Grayson Perry's DD with EDF goes up to £39,000

double_dutchy

I see the Guardian reports the above here:

Grayson Perry challenges electricity bill rise from £300 to £39,000 a month | Grayson Perry | The Guardian

EDF are quoted as saying this:

“We have robust interventions in place to ensure that any large increases in customers’ direct debits are verified through a human check and in almost all such cases, system errors are rectified and prevented, without customers being impacted.”

I think EDF's definition of "robust" differs from mine

JSHarris

This is a curious one, as all may not be quite how it's being portrayed in the media.  The installation in question is a large studio, that I believe isn't always occupied.  It may possibly be classed as commercial, rather than domestic.  It is in an area with no signal (something I'm familiar with) yet the supplier went ahead and installed a smart meter anyway.  This was some years ago.  The smart meter has never communicated with the DCC.  No idea whether manual readings were taken and submitted, but what I've read suggests this may not have been done.  EDF seem to have finally caught up with not having any readings and have submitted 15 bills covering usage going back some time.  I've no idea if bills have been paid for the years since the non-functioning smart meter was installed.

This may well be an EDF error, but I think there is an element of doubt as to why the billing error occurred.  I doubt that the truth will ever make it into the media, though.

daveyjp

Regardless of whether the £39k is right or wrong, when a payment is usually a few hundred a month there should be no way a demand for £39k can simply be asked for and a DD payment requested.  It has to have human intervention, especially if EDF state it is a 'rare' event.

From X I understand Jon Sopel has had a similar issue with EDF.  £150 a month and a demand for £20k.

JSHarris

I agree, but if this is a commercial supply then different rules and prices apply.  Commercial supplies have risen a massive amount in recent years and they don't have the protections in regulation that domestic supplies have.  EDF seem to have been pretty lax about billing if it turns out they had been under-charging for years, or they may have made an almighty !!!!!!-up.  There may or may not be meter readings, just to add to the mix, as meter readers no longer seem to come around since the pandemic (not seen one here for at least 4 years now). 

All told it's most probably a complex issue with more than one source of error, may even involve more than one supplier (another supplier was mentioned as the one that installed the smart meter, against advice given that there was no signal at the premises).  It would be interesting to get the truth as to what's happened, but I doubt that's going to be newsworthy enough to be published somehow.

M25

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-67764108

Probably and as usual we don't have all the facts.

I did laugh though at the quite useless OFGEM they're so pathetic.

As for EDF saying "nothing to see here, guv", well we know that the nuclear industry hides leaks and gawd knows what else so I'll take what EDF say with a pinch of salt.

Pretty sure the beknighted artist will get it sorted just in time for xmas.

Tango1960

Strange how the famous can instantly turn on the “help meeee” but us peasants are left to be robbed blind, welcome to the real world Greysonny boy. ( hope I’ve not overdone the sympathy)

Swipe

Never heard of him

The_Green_Hornet

The devil is in the detail and, as per usual for the Guardian/BBC, there is no detail.

These articles are little more than click-bait.

MultiFuelBurner

Media clickbait, wonderful 

born_again

Another  non story in the media... what a surprise. makes them far more than a story that no one clicks on..

Troytempest

Exactly, another example of the great British press - utter !!!!!!.