Is it time to consider court action?

psychic_kitten

I want to try and keep this short as it would otherwise take 10 minutes to read, so I will happily elaborate on information later on if necessary.

Former GNE customer who was still supplied by them when they went into administration. I moved home in April '21 and was out of contract, so took a new supplier at my new property. Received my final bill in July to the tune of around £550 in credit. I've been trying to obtain this from EDF since August.

Despite phone calls every month for an update and every time reiterating that I'd moved house and giving my new address (which I was told was recorded and given a reference number), the credit was sent to the old property. There have allegedly been four cheques sent in total since beginning of August, only one of which I have received but was subsequently revoked because they thought they'd sent it to the wrong address. I asked for them to be sent via recorded/special delivery so that they could be tracked and this request was ignored.

After getting no where, they issued me with a deadlock letter and I went to the Ombudsman. The Ombudsman has thrown my case out twice because EDF are stating I wasn't a customer of theirs - which is correct from a supply sense, but I have countless pieces of evidence that they are holding my money and thus have the responsibility of getting it back to me.

I don't know how else to get this money returned now other than escalating it even further to a court. Obviously this is not preferential and so if members here have alternate suggestions then please let me know, or if further clarification on anything is needed then I'm happy to respond first.

Thanks. 

DiseasedBunny

Can you not go to your old house and get the cheque from there?

psychic_kitten

DiseasedBunny said:

Can you not go to your old house and get the cheque from there?

No, it's over an hour away and I have no details for who lives there now. I can't really arrive unannounced asking for post I would doubt they've held onto after this time.

dbks

psychic_kitten said:

I want to try and keep this short as it would otherwise take 10 minutes to read, so I will happily elaborate on information later on if necessary.

Former GNE customer who was still supplied by them when they went into administration. I moved home in April '21 and was out of contract, so took a new supplier at my new property. Received my final bill in July to the tune of around £550 in credit. I've been trying to obtain this from EDF since August.

Despite phone calls every month for an update and every time reiterating that I'd moved house and giving my new address (which I was told was recorded and given a reference number), the credit was sent to the old property. There have allegedly been four cheques sent in total since beginning of August, only one of which I have received but was subsequently revoked because they thought they'd sent it to the wrong address. I asked for them to be sent via recorded/special delivery so that they could be tracked and this request was ignored.

After getting no where, they issued me with a deadlock letter and I went to the Ombudsman. The Ombudsman has thrown my case out twice because EDF are stating I wasn't a customer of theirs - which is correct from a supply sense, but I have countless pieces of evidence that they are holding my money and thus have the responsibility of getting it back to me.

I don't know how else to get this money returned now other than escalating it even further to a court. Obviously this is not preferential and so if members here have alternate suggestions then please let me know, or if further clarification on anything is needed then I'm happy to respond first.

Thanks. 

What do you mean by "The Ombudsman has thrown my case out twice "?
Did you complain twice to the OS about he same thing?

Anyway, there is no requirement for you to be a customer of the supplier for the OS to consider your complaint; only that you have follwed the supplier's complaint procedure first.

e.g. you may be complaining that a supplier failed to take on your supply after you applied and were accepted.

You obviously have followed the complaint procedure of the supplier as they have issued you a deadlock letter. What was the basis of the deadlock? The supplier can obviously stop any cheque they have previously issued (once they check it has not been banked), and re-issue it. I wouldn't see any issue them sending it to a different address as long as you could verify that it was you at the new address. Or why can they not send you the money by bank transfer?

Anyway, I suggest you complain to the OS for them failing to consider your complaint properly. You should get some compo out of them as well as having your complaint against EDF considered.

tux900

psychic_kitten said:

DiseasedBunny said:

Can you not go to your old house and get the cheque from there?

No, it's over an hour away and I have no details for who lives there now. I can't really arrive unannounced asking for post I would doubt they've held onto after this time.

You should have done this. You could have left a much of self-addressed envelopes for them to use, or just asked them to scribble your forwarding address on the received mail, or paid for Royal Mail's forwarding service for a period. A bit late now of course, but hopefully of use to others that often times the simplest solution is the best even if it is not something that you ought to have to do. I think I'd still go round and ask them if they do happen to have your old mail - you might strike lucky! 

worrywart_3

If the cheques haven’t been cashed I wouldn’t give up with edf send a email to the chairman’s office 

Leon_W

Yes. Take them to court. 

Sometimes it's the only way. I would advise sending EDF a Letter Before Action just to be 100% safe as judges like to see that you have done everything possible before proceedings.

psychic_kitten

dbks said:

psychic_kitten said:

I want to try and keep this short as it would otherwise take 10 minutes to read, so I will happily elaborate on information later on if necessary.

Former GNE customer who was still supplied by them when they went into administration. I moved home in April '21 and was out of contract, so took a new supplier at my new property. Received my final bill in July to the tune of around £550 in credit. I've been trying to obtain this from EDF since August.

Despite phone calls every month for an update and every time reiterating that I'd moved house and giving my new address (which I was told was recorded and given a reference number), the credit was sent to the old property. There have allegedly been four cheques sent in total since beginning of August, only one of which I have received but was subsequently revoked because they thought they'd sent it to the wrong address. I asked for them to be sent via recorded/special delivery so that they could be tracked and this request was ignored.

After getting no where, they issued me with a deadlock letter and I went to the Ombudsman. The Ombudsman has thrown my case out twice because EDF are stating I wasn't a customer of theirs - which is correct from a supply sense, but I have countless pieces of evidence that they are holding my money and thus have the responsibility of getting it back to me.

I don't know how else to get this money returned now other than escalating it even further to a court. Obviously this is not preferential and so if members here have alternate suggestions then please let me know, or if further clarification on anything is needed then I'm happy to respond first.

Thanks. 

What do you mean by "The Ombudsman has thrown my case out twice "?
Did you complain twice to the OS about he same thing?

Anyway, there is no requirement for you to be a customer of the supplier for the OS to consider your complaint; only that you have follwed the supplier's complaint procedure first.

e.g. you may be complaining that a supplier failed to take on your supply after you applied and were accepted.

You obviously have followed the complaint procedure of the supplier as they have issued you a deadlock letter. What was the basis of the deadlock? The supplier can obviously stop any cheque they have previously issued (once they check it has not been banked), and re-issue it. I wouldn't see any issue them sending it to a different address as long as you could verify that it was you at the new address. Or why can they not send you the money by bank transfer?

Anyway, I suggest you complain to the OS for them failing to consider your complaint properly. You should get some compo out of them as well as having your complaint against EDF considered.

I submit my case to the OS, EDF initially queried it three (the maximum) times. The first two times their queries were rejected and the OS were happy to pursue the complaint. On the third query the OS ruled in favour of whatever EDF had submit and closed the case. They mentioned something about a switch of supplier, which occurred after I was no longer responsible for the property. I of course raised this with the OS highlighting the part of my evidence that demonstrated I wasn't responsible for that switch and in any case, EDF still evidently had my money. The OS opened a second case after considering this conversation.

This second case gave EDF another three chances to query it. They inevitably did, and this time the OS again ruled in their favour closing the case again on the basis it seems that I was never a customer of EDF. This is as much information as I've so far been able to obtain in terms of a justification.

The deadlock letter came after I lost my rag after they'd revoked the cheque I'd already banked and that had cleared after they had explicitly confirmed that it was going to the correct address and then saying they thought they'd got it wrong. I said that we were going around in circles and that their incompetency was going to lead me to go to the OS at this rate. The next thing I had a deadlock letter through the door.

They've never said they had an issue persay about sending the cheque to the new address, they just seem to have extreme difficulty in carrying that out successfully for some unbeknownst reason.

Thank you for your perspective though.

psychic_kitten

tux900 said:

psychic_kitten said:

DiseasedBunny said:

Can you not go to your old house and get the cheque from there?

No, it's over an hour away and I have no details for who lives there now. I can't really arrive unannounced asking for post I would doubt they've held onto after this time.

You should have done this. You could have left a much of self-addressed envelopes for them to use, or just asked them to scribble your forwarding address on the received mail, or paid for Royal Mail's forwarding service for a period. A bit late now of course, but hopefully of use to others that often times the simplest solution is the best even if it is not something that you ought to have to do. I think I'd still go round and ask them if they do happen to have your old mail - you might strike lucky! 

It wouldn't have been that simple. The property was rented when we left, the owner then subsequently sold the property so it would have been gutted as some belongings of the landlord were left for the renter's use. So once it had changed hands I highly doubt they would have remained. In any case, I had no idea this would cause such an issue given I'd had reassurance from EDF throughout the months that followed. 

Verdigris

Wouldn't have stopped you getting your mail redirected.

Fred2712

So have you cashed the refund cheque or not ?