Zog has gone 😢

Northern_Wanderer

Robin9 said:

Northern_Wanderer said:

So, I changed to monthly billing whole amount on EDF. All seemed ok until.....I submitted my latest reading. Still no bill a full 6 business days after. Sigh. I thought things might have all been good by now after the initial switch issues......

Have you like @Sterlingtimes been given a date by which you should submit a reading ?  My due reading date is June 20 but only if I provide that read by about June 15 or later will  a bill be generated

Yes, I agreed a date with the complaints department, and that is the date I submitted the reading. It worked last month.

pochase said:

Northern_Wanderer said:

So, I changed to monthly billing whole amount on EDF. All seemed ok until.....I submitted my latest reading. Still no bill a full 6 business days after. Sigh. I thought things might have all been good by now after the initial switch issues......

How long after the change to whole amount did you send in the readings?

I did the change on 22nd of April with meter readings for this date and received a catch up bill. I was asked to submit readings on the 28th with bill generation on 1st of May promised. I never received a bill from them.

Last week I have now submitted meter readings and received a bill the next day. Seems at least for me the time between the initial bill and the next one was to short, even so they asked for it and threatened with an inflated direct debit order if I don't submit the readings.

Initially there was an issue with the bills after I first set up monthly whole amount - I got a small estimated bill, was asked for further readings and they never used them. I talked to complaints dept and agreed a reading submission date so I did not get estimated bills at all. I had aleady submitted a reading last month on the agreed date and got a bill straight away which used my exact readings. That is why I hoped all was finally ok with EDF, but sadly it is not. I thought right, I know my reading date, I will get an accurate bill, but no.....EDF are the worst energy company I have ever had to deal with, and I have been with quite a few as I am a rate tart.

I'm going to complain AGAIN tomorrow and get some more money off them! And will call Octopus as well to see about a switch.

Sterlingtimes

Northern_Wanderer said: EDF are the worst energy company I have ever had to deal with, 

But EDF are positive angels compared with the defunct Economy Energy who set aside contract law and did their own thing.

Northern_Wanderer

I called the UK EDF complaints line (as I refuse to deal with the useless Manilla Droid Chat agents). They have released my bill (again, that's the second time this has had to be done).

I called Octopus today and have started a switch for gas only, same rates as EDF, I am not moving to save, just for better service. I forgot to use my referral link for £50 on the phone but managed to add it online once I created my account.

Shall we take bets on whether EDF block my switch as they won't have taken the DD for my latest bill by then???? Should I clear the balance with an extra payment?

smugwalrus

Northern_Wanderer said:

I called the UK EDF complaints line (as I refuse to deal with the useless Manilla Droid Chat agents). They have released my bill (again, that's the second time this has had to be done).

I called Octopus today and have started a switch for gas only, same rates as EDF, I am not moving to save, just for better service. I forgot to use my referral link for £50 on the phone but managed to add it online once I created my account.

Shall we take bets on whether EDF block my switch as they won't have taken the DD for my latest bill by then???? Should I clear the balance with an extra payment?

Should all go through fine, I've recently switched my gas to Ocropus too.  Bill from EDF arrived a few days later, all seems correct apart from the early calculations (in my favour).

Biggest surprise was they kept the rates at the pre-April rate which was nice.

Sterlingtimes

My bill seems to be correct apart from a Bill Adjustment -£51.17, a charge to me. Did anyone else have a similar charge?

Bill Adjustment £51.17
Your balance transferred from your previous supplier £35.95 credit
Price Rebate £9.25 credit Total recent account activity £5.97 credit

Alnat1

Is the bill adjustment anything to do with the meter readings not matching up? I recently switched and gave the new supplier readings 2 days before the move, also gave old supplier the same readings. Old supplier then over-estimated gas use for last 2 days and gave a very inflated figure which was used as the official figure.

This has led to some odd figures on my new bills, as 2 months later I still haven't reached that number of gas units. I haven't complained as the inflated units were billed at the pre-April prices and it's in my favour.

[Deleted User]

Alnat1 said:

Is the bill adjustment anything to do with the meter readings not matching up? I recently switched and gave the new supplier readings 2 days before the move, also gave old supplier the same readings. Old supplier then over-estimated gas use for last 2 days and gave a very inflated figure which was used as the official figure.

This has led to some odd figures on my new bills, as 2 months later I still haven't reached that number of gas units. I haven't complained as the inflated units were billed at the pre-April prices and it's in my favour.

There is no requirement to give both suppliers meter readings: it can often result in total confusion. The gaining supplier manages the transfer of supply. The readings it asks you for are industry-validated and then passed back to both suppliers to close and open your accounts. The validated readings may not be the same as the ones that you provided. The important thing to note is that both suppliers are required by regulation to use the validated readings.

The risk of giving the old supplier a reading is that it raises a bill which you think is Final when it isn’t. 

Alnat1

If that's how it happens, how did the industry-validated reading become so inflated for me? My old suppler didn't generate a bill on 18th April due to my readings, they took 4 weeks to produce the final bill.

New supplier started my account on 20th April with the readings I gave them on 18th April and issued a 1st May bill. Although there isn't yet a June bill I can see figures showing credit to the gas part of the calculations and the gas readings section now shows the inflated estimated reading. This looks odd as my reading taken yesterday is on after it at a slight lower amount.

[Deleted User]

Alnat1 said:

If that's how it happens, how did the industry-validated reading become so inflated for me? My old suppler didn't generate a bill on 18th April due to my readings, they took 4 weeks to produce the final bill.

New supplier started my account on 20th April with the readings I gave them on 18th April and issued a 1st May bill. Although there isn't yet a June bill I can see figures showing credit to the gas part of the calculations and the gas readings section now shows the inflated estimated reading. This looks odd as my reading taken yesterday is on after it at a slight lower amount.

Inflated readings are usually the result of infrequent actual meter readings. It is not unknown for consumers to lie about their actual meter reading on a switch if it is to their advantage to do so - hence the need for industry-validation. Suppliers have up to 6 weeks to raise a final bill as they rely on readings from the industry data collector.

Before you cry ‘foul’ - and provided both suppliers are using the same reading - check to see whether overpaying your old supplier will save you money. If say my actual reading was 01000 and the switch reading was 01200 then I would end up overpaying the old supplier for 200 units; however, I would only pay the gaining supplier the daily standing charge until the meter index reading passed 01200. The true cost difference is therefore 200 x (old unit price - new unit price).

You can ask either supplier to raise an Agreed Readings Dispute.

• What should your meter reading have been at the time of your switch?
  We can only change readings used for switching (opening or closing readings), if they are significantly wrong. According to energy industry rules, your reading must have a difference of more than 250 electricity units (kWh) for an electricity reading, or a difference of 39 imperial gas units (you'll see ft3 on the meter) or 125 metric gas units (you'll see m3 on the meter) for a gas reading. Anything less than this means that the estimate is sensible and could reasonably have been a reading taken around the time of your switch, and the difference to you in cost will be very small.

Source: SO Energy

molerat

Daughter's 6 month review, last bill Dec.  Submitted reading this morning.  Immediate message that account balance changed - 2p difference from my calculation.  DD increase and not to an unexpected amount. So they can do things right.  Pity they can't do it every month.