EDF not refunding over £2000

akira181

Sorry for the late reply, was quite a busy weekend.

My annual usage is around 1100kwh electricity, and 13000kwh gas. No idea why gas consumption is so high (gas meter on the blink? It must be at least 30 years old) but the credit on the account was enough to cover my annual usage and then some, yet they still took a monthly £300+ DD.

EDF needed meter readings to calculate the current bill before refunding any remaining credit. My account was £2074 in credit AFTER clearing all bills up until 28th September. Apparently calculating and billing for usage worked on their system but the refund part conveniently didn't work.

I was on hold for another hour yesterday and they claim they've done the refund but can take up to 5 days to appear in my account. So far, nothing but will see. My EDF account no longer shows any credit and in their wisdom, they also reduced my monthly DD to £17. Absolute shambles. Definitely time to switch.

*Edit I meant September, not November. Went forwards instead of backwards

Robin9

£17 as a DD is ridiculous - that will only cover standing charges.

Double check your gas meter -  at 30 years ?  it will be  imperial meter and marked in ft3 -  can we have a photo please?   Have a look at your bill - and the meter details - a redacted copy will also help

Read your meters every day and get a better 

MattMattMattUK

akira181 said:

Sorry for the late reply, was quite a busy weekend.

My annual usage is around 1100kwh electricity, and 13000kwh gas. No idea why gas consumption is so high (gas meter on the blink? It must be at least 30 years old) but the credit on the account was enough to cover my annual usage and then some, yet they still took a monthly £300+ DD.

Based on the prices for the South East your usage would cost £1527.27 pa, or £127.27 pm if averaged over the whole year, however if factoring in coming into winter with zero credit (eg. they refunded you in full) it would likely need to be in the £300 a month region to stop you going into debt over winter. 

akira181 said:

EDF needed meter readings to calculate the current bill before refunding any remaining credit. My account was £2074 in credit AFTER clearing all bills up until 28th November. Apparently calculating and billing for usage worked on their system but the refund part conveniently didn't work.

How could they clear the bill up to 28th November when it is only the 18th today? Have you checked the bills yourself, the readings used on them being the most important part? I am wondering if you are caught between the transition from the legacy EDF billing system and being moved over to Kraken and that has caused some kind of issue which is why I think it is worth triple checking the bills as well, to make sure what has been moved over is correct, my suspicion would be that the updates have been put into one system, but not the other, and that is causing the issues. The other issue is that the value of the refund is high enough to need to be escalated for authorisation, but with EDF being incredibly slow at everything I am thinking that the billing window has expired by the time they escalate it, so it kicks back down for a meter read, with an ongoing cycle of incompetence.

akira181 said:

I was on hold for another hour yesterday and they claim they've done the refund but can take up to 5 days to appear in my account. So far, nothing but will see. My EDF account no longer shows any credit and in their wisdom, they also reduced my monthly DD to £17. Absolute shambles.

It could easily take five days to appear in your account, that is not unusual, however it is also not unusual for the customer service minions to raise a refund request, but it require authorisation and then for it later to not get authorised for various reasons, so never actually being processed. 

akira181 said:

Definitely time to switch.

Make sure you get any billing and refund issues sorted before you leave, whilst it is possible to do so after you have moved it is generally much harder. When you have them resolved find a friend or family member with a Octopus account, get a referral and move to them, you will both get £50 credit on your energy bill and Octopus are by far the best supplier in the market. 

dunstonh

 My EDF account no longer shows any credit and in their wisdom, they also reduced my monthly DD to £17.

A strong possibility that they calculated the DD before the refund was processed.   However, you can instruct them to use a figure more appropriate for your use.  2022 was a mild year.   So, take your 2022 use, add 20% and use that as your annual estimate and set your monthly on that basis.

However, the point in year to remove any credit is May.  Winter is over by then, and any money in the account is not needed for the following winter as you will have the next 4-5 months building new credit ready for the following autumn and winter.   Taking too much money out of your account in October risks leaving you with insufficient summer credit and needing to pay an increased direct debit to avoid building debt.


 

EssexHebridean

The alternative on the DD situation is to set aside the credit if it lands back with you, then ask EDF to change you to "DD Whole amount monthly" where you will then be billed each month for the actual cost of what you have used (you will need to provide regular meter readings for this - at least once a month) and you can then ensure that the correct amount is sitting in your bank account waiting for use when they take the DD. You are in an ideal position to implement this at this time of year if you have a cushion of credit that you can use to balance the high winter bills. Do ensure though that your household budget reflects a realistic monthly sum too however as at some stage that credit will run out! 

akira181

Thanks for the replies. 

I meant the reading was for September and bill was cleared up to September 28th. Added a month to the current date instead of subtracting.

I've been looking over my bills and my energy usage is only marginally higher in winter than it is in summer. Most of my heating comes from a wood fired stove, and my brother is a tree surgeon so no shortage of free wood. My garage is only used for seasoning logs and keeping chopped firewood! That said, £17 is massively short.

I'll wait till they phone me about my account going into negative and adjusting the DD. Fed up waiting hours on hold everytime they mess up. Although I'll probably jump ship once my refund is through.

EssexHebridean

If like so many before you, you jump ship to Octopus, remember to get a referral code from one of their many happy customers to gain yourself and the other party £50 bill credit each. I'd be surprised if you don't have a friend or family member who'd love to help you out with a code! 

Also - I'd question why your gas use is so high if you barely use it for heating - it is probably worth you looking into as you seem to use more than you think - your electricity use is low, your gas use is above the oft quoted "typical use" and while that in real terms means very little, it can be a handy benchmark. 

ArbitraryRandom

akira181 said:

I've been looking over my bills and my energy usage is only marginally higher in winter than it is in summer. 

Essex gives excellent advice - if you are not using it for heating then it's strangely high; if you do then you should see noticeable seasonal variation. 

RE your DD - rather than wait I'd suggest if you have your bills then it's trivial to work out what your DD should be.

You are currently in a strong position to TELL them what to set it at (as you will be requesting an increase), which would give you more control and protect you having a higher than needed rate imposed on you in the future to cover the debt... and obviously after that, you then have to remember to get lowered to the 'right' amount when the debt has been cleared (or end up in the same situation again where you've built up a large credit).