Estimated electricity bills

[Stan Streason]

Had my place for about 18 months now, merrily pay my electricity by standing order, its not horrendus and I have no history to guage it on.

Just got my quarters bill of €225 and thought it was a bit harsh given the house probably has only had a maximum of 6 days use in that period.  But this was before the log burner and insulation so we were running a lot of electric radiators full time.

Then I thought "how do they read the meter" as they are in our kitchen.  Checked at the weekend and our current readings are below the opening readings from 2 quarters ago. 

I suppose I was expecting a little e next to the reading but there is not one of course.

Getting this sorted may be interesting

[Cjlaws]

Your EDF invoice should show the last seven meter readings, with the

statement Les chiffres en gras correspondent aux consommations

relevées - actual readings are in bold type.

You could ring

EDF customer service - 0800 030 333.

[Patf]

Friends of ours with a holiday house had the same problem. At the time EDF had an office in Mirande, so they went in there with their reading and eventually got a rebate.

If you don't have an EDF office, it depends how good your french is. If not very good, try asking the Maire's secretary to ring them for you, or write them a letter in french.

Best to ask for a visit from EDF while you are there to get a proper reading.

[DerekJ]

If you would prefer to deal with this in English you could try EDF's English speaking helpline....

0(0 33) 5 62 16 49 08 or 0(0 33) 5 56 17 40 70

I've had thes enumbers for a while but presume they are still active.

The one time I used it I got my problem resolved and they were very helpful.

[Gardengirl]

We've kept a check on our meter readings since moving in just over 2 years ago, even though meters are read remotely, and when the final bill came last summer we knew they had it about right. The monthly D/D is now a little higher, but we know it's a fair amount  to be paying.

[tenniswitch]

If you take a reading every time you leave or return to your house, you can log into your EDF account online and, within about a week of the date that EDF came to do a reading (this info is available on the website), you can enter your actual reading and they will make a correction if they have previously under or over-charged you.

Alternatively, if the meter reader can't get in to do a reading, he/she usually leaves a card in your mailbox that you can mail in at any time to give them an actual reading.

I've done both of these things since our meter reader comes twice a year, in early June and early December, and we are never here in December. 

[tenniswitch]

[quote user="gardengirl "]We've kept a check on our meter readings since moving in just over 2 years ago, even though meters are read remotely, and when the final bill came last summer we knew they had it about right. The monthly D/D is now a little higher, but we know it's a fair amount  to be paying.[/quote]

I wish ours were read remotely, but I guess we have too old-fashioned a meter.

[Stan Streason]

We are with Seolis and it looks like I can submit readings on their site.  I still think it will be a battle.

[Cjlaws]

[quote user="Stan Streason"]We are with Seolis and it looks like I can submit readings on their site.  I still think it will be a battle.[/quote]

Took me about five minutes to sort a similar problem for a neighbour with EDF last week. Good luck.

[chrisb]

[quote user="Stan Streason"]We are with Seolis and it looks like I can submit readings on their site.  I still think it will be a battle.[/quote]

We've found with EDF that sending the correct reading through works fine in getting the account corrected. What has proved impossible is getting them to actually amend their estimates so that future bills reflect the fact that the house is only occupied for 12 weeks per year. Their estimate is also based on the fact that a previous owner had electric space heating as the only form of heat and however often we tell them that this is no longer the case the estimated use rate never changes.

[Chancer]

I second that, one year the meter reader misread the chiffres and I ended up getting a negative bill, as I was a bit strapped at the time I let it go and it righted itself at the next reading taken by another guy, its a shame that they held the credit towards the next estimated one rather than sending me a cheque!

Anyway since then I must have been away when the meter reader called and I have fallen out of phase so to speak so that the month of the erroneous reading is now one of my estimated bills which every year regular as clockwork arrive as a negative bill.

You would think someone somewhere would have the nouse to say "c'est pas possible" but no - 'l'ordinateur dit oui!"

It does have the benefit of me only having 5 bills instead of 6 per year to pay.

The other crazy thing with EDF, unlike Les Impôts who once the deadline for payment has passed have a period of grace for the faster on-line payments, EDF considerately wont allow you to pay on line or by telephone once the date for payent has been passed, this is a very short time considering how long the bill takes to got to you and well before they send out reminders asking you to pay.

I often wonder how indeed they managed to build the electricity infrastructure in France.

[tenniswitch]

Yes, BUT, they will allow you to amend their estimates by snail-mail long past the payment date, at least if you can get your hands on one of their mail-in forms, which is how I got an unexpected 400+ euro credit to my bank account as a rebate for their estimates.

[Pads]

Stan do you have a cream coloured plastic disk on the out side of your house ? We have one and EDF just scan it and can take a reading from our indoor meters with out us having to be there . It took me ages to realise this was how they were getting there info....