Anyone dealt with abnormal final bills?

[Hotwired]

Short story is that EDF has come to the conclusion that I owe them about 4k more than I expected for a final bill.

Long story is that 2 years ago I put in the reading for the final bill, they didn't issue a bill, instead they said it was too high and their system rejected it, send a photo, I sent a photo and they never replied and I forgot about it.

Now 2 years later I find a debt collection agency sent a letter to my old address for about £400 naming EDF as their client.

Ok, that must have been that final bill that never got settled, contact EDF, send them the exact same meter photos I sent 2 years ago, this time they decide ah yes I owe them 4000 for the period of 2016-2021 and they'd quite like it if I paid that in 14 days.


I'd probably have been fine with paying 400 even though that seemed quite high but this seems like they're taking the ****.

Rummaged about and found this: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/n...be-banned-from-backbilling-beyond-12-months-/

Well this is well over a year ago that they failed to bill me and I didn't try to avoid being billed, does this apply?

 

[Hotwired]

I can't help much but do you have proof you sent the information they asked for? (the photo), IE an email or something similar as that could help you a lot.

I'd also be asking exactly how that £400 is now £4k, as at the very least it sounds like they've failed to send you the bill properly and have either added a load of charges or messed up repeatedly.

I have the email saying the reading was rejected and that was replied to with the photos of both meters and I vaguely recall talking to someone on a webchat or maybe phone.

They seem to have been estimating ever since since they installed a smart meter which I could have sworn half the point of which was to send them automatic readings.

I have an email from 2 years back saying the final reading of about 11000 cubic metres was rejected by their system because the old reading was 100 cubic metres. And the meter is outside the property not inside so it's not even possible for them to have been denied a reading between 2016-2021.

Anyway I have no calculations at all to see how they arrived at this final bill, my online account was closed 2 years ago and they say they've sent a paper copy.

But I think I need to make a proper complaint because it feels like I'm talking to front line staff who's bunged in the numbers and issued a bill and no authority to do anything like cancelling or looking into an issued bill for 4k. Also they stopped replying since saying they've sent a bill on Wed.

 

[Hotwired]

Ok they sent me a fat wad of bills going back to 2016(!)

Electricity looks normal, difference between estimated and my final read was a couple of quid.

Gas is a circus with clown honking their nose. First bill of 2018 they set the actual and estimated gas reads to 0 and this continued to start of 21

First bill of 21 they decide hmm lets estimate 10,000m3 gas on but that can't be right since I never paid a massive bill back then and from then on they seem to estimate it normally until I turn up with a final reading of 11,000.

I think they've cooked the book to make it all appear in the last year since I would have automatically paid that first bill of 21 by DD and by end of 21 when I put in my final 11,000 reading the person on the other end said it was wrong because their last reading was 100.

They also sent a separate letter suggesting contacting their complaints department or the ombudsman. Huh.

 

[Hotwired]

They got back to me.

All they've done is send out another bill and instead of the 0 usage they had recorded, they've written in estimates going back to 2017 with comedy fluctuations of over 40,000kwh because it's all made up and they don't know where to pretend the usage happened.

Morally I probably did use that gas but the rules say I should be billed correctly and timely not years later with completely invented estimates.

 

[Hotwired]

I moaned at CS on the phone and they said they'd look at it, but some weeks later they just rebilled me with more inventions.

I will have to write it up properly and be more specific about how it's a load of BS.

 

[Hotwired]

EDF CS has amazing hearing I'll give them that.

I was just about done writing up when an email appeared from the EDF CS manager saying they'd love to be my point of contact for escalation. Well ok

Deleted "to whom it may concern", put their name in and I hope they're senior enough to resolve it this time

 

[Hotwired]

Have you got any old bills from EDF at all? You might even be able to still login and download your old bils.

This is why I always log my meter readings regularly, despite having a smart meter. Although I've never had to use them to resolve issues with suppliers, sods law says I will if I stop logging.

They cut off my online account 2 years ago when the contract ended but it doesn't matter.

I was sent me a paper copy of everything going back to 2016 and I can see that when they installed smart meters they screwed up the gas so I got billed 0 Gas for the next 4 years and only charged for electricity.

The physical meter on the gas pipe recorded the entire time so when I put in the final reading after 4 years of their system writing 0's it threw a wobbly.

Isn't the end of the world whatever happens but it looks like they've invalidated the gas charges through their fault and 4k is worth some keyboard moaning. I usually do it for free.

 

[Hotwired]

To be fair this affair hasn't actually taken very long. Yes the billing etc goes back years but the actual complaining isn't even 2 months.

They were very regular in sending emails and even a text that they were still dealing with the complaint. Didn't actually say anything but were informing that it was ongoing.

Just now got a phone call saying the backbilling team had looked at it, applied backbilling rules.

And cancelled the entire bill

Just need to scribble in an email that I approve the outcome and am closing the complaint

 

[Hotwired]

Thankfully it didn't go any further than having to read some guidance off websites and bash the keyboard a bit.

 

[Hotwired]

Let me guess, they claimed they were cancelling it "as a gesture of goodwill"...

Nope they just said the backbilling team looked at it, applied backbilling rules and came to the decision to zero all charges. That was all they said (and they wanted my approval to call the matter settled).

I had made it clear I was aware of backbilling in a written complaint but there was very little discussion, no one with the ability to make the decision ever talked to me, I was only ever asked for information and then told many many times that it was being looked at and sorry for the delay etc.