Refund - I don't want it!

Exiled_Tyke

I've been with EDF twice. Once because they had a good tariff and vowed I was never going back and then again when I was transferred to them after the previous provider went under.   My experiences are that they just don't get the customer's perspective and are a law unto themselves.  Issues include: 

1. Changing direct debits without consultation and refusing to take into account changes in circumstances known to me. It's like they are the experts in working things out on nobody else is to be trusted. (a different incident from the one below by the way) 
2. Refusing to accept meter readings that don't seem right to them.  The property was unoccupied for three months over the summer and so no gas was used. They wrote four times asking for the reading to be checked even though I sent them a photo of the meter. 
3. Taking four months to produce a final bill 
4. Not setting up a direct debit nor contacting me to set one up.  I genuinely thought after the account transferred to them that they would then contact me to make arrangements and then claiming the account was in arrears and they needed to recover. 

I have two (separate) friends who have had similar 'customer service' problems.  I"m not surprised the Op has issues.  I'm now with Octopus and the customer service is in a different league. I couldn't be happier.    

BooJewels

lisyloo said:

Deleted_User said:

MWT said:

The one certainty is that whatever the suppliers do will be wrong for someone it seems

This behaviour was prompted by Ofgem, they didn't follow through and make it a rule, but it seems that some built it into their procedures anyway.

... and yes, it really makes no sense to do it right before winter...

Built into their procedures for some customers and not others somehow, and there doesn't seem to be any explanation for how they choose.

The suppliers are a bit stuck though, being told to avoid debt and to avoid high credit balances simultaneously whilst spreading a very non-uniform demand across equal payments.

Just an idea but they could review the payments more regularly e.g. quarterly.
if it’s done by computer and automatic then I don’t see why that would be a big deal.
they could also improve their communication e.g. it’s ok to have approx 3-4 months credit before winter, rather than just “be in credit”.
british gas are particularly bad at communication.

I would actually say that they've actually got much worse over time.  Since I posted earlier, I got an email from them congratulating me on being moved to their new system and it was all now up and running.  I had logged in when they sent my last refund, somewhere between 4th and 11th September, I know when because I was away on holiday.  It showed me half the new system and half the old - but with no data, that said it would take up to 14 days to appear.  At that time it welcomed me as a new customer and thanked me for choosing BG and asked for an opening read to get things started, said I had no DD set up and no payments or bills yet.  So I logged in again just now - thinking it might now all be updated - same content as 3 weeks ago.  No history, no DD set up etc etc.

If they want people to be in control of their energy use and bills, at least give them the tools to manage it.

brewerdave

lisyloo said:

[Deleted User] said:

MWT said:

The one certainty is that whatever the suppliers do will be wrong for someone it seems

This behaviour was prompted by Ofgem, they didn't follow through and make it a rule, but it seems that some built it into their procedures anyway.

... and yes, it really makes no sense to do it right before winter...

Built into their procedures for some customers and not others somehow, and there doesn't seem to be any explanation for how they choose.

The suppliers are a bit stuck though, being told to avoid debt and to avoid high credit balances simultaneously whilst spreading a very non-uniform demand across equal payments.

Just an idea but they could review the payments more regularly e.g. quarterly.
if it’s done by computer and automatic then I don’t see why that would be a big deal.
they could also improve their communication e.g. it’s ok to have approx 3-4 months credit before winter, rather than just “be in credit”.
british gas are particularly bad at communication.

Agreed - but they have been the opposite with DD value since I "joined" them as a result of SOLR process last November. In 10 months I have paid 6 different amounts as a result of some sort of "final balance" algorithm. !! 
My experience of EDF is the opposite - no communications to speak of ,and no attempt to alter the DD which is going to leave me in debit at review in December. Doesn't bother me but might be a disaster for some.

CanNeverThinkOfAUsername

EDF are planning to move systems to use Kraken (the system built by Octopus) next year. I feel this will fix a lot of issues customers have with EDF.

Exiled_Tyke

CanNeverThinkOfAUsername said:

EDF are planning to move systems to use Kraken (the system built by Octopus) next year. I feel this will fix a lot of issues customers have with EDF.

Quicker solution is to just move to Octopus now?  

And don't get me started on the problems I had with the app and the Smart Meter which they never resolved after months of complaining but Octopus solved as soon as I transferred.  

[Deleted User]

lisyloo said:

[Deleted User] said:

MWT said:

The one certainty is that whatever the suppliers do will be wrong for someone it seems

This behaviour was prompted by Ofgem, they didn't follow through and make it a rule, but it seems that some built it into their procedures anyway.

... and yes, it really makes no sense to do it right before winter...

Built into their procedures for some customers and not others somehow, and there doesn't seem to be any explanation for how they choose.

The suppliers are a bit stuck though, being told to avoid debt and to avoid high credit balances simultaneously whilst spreading a very non-uniform demand across equal payments.

Just an idea but they could review the payments more regularly e.g. quarterly.
if it’s done by computer and automatic then I don’t see why that would be a big deal.
they could also improve their communication e.g. it’s ok to have approx 3-4 months credit before winter, rather than just “be in credit”.
british gas are particularly bad at communication.

Frequent reviews? - They could, but you have seen how many threads we get here saying "XX have put my price up", "XX is changing my fixed price", "why is my fixed tariff not fixed" etc. every time that there is a direct debit change.  Making the changes more frequent isn't going to help this.

Better comms? - We do that here and still get met with "I'd rather have it in my bank than theirs", "I know my estimates better than they do", and "they're just stealing my money to prop up their cash flow".  Together with the people who don't understand that a fixed tariff isn't all-you-can-eat, those who think their DD is their bill, and those who don't believe they use more in winter than summer, it's probably a losing effort.

grn99

If you know your annual consumption you can calculate your likely costs for that year and come up with a monthly figure for the DD. Where I have a credit balance I offset this against the annual costs and adjust the monthly DD downwards to match. The only issue I see, is trusting the energy supplier with a lot of £££ credit should the worst happen and it takes a while to claw it back from the new supplier of last resort (or whatever they're called).

pochase

funny.money said:

lisyloo said:

If you are confident you can manage your money and pay your bills in winter then I’d suggest variable DD and just pay the bills as you go.
personally I think this is far easier.
the issue is that some people can’t budget.

Yes,  I've been considering that for a while now,  the way to go I think.

No problem if you have the money available (the money they refunded you for example) to be able to pay the high winter bills.

For people who don't have the money it is not a great idea to start a variable direct debit at the start of winter. 

QrizB

Exiled_Tyke said:

CanNeverThinkOfAUsername said:

EDF are planning to move systems to use Kraken (the system built by Octopus) next year. I feel this will fix a lot of issues customers have with EDF.

Quicker solution is to just move to Octopus now? 

If you've got E7 and make good use of the off-peak period, EDF are much cheaper than Octopus.

Mobtr

Exiled_Tyke said:

I've been with EDF twice. Once because they had a good tariff and vowed I was never going back and then again when I was transferred to them after the previous provider went under.   My experiences are that they just don't get the customer's perspective and are a law unto themselves.  Issues include: 

1. Changing direct debits without consultation and refusing to take into account changes in circumstances known to me. It's like they are the experts in working things out on nobody else is to be trusted. (a different incident from the one below by the way) 
2. Refusing to accept meter readings that don't seem right to them.  The property was unoccupied for three months over the summer and so no gas was used. They wrote four times asking for the reading to be checked even though I sent them a photo of the meter. 
3. Taking four months to produce a final bill 
4. Not setting up a direct debit nor contacting me to set one up.  I genuinely thought after the account transferred to them that they would then contact me to make arrangements and then claiming the account was in arrears and they needed to recover. 

I have two (separate) friends who have had similar 'customer service' problems.  I"m not surprised the Op has issues.  I'm now with Octopus and the customer service is in a different league. I couldn't be happier.    

1. No energy company is going to consult with you when your direct debit is changed. They don’t have the resources to contact thousands of customers to discuss it personally. In EDF’s case, they review your payments on a 6monthly basis, tell you on your statement of any changes & you can contact them if you disagree to discuss it further or you can change it yourself online
2.could be they thought it was a faulty meter which was why they contacted you. Depends on how you contacted them would depend on whether you speak to someone with experience or even a bit of common sense. 

3.shouldn’t take 4 months for a final  bill unless it’s a SoLR which is out of EDF’s hands so would be interested to know the circumstances for that. 

4. Who were you transferred from. Not all companies transferred over the direct debit info & if they didn’t contact you, why didn’t you contact them? 

I don’t think any companies have brilliant CS all of the time due to a lot being off shore now. Worst thing any company does in my opinion