[Closed] energy companies, p*** up in a brewery content

EDF are a pain in the arse.

I set my monthly payments at 38 and 49 for electric and gas - I know from previous year that this covered me for the year.

One month into the contract they dropped the direct debit to 22 pounds for electric, I called them up, told them to change it back, they did, next month, back to 22 pounds, called them again, and repeat again and again, eventually gave up - last electric bill comes in, because of the underpayment, they have put it back up to 38 pounds to cover the costs and underpayment.

Gas - bill comes in and they drop my direct debit from 49 to 12, i email them tell them to stop being complete plonkers and realise that come christmas, I will be hammering my gas and would like some credit, gas direct debit then increased to 19, another emial, back to 49.

I imagine next month it will be in a negative number instead.

Blame the lot who are in now for the deregulation of the utilities.

Blame the lot who are in now for the deregulation of the utilities.

Ahh yes, in the good old socialist utopia days the workers would have been on strike far too much to have responded to your calls, assuming of course that you could wait 6 weeks to get a phone line installed ( strikes not withstanding )

incompetence is apolitical.

mrmo - formally complain to the energy company citing that youll go to these guys if they dont sort their shit out
http://www.ombudsman-services.org/energy.html

I feel your pain!

Am I the only person who doesn't wish to pay by direct debit for gas and electricity?

Thanks for that link Stoner. 🙂

DD is an excellent way of paying IF you know how much you use and tell THEM what you want to pay to cover the annual bill.

in the good old socialist utopia days

Britain was once socialist ? .....when was this ?

I'm particularly surprised because the Tories have been in power most of the period since the Second World War, and even before that. Were Harold Macmillan and Ted Heath socialists then ?

Or are you referring to the time when Britain's energy suppliers were owned by the government as "socialist" ?

Because Britain's largest energy supplier which deals with gas and electricity, and owns power stations, including nuclear generators, is [i]still[/i] government owned. It's just not [i]our[/i] government......it's someone else's government.

This company happens to be a subsidiary of the largest utility company in the world......does this mean we live in a "socialist" world ? I think we should be told.

Local water company effed up my water bills and tried to sue me for money I did nto owe. They changed their minds a few days before the hearing when I turned up at their head office with all the evidence that I had already sent them, for some reason when an acutal human being looked at it, all was obvious, and then they paid me 250 compensation for them being such morons.

A bit off topic but haven't had the luck of paying electric and gas bills till very recently. Getting a first estimated bill for 29KW used in the first 10 days however in the next 10 we had used well over 3 times as much. That is in a 1 bed apartment with no TV, no washing machine just a laptop, during the evenings, some cooking on an electric stove and the a couple of energy efficient light bulbs oh and a fridge freezer.

Looked like suspiciously high to me and we are with EON - which incidentally my boss was saying they started getting 120-130£ bills per month when they were previously on 80-90 and they reckon they charge them for too many KWhs...

Any experiences?

they charge them for too many KWhs...

the meter rarely lies (when it does it goes mental)

I burn about 90kwH per week on average, but work from home with a computer chewing through 0.4kW per hour all day. Thats with an electric oven and hob, but 100% low wattage bulbs. And a monster kettle for all our coffees 🙂

If you want to make sure of your consumption, get a socket meter and an energy consumption monitor. The former to see how much individual appliances use (when on and on standby) and the latter to keep an eye out on daily/weekly consumption and blips. And the alarm goes off when the missus puts the dryer on instead of using the Sheilas Maid! 😉

DD is an excellent way of paying IF you know how much you use and tell THEM what you want to pay to cover the annual bill.

Yes but they seem to think they can dictate to me how much I should pay when I've only recently moved in! To be honest, I just want some control and am keeping DDs to an absolute minimum. Having experienced BT taking a huge chunk of money from my account one year after I had vacated a property, despite the account being paid and closed.

I briefly looked at your thread concerning energy on your new build and you seemed to have some terrific ideas. 8)

See I know what pretty much everything burns and if I add it all up it just does not add up... in any case any decent consumption monitor - sorry for hijacking the thread.

If the lights start dimming then just lob another [s]socialist [/s] used grauniad on the fire 😛

Just switched to nPower from Scottish Power. Gave nPower my initial reading and got all the bumph from them saying that was me now switched over. got a letter from Scottish Power today saying I'd cancelled my DD with them and an estimated bill from them for £89 😕

if i could i would change supplier, but i suspect that i can't do anything until i have cleared the balance. Which SP can't get right!!!!!

The house we've just bought is currently supplied by Scottish Power. We're changing suppliers ASAP but at the moment they want me to pay 89 quid up front or by direct debit, which I object to as there's no way we'll use that amount of gas and electric (boiler is off at the moment) in the 3/4 weeks it takes to change suppliers. Apparently there's no actual way of just paying for what we use and I'd prefer not to have to pay money and then try and claim it back.

Lots of monumental screw ups by Severn Trent meant we got our water bill written off for a year. Took 18 months of phone calls and letter writing though.

ebygomm - Member

The house we've just bought is currently supplied by Scottish Power. We're changing suppliers ASAP

Just switched from Scottish [s]Energy[/s] Ripoff to NPower on the recommendation of moneyexpert.com and saved 20 quid a month.

Yeah, deregulation and competition, terrible, eh? (I blame Thatcher).

Mr Woppit

Perhaps deregulation/privatisation has just saved you £20 per month OR it has been costing you an excess of £20 per month for all the time you were with your previous supplier.

Given that we don't know what your bills would have been if the utilities had not been privatised you could be much worse off than the other Mr Woppit living in the alternate universe where privatisation never occurred.

Not arguing for or against privatisation/nationalisation - just a thought.

I'd like to personally congratulate anyone has succeeded in getting through to EDF energy on the phone. What's the secret? They appear to have two staff to cover all their customers

Mr Woppit - Member

Just switched from Scottish Energy Ripoff to NPower on the recommendation of moneyexpert.com and saved 20 quid a month.

Yeah, deregulation and competition, terrible, eh? (I blame Thatcher).

I bet the French are kicking themselves for still having an 85% state owned electricity supplier. If only they had had their very own Maggie Thatcher.

Still, I guess knowing that they pay the lowest price for electricity in Europe must ease the pain for the French just a tad.

Also knowing that EDF Energy's vast British profits help to keep taxes down in France, and fund social spending for the French, must be an added sweetener for them.

But then of course knowing that their state-owned SNCF is so vastly inferior to our own railways - which travel at a far more sensible and leisurely speed, must quickly bring them back to earth with a bang.

You have a point.

I would urge ALL EDF customers to change suppliers, in that case.

Ah, so you don't think that market prices and the lowest cost is the overriding fact Woppit ?

You believe that social and political considerations are more important than 'the market' ?

That's terribly unTory of you. You surprise me sometimes Woppit.

ebygomm - that's exactly the experience I am having with Scottish Power! I am not paying by direct debit the ridiculous estimates they have come up with. I am a customer and they should do well to remember that.

Looks like I will need to investigate other suppliers. Jeez, this is so frustrating. 🙁

NPower, c_g...

Utility warehouse are pure shit. Apparently I'm going to court over £500 I supposedly owe them. I'm not paying it until they can provide evidence I used the electric.

Despite customer satisfaction surveys, Npower have been accurate, helpful and polite since Switched to them.

and just for balance, NPower screwed up my meter readings and then told me they couldn't send me the correct bill as there computer system wouldn't let them change the numbers?

To be fair it did get sorted out, but it did involve me just writing a cheque for a random amount of money.

I've just moved house. Due to the ridiculous over-estimates EDF had made for my monthly bills, they now owe me a fair old wedge. Can I get it back? Well when I get through to them, usually after 30 minutes minimum on hold, they say "it will be in your account this week". They've been saying that for 2 months. In what way is this not theft?

They're a bloody law unto themselves!

ebygomm - I telephoned Scottish Power due to not getting anywhere by e-mail. This may or may not have something to do with me referring to their customer service as woeful. 🙄

They have informed me that direct debit is not necessary and I can pay quarterly online, having given them a meter reading. Result!

binners - Member

I've just moved house. Due to the ridiculous over-estimates EDF had made for my monthly bills, they now owe me a fair old wedge. Can I get it back? Well when I get through to them, usually after 30 minutes minimum on hold, they say "it will be in your account this week". They've been saying that for 2 months. In what way is this not theft?

They're a bloody law unto themselves!

Precisely why I will not use direct debit binners! I've had BT dip into my account a year after having left a property, despite no money being owed. 😯

Control freak moi?

We've had ongoing 'fun' with EDF Energy who took over our gas and electricity supply from British Gas without our consent. BG raised an erroneous transfer complaint with them but they refused to return the supply on the grounds that they had a legally binding contract (even after the complaint was raised they didn't bother to check whether the person they had the contract with lived at our address).

After lots of heated words on the phone with someone from EDF Customer Services we sort of got to the point where EDF accepted that the person with whom they had the contract didn't live at our address but maintained that it was a contract nethertheless; they continued to refuse to return the supply without the say-so of the contract holder (whoever they were). EDF were going to contact the contract holder but never got back to us. Finally after a rather strongly worded email I think that they've accepted that they did screw up and will now return both supplies (fingers crossed).

What exactly does Ofgem do? I thought quangos had become extinct?

Ahh yes, in the good old socialist utopia days the workers would have been on strike far too much to have responded to your calls, assuming of course that you could wait 6 weeks to get a phone line installed ( strikes not withstanding )

incompetence is apolitical.

Indeed it is, but wasn't privatisation supposed to make things better, or so we were told cranberry?

I thought quangos had become extinct?

I'm not sure why you thought that - quangos are still needed. And there are still several hundred quangos, plus the Tories have created new ones such as the Office for Budget Responsibility.

The promised "bonfire of quangos" was just a political stunt by the Tories to keep the simple-minded supporters of the Taxpayers Alliance sweet. And also an excuse for them to scrap all those which they didn't like, whilst keeping all those they did, and of course creating new ones which they wanted.

Your cynicism knows no bounds Ernie. 😉

[s]Yes I know, it's an age thing[/s]

Phew, there at last. 🙄