payment plan - edf

geizkragen

Hi,
Just entered a 'nice' conversation with edf who have sent a final bill of ca. £800 for gas. the amount is (almost) correct; it took from mid December 2007 to early March 2008 to action the switch. This unfortunately co-incided with a price hike in January 2008.
edf state/say that I am not exempt from the higher unit price just because I started the switch on-line in December (3-4 weeks prior increase) ... via mse.
More importantly they state that the payment plan to clear the balance is limited to a 12-months period and therefore almost £ 70 would be payable per month. When i asked the girlie on the phone to send me their T&C to state the limitation of 12 months her reply was 'I don't know where they (T&C) are.' My reply: I am sure your manager will help you .
Any comments greatly appreciated.
m

gibby

not a great situation but they are entitled to their money.
However they an only take what you can afford.
You could get intouch with energy watch ot CAB to negotiate on your behalf.
Im sure they legally have a duty not to let you get into this sort of mess so should be nice enough to pay it as you can.

Usually with firms like this they be happy as long as they are getting something every month. So for the debt repayment I would do it by cheque and send a min amount each month & promise to add as much extra on as you can.

I dont think £70 a month is unreasonable but if its more than you can afford I can see the problem.
Once they see the money coming in they should be happy even if it is a small amount

G

geizkragen

Thanks Jim,

70 is quite substantial when avg to pay with new supplier is 150.
Besides we have had 101 call-outs with British Gas as boilers are leaking and
I suspect have been working inefficiently (consumption up by 20%) but how do you prove that?
Thanks again.
Martin

Cardew

As I understand it, you have changed supplier from EDF to another company and during the period from mid December to mid March you have incurred a bill of £800 - some of which presumably is an outstanding balance from before March??

I am pretty certain that you are liable for the whole £800 now!

I very much doubt that there is any rule in their T & Cs that allows you any time to pay off a debt after you have left a company. Let alone 12 months or more.

There is normally a code of practice(but I doubt it is in the T & Cs) that allows you 12 months to pay back a debit balance if you remain with the company.

If they are allowing you 12 months to pay back an £800 debt after you have left EDF, then that is a pretty generous offer IMO.

I suspect that if you don't accept that offer they will pass the debt to a debt collection agency.

On what grounds do you believe you are justified in having over 12 months to pay back a debt to a company you have left?

SwanJon

geizkragen wrote: »

Besides we have had 101 call-outs with British Gas as boilers are leaking and I suspect have been working inefficiently (consumption up by 20%) but how do you prove that?

Very difficult to work out how efficient a central heating system is, but even if your boiler was inefficient it's still your boiler, not EDF's, so it wouldn't affect the size of the bill - you've still used the gas, just not as efficiently as a brand new boiler would.