EDF back billing advice?

moody1210

Hi - I'm looking for some advice with regards to back billing with EDF. Apologies if i'm not very clear or if I have dumbed down exactly what i'm trying to explain (i'm not an expert and this type of thing)

I was living at my previous property for 5 years from 2009 - 2014 and EDF supplied me with energy during this time. I received regular monthly/quarterly bills which clearly stated that as 'I pay direct debit I did not have to do anything and that my next payment was due to be collected on xxxxx'.
When I moved property in 2014 I contacted EDF to make them aware and they issued me a whacking £2500 final bill. I contacted EDF as I felt this must have been a mistake however, they stated it was correct.
In 2011 I had issues with fraud so set up a new bank account. I contacted EDF to provide them with the new details and administrator had set up a new direct debit but they did not link it to my new bank account. Therefore, no money was coming out but I was receiving the bills telling me that I was paying them monthly by direct debit etc. (unfortunately I never picked up on this at the time)
Back when I received the final bill, I was making numerous calls and had email conversations with the same member of their team to arrange a payment plan to pay off the final bill. Below is the last email I received from July 2014...

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With reference to our recent telephone conversation I have carried out a full review of your account in relation to the Direct Debit not being requested from your bank. Unfortunately this was an error by ourselves please accept my apology for that and I have added a goodwill payment of £20 to your account. On investigation into the account it was identified that the Gas account had not billed between the period of 17th Nov 2011 and 18th April 2014. We issued you with a bill on 5th May 2014 which showed your gas charges for this period on this bill there is also a goodwill payment applied to the account of £941.14 this is a credit applied to your account under the billing code of practice.

As we have already applied the billing code payment of £941.14 to your account the current balance of £1762.99 is correct, I have discussed this with my manager and we are happy to spread the outstanding balance over 24 months at £73pm.

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At the time I was happy to pay this and tried to call back the person however, he was on holiday straight after he sent the email. I left my details with his colleagues but I had no further communication (and I certainly was not going to chase up)

Last week I received an email from an EDF debt consultant saying I still owe them the £1800. This was the first communication I have received from them in almost 2 years.
My question is, can I fight this? Do I have to pay the full amount?
The whole situation has been quite stressful because i'm now going to either have to take out a loan or get myself into debt because of an EDF error caused in 2011. Surely this can't be right?

I would really appreciate and advice or guidance on this issue.

Thanks in advance

Bark01

You’ve used the energy so you’ve got to pay for it if you don’t its theft. If you don’t pay the debt it will have to be paid by the rest of EDF Energy’s customer base via higher costs.

EDF has admitted their mistake so the only thing you can expect is a larger good will payment. Don’t forget EDF have also offered you an interest free 24 month load to pay off the debt, is this better than you would get by getting a loan elsewhere? Maybe you could ask them to spread it out over a longer period?

moody1210

Thanks for the advice it's really appreciated. I've always believed I was paying the bill each month and it was myself that was chasing to make the payment 2 years ago. It was never my attention to not pay for their service (ie. theft) I may potentially ask them to spread the payments out over a longer period of time.