From frustration to farcical

Further developments around my infamous EDF energy issues ! 

I sent this email today and hope that something will come of it .... in the meantime I have cancelled my direct debit so they don't take a massive amount out of my bank account !!!

Dear Martin, Tannishtha, and anyone else to whom this may be of interest!

I have not received a response to my last email, and was not yet expecting one ...... but as matters have progressed, I am emailing again to advise you of my dismay that this query  has gone from a matter of frustration to pure farce!

In the last couple of days I have received 5 .... yes five ... letters from edf energy regarding my accounts.

What began as an enquiry to reduce my monthly payments has now led to EDF energy requesting a payment of £795.72 for the month of June !!!!

I work part time, term time only ...so ..... to put this in the immortal  words of a character played by Nicholas Cage ..... "How in the name of Zeus' butthole" am I supposed to find that amount, as opposed to my regular payments of around  a couple of hundred a month (which I was trying to reduce) !

The 5 letters went something like this 

1. account number ***** 3935 - thank you for letting us know you are on the move

2. account number *****7096 - thank you for letting us know you are on the move

3. account number *****1976 - Welcome to edf energy - we are already supplying energy to your new home

4. Your last gas statement for account ending 096 - £323.77 - direct debit to be taken out 19th June

5. New account number - electricity and gas ending in 976 - bill for £437.00 to be paid in June

HELLO ......... I have NOT MOVED HOUSE ...... 

I was hoping for a bill that would be LESS than my previous monthly payments - not for it to be quadrupled !!!

OK .....  lets do this step by step.

1. I get a bill in May to inform me my Direct Debit payment amount has increased to £100 a month
2. I query said bill
3. EDF responds ..... advising me I am not on dual fuel discount
4. I email back and inform EDF I am amazed, as I have been with you for at least 10 years
5. Approx 3-5 years ago EDF CALLED ME to persuade me to remain a customer for BOTH gas and electricity .... all in the one phone call
6. I agree to remain, rather than transfer to another supplier, assuming I had been put on your best possible tariff for my situation
7. In querying the bill (step 2 ) to sort this out, some numpty has gone through a computerised process that is NOT APPROPRIATE.
8. ALL I need is a transfer of the 2 accounts to one account and to continue with my bills now combined at a reduced rate
9. There is NO WAY I can pay a lump sum and do not believe I should have to pay this, as I have been a long term regular customer
10. My electricity bill does indicate £666.70 of cancelled charges but with no specific explanation of what the cancellation/credit is for 
11. This credit simply states it covers the period of  November 2012 to May 2013 - what happened to the last 10 years or at the very least backdated to when EDF contacted me to encourage me not to transfer to another supplier

Please will someone actually get off their backsides and  manually sort this out, rather than allowing a generic computer process to label me yet another number in your vast array of numbers, with no actual thought process as to how this will affect an individual who is already in fuel poverty.

yours in grateful anticipation

Jane Hall

Watch this space .......

Energy Bullies

I am publishing these emails below as I simply cannot believe the arrogance of the energy companies.

My daughter has a separate query .... to which they are dragging their heels and stalling her. 

My query below originated with an initial enquiry into whether or not I was on the best tariff - bearing in mind about 3 years ago they called me to persuade me to stay with their company ..... as I had been looking into swapping .....although to be honest I think they are all as bad as each other !!

I am sure I cannot be the only one who made the assumption that the energy company ..... ANY energy company .... would automatically ensure I was on a dual fuel tariff as I had an Electricity AND Gas account with them ..... 


From: Jane Hall 
Date: 31.05.2013 10:45:38 
To: customerenquiries@edfenergy.com 
Cc: consumeraffairs@ofgem.gov.uk 

Subject: Dual Fuel Query 

Dear Sirs,

Re Account Numbers 

I have been with EDF energy for several years and am shocked to discover that I have not been provided with the dual fuel discount.

I was informed yesterday, after I had made an enquiry about whether I am on the best tariff, that I have 2 separate accounts - I had no idea that I should have one account - I assumed that as you are the provider and can see in your records that the address for both accounts was the same, that this would have been provided at set up ? 

I also was under the impression that you are now obligated to provide the BEST tariff possible to your customers and I simply find it reprehensible that you can operate without providing this BEST price tariff automatically!

I would be most grateful if you could check my account as soon as possible and apply the discount AND backdate any discount that I have missed out on, as I believe I should be entitled to this, having been a long term customer with you with both electricity and gas !


Dear Mrs Hall,

Thank you for your email dated 31st May 2013.

I really apologise for the inconvenience caused. However this is something our customers are aware of and depends on the date when you are starting your contract account with us for each fuel .If the account for the fuels start on two different dates then there would not be one single account for both.

However, no need to worry, I have merged both the accounts for you and henceforth, you would be using one single account  and would be eligible for the discount that is available for  a duel fuel customer.

Yours sincerely, 

Customer Service Advisor
EDF Energy

Dear ....

Many thanks for your reply and for merging both of my accounts.

However, I am not quite satisfied and actually a little dismayed at your cavalier response to my query.

In my email I mention that I was "shocked to discover that I have not been provided with the dual fuel discount."   and that "I had no idea that I should have one account"

Yet you stated that "this is something our customers are aware of" ... are you insinuating that I am thick? 

I AM A CUSTOMER ...... I WAS NOT AWARE THAT YOU HAD NOT AUTOMATICALLY MATCHED MY ADDRESS TO SHOW I WAS A CUSTOMER FOR BOTH FUELS.

You also state "If the account for the fuels start on two different dates then there would not be one single account for both"  How am I supposed to know this?

When I set up my second account (I cannot recall whether I set up my gas or electricity first) I am absolutely certain I would have informed EDF that I was already a customer. Even if I did not tell them this, way back in 1997/8, when I initially set up my accounts, I know I did more recently.

In fact .... to get to the point ..... about 3/4 years ago I looked to transfer both my gas and electricity to another provider - at which point EDF ENERGY PHONED ME TO PERSUADE ME TO REMAIN WITH them !!  

EDF energy were well aware I had both accounts with them, at that time...... AND YET .... when  persuaded  to remain with EDF I was still not given the one account !!! I am sure you can check your records for this.

As I mentioned earlier I am grateful that you have now transferred to the one account but am disappointed that you did not even mention any backdated recompense for the years of extra payments I have paid into EDF's already overinflated coffers !

I have copied both BBC Watchdog and Offgem into this email as they may be interested in the way EDF seem to be able to get away with this ..... I am absolutely certain I am not the only customer who has been misled.

Well ...... make of it what you will blog readers .... I will let you know if they make any offer or if they decide to sort my daughter's account too !!!

PS .... my apologies for not having blogged for a whole month and the next one will be much more interesting I'm sure !!!

My first business venture

Most of my friends who have known me a while will think I am referring to Videotrek ..... my mobile video library .... it was a good starter business, although not exactly financially lucrative, but it did teach me a lot and I enjoyed running it (most of the time) for a few years.

I will blog about that another time ... but no ..... my FIRST foray into the business world was on a much smaller scale ....and when I was MUCH younger !

I think I was about 8 or 9 years old when I started. It was not a business my parents approved of ..... but I was too young to realise that at the time, until they found out and I got a lecture.

I was a money lender ..... a loan shark ....charging extortionate amounts in interest on the money I lent my brothers!

Now ...to get this into perspective ..... I was meticulous .... I was actually brilliant ...... and I still think secretly my Dad had a little bit of pride in my initiative and Mum was impressed with my organisational skills and paperwork at such a young age !

Basically, from a young age, we got weekly pocket money - I think at that time it was around 30p a week. I always spent 10p a week on my collectables - whimsies - and then about another 10p on sweets from our local sweet shop "The Chocolate Box". Leaving me 10p per week. This mounted up quite quickly and I found I was (in childhood terms) fairly wealthy!

Initially I would save my money for family holidays and special occasions but then my brothers both realised I had a few pennies stashed away and they didn't - they spent all their pocket money, most weeks.  

So they started to regularly come to me, for a short term loan! I caught on quick !!!

I bought a notebook and started recording the amounts they owed. It wasn't long before I then decided that for each amount they borrowed, they should compensate me, by paying back extra, depending on how long they borrowed it for.

Now please bear in mind my age and the times - this was mid 70's - no access to 24hour TV and ads - the internet had not been launched - and I had no idea about the wider world and the real aspects of money lending - other than a VERY basic knowledge that a bank would lend money if you needed it.

How clever was I back then !!!!

Unfortunately I had NO idea about interest rates, what may or may not be acceptable, or even the moral aspect of encouraging my brothers to get into debt.

I can't recall what interest I was charging - I am fairly sure it was pretty high - something like a penny a week for every 5p borrowed. Whatever it was ......... my Mum found my notebook - with pages of  amounts of money recorded, going in and out (I think I had been running this for several months and I thought I was most DEFINITELY onto a good thing) ! 

However, quite rightly Mum and Dad did not think it was a good thing, they confiscated the book and made me write off the debt (not the initial borrowing - the boys paid that back) I guess it was a good lesson to learn.

So that was that .... business number one canned ! It did not dampen my enthusiasm or desire to be my own boss as I later managed another 2 small businesses - neither particularly successful but both good for me at the time.

It's just that .............. whenever the adverts for all the money lenders are shown ...such as Wonga.com ....... I sit back with a smile and think about how RICH I could have been, if I had just extended my loan sharking ..... 

Muhahaha !!!!