EDF are saying I haven't paid my bill when I have.

Matt_Kamen

Hi Everyone

So I paid my gas bill earlier on this month but to my surprise I received an email from them last week saying that I hadn't paid and that the bill was now outstanding.
Having spoken to numerous people at EDF and spent several hours on the phone they are still saying that they can't find my payment. I have checked with my bank and the money has definitely left my account. I've sent EDF a screenshot of my statement but it seems that this still isn't good enough. EDF are now talking about charging me late payment charges and also saying that it will also show up on my credit rating that I defaulted on a payment.
I really don't want to have to pay my gas bill twice, especially considering that the bills have now gone through the roof.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can progress forward with this?

Alnat1

How did you pay the bill? I'm guessing you don't pay a monthly DD. 

MoneySavingNovice

Contact your bank and ask them to trace the payment

Matt_Kamen

Alnat1 said:

How did you pay the bill? I'm guessing you don't pay a monthly DD. 

I pay by debit card on their website

MoneySavingNovice said:

Contact your bank and ask them to trace the payment

Thanks, I will ask them

km1500

If you paid by debit card on their website (and you are sure you did actually go to their website and not a copycat) and the payment has hit your bank and showing on your statement as debited (not pending) then you have definitely paid and I would raise a formal complaint with EDF

In saying this I am assuming you had to log into your account before you paid and thus there is no question of a wrong account number or account details being entered.

EssexHebridean

I take it that your online account doesn't shed any light on this - does payment by debit card leave a breadcrumb trail of any description perhaps? I've only ever been DD with EDF so don't know whether it would.. or not! 

Also, depending on how much detail you can get on a transaction through your online banking - might there be a reference there that is showing incorrectly, or come to that can be used as further evidence to EDF that the payment was sent to the right place? 

Matt_Kamen

km1500 said:

If you paid by debit card on their website (and you are sure you did actually go to their website and not a copycat) and the payment has hit your bank and showing on your statement as debited (not pending) then you have definitely paid and I would raise a formal complaint with EDF

In saying this I am assuming you had to log into your account before you paid and thus there is no question of a wrong account number or account details being entered.

Yes payment is definitely debited and not pending and yes I had to log into the account first so definitely the right account number and also not a copycat site as I always physically type in the web address. I'm assuming an IT !!!!!! up at their end but why their accounts department can't simply check their incoming monies and see that I paid the right amount on the date I gave them is beyond me.

Matt_Kamen

EssexHebridean said:

I take it that your online account doesn't shed any light on this - does payment by debit card leave a breadcrumb trail of any description perhaps? I've only ever been DD with EDF so don't know whether it would.. or not! 

Also, depending on how much detail you can get on a transaction through your online banking - might there be a reference there that is showing incorrectly, or come to that can be used as further evidence to EDF that the payment was sent to the right place? 

No the online account just says that I have a bill outstanding for the amount that I've paid so no trail there. I will contanct my bank and ask them if they can provide more details

EssexHebridean

Have a look in your online banking as well - it may be that if you tap or click on the transaction it'll confirm details like the reference - might save you a phone call. 

macman

Matt_Kamen said:

km1500 said:

If you paid by debit card on their website (and you are sure you did actually go to their website and not a copycat) and the payment has hit your bank and showing on your statement as debited (not pending) then you have definitely paid and I would raise a formal complaint with EDF

In saying this I am assuming you had to log into your account before you paid and thus there is no question of a wrong account number or account details being entered.

Yes payment is definitely debited and not pending and yes I had to log into the account first so definitely the right account number and also not a copycat site as I always physically type in the web address. I'm assuming an IT !!!!!! up at their end but why their accounts department can't simply check their incoming monies and see that I paid the right amount on the date I gave them is beyond me.

Possibly because they are processing upwards of 5 million payments a month, and so inevitably some of those will be wrongly credited, or untraceable? Even a 0.1% failure rate would mean 5,000 such cases each month.

Matt_Kamen

macman said:

Possibly because they are processing upwards of 5 million payments a month, and so inevitably some of those will be wrongly credited, or untraceable? Even a 0.1% failure rate would mean 5,000 such cases each month.

They must have a system though that allows them to do a search on name, account number, amount etc.. that's just basic IT