EDF Issues: please help!

Lotus17racer

I am at my wit's end! I have a Management Company electricity account with EDF. On 30 April, my account had 30 entries, issuing credit notes, re-issuing bills, cancelling payments in varying amounts I have made and un-cancelling them. Also, they appear not to have allocated a £556 payment made in February 2023. I have received two Statutory Notices to pay which I have paid (even although by my reckoning they owe me money) because they threatened cutting off the supply which would be unacceptable to the tenants. I tried phoning them but they were unable to trace me and that call, for about 32 minutes, cost me in excess of £20 because the 0845 number I was directed to in their website was chargeable! I have sent numerous emails to them (customer_correspondence@EDFEnergy.com) over the past months and not had any replies save for automated acknowledgements (which shows that it's a live email address). I even went to their head office in London and left a written letter setting out the issues with summary copy emails.

My electricity daily standing charge has increased from 80p (31 March 2020) to £3.9744. PER DAY! 

Also, my on-line account with them shows the full details of 124 other customers: all their addresses, payments, invoices and email communications. I assume that those 124 other customers also have access to my details! 

As I say, I'm completely at my wit's end. Sleepless nights, the lot. Do the good folk on this forum have any suggestions please? Many thanks.

Gerry1

Lotus17racer said:

I tried phoning them but they were unable to trace me and that call, for about 32 minutes, cost me in excess of £20 because the 0845 number I was directed to in their website was chargeable!

I doubt that this was an official E.On site because 0845 numbers are not permitted for customer service helplines.  It's more likely to have been a scam site that appeared as a paid entry at the top of a search engine list.  Please quote the URL.

If it was a genuine E.On site you can reclaim the overcharge.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/phone-internet-downloads-or-tv/complain-about-a-premium-rate-phone-charge-or-text-message/

MeteredOut

Gerry1 said:

Lotus17racer said:

I tried phoning them but they were unable to trace me and that call, for about 32 minutes, cost me in excess of £20 because the 0845 number I was directed to in their website was chargeable!

I doubt that this was an official E.On site because 0845 numbers are not permitted for customer service helplines.  It's more likely to have been a scam site that appeared as a paid entry at the top of a search engine list.  Please quote the URL.

If it was a genuine E.On site you can reclaim the overcharge.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/phone-internet-downloads-or-tv/complain-about-a-premium-rate-phone-charge-or-text-message/

Is that also the case for business accounts, which this might be since it is via a Management Company (and the SC cost, even at 80p, indicates its a business account)?

molerat

EDF business contact is an 0333 number which is chargeable at national rates.  If you don't have an inclusive call package it will cost but no different to calling anyone else.

FreeBear

Lotus17racer said: Also, my on-line account with them shows the full details of 124 other customers: all their addresses, payments, invoices and email communications. I assume that those 124 other customers also have access to my details!

Take a screen shot of the offending page, and send it to the ICO along with the URL. Whilst it won't help you in the immediate future, the ICO can add it to the pile of complaints, and it may trigger a bigger fine for EDF.

Lotus17racer

It was their official site. MIne is a business account. I am trying to reclaim what is due to me (excluding this charge) at the moment but not getting very far. I have overpaid because they hadn't allocated a >£500 payment and so started to issue threatening Statutory Notices (which I had to pay). Now they've finally found my >£500 payment six months later.

The issues are, why do they put a 'pay-for' telephone number on their (official) site dealing with queries without saying that it's not a 'free' number, why do/can they increase the standing charge so hugely without giving me advance notice, and why do they issue threatening Statutory Notices when I have paid the money and told them about it with evidence?

ICO has been informed about my access to other people's accounts and they to mine.

They are, in the vernacular, a complete shower of !!!!!!

ArbitraryRandom

Lotus17racer said:

It was their official site. MIne is a business account...

The issues are, why do they put a 'pay-for' telephone number on their (official) site dealing with queries without saying that it's not a 'free' number, 

Just looking at this issue first - can you advise WHERE you found the number? 

This is the EDF small business page and it's clearly not an 0845 number. 

https://www.edfenergy.com/sme-business



If you click on the number (2) or (3) then it takes you to the bottom where it says "The team are available Monday to Friday 9 am - 5 pm. Calls to UK-wide numbers are included in any inclusive call plan you may have. If you don't have an inclusive call plan, calls are charged at a national rate. Please check with your service provider if you're unsure." 

I only ask as if you end up escalating to the ombudsman then you will have to provide evidence of all of your claims (the ombudsman doesn't investigate at all) - so you would benefit from getting screen shots of where you found the number now. 

Gerry1

Lotus17racer said:

The issues are, why do they put a 'pay-for' telephone number on their (official) site dealing with queries without saying that it's not a 'free' number...

If EDF had quoted an 01 or 02 number instead of 03, would you expect them to say that it wasn't 'free'?  They're all charged at the same rate.

That said, it may be helpful to advise of 03 call costs for people who are unfamiliar with them.  However, the EDF wording is daft: far better to keep it simple by saying 'Calling 03 numbers costs exactly the same as 01 and 02 numbers'.

Lotus17racer

Thank you for your comments. I’ll do a bit of research to find out where I got that number from. I haven’t claimed it (yet) from EDF and also haven’t mentioned it to the ICO (I’m not sure it’s within their remit). 

Gerry1

@Lotus17racer Here are examples of sites where EDF appear to be breaking the rules about 0845 numbers.

https://www.edfenergy.com/large-business/energy-solutions/energy-management/meter-operators

https://www.edfenergy.com/large-business/customers/complaints

https://www.edfenergy.com/sites/default/files/mms-gu-chp-0714.pdf

The cost of calling EDF's 0845 numbers is a Service Charge (which goes to EDF) plus an Access Charge (which goes to your phone company).

It's the Access Charge that can be cripplingy expensive, up to 74p/minute on top of the Service Charge.😟

That's why Ofcom rules require that whenever an 0845 number is published it has to include the warning 'Calls cost X pence per minute plus your phone company's Access Charge', but EDF are failing to comply.

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-telecoms-and-internet/advice-for-consumers/advice/uk-calling/uk-calling-for-businesses

ArbitraryRandom

Here's the info on how to report those pages/numbers: https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/phone-internet-downloads-or-tv/complain-about-a-premium-rate-phone-charge-or-text-message/ 

But if the OP wanted to reclaim the cost of their call then they'd probably have to explain where they found it and how they ended up calling one of those numbers rather than the 033 numbers which are the first hit from google and on the business support pages (not saying it's not possible at all - just that you'd need to have a reasonable explanation).