Paying someone else electricity - help with EDF !

watchingpennies

Hi all, 
I have rented my flat for 10 years, have put in a number of energy saving processes in place the last three years as the bills were getting out of hand. Yet my bills continued to creep up and up, £300/£400 per year increase. I finally got an electrician to check the power supply to find that EDF have attached the wrong meter number to my account. I have been paying someone else ( very expensive) bills! I rang EDF today, to inform them, wanting to be billed for my consumption and not someone else as well as wanting the meter number to be updated. In response they said they cannot find the meter number for my flat on the national database. Unfortunately the individual dealing with me kept commenting that they had never dealt with something like this before and going on about their personal life so does not in still me with any level of confidence. Any advise from anyone on how to ensure I get paid back for the excess consumption I have been paying for? Many thanks

Gerry1

Call again and with luck you'll get a better agent.  If they are equally unhelpful, ask to be put through to a senior manager.

If you still get the runaround, send a letter marked COMPLAINT and get a free Certificate of Posting. Ask for a deadlock letter.

Then go to the Ombudsman upon receipt, or after eight weeks if tey son't send a deadlock letter.

MWT

watchingpennies said:

I finally got an electrician to check the power supply to find that EDF have attached the wrong meter number to my account. I have been paying someone else ( very expensive) bills!

Just to be clear, is it the case that the meter you though was yours, and have been providing readings from, is in fact providing power to a neighbour, or is it that the number on the meter you have always know to be yours and does provide your power, does not match the number on your bill? 

dogshome

Transposition of which meter serves which flat are not uncommon, particularly in large blocks - Are yours in a communal cupboard/service room along with all the others? - If so it's important you personally identify which is yours.

The meters are probably labelled with the flat number, but ignore this

Turn OFF absolutely everything in your flat by pulling out plugs and all switches to OFF, then with a friend with a Mobile Phone in your flat , visit the service room and look for a meter that is stationary , (The more meters there are, the longer this will take), when you think you have found one, ask the friend to Switch on your kettle which should fire up the meter, and to make sure ask the friend to turn the kettle on and off to your orders, the meter should react in synch with these orders - If it doesn't you continue searching till you find one that does.

When you find it, note the serial number, the erroneous flat number it's labelled with and it's reading, and compare this reading with the one on your latest bill to get an idea of the over charges you have pad

Armed with this information, WRITE a letter to EDF headed Complaint giving them all the details, the address is:

Customer Service Team

EDF Energy

FREEPOST RRYZ-BGYG-JCXR

334 Outland Rd

PLymouth        PL3 5TU

macman

If it's the latter, then the meter readings on the bill would never have corresponded with the OP's own readings, assuming they made them.

MWT

macman said:

If it's the latter, then the meter readings on the bill would never have corresponded with the OP's own readings, assuming they made them.

Agreed, but I gave up assuming people read meters and communicate them to their supplier a long time ago

Carrot007

watchingpennies said:

they cannot find the meter number for my flat on the national database.

The meter could be a sub meter and not a billing meter and another flat may be meant to pay the bill but are fine for you to?

Happens often with converted houses, or indeed one flat has no meter!

Your best bet unfortunatly will either be to find soemone with a clue at edf (web team?), or move!

I can offer to help in the limited ways I can. 99% of people will not take me up on it as I would find out your address (or indeed nothing if the meter is not on the database, but just so you know). The meter information might help too. You could be reading a wrong number, who does it say it is the property of (private metering tends not to)? If it is a proper serial then they follow patterns but again would need to know the area for such investigations. A pic might help but again as before on that.

Paying back for excess consumpiton will only be viable if you have never moved suppliers and they will then limit it (it is your responsibility to check these things as well) as much as they can get away with (6 years is a best outcome), but of course if a simple meter swap the other person may have changed a lot and not noticed. Of course if someone else is not paying it becomes a civil matter beetween you and them and if people have changed in whereever over the years very complex.

So pic of meter? Ask me with info (pm if you like). Of go back to edf (preferably online), and find someone competant enough to book a meter investigation. Which may not sort it out if multiple suppliers are involved. This is why the domestic market should be one company (or the serveral it was) and never have been privatised (the suppliers make a ridiculously low amount for how much capital they need to put up front, no sane person would start such a business!).