Edf refund now in in debit

Ucatchmydrift

Hi, last september utility point went bust, literally the day before, i gave them my meter readings and got a bill for about £90.   Which i paid.
Got moved to edf, gave them a meter reading, but didnt seem to get a bill after a month or two. 
After calling them, they told me an investigation had been started.  
I gave them further meter readings over the phone and sent them 3 or 4 photos of my meter as they requested.
They told me there was an investigation due to the meter readings didnt look right.
(im on economy 7 btw) 
It took literally 6 months for them to complete the investigation, seemingly being delt with by someone highish up in the company. 
They then told me that they owe me about £1300.  
I was quite pleased as you might expect. 
They sent me the balance via cheque which i have obviously now spent. 

A few months go by and have been paying about £100 a month or so each month as thats what i was being billed. 

This month, my balance says im in £1300 debit. 

I notice that on my bills, the readings are the wrong way round day vs night rates. 
I gave them a meter reading last night, double checked it was the correct way round, and this morning i have a bill based on the reading being the wrong way round!   - they have changed it either automatically or someone has decided to do this themselves. 

Ive called them again today and they are starting yet another complaint investigation which will hopefully be resolved in a months time!

Its a complete mess, and i simply dont trust what they are doing.   If they got it wrong initially, whats to say this time round they will be right?

Im wondering how to procede with this, and if anyone knows what my rights are?
If they did such a thorough investigation last time and came to the decision they owed me money, surley thats final?  Can they ask me then to pay it back after another investigation?

Pretty worried about this, i live on my own etc, and havent got £1300 to give back to them, i presumed that they must of got it right the first time so it would be ok to spend the refund.

Should i contact ofgem if they decide they want it back?
Any advice welcome... 
Thanks..

MWT

Ucatchmydrift said:

Pretty worried about this, i live on my own etc, and havent got £1300 to give back to them, i presumed that they must of got it right the first time so it would be ok to spend the refund.

Should i contact ofgem if they decide they want it back?

Why did you think they owed you £1,300 at the time of the original refund? ... generally speaking the best advice when you get a refund that you were not expecting and do not understand is don't spend it...

If it turns out that the original refund was a mistake, they are entitled to recover it, but in the circumstances it would be reasonable to do that over a period of time, they should also offer at least a small gesture for the poor customer service, and that is what you should expect if you took this to the Ombudsman.

I would suggest you try to work out why you were entitled to the original refund based on your final bill from Utility Point, if for example that showed you had a large account balance of around £1,300 then that would be good news, but if this was the case, why did you pay them £90 at the time...?

pochase

EDF is on a 6 month billing cycle, so nothing special with only receiving bills after six month.

It looks like you have used the energy, so you will have to pay for it.

Ask them for a payment plan to spread the cost, and you should also be able to get a payment for them having it wrong, but that will not be the full £1300.

When you got the bill with the credit did you check the meter reads and how the bill was calculated? 

You cannot contact Ofgem, you mean the energy ombudsman. You need to first raise a formal complaint with EDF, and either wait 8 weeks or get an deadlock letter before you can go to the ombudsman.

Ucatchmydrift

MWT said:

Ucatchmydrift said:

Pretty worried about this, i live on my own etc, and havent got £1300 to give back to them, i presumed that they must of got it right the first time so it would be ok to spend the refund.

Should i contact ofgem if they decide they want it back?

Why did you think they owed you £1,300 at the time of the original refund? ... generally speaking the best advice when you get a refund that you were not expecting and do not understand is don't spend it...

If it turns out that the original refund was a mistake, they are entitled to recover it, but in the circumstances it would be reasonable to do that over a period of time, they should also offer at least a small gesture for the poor customer service, and that is what you should expect if you took this to the Ombudsman.

I would suggest you try to work out why you were entitled to the original refund based on your final bill from Utility Point, if for example that showed you had a large account balance of around £1,300 then that would be good news, but if this was the case, why did you pay them £90 at the time...?

I presumed that they were competent enough to have worked it out correctly as it was delt with by managers etc over 6 months! and they had a number of photos of my meter readings, so how could they have got it wrong? Can they not read the readings on each of the photos?? 
I presumed that they must have gotten the readings round the wrong way hence the payout.
I have been unable to view any of my bills as they are all labelled as 'cancelled' then reissued each month. - nothing to download.   I had to contact them to get them emailed to me yesterday.     Its a complete mess from day one. 

Ucatchmydrift

pochase said:

EDF is on a 6 month billing cycle, so nothing special with only receiving bills after six month.

It looks like you have used the energy, so you will have to pay for it.

Ask them for a payment plan to spread the cost, and you should also be able to get a payment for them having it wrong, but that will not be the full £1300.

When you got the bill with the credit did you check the meter reads and how the bill was calculated? 

You cannot contact Ofgem, you mean the energy ombudsman. You need to first raise a formal complaint with EDF, and either wait 8 weeks or get an deadlock letter before you can go to the ombudsman.

I get a bill each month, not every 6 months.. How can you know ive used the energy when every bill i have had from them shows incorrect meter readings??

I couldnt check the bills at the time as they all say cancelled, nothing to download or view.   Now, i have had them emailed to me and all the readings are in reverse. 

Ucatchmydrift

MWT said:

Ucatchmydrift said:

Pretty worried about this, i live on my own etc, and havent got £1300 to give back to them, i presumed that they must of got it right the first time so it would be ok to spend the refund.

Should i contact ofgem if they decide they want it back?

Why did you think they owed you £1,300 at the time of the original refund? ... generally speaking the best advice when you get a refund that you were not expecting and do not understand is don't spend it...

If it turns out that the original refund was a mistake, they are entitled to recover it, but in the circumstances it would be reasonable to do that over a period of time, they should also offer at least a small gesture for the poor customer service, and that is what you should expect if you took this to the Ombudsman.

I would suggest you try to work out why you were entitled to the original refund based on your final bill from Utility Point, if for example that showed you had a large account balance of around £1,300 then that would be good news, but if this was the case, why did you pay them £90 at the time...?

And exaxtly how long is one supposed to not spend a refund incase they ask for it back?  Its been 5 months now!

MWT

Ucatchmydrift said:

And exaxtly how long is one supposed to not spend a refund incase they ask for it back?  Its been 5 months now!

Until you understand clearly why you have received it...

Most people do not build up a £1,300 credit without being aware of its existence, so without a credible explanation why it has been refunded it has to be regarded as a mistake until you can prove otherwise...

Right now we don't actually know if it was correct or not, how much were you paying EDF each month during the period before the refund was issued?

pochase

A few months go by and have been paying about £100 a month or so each month as thats what i was being billed. 

You are saying you paid £100 per month. You are with EDF for 10 months, October to July, so you have paid a total of £1000 to them.

Even without looking at your usage how could you believe 5 months ago, that by paying £500 to £600 in direct debit you have accumulated £1300 credit?

Ucatchmydrift

MWT said:

Ucatchmydrift said:

And exaxtly how long is one supposed to not spend a refund incase they ask for it back?  Its been 5 months now!

Until you understand clearly why you have received it...

Most people do not build up a £1,300 credit without being aware of its existence, so without a credible explanation why it has been refunded it has to be regarded as a mistake until you can prove otherwise...

Right now we don't actually know if it was correct or not, how much were you paying EDF each month during the period before the refund was issued?

I was paying about £100- £150 (cant even check this now as their site is down - again) but this was based on estimates, even though i was giving them a reading each month.     - but this isnt really from the time i have been at edf, presumably. 
The problem arose when i actually switched from utility point.  I thought that maybe utility point was billing me unfairly for the time i was with them and thats possibly why i received the refund. - but i was unable to check as the website no longer existed. Only edf could check all of that stuff, hence why i trusted them.
  My bills at utility point did seem a bit high (from memory over £100 a month for a single person on a rate of just 12p kw/h peak rate - but i wasnt so bothered as i had built up credit from refer a friends which totalled about £2-300 if i remember) - i have swiched suppliers a number of times over the last few years). 
Guarantee if i ask them now they cant offer me an explanation.   I emailed the person that was dealing with it originally a few days ago, obviously ive had no reply. Just a joke company. 

Ucatchmydrift

pochase said:

A few months go by and have been paying about £100 a month or so each month as thats what i was being billed. 

You are saying you paid £100 per month. You are with EDF for 10 months, October to July, so you have paid a total of £1000 to them.

Even without looking at your usage how could you believe 5 months ago, that by paying £500 to £600 in direct debit you have accumulated £1300 credit?

This started when i swiched.  Nothing to do with what ive used at edf. I dont pay by direct debit either. 

rp1974

Ucatchmydrift said:
And exaxtly how long is one supposed to not spend a refund incase they ask for it back?  Its been 5 months now!

One may need to wait 6 years,in England and Wales,5 years in Scotland.
As I recall after this time period has elapsed they can no longer revise your bill.