EDF not refunding over £2000

akira181

EDF have been taking extortionate and completely unjustified direct debits amounts, over £300 a month since the prices went crazy, despite me asking them to recalculate the amount frequently. As such, my account is now over £2000 in credit and they're still taking over £300 a month in DD.

I've called up twice and requested a refund and they said they would arrange a callback the first time. Naturally, they didn't call.  Second time, I stayed on the phone for over 2 hours, gave them meter readings, was told they were accepted, and they would refund and recalculate the DD.

That was 2 weeks ago and still nothing. Tried calling again today and got fed up waiting after 45 minutes. Do I need to go to an ombudsman or something before EDF will stop taking utterly stupid amounts from me and refund my money?

la531983

Switch elsewhere. Vote with your feet. What incentive do you have to stay?

They will have no option to refund it then after the final bill has been calculated.

dunstonh

EDF have been taking extortionate and completely unjustified direct debits amounts, over £300 a month since the prices went crazy, despite me asking them to recalculate the amount frequently. 

EDF will take what you agree with them as long as your figures justifying the figure are accurate.

 As such, my account is now over £2000 in credit and they're still taking over £300 a month in DD.

Is that £2000 credit real or only taking payments into account?  EDF online system only shows the total you have paid since the last bill.  it does not deduct your use since that last bill.  Only when you give a reading and they generate a bill, does the use get deducted from that credit.

This can lead to it appearing you have more credit than you actually do.  Especially if the last bill was close to 6 months ago

Going into Autumn & winter, you would expect to be building summer credit.

NorfolkCanary

When was your last actual bill issued? The DD is just a holding pot until a quarterly/6-monthly bill is raised.
If you want to go down the ombudsman route, you'll need to have followed EDFs complaints procedure in the first instance.

Edit: how often have you provided meter readings to EDF? and what's the annual usage in kWh?

Robin9

You are wasting your time with Customer Services

complaintresolution@edfenergy.com

TheElectricCow

Unless you're currently tied into a tariff you don't want to leave, the easiest solution would be to switch suppliers. No debates with customer services, no phone call hold times, no false promises, and as long as your balance is up to date you know the money will be on the way back to you, albeit after a number of weeks (still much faster than the ombudsman process).

On top of all that you could even choose a supplier that will simply let you set your own DD online, if you wish. Octopus for instance do, as did Eon last I checked although they were a bit more awkward about it when I was with them.

Of course before doing that you'd need to be confident that your existing balance is recent and correct, as well as knowing what the appropriate level to set the DD at in future is. If you'd prefer to stay with EDF then the best way forward would be to provide them with your calculated figures for what the DD should be and how much of your balance you'd like to see refunded based on your upcoming winter usage. 

wild666

akira181 said:

EDF have been taking extortionate and completely unjustified direct debits amounts, over £300 a month since the prices went crazy, despite me asking them to recalculate the amount frequently. As such, my account is now over £2000 in credit and they're still taking over £300 a month in DD.

I've called up twice and requested a refund and they said they would arrange a callback the first time. Naturally, they didn't call.  Second time, I stayed on the phone for over 2 hours, gave them meter readings, was told they were accepted, and they would refund and recalculate the DD.

That was 2 weeks ago and still nothing. Tried calling again today and got fed up waiting after 45 minutes. Do I need to go to an ombudsman or something before EDF will stop taking utterly stupid amounts from me and refund my money?

I think they are allowed to hold only 1 months DD as credit so definitely escalate this as a complaint and then to the ombudsman if they won't give a refund.

QrizB

wild666 said:

I think they are allowed to hold only 1 months DD as credit ...

I don't think that's correct. At this time of year, someone on fixed monthly DD might reasonably expect to be in credit by 2-2 months' payments.

Thefrognine

I bought my house last February (2022) the previous people that lived here (rented) ran up a 4k bill, when we moved in I stupidly stayed with them for the 12 months as the direct debit was £64 a month and a free boiler service, even though we got a new one. Last year the prices went up, they said I needed to pay more, I was in credit. The renewal came and it was for (I've attached pic) I was in touch with them like !!!!!!? am I providing gas for the whole estate? It's not a smart metre that you have one of those things you can carry around, but apparently the metre sends rhe readings to them, told them there was absolutely no way. I changed to Octopus for £141 a month (prices had risen and this was the cheapest) they said the readings we'd provided, the reading they'd got from our metre and the final one from EDF were all different, so set up an investigation, great! However, I have paid the 141 a month, Octopus said my usage will be about 8k a year and I should up my direct debit, said absolutely not and also requested a refund for the few hundred quid I had in my account. Think my meter is a bit broken but it have the direct debit, which more than covers my usage. If it gets more than £250 I'm asking for kost back. why should they have it in their accounts  making interest? 

Smart meters, in my experience are not that smart, do not ever get one.

For the OP. Change suppliers ASAP, the money transfers over and request a refund or request a refund every week for £250, causes them more work and hassle.

MattMattMattUK

Thefrognine said:

I bought my house last February (2022) the previous people that lived here (rented) ran up a 4k bill, when we moved in I stupidly stayed with them for the 12 months as the direct debit was £64 a month and a free boiler service, even though we got a new one. Last year the prices went up, they said I needed to pay more, I was in credit. The renewal came and it was for (I've attached pic) I was in touch with them like !!!!!!? am I providing gas for the whole estate? It's not a smart metre that you have one of those things you can carry around, but apparently the metre sends rhe readings to them, told them there was absolutely no way. I changed to Octopus for £141 a month (prices had risen and this was the cheapest) they said the readings we'd provided, the reading they'd got from our metre and the final one from EDF were all different, so set up an investigation, great! However, I have paid the 141 a month, Octopus said my usage will be about 8k a year and I should up my direct debit, said absolutely not and also requested a refund for the few hundred quid I had in my account. Think my meter is a bit broken but it have the direct debit, which more than covers my usage. If it gets more than £250 I'm asking for kost back. 

I would suspect that there are potentially some issues with your opening read when you moved in initially, as well as when you transferred. For many households £141 is likely not enough as 1/12th of energy usage, although it would more than cover summer usage. The point is set higher than summer usage is to build up credit during the summer so that bills do not need to be much larger in winter. Once your winter usage kicks in and you get into debt they will raise your Direct Debit to cover the debt and your monthly payments will rise significantly. 

Thefrognine said:

If it gets more than £250 I'm asking for kost back. why should they have it in their accounts  making interest? 

I am presuming by "asking for kost back" you mean asking for any credit back? If so you can only do that if it is more than one month's Direct Debit, which they will likely have to significantly increase when we get to winter as you have not built up a credit in summer. They also make little to no interest on credit balances as they have to pay for energy supplies on advance.

Thefrognine said:

Smart meters, in my experience are not that smart, do not ever get one.

Smart meters are not the problem, they report usage to suppliers, that is it. This is either a billing issue and it is odd that both suppliers seem to have exactly the same issue, or it is a lack of understanding on your part.

Thefrognine said:

For the OP. Change suppliers ASAP, the money transfers over and request a refund or request a refund every week for £250, causes them more work and hassle.

The money does not transfer over if one changes supplier, the existing supplier generates a final bill based on an up to date read and charges or refunds based on that final bill. The account with the new supplier starts at zero, if on fixed/budget Direct Debit they set one that reflects 1/12th of annual usage, however if that is at the start of winter they will need to set it higher as there will have been no credit built up over summer.

Robin9

@akira181 I don't think you've told us what your ACTUAl annual consumption is in kWh (not £) .  Can you give us your meter reads for today please - ignore any figures after the decimal point.  What figure had Edf got on their last bill -  include the letters A, C, E, or our read / your read ?