EDF outright lieing to me and hitting me in the pocket £ now

OpolE

Hope it makes sense as its bloody late and I'm !!!!!! off and Ive run out of many options

Economy 7 Electric only. 

In regards to heating my water but also in winter when the storage heaters get activated by EDF

Last year EDF were charging me day rate at the times they told me specifically was night rate

I complained and complained and they were wrong many times. Engineer came out, replaced and updated the smart meter and IHD (EDF IHD's are the most useless things ever invented)

Eventually I got to speak to complaints and they were still doing things wrong. I got hundreds £ out of them and won an ombudsman complaint.

This year. I noticated the same again. When the clocks went forward it "apparently" shifts my night rating timings by an hour.

We've gone from 00:30-7:30 to 01:30-7:30. So I lose an hour of agreed night rate. Scum

To add insult I am now heating at 01:30 for 1 hour and still paying DAY RATE ACCORDING TO IHD. Generally I have confirmed in my bill on their energy hub which updates daily that I am paying "day rate" 01:30-02:30

(I remember they add in a day rate hour early hours of the morning which obviously they are not telling me about but my night rate button is activating and charging for day rate)

So I state again - Customer services says 00:30-07:30. I tell them they are lieing. They reply that "because of the clocks" its 01:30-07:30... Typical outsoucing. Can you see why I am annoyed? They cannot tell the truth.

THEY WONT RAISE ME A COMPLAINT FOR THIS AS MY ISSUE WAS ALREADY SORTED.... LAST YEAR... THIS IS A NEW YEAR NO REFUND OF EXTRA PAID OR CONCESSION

THEY STILL HAVENT GIVEN ME MY SAR FOR NOTES AND CALLS SINCE 2023 AND ICO ARE SLOW AND MISSED THEIR TURNAROUND - SO RAISED A COMPLAINT FOR THAT

ENGINEER HAS BEEN OUT AN UPDATED IT LAST YEAR - NOT FIXED ISSUE

CAN I DEMAND TO BREAK CONTRACT?

CAN I SUE THEM?

CAN I JOIN A CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT ANYWHERE?

It used to cost me 13p to heat my water for what I needed. Then up to 42p which was the deal I took but now its about 127p due to their incompetance 

What do I do?

It's disgusting because they are outright lieing to millions of customers and making millions off the British public.

Qyburn

OpolE said:

So I state again - Customer services says 00:30-07:30. I tell them they are lieing. They reply that "because of the clocks" its 01:30-07:30... 

Are you sure it's not 01:30 to 08:30?  That sort of behaviour is quite normal with E7, the times remain on GMT. In your example it would be 00:30 to 07:30 in Winter, then when the clocks change but your meter doesn’t,  those same times equate to 01:30 to 08:30.

You should still be getting the same number of hours. But having said that if six hours aren't enough for your storage heaters in Summer, would even seven be enough in Winter?

MattMattMattUK

At least from what I can understand of your thread, I do not think the issue is with EDF. 

lohr500

Have you actually checked the meter to see at what time the Eco7 period kicks in and kicks out?

Depending on the model, there may be an icon to show when the off peak period is enabled or a screen view option showing which register is active. What make/model of meter do you have?

When we were on Eco7 with EDF, the meter stayed on GMT all year round.
Now we are on ECO20:20 with EDF, it's the same. It stays on GMT.

OpolE

I stayed up late. My night rate only kicked in on the IHD at 03:30!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In regards to asking whether I'm sure its not  01:30 to 08:30. I tested 1 hour of heat in the day and 1 hour of heat at 01:30 and both cost the same. I stayed at my parents for a couple of days to test this and EDF rufuse to acknowledge they are in the wrong

I also just got my SAR with phone calls. Surprised they actually gave the full info I asked for.

I have on there a call of them telling me "The is no complaints department" outright lie. I want to persue some legal action for that

Qyburn

OpolE said:

I stayed up late. My night rate only kicked in on the IHD at 03:30!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In regards to asking whether I'm sure its not  01:30 to 08:30. I tested 1 hour of heat in the day and 1 hour of heat at 01:30 and both cost the same.

When doing these tests, have you ever checked the actual meter readings to see whether it's Day or Night rate? The IHD may be screwed and giving you the wrong impression. Worse if it's screwed it might be misleading you into running your heaters at the wrong times.

Which leads me to ask, are your heaters switched by the meter, or do you manually program their times?

mmmmikey

Hi - it's probably worth doing a few more checks before you pursue this to work out exactly what the issue is. Being very specific about the issue will maximise your chance of success.

The first question I have is how do you know that 1 hour of heat during the day and 1 hour of heat at 01:30 cost the same? Are you getting this information from the IHD or from somewhere else (e.g. the meter itself or from your bill)? You need to know whether the problem is that you really are being charged the wrong amount, or whether the problem is with the IHD. Probably easiest to work out what's happening if you answer that question first rather than me try and give a lengthy "if this then that" kind of answer.

EDIT - I've crossed posts with @Qyburn , but we're obviously coming at this from much the same place....

OpolE

mmmmikey said:

The first question I have is how do you know that 1 hour of heat during the day and 1 hour of heat at 01:30 cost the same? 

On the energy hub the charge is precisely the same both of the days.

I basically sat there on my phone and left after the hour of manual heating was complete.

BarelySentientAI

To answer your question "What do I do?", I would suggest that perhaps instead of ranting, shouting, accusing customer service reps of lying, and ALL CAPS claims for LEGAL ACTION, we can help you get to the bottom of the issue?  Then you can make a rational, legible, actionable complaint that could get you somewhere.  Calling people disgusting scum doesn't really progress anything.

Some points for you to consider:

1 - Economy 7 timings do not usually shift when the clock changes.  This means that they seem like they change when the clocks go forward and back.

2 - The clock controlling the off-peak time can drift.  This is why people recommend using an automatic switch driven by the meter for things like storage heaters and not rely on timers or just looking at your watch.  Some people have even found that the clock drifts so far that their off-peak is in the afternoon.

3 - Only the meter means anything.  The IHD, whilst sometimes useful, is essentially irrelevant.  Don't rely on it for anything.

4 - Your E7 time does not need to be the same as anyone else's.  Comparing to what happens in other houses is not useful.

So.  Where to go next.  We need to work out what the problem actually is, because it isn't clear in your posts.  I see some options, and only you can tell us which might be the one you're actually concerned about.

A )  The off-peak time is actually only 6 hours when it should be 7 hours.

B )  The automatic switch controlling your off-peak supply is not switching at the same time as your meter.

C )  Your IHD is showing you something different from what the meter is actually doing.

D )  The E7 clock has drifted and the times aren't actually what everyone thinks they should be, but you still get 7 hours.

E )  The times listed on the "energy hub" don't match real time.  Possibly due to the same thing as point 1 above.

Please can you calmly and rationally tell us which of these options seem to apply to you.  Or if I've missed one out, explain it for us.

mmmmikey

OpolE said:

mmmmikey said:

The first question I have is how do you know that 1 hour of heat during the day and 1 hour of heat at 01:30 cost the same? 

On the energy hub the charge is precisely the same both of the days.

I basically sat there on my phone and left after the hour of manual heating was complete.

Ah, OK, that helps. I'm not with EDF anymore, but when I was the energy hub only ever showed an approximation of the costs for Economy 7, not the actual cost. A bit crap, but that's the way it was. I know they've changed it on and off but I suspect that's where your problem lies. That is, they're charging you the correct amount but that the information shown on the energy hub is either wrong or just an approximation.

I guess the most important thing here first is to make sure the bill is correct. What should be happening is:

1. You get night rate from 00:30 to 07:30 in the winter and from 01:30 to 08:30 in the summer

2. The meter will record your day and night usage separately and these readings will be used to generate your bill (if you look at a recent bill you should see opening and closing readings for both day and night, with the usage being calculated by taking the difference)

3. If you look at the meter itself during the day, it should show a reading a bit more than the day reading on your last bill, and at night a reading a bit more than the last night reading on the bill (hopefully these will be a fair bit different so it's obvious which one is which)

I'd suggest you do that check next - i.e. take day and night readings from the meter itself and make sure they are consistent with the readings on the bill. If the readings aren't roughly what you'd expect them to be, then update this post accordingly - some smart meters need you to press buttons to get the readings out. If the readings are OK we can go through your options of how to pursue this.

Hope this helps, Mike

EDIT - I've crossed posts again, this time with @BarelySentientAI - we're on the same track, if you can answer the questions there then great, if not, no problem we can just do this one step at a time. Unfortunately you went a bit "Victor Meldrew" with your post last night and it wasn't all that easy to follow. Don't worry about it, lots of us do it from time to time and there are also lots of posts with issues / questions about E7 timings, IHD information, EDF energy hub and so on

lohr500

OpolE said:

I stayed up late. My night rate only kicked in on the IHD at 03:30!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In regards to asking whether I'm sure its not  01:30 to 08:30. I tested 1 hour of heat in the day and 1 hour of heat at 01:30 and both cost the same. I stayed at my parents for a couple of days to test this and EDF rufuse to acknowledge they are in the wrong

I also just got my SAR with phone calls. Surprised they actually gave the full info I asked for.

I have on there a call of them telling me "The is no complaints department" outright lie. I want to persue some legal action for that

As I and others have suggested, you need to check directly on the meter to find out when the Eco7 period starts and stops.
Not checking things via the IHD or looking at the cost of one hour of heat in the night and the day.

Please can you answer my question regarding what type of meter you have. It may then be possible for us to find the instructions for that meter type and to give you clear instructions on what to check on the meter.