EDF bill for July?

GibbsRule_No3.

Having set my DD to £85 (£25 less than I had been paying but £26 more than they want to take) I got a reply saying they were sorry they could not take £85 as I’d be paying too much.  So I put £75, again they are refusing to take it as I’d be paying too much according to them. I have Storage Heaters for my heating and I’d like to know I can use them when winter comes. I also don’t want the bill to sky rocket next February.  Yes I’m sure I will be told I can always put the money away into an account myself, but I’d rather it was just gone from my money using clasp. Looks like I might have to call them, nothing is easy, when it really should be.

cmgurney

spenderdave said:

Eventually got a July bill from EDF yesterday. For some reason despite the website showing consumption figures for every day correctly they claim they have no readings from my meter. A message on the website (but never emailed to me) asked me because of this to supply readings and the bill, covering six weeks, came the next day. Obviously my smart meter is working and sending data to them so guess there is a glitch somewhere deep down in their billing software.

I'm having exactly the same issue. My bills are usually dated the 19th of the month. Despite my daily smart meter readings being available on the EDF website, no bill has was generated for the period 20 June to 19 July. Instead, they are showing my last 'meter reading' as 30 June and asking me to submit readings. They've also switched my payment method from whole bill DD to monthly regular pament DD, which will give them approximately double what I owe. How convenient for them! ENZO on WhatsApp was useless and I haven't yet heard back from a human. Should I submit readings?

dealyboy

@cmgurney said:

@spenderdave said:

Eventually got a July bill from EDF yesterday. For some reason despite the website showing consumption figures for every day correctly they claim they have no readings from my meter. A message on the website (but never emailed to me) asked me because of this to supply readings and the bill, covering six weeks, came the next day. Obviously my smart meter is working and sending data to them so guess there is a glitch somewhere deep down in their billing software.

I'm having exactly the same issue. My bills are usually dated the 19th of the month. Despite my daily smart meter readings being available on the EDF website, no bill has was generated for the period 20 June to 19 July. Instead, they are showing my last 'meter reading' as 30 June and asking me to submit readings. They've also switched my payment method from whole bill DD to monthly regular pament DD, which will give them approximately double what I owe. How convenient for them! ENZO on WhatsApp was useless and I haven't yet heard back from a human. Should I submit readings?

Hi ... I'm in a similar position to you two ...

Last bill was for 19 May - 16 Jun and paid by direct debit 05 Jul. I had been expecting a new bill to be generated to 03 Aug for payment 18 Aug with an annoying 'estimate' of four times my last bill based on inaccurate annual usage spread evenly through the year, however I too pay whole of bill monthly.

I too have now received an 'account activity' dated 31 Jul stating the need for a meter reading. (I also have a smart meter whose EDF status shows everything OK and reads being taken, again the 'energy hub' shows a complete history of usage histogram.) The 'activity bill' dated 31 Jul states that the meter could not be read and that the estimate will be taken as payment on 18 Aug. This 'bill' shows the method used to work out the estimate but also shows my payment method is direct debit (whole amount) monthly, it also shows the readings from 16 Jun even though the dashboard 'submit a reading' shows the last reading for 30 Jun (correctly) end of the previous rates.

'My bills and payments' now shows my next bill will be on 01 Sep for the period 17 Jun to 01 Sep with a payment date of 06 Sep, but with the amount being the previous estimate.

Clearly EDF's billing is totally confused, contradictory and inconsistent. I shall wait and see rather than attempting to give a manual reading. Going by my previous experience with energy supplier 'suck it and see' agents it would likely make the situation even more confused. I suspect things might right themselves at the next bill.

One thing @cmgurney, I note your comment about your payment method. What does it state if you scroll down to the end of 'My bills and payments'? mine is Direct Debit (Whole Amount) Monthly as it should be.

twopenny

I'm different in that I still use paper bills - for good reason.

They were supposed to have sent a letter asking if I'd like to continue but sent an email which went promptly into my Junk. 

Then requesting a reading which also went into the Junk.

An offchance conversation with a random customer in the queue at the bank where people were discussing the same problem alerted me to this possibility.

Pure chance I found the bill - submitted reading and found everything is online - but I'm only occasionally.

2nd bill and I couldn't understand the terminology - couldn't figure out what to pay so went to the bank. Lady carefully read and we agreed the figure. Paid.

Then find another bill for a smaller amount.......again, pure chance.

After 40yrs of paying on arrival with no issues and I did not understand why I was getting all these bills.

Almost in tears I rang the Vulnerable customer numbers (recommended to me here and I fit) to be told 'this number no longer exists' but at least I was transfered.

The excuse for unintelligible billing is 'it's the governments paybacks' that makes all the figures on the bill and the phrasing .

So it's not their fault at all you'll be glad to know.

Checked the 'Electricity prices are dropping' to find by 3p but they are putting up the Standing Charge by 3.5p........

So it's not just the digital readings etc that are a mess. It's across the board.

I'd move but currently it's not going to be a lot better by what I've checked.

MattMattMattUK

twopenny said:

Almost in tears I rang the Vulnerable customer numbers (recommended to me here and I fit) to be told 'this number no longer exists' but at least I was transfered.

Are you on the Priority Services Register? If not it would potentially be worth getting yourself added.

twopenny said:

The excuse for unintelligible billing is 'it's the governments paybacks' that makes all the figures on the bill and the phrasing .

So it's not their fault at all you'll be glad to know.

This is something that I have sympathy with them (and other energy suppliers) and I generally do not have much sympathy for energy suppliers. They were asked at short notice to bodge something into their billing systems that they systems were never designed to handle, some managed that in a clearer/better way than others, largely those with more modern systems and EDF is currently rolling out it's new system.

twopenny said:

Checked the 'Electricity prices are dropping' to find by 3p but they are putting up the Standing Charge by 3.5p........

The average is a 3.2p per kWh drop and a standing charge increase by 3.4p, so anyone who uses more than 1.06kWh will be better off. 

twopenny said:

So it's not just the digital readings etc that are a mess. It's across the board.

One thing is that EDF are moving to Kraken, Octupus's far more modern and flexible billing system, things will get a lot better, although that may take another eighteen months to finish deployment.

twopenny said:

I'd move but currently it's not going to be a lot better by what I've checked.

From a customer service perspective most people find Octopus far better and they generally have beneficial tariffs for those with EV, battery, heat pumps etc. but countering that EDF are normally better for those on E7 with high night usage, which can also include those with solar and batteries. For prices on standard tariffs everyone is within 1% of each other being on the price caps with minor differences and with the current market, the market is unlikely to get competitive for another year or more, though E7 and experimental tariffs can be a different ballgame. 

pseudodox

Have any of the posters on this thread having ongoing problems been allocated a new account number?  That seems to be the indicator that you are moving onto the new system, as I got emailed a few weeks ago and asked to create a new password for logging in.  Certainly the site then looked different.

My July billing problems were attributed to issues with this move but it was not given as an out-and-out excuse for shoddy service - I was told they were having problems with the app.  The apology acknowledged that something so simple should not have taken me 12 days to have resolved.  It is perhaps unfortunate that they do not just keep customers informed instead of leaving us all to flounder in the dark.  An on-site message or email would surely be far more productive than having their VA up to his eyes in complaints and no-one gets back to you for 24 hours because they are inundated. 

Up to July my tariff was listed on my account details as Whole Bill Monthly Direct Debit.  Now it says Tariff Name: Standard Variable; Payment Method: Direct Debit (Variable).  So still the same but worded differently

spenderdave

I think I am still on the old system, everything looks just the same as it always has. At least with a pseudo July bill covering six weeks (and which seems correct) after submitting readings I am ok for now. Just wait to see what happens later this month...

JayMNa

Still on the old system, last bill I got was on 13th February.

pseudodox

I think the key to being moved is being given a new account number, no longer a long number starting with "67-" but "A-FB******" in my case.  It was very specific that I had to set a new password to access my "new" account, although once in I went and changed it back to my regular one.  However when I used WhatsApp eNZO still asked for the 67 number!  Doh!

QrizB

pseudodox said:

I think the key to being moved is being given a new account number, no longer a long number starting with "67-" but "A-FB******" in my case.

That's a very Kraken account number.

My Octopus account number is A-xxxxxxxx and my E.ON Next account number is A-yyyyyyyy. Both are Kraken systems.