EDF withholding energy voucher

Ddoze

My February EDF EBSS voucher for £67 was due to be sent to me by the 15th February at the latest. I have been chasing it for the last 2 weeks and still haven't had it! 
On occasions when I've called they said they will cancel it and reissue it, and on other occasions they say that EDF haven't received the money from the Government. 
They won't tell me why the Government hasn't sent me the money. After 7 hours working on this yesterday with multiple people at EDF, citizens advice and Extra Help, they arranged an emergency credit key (which I had to walk a 2 mile round trip to collect). So I have electricity now but still not from the ebss voucher...
I have asked to be reimbursed for the electric that I have had to put on my meter during the last 2 weeks because of the "missing" voucher and have yet to receive a response. I've also asked to be paid for my wasted time....I know people aren't usually paid for time wasted.... but since my time was clearly wasted deliberately, could I ask for this? 
I would really like to know if anyone else out there has had the same problem and excuse from their energy supplier?
Thanks. 

molerat

You will not get reimbursed for electricity you have paid for and used, you will still get the benefit of the voucher when it arrives.  Have you started their formal complaints procedure ?  It is THE ONLY WAY to get EDF doing something.  With a complaint you may get £20 go away money.

Robin9

ComplaintResolution@edfenergy.com

Keep to the facts and keep emotion out of it

Ddoze

molerat said:

You will not get reimbursed for electricity you have paid for and used, you will still get the benefit of the voucher when it arrives.  Have you started their formal complaints procedure ?  It is THE ONLY WAY to get EDF doing something.  With a complaint you may get £20 go away money.

Sounds rather defeatist. 

MattMattMattUK

Ddoze said:

My February EDF EBSS voucher for £67 was due to be sent to me by the 15th February at the latest. I have been chasing it for the last 2 weeks and still haven't had it! 

EDF are not "withholding" the voucher, it is either stuck in the postal system or there is an admin issue. They are supposed to issue the vouchers in the relevant month, so rather than having until 15/02 they had until 28/02. I suspect that you demanding it was cancelled and reissued might have caused some issues with the system.

Ddoze said:

On occasions when I've called they said they will cancel it and reissue it, and on other occasions they say that EDF haven't received the money from the Government. 
They won't tell me why the Government hasn't sent me the money.

I suspect that on not being sent the money they are incorrect, but you are also only dealing with customer service minions who probably do not fully understand the system.

Ddoze said:

After 7 hours working on this yesterday with multiple people at EDF, citizens advice and Extra Help, they arranged an emergency credit key (which I had to walk a 2 mile round trip to collect). So I have electricity now but still not from the ebss voucher...

Ok, far from ideal, but also the voucher is only technically seven days late.

Ddoze said:

I have asked to be reimbursed for the electric that I have had to put on my meter during the last 2 weeks because of the "missing" voucher and have yet to receive a response. 

You have used the electricity, you will not be "reimbursed" for electricity you have used.

Ddoze said:

I've also asked to be paid for my wasted time....I know people aren't usually paid for time wasted.... but since my time was clearly wasted deliberately, could I ask for this? 

You can ask, they will say no. As Molerat says you may get some "shut up and go away" money, £10-50 would he the likely range.

Ddoze said:

I would really like to know if anyone else out there has had the same problem and excuse from their energy supplier?
Thanks. 

Other people have had issues, that is irrelevant, the aim should be to deal with your issue. As other posters above have said you need to raise a complaint, that can take up to eight weeks to get a response and then after that if still not dealt with satisfactorily you can go to the ombudsman (2-6 months for a decision). However the main factor is that raising a complaint means that it gets looked at by a more senior team who will likely have full visibility over the whole system and be able to do something, which will likely be reissuing the voucher, if that has not already turned up in the post by then. Of note there are still ongoing postal delays, I am having things that were sent to me in standard post by work 3-4 weeks ago only turning up this week, so it is perfectly possible that the voucher is still floating around in the postal system.

Ddoze said:

molerat said:

You will not get reimbursed for electricity you have paid for and used, you will still get the benefit of the voucher when it arrives.  Have you started their formal complaints procedure ?  It is THE ONLY WAY to get EDF doing something.  With a complaint you may get £20 go away money.

Sounds rather defeatist. 

Not defeatist, sensible and practical. 

Ddoze

MattMattMattUK said:

Ddoze said:

My February EDF EBSS voucher for £67 was due to be sent to me by the 15th February at the latest. I have been chasing it for the last 2 weeks and still haven't had it! 

EDF are not "withholding" the voucher, it is either stuck in the postal system or there is an admin issue. They are supposed to issue the vouchers in the relevant month, so rather than having until 15/02 they had until 28/02. I suspect that you demanding it was cancelled and reissued might have caused some issues with the system.

Ddoze said:

On occasions when I've called they said they will cancel it and reissue it, and on other occasions they say that EDF haven't received the money from the Government. 
They won't tell me why the Government hasn't sent me the money.

I suspect that on not being sent the money they are incorrect, but you are also only dealing with customer service minions who probably do not fully understand the system.

Ddoze said:

After 7 hours working on this yesterday with multiple people at EDF, citizens advice and Extra Help, they arranged an emergency credit key (which I had to walk a 2 mile round trip to collect). So I have electricity now but still not from the ebss voucher...

Ok, far from ideal, but also the voucher is only technically seven days late.

Ddoze said:

I have asked to be reimbursed for the electric that I have had to put on my meter during the last 2 weeks because of the "missing" voucher and have yet to receive a response. 

You have used the electricity, you will not be "reimbursed" for electricity you have used.

Ddoze said:

I've also asked to be paid for my wasted time....I know people aren't usually paid for time wasted.... but since my time was clearly wasted deliberately, could I ask for this? 

You can ask, they will say no. As Molerat says you may get some "shut up and go away" money, £10-50 would he the likely range.

Ddoze said:

I would really like to know if anyone else out there has had the same problem and excuse from their energy supplier?
Thanks. 

Other people have had issues, that is irrelevant, the aim should be to deal with your issue. As other posters above have said you need to raise a complaint, that can take up to eight weeks to get a response and then after that if still not dealt with satisfactorily you can go to the ombudsman (2-6 months for a decision). However the main factor is that raising a complaint means that it gets looked at by a more senior team who will likely have full visibility over the whole system and be able to do something, which will likely be reissuing the voucher, if that has not already turned up in the post by then. Of note there are still ongoing postal delays, I am having things that were sent to me in standard post by work 3-4 weeks ago only turning up this week, so it is perfectly possible that the voucher is still floating around in the postal system.

Ddoze said:

molerat said:

You will not get reimbursed for electricity you have paid for and used, you will still get the benefit of the voucher when it arrives.  Have you started their formal complaints procedure ?  It is THE ONLY WAY to get EDF doing something.  With a complaint you may get £20 go away money.

Sounds rather defeatist. 

Not defeatist, sensible and practical. 

1. I didn't ask them to cancel and reissue the voucher, I said I would wait for it. 
2. It's not lost in the post: they have since admitted that it has not been sent at all. 
3. Since it had not been sent they either a) have not received it from the government or b) are withholding it. 
3. Since the beginning of the scheme in October it has been known that the vouchers are to be sent within the first 2 weeks of the month. 
4. I have had communications from more senior staff. 
5. I was told that I would be reimbursed for my electricity that I had to pay due to no voucher. 
6. It is relevant to ask if others are having the same issue: is this an EDF wide problem? My local area? Just me?