overpaid by EDF and now want it back

richbraz

hi, a few months back i finally had enough and left EDF after years of useless service, then incredibly they took £750 out of my account for final bill without any warning, when i questioned them they admitted it was taken from estimated readings and i had to get an indemnity clause from my bank to have the money returned that my account that day to stop incurring overdraft fees.
They then called me and guaranteed they had got it right this time and was actually due a refund of £500 which then appeared in my account a few days later.
great i thought, end of that and money back too.
then a couple of weeks later they called me back again to say, erm actually they got it wrong and my final bill was that i owed them £180 or something so now they want £700 back!!
Obvs i lost my s**t with them , that money is gone, they are offering to take £50 off and i can pay it back in installments but frankly i have told them that is not acceptable, they need to be accountable for screwing me around and £50 off is not acceptable.
so what are my legal obligations here and can i play serious hardball with them here, they have been frankly appalling throughout.
any opinions would be most welcome
thanks!

nigelbb

Do you owe them the money for the energy you used or not? HAve you checked their bills against your meter readings?

richbraz

it seems i owed them £180 but they initially refunded me £550 as my final bill so they want that back plus the £180 i allegedly owe them in actual energy used, i wouldn't trust them to do anything correctly at this point.
they have wasted so much of my time, i'm self employed, offering a £50 discount is frankly offensive after all the stress they have put me through

nigelbb

Do you owe them the money for the energy you used or not? Have you checked their bills against your meter readings?

richbraz

yes, i owe them 180!

richbraz

but they now want the 550 they "refunded" me too so £730 in total.
the fact is they misled me into thinking i had a £500 refund

nigelbb

richbraz wrote: »

but they now want the 550 they "refunded" me too so £730 in total.
the fact is they misled me into thinking i had a £500 refund

Did you use the energy or not? If you used it then you have to pay for it.

Cardew

It seems to be fairly straightforward - you owe them the £180 plus the £500 they refunded in error.


Firms can rectify mistakes.

richbraz

nigelbb wrote: »

Did you use the energy or not? If you used it then you have to pay for it.

Nigelbb, i thought i made it pretty clear, i used the £180 of energy. the 500 is the initial refund that they want back (which was NOT energy i used)!

richbraz

Cardew wrote: »

It seems to be fairly straightforward - you owe them the £180 plus the £500 they refunded in error.


Firms can rectify mistakes.

yes but they totally dicked me around by telling me that my final bill was a £500 credit (after taking out 700 from my account initially) so i am trying to ascertain how i should respond to them, imo they need to take a sizable hit in this for the grief they have caused, its not even as if if they came back to me the following day saying oh we got it wrong giving you £500, they swore it was correct on the phone at the time then came back 2 weeks later demanding it back plus a further 180, by that time the money was spent.

Cardew

richbraz wrote: »

yes but they totally dicked me around by telling me that my final bill was a £500 credit (after taking out 700 from my account initially) so i am trying to ascertain how i should respond to them, imo they need to take a sizable hit in this for the grief they have caused, its not even as if if they came back to me the following day saying oh we got it wrong giving you £500, they swore it was correct on the phone at the time then came back 2 weeks later demanding it back plus a further 180, by that time the money was spent.

I understand your case, and they have offered you £50 in compensation.



You might negotiate another £50 reduction or the same, after a lot of hassle, if you go to the Ombudsman



If you go to court IMO you will lose.