EDF Bogus Refund £13,000

Bill_Burke

Bogus Refund!
I was recently invited to sign up to the EDF website to enter my Electricity meter reading. Fine, so I did and low and behold I discovered my account was in credit by +£13,000. So you can imagine my fright/joy. We'd figured that we had been overpaying on our direct debit.

Contacted customer service and two months later (after they check and check and get the higher ups to approve my credit) they finally credited my bank account £12,000

A month later, I get a phone call saying computer error credited my account by mistake as it didn't take into account that the meter had rolled over.

Now they want their money back. They spent two months checking their figures before putting the money into my account.

Is this bogus or what??? Do I have to give them money back or tell them it's mine fair and square because they had ample time to check their figures and the 'higher ups' actually approved it???
ANY HELP GUYS??

FutureGirl

You're not entitled to the money, so they can ask for it back.

Although they spent 2 months checking it prior to sending the money to you, they've re-checked it now, and seen you're not entitled to it.

societys_child

Surely the thread title should be "erroneous refund".

What have you spent it on, Bill?

Voyager2002

Bill_Burke wrote: »

Bogus Refund!
I was recently invited to sign up to the EDF website to enter my Electricity meter reading. Fine, so I did and low and behold I discovered my account was in credit by +£13,000. So you can imagine my fright/joy. We'd figured that we had been overpaying on our direct debit.

Contacted customer service and two months later (after they check and check and get the higher ups to approve my credit) they finally credited my bank account £12,000

A month later, I get a phone call saying computer error credited my account by mistake as it didn't take into account that the meter had rolled over.

Now they want their money back. They spent two months checking their figures before putting the money into my account.

Is this bogus or what??? Do I have to give them money back or tell them it's mine fair and square because they had ample time to check their figures and the 'higher ups' actually approved it???
ANY HELP GUYS??

Thank you!

This is one of the very few MSE posts that really did make me laugh aloud. Incredible that the "higher ups" are so incompetent as to fail to realise something so obvious! I just wonder what other stupid mistakes they have made.

What a way to run a country!

naedanger

Bill_Burke wrote: »

Bogus Refund!
I was recently invited to sign up to the EDF website to enter my Electricity meter reading. Fine, so I did and low and behold I discovered my account was in credit by +£13,000. So you can imagine my fright/joy. We'd figured that we had been overpaying on our direct debit.

Contacted customer service and two months later (after they check and check and get the higher ups to approve my credit) they finally credited my bank account £12,000

A month later, I get a phone call saying computer error credited my account by mistake as it didn't take into account that the meter had rolled over.

Now they want their money back. They spent two months checking their figures before putting the money into my account.

Is this bogus or what??? Do I have to give them money back or tell them it's mine fair and square because they had ample time to check their figures and the 'higher ups' actually approved it???
ANY HELP GUYS??

If the meter had rolled over then I don't understand how EDF would not have realised that. Indeed I would have thought their system would be designed to deal with this common eventuality without intervention. And if the bill was checked by someone at EDF surely it would have been immediately obvious that the then current reading was consistent with the meter rolling over?

Therefore was there something unusual about your situation? If not, and the reading on which the refund was based was much lower than previous actual readings then EDF is very likely to be able to demand repayment as it was a manifest error.

You can complain and take your case to the Ombudsman if you wish. My guess is you will be awarded a small amount for the inconvenience caused by their error and be required to refund the overpayment, unless there are some very unusual circumstances.

System

Bill_Burke wrote: »

We'd figured that we had been overpaying on our direct debit.

I estimate that if I only paid standing charges (at today's rates), and used no energy whatsoever, it would have taken me nearly 100 years to accrue that amount of credit on my energy account.

Time for a John McEnroe moment 'you can't be serious'.

Not trying to be rude, but like other posters, I think that you will have to give this 'windfall' back to its rightful owner.

robotrobo

Hengus wrote: »

I estimate that if I only paid standing charges (at today's rates), and used no energy whatsoever, it would have taken me nearly 100 years to accrue that amount of credit on my energy account.

Time for a John McEnroe moment 'you can't be serious'.

Not trying to be rude, but like other posters, I think that you will have to give this 'windfall' back to its rightful owner.

don't be a burke!:o

Bill_Burke

Hoping I'm replying right, Haven't spent a penny on this yet as I like to get my facts straight first.

Bill_Burke

societys_child wrote: »

Surely the thread title should be "erroneous refund".

What have you spent it on, Bill?

Nothing yet, just getting some info first.

Bill_Burke

naedanger wrote: »

If the meter had rolled over then I don't understand how EDF would not have realised that. Indeed I would have thought their system would be designed to deal with this common eventuality without intervention. And if the bill was checked by someone at EDF surely it would have been immediately obvious that the then current reading was consistent with the meter rolling over?

Therefore was there something unusual about your situation? If not, and the reading on which the refund was based was much lower than previous actual readings then EDF is very likely to be able to demand repayment as it was a manifest error.

You can complain and take your case to the Ombudsman if you wish. My guess is you will be awarded a small amount for the inconvenience caused by their error and be required to refund the overpayment, unless there are some very usual circumstances.

I've had a 12,000 pound refund before off of them for another meter screw up, guess they didn't want to give another.

Bill_Burke

Hengus wrote: »

I estimate that if I only paid standing charges (at today's rates), and used no energy whatsoever, it would have taken me nearly 100 years to accrue that amount of credit on my energy account.

Time for a John McEnroe moment 'you can't be serious'.

Not trying to be rude, but like other posters, I think that you will have to give this 'windfall' back to its rightful owner.

As I've said, I've had 12,000 off of them before for a meter screw up, why would I think any different this time?