Utility Bills Warning

Wazzy999

My dual fuel energy bill came through from EDF last month. It had gone up by over 100%. No surprise there you might think but I’m on an EDF fixed tariff so I looked into it an noticed that my previous reading figure for rate 1 electricity had been set to a level that was well below any readings for the last year! Hence it looked like I had used three times as much rate 1 electricity over the past 6 months than my average. I’m on a smart meter so it’s not an error with my readings. 

Obviously I’m fighting this but no agreement so far. There is a code of conduct that says EDF should look into any apparent excessive usage or bill increase but they haven’t done this and, to date, have offered no explanation.
All I’d say is, if you get a high bill don’t assume it’s due to general increases in energy prices - energy companies can get the bills massively wrong. Keep records and check what they send out - don’t assume the bills are correct!

pochase

How many KWh did you use?

Please give us the your usage details and unit rates?

Also that you have a smart meter does not mean that they used real readings. Is there an (e) or an (r) next to the reading on the bill?

What is todays meter readings and what was those
on the bill (date?)

[Deleted User]

Wazzy999 said:

My dual fuel energy bill came through from EDF last month. It had gone up by over 100%. No surprise there you might think but I’m on an EDF fixed tariff so I looked into it an noticed that my previous reading figure for rate 1 electricity had been set to a level that was well below any readings for the last year!

I am struggling with this part of your post. In don’t understand what you mean by ‘set to a level’. If you are referring to estimated annual consumption then errors can happen but this doesn’t change your actual smart meter billing.

You may not know this but all smart meters have 4 registers. There is no Licence Condition that requires suppliers to use R1 for peak and R2 for offpeak. How do I know this: my Offpeak usage is recorded on the R1 register and vice versa. Is it possible that your supplier has got its billing reversed?  I suggest that you download an app called BRIGHT and you should be able to work out if this is the case. The App shows 30 minute usage and your tariff times.

 I wouldn’t put too much emphasis on a Code managed by Energy UK. You will note that not all suppliers are signed up to it. It seems to be nothing more than a clever bit of PR by a trade body.

MWT

Wazzy999 said:

My dual fuel energy bill came through from EDF last month. It had gone up by over 100%.

Has the amount they are billing you for your energy gone up by over 100%, or is it the amount of your regular DD that has gone up?

Wazzy999

Sorry if my explanation confused you. I can read the smart meter and there are R1 and R2 readings as you say. In my bill for April the R1 ‘Previous reading’ was 3472 and the ‘latest reading’ was 6061. Electricity units used by deducting the former from the latter was 2589 kWh = £587.70. These were their readings using the smart meter (not estimates) but confirmed by my own readings done at about the same time.
My bill for October has the R1 previous reading (which should obviously be the same as the latest reading from the April bill) set at 1363! Taking the latest reading of 8164 (which is ball park correct from my readings) that gives a usage for the last 6 months of 6801 kWh and an R1 charge of £1543.83. Three times higher than the April  bill and also three times higher than the October 2021 bill. The R2 reading for October was 01884 and my the R2 reading for April was1354 i.e. completely different numbers.
Calculating the bill using the correct previous reading of 6061 would give a usage of 2103 kWh and a  charge of £477.38.
I didn’t want to give this level of detail in my previous post as it would have made it excessively long but hopefully you can see the error now - and it’s not mine!
 I just wanted to warn people that the bill you get might be catastrophically wrong.

Wazzy999

For further clarification for pochase - all the readings on their bills are ‘our read’ - as they should be for a smart meter. However I have been taking my own readings directly from the smart meter. This is due to previous errors and an earlier complaint dating from my contract with GNE when I had a faulty meter which was recording all usage as R1. I also did readings because, although EDF know I have a smart meter for electricity I still have to submit manual gas readings and the website won’t let me submit a gas reading without en electricity reading - so I end up doing both.
There are no ‘e’s or ‘r’s on the bill.
To MWT the DD was increased from £238 to £541 due to a three times increase in R1 use which was incorrectly calculated - see my second post above if you want the convoluted explanation of this.

Wazzy999

…and EDF is signed up to the Energy UK Code of practice.

Wazzy999

Just to round off this report, EDF finally admitted that there had been a 'glitch' in there system as a result of which I got an incorrect bill. They have agreed that I am actually in credit and I don't need to double my DD now that they have recalculated everything. The recalculation was hugely convoluted and involved cancelling the last bill and then issuing a new bill for the last 12 months with correct usage figures and invoice amounts. 
The process was hugely inefficient and frustrating. If you call EDF you get directed to the WhatsApp service because they are so overwhelmed by complaints. The call centre staff take 2-3 days to respond and when you reply to a question you have to wait another 2-3 days before someone else responds. Often they don't read the full transcript and so you get an unhelpful or dismissive reply. After a few days of this I sent an e-mail to complain and ask for the complaint to be escalated and after a few days of useless e-mail exchanges I then used the option on their website to e-mail the CEO. This resulted in a phone call to me and the bill was corrected 2 days later. The case handler said she would send an e-mail with details of what went wrong and how they were going to resolve it but this never materialised. However the bills have been amended on the website and the DD has been changed.
I took their offer of £20 compensation although it in no way compensates for the time I've had to waste on this - I couldn't be bothered to argue anymore!
Overall impression?
1) - EDF have a dodgy billing system which is not fit for purpose (I haven't even gone into issues with multiple reminders to submit readings which are often not even logged on their system when you do enter them - and yes, I do have screenshots to say the submission of readings has been successful). 
2) - Their complaints resolution service is appalling.