Lovely welcome to EDF as my new supplier

BikingBud

Ofcom?    

Doc_N

BikingBud said:

Ofcom?    

Apologies, Ofgem of course. 

Staffordian11

wirdy said:

Anyone else had this experience?

I'm a former Utility Point customer & was transferred to EDF.

All emails,messages & advice was to sit tight & await further information.

Final account statement from utility point/EDF was generated and sent to me on 18 Dec 21. Confirmed I am £158.54 in credit.

No problem, I thought, that'll keep EDF happy for a bit & I'll set up a new direct debit with them in the new year.

25 December 21, Christmas day, EDF send me their 1st-ever text message & email threatening LEGAL ACTION unless I immediately pay their £41.56 bill.

What a lovely welcome from my new supplier.

Is this their way of getting rid of the Utility Point customers that were forced upon them by OFGEM?

If so, it's worked; I'll be switching as soon as that credit balance appears on my EDF account!

My guess is that another account holder has given them your phone number, either a typo or deliberately given a wrong number, so the message might be for them.

I'd be very surprised if EDF have had time to issue a bill, a reminder and a legal threat in the time since taking over the UP account.

Have you logged in to your EDF account to see if you have a bill for this amount?

wirdy

Thanks for all the replies.

Yes, EDF did have my mobile number & it wasn't phishing.

Yes, the bill issued is for the amount stated.

If I did contact them I know for certain they will try to say its just the computer system generating it.

Sorry, no excuse, computers only do what a human has programmed them to do (at present, we're not quite into full autonomous AI).

I'm still at a loss to explain how ANY company would consider it appropriate to issue threatening & bullying messages to me for the 1st-ever bill following a process of transferring under very different circumstances to normal energy-provider transfers.

EDF is getting binned as soon as I possibly can.

MWT

wirdy said:

25 December 21, Christmas day, EDF send me their 1st-ever text message & email threatening LEGAL ACTION unless I immediately pay their £41.56 bill.

When did you first receive the £41.56 bill?

Is this visible on you EDF onling account?

Doc_N

wirdy said:

Thanks for all the replies.

Yes, EDF did have my mobile number & it wasn't phishing.

Yes, the bill issued is for the amount stated.

If I did contact them I know for certain they will try to say its just the computer system generating it.

Sorry, no excuse, computers only do what a human has programmed them to do (at present, we're not quite into full autonomous AI).

I'm still at a loss to explain how ANY company would consider it appropriate to issue threatening & bullying messages to me for the 1st-ever bill following a process of transferring under very different circumstances to normal energy-provider transfers.

EDF is getting binned as soon as I possibly can.

Exactly my view - ditch EDF as soon as you can.  I'd had previous experiences of them, and knew how bad they are, so switched immediately away from them to another supplier, a few days after the Ofgem/SOLR switch from Utility Point to EDF.

Still waiting, more than three months on, for a refund of several hundred pounds overpaid to Utility Point - which EDF are obliged to pay under the SOLR arrangements. Emails from EDF have been unhelpful, muddled and downright misleading.  As a result I escalated the delays to the Energy Ombudsman to investigate.

The result?  The Energy Ombudsman closed the complaint summarily, without any reference to me, on the basis that EDF have never supplied energy - even though they plainly did.

According to the Energy Ombudsman, (because EDF objected to the complaint and the Ombudsman has upheld that objection):

".........this confirms that your energy supply was  transferred directly from Utility Point to British Gas on 10 October so it is correct that it was never with EDF Energy.  Our advice to query the credit balance with the administrators of Utility Point was therefore correct. 

Rob Croxen, Paul Berkovi and Mark Firmin of Alvarez & Marsal Europe have been appointed as joint administrators should you wish to contact them directly."

Words fail me - we have here an Ombudsman service, appointed by Ofcom, that won't accept a complaint because the company complained about manages to pull the wool over its eyes and it doesn't even understand the SOLR arrangements.

Do not trust a word that EDF tell you - and for that matter don't assume that the Energy Ombudsman has a clue what it's doing. It's just a puppet of the energy industry paying lip service to what it's supposed to be doing.

allison445

I have had in the past 3 days 10 emails and 6 texts from British Gas telling me to pay my first bill which is for 20 days asap I am not paying it as its wrong they are now bombarding me with texts and emails to set up a direct debit 
Welcome to British Gas 

Astria

When I was forcibly moved over from GE to EDF, I was immediately told I was £96 in debt because there computer system automatically puts you in debt as soon as you become a customer - they said they expect that payment before they supply any energy if you are switching to them. Any credit from the previous supplier will be added to your account in due course.

As I setup the DD they immediately took the funds as soon as the DD was setup to put my account in credit, which was then wiped out when they found out that my GE account was actually £150 in debit.

Flight3287462

Astria said:

When I was forcibly moved over from GE to EDF, I was immediately told I was £96 in debt because there computer system automatically puts you in debt as soon as you become a customer - they said they expect that payment before they supply any energy if you are switching to them. Any credit from the previous supplier will be added to your account in due course.

As I setup the DD they immediately took the funds as soon as the DD was setup to put my account in credit, which was then wiped out when they found out that my GE account was actually £150 in debit.

What did you think would happen?  Of course they are going to subtract your debt from any credit you have made.

Doc_N

Flight3287462 said:

Astria said:

When I was forcibly moved over from GE to EDF, I was immediately told I was £96 in debt because there computer system automatically puts you in debt as soon as you become a customer - they said they expect that payment before they supply any energy if you are switching to them. Any credit from the previous supplier will be added to your account in due course.

As I setup the DD they immediately took the funds as soon as the DD was setup to put my account in credit, which was then wiped out when they found out that my GE account was actually £150 in debit.

What did you think would happen?  Of course they are going to subtract your debt from any credit you have made.

I don’t see that anybody suggested otherwise……