EDF Whole Amount D/D issues…

The_Fat_Controller

Stop sending readings !
Leave it to the smart meter.
Just make your own notes and correlate those with your online account.

KevinM2

Thanks Mikey, that’s very helpful info…

One of the issues I had previously is that EDF have never ever sent me an email requesting a reading. The T&Cs day that they will…the people I speak to on the phone say that’s what will happen, in fact they say not to give a reading until the system requests one as it will confuse the bill generation, but I have never had an email request saying it’s time to submit a reading…(and I have checked my spam)…the only emails I got from EDF were the almost daily requests to have a smart meter installed, so at least I know I do get emails from them, just not reading requests.

That’s why, in my previous discussions with them, they suggested that I get smart meters installed, and the system would get readings whenever it needed them…so I relented and got them installed.

I’ll see what happens next week, once they take the £415 D/D and see what that does to my account, but it really shouldn’t be this difficult to pay for used energy, rather than projected use energy…I am very tempted to change to the cheque/cash monthly invoice rather than D/D…I know the tariffs are higher, but at least I will be in control of it rather than at the mercy of EDF and it’s wayward billing system.

Thanks for the help!

mmmmikey

KevinM2 said:

Thanks Mikey, that’s very helpful info…

One of the issues I had previously is that EDF have never ever sent me an email requesting a reading. The T&Cs day that they will…the people I speak to on the phone say that’s what will happen, in fact they say not to give a reading until the system requests one as it will confuse the bill generation, but I have never had an email request saying it’s time to submit a reading…(and I have checked my spam)…the only emails I got from EDF were the almost daily requests to have a smart meter installed, so at least I know I do get emails from them, just not reading requests.

That’s why, in my previous discussions with them, they suggested that I get smart meters installed, and the system would get readings whenever it needed them…so I relented and got them installed.

I’ll see what happens next week, once they take the £415 D/D and see what that does to my account, but it really shouldn’t be this difficult to pay for used energy, rather than projected use energy…I am very tempted to change to the cheque/cash monthly invoice rather than D/D…I know the tariffs are higher, but at least I will be in control of it rather than at the mercy of EDF and it’s wayward billing system.

Thanks for the help!

Yeah, know what you mean, but I'd be tempted to wait for the next bill rather than the next DD payment and see what happens then. Chances are that the bill will use a correct reading from your smart meter, but they'll still take the £415 because the previous bill was out of the expected time slot. If you then leave it until the next bill after that, making sure you don't submit anything in the meantime, that bill and DD should be correct - problem solved

Problem is you don't know if they haven't asked for a reading because they don't need one (because they've got one from the smart meter) or they haven't asked because something hasn't worked. You then end up thinking - well I might as well submit a reading anyway, and if they didn't need it, it actually makes things worse.  I'm fairly confident that if you do nothing, the problem will just go away. By the way, when you get the next bill, if, as expected, you are in credit then you can just tell them you're in the process of changing to direct debit whole amount monthly and they will pay anything you've overpaid straight back to you without question - well they did in my case, anyway.

The_Fat_Controller

I have been on EDF DDWAM for years with a smart meter.

EDF have never once requested a manual meter reading.

wild666

KevinM2 said:

I didn’t even know that was an option, moving my D/D date…I was never given that as a choice by EDF in any of my telephone calls. I will suggest that tomorrow when I speak with them. Thanks!

My DD date used to be the 19th but I upped the DD by £7 and moved the date to the first of the month, if it's done in time there will be no break in the payment but I was over £290 in credit and the 10 days needed meant I missed the first of the following month, it wasn't a problem as my monthly bill was less than my DD even before I upped it by £7.

The_Green_Hornet

I've only been on EDF Whole Amount Monthly Direct Debit for the past two months, and I don't have smart meters, but the process I have observed is as follows:

1. Around the 19th of the month I get a message on my account informing me that it is time for my next bill and if I don't submit a reading before the 2nd they will use the estimated regular DD payment amount which they will collect on or after the 7th. 

2. On the last day of the month I submit a meter reading. 

3. Within a few days of submitting the meter reading I receive an email to inform me that my energy bill is ready to view.

4. Around the 7th the actual DD is collected from my bank account

EssexHebridean

I also had issues with EDF's WAMDD in the brief time I was on it. Switched to it for our tiny gas use - because this is not seasonally changing I knew I'd simply be paying roughly the same small amount each month - the "just in case" DD was set at £13.00. The first month came along and I gave the meter reading as requested -at which point they announced that they were going to take £46.XX DD to add to the £52.XX of credit already on the account - this seemed to be because they were basing the amount they were taking on our billed use of £46.XX without taking into account that this bill covered a period of about 5 months use...this was also based on estimated meter readings despite them having been given the correct ones both via their system and also on the telephone when their call handler asked for them. Unsurprisingly, I declined to let them take the amount they wanted, pointing out that they should be using the credit on the account already as this more than covered that month's bill - however the ONLY way of stopping them taking this turned out to be cancelling the DD. 

I had already as a result of some other issues decided to transfer our supply away from them - but despite this AND us still having a small cushion of credit on the account they continued to badger me about "needing" a new DD as I would end up in debt....they have now issued me my final bill and will be refunding the balance of my credit back to our bank account shortly.

EDF genuinely seem to have almost as poor grasp of managing customer accounts as Utility Warehouse do - and that's saying something! 

jrawle

I am on EDF whole amount DD, without a smart meter. I find they often (or always?) fail to send an e-mail requesting a reading, but it does have a message telling me to submit a reading when I log in. The fallback fixed DD amount is confusing. They often say they are going to take this amount, but never have done. Some of the messages are clearly designed for people on fixed DD, so there is no reference to it only being a fall-back. However, to date, the actual debits from my bank account have always been correct.

Also, I have some credit on my account (due to an offer at the time I took a fixed tariff). When a bill is generated, it says they will take the amount by direct debit, whereas in reality it's just taken out of the credit balance and no DD is taken at all. As a result, in a single month, they can first claim they are going to take the fixed DD amount, then the variable amount on my latest bill, whereas in reality they take nothing at all.

I think the billing system is poor, or at least the messages it sends out are. However, in my case at least, it does ultimately function correctly as a variable monthly direct debit.