Talking of the EDF

[Agenais]

Having recently moved house, I dutifully phoned the EDF with the final readings.  I gave out the readings and the man said "if they are true your bill is ENORMOUS".    He said they would send someone out to check.  They did, a week later the bill arrived, 2500 EUROS from May to mid-August.  Bearing in mind the house measured 60m2, had three rooms, no heating on as it was melting hot from April onwards, one chauffe eau, washer, oven and some normal lighting, not the lighting for the Albert Hall.

I was on the phone faster than the proverbial.  Basically I refused to pay, saying this must be some kind of blag.  Even the EDF lady said it is unbelievable, do you have a heated pool?  No, even if we did, it wouldn't be heated high enough to poach fish!  Ok she said, don't worry, (yeah right)..... stop your prelevement immediately and we will look into it.  You bet I will stop it, either that or the bank will imprison me. 

Many weeks passed and a letter came from the EDF.  It appears there had been a problem with the index, whatever that is.  The 2500 euro bill was annulled...........talk about a scary time  

[Lizzie15]

Wow!! I wonder if that happens often?? Not a happy thought

 

[Will]

We had to sort out something similar for a friend, in fact I believe I mentioned it at the time on this forum.

In that case, when she moved in the meter was reading 9000 and something (i.e. soon to go round the clock). A couple of estimated bills had taken it back past 0000. When somebody actually read it, they got a reading of something like 9800 (which we checked, and was right). Therefore the system thought she had used over 9000 units since the previous (estimated) bill.

So not only was the prélèvement cancelled, she ended up with quite a nice little rebate.

EDF said that the system should have highlighted it as an unrealistic bill, but it had slipped through.

[Agenais]

I have now asked them to check the bill prior to the mega 2500 euros, that was for 900 euros!  Admitted that was over winter, but three little electric wall heaters do not clock up 900 euros. We moaned and groaned to them at the time and we all tried to find a reason for the high bill, but, in the end we struggled and paid it.  I said to them, if the last reading was of galactic proportions and there was an error with your index, then it is VERY likely that the previous one was too, we thinks a refund is due.  We wait to hear.

 

[Teamedup]

I suspect that three little wall heaters could cost such an amount in winter. They are notorious for costing a lot.

I always check the reading when they have done it. I would always check the meter readings myself when I moved in somewhere too.

[Agenais]

Three tiny wall heaters, only 500 watts each, not used 24-7, I would hope they didn't amount to 900 euros of electricity in one trimester, if so then half of France will be bankrupt trying to pay the EDF.  Yes, they are quite costly to run, especially when you bump them over 1kw an hour, so is oil, wood, parrafin heaters, all on a par with each other when you average it out.  We had better prepare for a shock, now that our new house is to 200m2 instead of 60...eeek.......time for the winter woolies to come out of wraps.  Thank goodness for HC tarrif after 10pm.  EDF say that this house should average 60-70 euros a month, mmmmmmm, we will see, they read the meter the other day, will await the bill thudding to the floor this week.

[Liz]

[quote]I have now asked them to check the bill prior to the mega 2500 euros, that was for 900 euros! Admitted that was over winter, but three little electric wall heaters do not clock up 900 euros. We moane...[/quote]

What a nightmare!  If all you have is 3 heaters and very little else electrical it should be possible to do an estimate to demonstrate whether 900 euros is a likely figure.  It sounds as if you are getting your bills 6 monthly so, I am inclined to agree with TU, it could be correct.

For future reference you might like to sign up to the EDF scheme where you e-mail them your readings, I think it is called 'relevé confiance', and it is easy to find how to set it up on their web site. That way you will know that they have the figure right.

Liz (29)

[Agenais]

Yes, it was a scary time, forking out 900 euros that we could ill afford.  It was only for three months useage.  I will indeed check and let them have the readings.  It was read the other day and we have only been in this house three months, so things should, repeat should be ok this time.  Last house was out in the sticks and readings were ad hoc to say the least, now, back in a village, things seem a little more organised, but we will check it regularly.

I didn't mention that the EDF sent a bill for our first french property, months after we had left and the new owner had moved in, they kept asking for 500 euros for January to June, we moved out in the December of the previous year having paid our final bill.  The EDF and ourselves don't quite gel together

[Baz]

I have always found EDF to be a professional company, such as responding to emails usually within 30 minutes, making appointments and always arriving at the agreed time. When I purchased my maison secondaire in 1989, I set up prelevements for all the utility companies.

Some 10 years latter I was examining some bank statements and to my amazement could not find any payments over the previous 5 years to EDF. I looked at all my EDF statements and discovered that someone at EDF had changed one number on my prelevement 5 years previously. I was using the house about 8-10 weeks a year but there was large amount owing. The strange thing was that even though EDF was applying for payments nothing was being received and my account was still showing paid todate. When I bought the matter to their attention they carried out an audit and decided to waive all the outstanding amounts and make a one off charge of 75€ to cover administrative costs. I cannot think of any other company that would be so generous, even though it was their mistake.

Baz

[Agenais]

I quite agree, despite our stresses over the whopping bills, they have always been as helpful as they possibly can over the aforementioned matters, polite, sharing a laugh with us at the enormous factures and offering advice and sollutions wherever they can.  I have found that with most companies here.