EDF and their dodgy twice a year billing rule.

Spoonie_Turtle

ariarnia said:

Spoonie_Turtle said:

ariarnia said:

Grogsy78 said:

All energy companies should be required to allow you to choose your billing method, if pretty much every other industry can use it fine and have done so for decades, there is no viable excuse not to allow you to choose how you are billed

so i should be able to be billed daily if i want? or every third day? or 4 weekly? and every customer could pick a differnt billing cycle. that would be very expensive to administer and likely to cause more billing problems as the computer system would need to be more complicated to allow it.  

Octopus effectively do actually do that, automatically generating a bill with each reading submitted manually.  (I'm not 100% certain if the same is done with manual readings sent in from smart meters though.)

[In principle though I'd think monthly billing would be sufficient for most people, and those with communicating smart meters should have more info available anyway from the IHD/their online account/a 3rd party app - or even all three.]

edf do offer monthly billing. its just a bit of effort and a delay to get a bill generated according to the people on the thread.

...

but okay. we mandate everyone onto monthly billing. and get flooded by the threads where people strongly dont want monthly billing? showing the problem when suggesting someone should be able to choose whatever billing timing they want. some people are always unhappy so if 'personal preference' is to be given wait then you end up requiring multiple choice and then more cost. 

That was not my intention at all, simply that having monthly as the most frequent option available as standard would probably be sufficient. 

With the billing/not bills, Octopus do issue proper ones.  They'll include payments if the billing period includes them.  For people on fixed or SVT electricity it can be virtually instant, gas can take a little longer and for those on slightly more complex tariffs it can take a couple of days but still not very long.  [Those are also the tariffs that would take more than 5 mins with a calculator, to be fair.]

bristolleedsfan

ariarnia said:

Spoonie_Turtle said:

ariarnia said:

Grogsy78 said:

All energy companies should be required to allow you to choose your billing method, if pretty much every other industry can use it fine and have done so for decades, there is no viable excuse not to allow you to choose how you are billed

so i should be able to be billed daily if i want? or every third day? or 4 weekly? and every customer could pick a differnt billing cycle. that would be very expensive to administer and likely to cause more billing problems as the computer system would need to be more complicated to allow it.  

Octopus effectively do actually do that, automatically generating a bill with each reading submitted manually.  (I'm not 100% certain if the same is done with manual readings sent in from smart meters though.)

[In principle though I'd think monthly billing would be sufficient for most people, and those with communicating smart meters should have more info available anyway from the IHD/their online account/a 3rd party app - or even all three.]

 we mandate everyone onto monthly billing. and get flooded by the threads where people strongly dont want monthly billing? showing the problem when suggesting someone should be able to choose whatever billing timing they want. some people are always unhappy so if 'personal preference' is to be given wait then you end up requiring multiple choice and then more cost. 

i get why some people on six month bills want monthly. i also get why some people on monthly want quarterly or six month or yearly. i recon the number of people in both camps probably balances out. what i dont get is the idea that someone wanting a specific payment method means a supplier should give it. there are other suppliers who do. and its not hard to change supplier. 

EDF customer accounts are due to start moving to Octopus billing platform this year, when that happens EDF customers will be billed monthly/when submit a meter reading.

Slinky

Good old EDF, I've finally after 3 months complaining got them to put me onto single rate billing with my E7 meter. Went to enter my meter readings today as I do every month, whether they want them or not, and my day rate meter box is missing from my record so I can only put night rate electric and gas in.  Ho hum, just as well I hadn't closed my Resolver complaint.  And so it drags on....

ariarnia

bristolleedsfan said:

ariarnia said:

Spoonie_Turtle said:

ariarnia said:

Grogsy78 said:

All energy companies should be required to allow you to choose your billing method, if pretty much every other industry can use it fine and have done so for decades, there is no viable excuse not to allow you to choose how you are billed

so i should be able to be billed daily if i want? or every third day? or 4 weekly? and every customer could pick a differnt billing cycle. that would be very expensive to administer and likely to cause more billing problems as the computer system would need to be more complicated to allow it.  

Octopus effectively do actually do that, automatically generating a bill with each reading submitted manually.  (I'm not 100% certain if the same is done with manual readings sent in from smart meters though.)

[In principle though I'd think monthly billing would be sufficient for most people, and those with communicating smart meters should have more info available anyway from the IHD/their online account/a 3rd party app - or even all three.]

 we mandate everyone onto monthly billing. and get flooded by the threads where people strongly dont want monthly billing? showing the problem when suggesting someone should be able to choose whatever billing timing they want. some people are always unhappy so if 'personal preference' is to be given wait then you end up requiring multiple choice and then more cost. 

i get why some people on six month bills want monthly. i also get why some people on monthly want quarterly or six month or yearly. i recon the number of people in both camps probably balances out. what i dont get is the idea that someone wanting a specific payment method means a supplier should give it. there are other suppliers who do. and its not hard to change supplier. 

EDF customer accounts are due to start moving to Octopus billing platform this year, when that happens EDF customers will be billed monthly/when submit a meter reading.

which is going to pee of the people who want quarterly billing. and when they come on here to complain the advice will be to either accept it or move to a supplier that offers the type of billing they want. 

jvjack

What reasons did some people give that they wanted to have quaterly billing instead of monthly.

ariarnia

jvjack said:

What reasons did some people give that they wanted to have quaterly billing instead of monthly.

because they have always had quarterly. thats what they are used to and how they budget. the company should not be allowed to change how they are billed because thats how they've always been billed and if it wasnt a problem then it shouldnt be a problem now. 

we had quite a few threads on the topic a few months ago when ovo migrated the legacy sse customers over to there system (they had kept the terms the same for something like 2 years but theres a cost associated with maintaining the differnt systems so it was a business decision).

some people decided to move (including to edf i think) others were going to make a formal complaint (and never came back to update). but the advice has always been you can switch to a supplier that offers the type of service you want. and i dont see that this is any differnt. 

jvjack

"because they have always had quarterly. thats what they are used to and how they budget"
That explains it well. Guess i got used to monthly and dont like the 6 monthly.
But even the ones getting quarterly could budget better with monthly by timesing it by 3. Maybe

Slinky

Blimey, I've just spent a riveting hour and a half hacking my spreadsheet around trying to accommodate the bill I've just had from EDF into it. With not billing in calendar months as previous suppliers did I've had to get very creative with it to make it make sense again and check that I am comparing the right calendar months. I look forward to monthly billing, bring it on.

jvjack

haha thats funny. Was eating bowl of cornflakes reading that then breathed in at wrong moment.

inspectorperez

bristolleedsfan said:

ariarnia said:

Spoonie_Turtle said:

ariarnia said:

Grogsy78 said:

All energy companies should be required to allow you to choose your billing method, if pretty much every other industry can use it fine and have done so for decades, there is no viable excuse not to allow you to choose how you are billed

so i should be able to be billed daily if i want? or every third day? or 4 weekly? and every customer could pick a differnt billing cycle. that would be very expensive to administer and likely to cause more billing problems as the computer system would need to be more complicated to allow it.  

Octopus effectively do actually do that, automatically generating a bill with each reading submitted manually.  (I'm not 100% certain if the same is done with manual readings sent in from smart meters though.)

[In principle though I'd think monthly billing would be sufficient for most people, and those with communicating smart meters should have more info available anyway from the IHD/their online account/a 3rd party app - or even all three.]

 we mandate everyone onto monthly billing. and get flooded by the threads where people strongly dont want monthly billing? showing the problem when suggesting someone should be able to choose whatever billing timing they want. some people are always unhappy so if 'personal preference' is to be given wait then you end up requiring multiple choice and then more cost. 

i get why some people on six month bills want monthly. i also get why some people on monthly want quarterly or six month or yearly. i recon the number of people in both camps probably balances out. what i dont get is the idea that someone wanting a specific payment method means a supplier should give it. there are other suppliers who do. and its not hard to change supplier. 

EDF customer accounts are due to start moving to Octopus billing platform this year, when that happens EDF customers will be billed monthly/when submit a meter reading.

Ah this should be fun! Last time EDF transitioned platforms they managed to transpose day time and night time meter readings on my E7 tariff. The ensuing chaos took months to sort out involving numerous phone calls/emails ending up eventually with a compensation payout.

So far as I was aware, EDF have always had the ability to issue monthly bills since that last platform transition, but for some reason seem to have adopted the default position of six monthly bills.