@edfenergycs £1700 for 2 months electricity bill! - EDF

[12amat]

Hi folks,

 

I really hope you can help with an extremely stressful situation that I am having with my electricity supplier EDF energy.

 

The level of customer service that I have received so far has been appalling.

 

This is the story:

 

I discovered that there was a massive discrepancy between the reading that I had in February 2013 and April 2013.

 

in just over 2 months, according to the reading, I have used pretty much the same amount of electricity that I use over 2 years.

Obviously there was something wrong,

 

I got in touch with EDF and they told me that an engineer needs to come to inspect my meter.

On the 1st of July 2013, (after 2 and a half months)a n engineer came to my house to inspect the meter and he said that themeter was fine.

according to him I should pay the discrepancy as it is not EDF's fault (or meter's fault).

The amount of money, according to my rough calculation, for the discrepancy of 12000Kwh should be around £1800.

 

Obviously, you can easily understand my level of stress as there is no way that I have used this much electricity and also I cannot afford to pay £1800 in one go.

I have all my bills from 2008, since I moved in, and they can easily check that there must be a mistake.

Since April I have been trying to get an EDF manager to call me to solve this issue but nobody ever called me back,

I always had to deal with a customer service advisor via” live chat”.

 

The reason why I asked to have a manager contact me is because I think this is a big problem for me and I would like to have one person only to deal with it,

I don't want to get too many people involved otherwise it creates lots of confusion and misunderstanding.

 

I have all my bills since 2008 and they can easily see that the discrepancy between Feb 2013 and April 2013 is extremely weird.

All the customer service representative as well thought that it was very odd and that there must be a mistake.

 

Plus it is only me and my wife who live in the house and we both work Monday to Friday, we leave the house at 6.30am and come back at 6.30pm, if not later.

the house is always empty for at least 12 hrs every weekday.

 

We are extremely stressed because we know that we didn't do anything wrong or different than usual in order to have this massive electricity consumption

(again, 2 years consumption in 2 month time!) and the fact that probably we have to pay around £1800 bill is making us living a nightmare.

 

On the 5th of July I received an email from a customer service advisor who is following my case, saying :

 

"The account would be rebilled to reflect the updated meter reading.

If the meter is not faulty and all over general meter details were previously checked,

I can see no other explanation than that the meter readings that were supplied previously were incorrect. "

 

It is very hard to believe for me that for 5 years I gave them the wrong reading numbers.

I am not a genius but I am not even that dumb!

I can easily prove them that the average consumption that we use for the electricity isaround 5500-6500 Kwh per year but to prove this, unfortunately, I need one year.

 

The customer service advisor assured me in one of his emails that EDF will find a solution to this problem

and he also told me to relax (easy to say!). Well, his solution was the above, rebill me with the updated reading.

 

I am not going to pay for electricity that I know I did NOT use.

If they are so sure that I gave them the wrong meter readings they can prove that to me,

as I know for sure we have never used that amount of electricity and we shouldn't be charged for it.

 

To add more frustration to this situation, when I came back from work that day I found a bill of £1715.04!

I was shocked about EDF speed when it comes to delivering a bill and getting money but when it comes to solving a problem for which I am not responsible,

or getting back to me regarding my problem, it took them 2 and a half months!

 

As a customer, I requested them to work this out with common sense.

I paid my last bill based on my annual statement (£229).

I am more than happy to continue to pay this amount of money, which I feel it is right, for one year until April 2014.

After that they can come and check personally the meter and calculate the consumption and they will see that it will be around 5500-6500Kwh/year.

 

Or even better, they could take my word and update the meter with the new figure that EDF will read, as they think I mis read the meter, and start a new account still under my name.

 

What else can I do?

If the don't help me to solve this situation I will get in touch with Ombudsman.

Also, I need to mention that since we moved in 2008 they never came to check the meter or read it.

The last time that that meter was checked was in 1989 and the meter itself was built in 1969.

I will not pay for electricity that I didn't use based on suppositions, hypothesis or like EDF sayd "evidence that suggest ...."

 

Please help because we are extremely stressed.

 

many thanks

[Surfer01]

When last did you supply a true reading to EDF? Check your bills for "estimated readings". If all your bills read this, then you may have an issue. It is possible that for the last 2 years they have under estimated your readings and a true reading was done recently resulting in the huge discrepancy.

[12amat]

HI there,

 

I always gave the reading since I moved in back in 2008. Only once, in 2009, they sent me an estimated and I didn't pay because the estimation was wrong. I have used more units and, because I am honest, I submitted the correct reading and paid more but the correct amount.

[Surfer01]

How can an engineer determine if there is a fault by looking at a meter? If a customer reports abnormally high readings, the engineer should fit a check meter which they leave in place for several days. This then determines if there is an difference in readings between the two meters. If ther eis none then the custoemr has to pay for the vist and fitting of the check meter. If there is a discrepancy, there is not charge.

If you have continually supplied meter readings have you checked to see if they have used those on your bill. If they have even by checking historical data held against the meter, it should show the peak.

Are you able to work out your consumption between January and May 2013 using a reading you gave them in January or before and a reading taken by yourself in May sometime?

[raydetinu]

you need to establish if you have been forwarding an incorrect reading? over the years.

who took the last reading? edf or you that lead to this high reading?

EDF by law have to take their own reading at least once a year.

Also if there is an error in readings they cannot claim back any more than the last 12 months! use.

[Surfer01]

I meant to add. please go and check the meter serial number on the meter and make sure it matches up with the meter serial number they have on your bills.

[12amat]

Hi Guys!

 

It seems that the good common sense prevailed in this story.

Today I have received a phone call from one of the managers from EDF. He said to me that he spoke to one of the most senior electric meter engineer of the company, apparently a guru of meter engineers. This guy said every blue moon a meter can jump/skip the 10000Kwh dial, and he said that just because all the information that I provided to them made sense, this is a blue moon situation.

They decided to wave me bill, install a new meter start from the meter reading 50660 instead of 60660.

 

He said that they can not prove that I mis read the meter, they can see that my past consumption for the last 5 years is constant and make sense, they can see that after they read the meter in April I am in line with my 5 years consumption and based on the fact that my meter is 44 years old, it hasn't been tested since 1989 and the fact that the meter can skip/jump the 10000 dial is extremely rare but not impossible, they have decided not to charge me £1700 but they will charge me based on my annual consumption and they will install a new meter within 2 weeks.

 

I really hope this story is finished, in case I will keep posted. I just want to thank you all for the comments and suggestion.

 

Best regards.

[havinastella]

If they fit a new meter, I doubt it will have the same start reading as you have now. Make sure you get the new reading for your own records.

 

And well done.

[Surfer01]

Hi Guys!

 

It seems that the good common sense prevailed in this story.

Today I have received a phone call from one of the managers from EDF. He said to me that he spoke to one of the most senior electric meter engineer of the company, apparently a guru of meter engineers. This guy said every blue moon a meter can jump/skip the 10000Kwh dial, and he said that just because all the information that I provided to them made sense, this is a blue moon situation.

They decided to wave me bill, install a new meter start from the meter reading 50660 instead of 60660.

 

He said that they can not prove that I mis read the meter, they can see that my past consumption for the last 5 years is constant and make sense, they can see that after they read the meter in April I am in line with my 5 years consumption and based on the fact that my meter is 44 years old, it hasn't been tested since 1989 and the fact that the meter can skip/jump the 10000 dial is extremely rare but not impossible, they have decided not to charge me £1700 but they will charge me based on my annual consumption and they will install a new meter within 2 weeks.

 

I really hope this story is finished, in case I will keep posted. I just want to thank you all for the comments and suggestion.

 

Best regards.

Actually if it had progressed you would have had some serious compensation as the meter should have been changed about 20 years ago and should be have been tested many years ago! EDF obviously realised that were due to a serious hiding which is why they took the appropriate action. Did they offer anything as a goodwill gesture? Well done on getting it sorted!

[12amat]

Hi! I was thinking to try and get some compensation but honestly the most important thing is to have this thing sorted in my favour. I am not a s cam and I just want to pay for what I used. I am not after easy money.

 

I was doing some research about law and electric meter replacement, to use it against EDF, and I couldn't find anything specific. Some people say the meter should be checked/replaced every 10 years, other 20 other 30 other even 40! Definitely they should take some responsibility as well, but I don't want to go through long and painful procedure, emails, letter ..... I don't care. I wanted EDF to sort this out for me immediately. And now it is done.