF playing at?

Kitsi

I just banged out this angry email to EDF -

On 11.4.15 I received my 'final electricity bill from you' after moving home in March and cancelling my EDF account giving you my final meter readings. I paid the final amount on 24.4.14 and expected that to be end of it. Can you please explain to me why upon returning from a holiday last month I received another 'final electricity bill' dated 25.11.14 saying I was £121.28 in credit and another one dated 28.11.14 saying I am £156.29 in debit? I have since received several threatening letters demanding money. How is it even possible that I can be both in credit and in debit for the same account (an account which was closed back in April last year)? I will not be paying until I have been given a clear explanation. Until then please stop bombarding me with threatening letters and either phone or email me personally. If I do believe I owe you money I will gladly pay it back in reasonable instalments. In the mean time I will be contacting consumer advice programmes and forums for further advice.


Is anyone able to shed light on this issue? I have checked my bank account and they have credited £121.28 to my account but are still demanding I pay them £156.29! Both bills are for the period August 2013 - April 2014 and are for the same account (I only had one account with EDF for electricity). Do they have the right to just take money out of my account?

McKneff

Have you double checked that the account numbers are exactly the same.


Have you checked both the bills and how they have been calculated.


Do you have have gas in your property, if so who is your provider.

Kitsi

Thanks for your reply.


Yes the account numbers are exactly the same. I didn't have gas in my old flat, only electricity provided by EDF. The calculations don't make any sense.

matelodave

Have you got records that can verify your readings, bills and payments with EDF.

I always keep a record of my initial reading, monthly meter readings and final meter readings together with copies of the bills (either paper or as downloads).

That way I know exactly how much I've used, how much I've paid and what's been billed so when I swap suppliers I don't get any surprises as I know whether I owe them or they own me down to the nearest penny. That way I can makes sure that the final bill is correct. Usually they owe me so it's me that does the chasing.

I also retain the records for a couple of years just in case of any subsequent queries otherwise it's nigh on impossible to sort out any problems, especially if they've closed your account and you can't get hold of the old bills or info from them

Kitsi

I have kept all previous bills but unfortunately don't have meter readings. Its a lesson for the future though. I'll keep records of them from now on!

SoletraderSteve

Kitsi wrote: »

I have kept all previous bills but unfortunately don't have meter readings. Its a lesson for the future though. I'll keep records of them from now on!

Surely readings are on bills?

matelodave

SoletraderSteve wrote: »

Surely readings are on bills?

Not if they are estimates and they haven't been checked against the meter and corrected.

It only needs a couple of estimates that are way out to end up with a big anomaly, and the longer it's ignored the worse it gets. Just reading some of the threads on this forum shows the aggro some people have got themselves into by not spending 5 minutes a month (or even a quarter) to make sure their bills reflect their actual meter readings and their payments are covering their bills.

However the OP may be lucky and find one that was an actual reading which should give a reference point to calculate from.

Kitsi

All I know is that I gave them my final meter readings the day I moved out and they sent me a final bill based on those readings. That should have been the end of it, right? :undecided

brewerdave

Kitsi wrote: »

All I know is that I gave them my final meter readings the day I moved out and they sent me a final bill based on those readings. That should have been the end of it, right? :undecided

....should have been ....unless the landlord/new tenants/owners have given false (ie higher) opening readings ......and EDF have decided that you should pay the difference!!

Bark01

Emails are not the best way to get a good explanation from EDF, they are handled by EDF’s off shore team in India. I often find the language barrier means that any complex question is misunderstood and the answer always feels rather scripted.

They are however very prompt in replying, so there is no harm in trying. I just find speaking to the call centre or live chat are better.

The live chat team are UK based and are usually very good, but they appear to be offline at the moment
https://www.edfenergy.com/for-home/help-support/contact#