Energy Bills Support Scheme Confusion

Spoonie_Turtle

ariarnia said:

Spoonie_Turtle said:

ariarnia said:

 but at the same time its not edf's fault really. they did what the goverment told them to do and there only asking to be paid for the actual energy used. 

It is slightly, for using a terrible system that doesn't actually make it clear that the credits affect the amount the customer has to pay.  Every year there's the Warm Home Discount for several million people, and what if a customer wants to make a manual payment?

If people are to understand and be in more control of their energy usage and costs, bills need to be understandable, not take a community to explain.

i agree about the billing system more generally but i was talking about the 400 grant. 

lots of companies (even the ones with good billing systems normally) have had confused customers because they had to find somewhere to put this on the bill with little to no warning. 

if it was going to be a yearly thing then they should definately be getting some stick for not having it sorted by now or soon but as a one off short notice thing i think we have to give them some slack... imo. 

Yes, totally agree it would be unreasonable to expect them to change their whole system for just one year - it's just bad that their system is so opaque in the first place. I've just had a Google because I couldn't quite remember whether it was them or Eon (turns out it's both!), but EDF are moving to Kraken so hopefully bills will be clearer for customers in future.

Plus they're one of the companies that bill 6-monthly by default, aren't they, so flexibility and responsiveness are certainly not built into their existing system!

markfarquhar

While I agree that a one off change to maybe a complex old system is probably impractical (cost/time), I don't see an there is any excuse for not adding an explanation.  The summary description on the bill line REFUND adds a reference to a information further down which contains itself refers to a web link.  None of this seems to contain an explanation as to why the summary billing does not appear to add up, it is easy to add further text to the bill and/or in the web page that is linked to explain why the bill looks the way it does.  It just suggests a lack of customer focus to me. 

MWT

markfarquhar said:

None of this seems to contain an explanation as to why the summary billing does not appear to add up, it is easy to add further text to the bill and/or in the web page that is linked to explain why the bill looks the way it does.  It just suggests a lack of customer focus to me. 

Everything does add up though, just make sure you are including everything listed on the page.

Recent account activity + electricity + gas + VAT gives the charges that are shown on the first page, and the opening balance + payments - refunds - charges gives the amount owed.

distefano

I have the same query

My Gas & Electricity charges are £1,054              [for 171 days]

Actual payments made by me £1,114

So my payments covered my actual usage

But they made

Refunds to my bank of £458   [@£67pm]        presumably the government payments

They then claim I am £398 in debt and want to up my monthly payments by£75pm

But surely they got the £458 from the government and then credited me ?

Yet now they appear to want me to pay it back to them

PeterGr

distefano said:

I have the same query

My Gas & Electricity charges are £1,054              [for 171 days]

I think that if you examine your bill carefully you will find that your charges are not £1054 and your DD payments are short of this.  The change in DD is to balance payments over the next 12 months.  Separately you have had £458 refunded, which is probably £333 of the £400 from the EBSS and £125 (most likely credit in your account for the previous year ?).  Yes, it is long winded, but if you follow the bill carefully it should add up.

ariarnia

yes if you go to the page where the individual charges are listed (not already added up for you) and check then you will probably see that without the money from the goverment you would owe £ 856 not £398

tho i'm not sure where you got £458 from as the goverment rebate has only paid 333 out of a total of 400 unless your also entitled to something else?

if its not there or you can't make sense of it then feel free to post a pic of your bill with your personal details blacked out and someone will take a look for you  

distefano

Thanks

You are obviously correct as if I add all the little numbers together [from electricity + gas + VAT + Standing Charges etc]  I do get £1,387

Not that that figure appears anywhere on my bill !!

Nor is there any sign of a £400 deduction or addition just the reference to Total Charges of £1,054

PeterGr

In the section of your bill with the electricity and gas charges is the recent account activity which should show £333 of credit from the energy bills support scheme.  £1387 - £333 is the £1054 that appears on page 1 to calculate your account balance.  The last £67 payment of the £400 will be made in March, and that will appear in your August / September bill.