Complaining to the EDF

[juliap]

This is my first post on this forum so hello ! We bought a house in dept 63, Auvergne, near to Thiers, last summer and have spent the last few holidays visiting and doing it up. The EDF contacted us in October to say they wanted to re-site the electricity meter box and we agreed on a new position for it. When we returned this Christmas, we were shocked at how badly the work has been carried out. Instead of drilling all the way through the wall from outside and feeding the electricty cable through there, they have trailed the cable from underneath the new box in the lounge (easy access for small hands - we have 3 young children and have had to ensure they don't 'play' with the cable!) and made a short drilling hole at a sort of angle, from inside the lounge near the window, to a point between the window and external shutter. The cable then passes right across the window (so, when you open the window and shutters, you have a delightful thick, black cable to look at instead of the vew!) and up outside, therby preventing that particular shutter from closing!! Aside from the simple aesthetic issue, the cable is not firmly clamped to any part of the building but is simply dangling and could easily blow around or be knocked. I cannot believe this can be legal and have taken lots of photos. I just wondered whether anyone else had had similar experiences with the EDF - until this point, they have been fairly good to deal with and it wouldn't surprise me if the supervisor at their HQ has no idea how badly the work has been performed.Many thanks.

[Baz]

I have always found EDF an excellent company to deal with. I would arrange for somebody from the local office to come and see the work and I am sure that a solution will be found. If you are not currently in France either telephone or email your local office (Via EDF website) and make an appointment now for a date and time you will next be in your property. I have always found this method works and they have always arrived on time on the appointed date.

Baz

[Alcazar]

<<<If you are not currently in France either telephone or email your local office (Via EDF website) and make an appointment now for a date and time you will next be in your property. I have always found this method works and they have always arrived on time on the appointed date.>>>

Ha! I'm STILL waiting for EDF to keep a SINGLE appointment. They have mucked me about from pillar to post. One of THE least reliable companies I've even dealt with. They tell lies and b*llshit you all the time.

Alcazar

[Gyn_Paul]

[quote user="Alcazar"]

<<<If you are not currently in France

either telephone or email your local office (Via EDF website) and make

an appointment now for a date and time you will next be in your

property. I have always found this method works and they have always

arrived on time on the appointed date.>>>

Ha! I'm STILL waiting for EDF to keep a SINGLE appointment. They

have mucked me about from pillar to post. One of THE least reliable

companies I've even dealt with. They tell lies and b*llshit you all the

time.

Alcazar

[/quote]

Maybe EDF varies from region to region. I had no complaints with the

service from them in Pays de Loire, where they kept 3 appointments over

the year or 2 we were there within the time band stated, and my one

appointment I've had with them here in Limousin was equally prompt; I

also got the chap to lower the wooden tableau the meter was on so I can

put a larger fuse box above it during the renovation. No complaints

(apart from the price, of course!).

p

[juliap]

Thanks to you all who have replied so far. I will have a look at the EDF website - good idea - I have a phone number and contact name but, like probably many people, although I can survive speaking french face to face, it seems miles harder on the phone (I guess partly as that means I can't point at things etc!!). If I can get an email address for the EDF in Thiers (the nearest large town), I could then email over some of the photos and I am sure the chap there would then understand our position (the meter bax and its cable do look appalling!!!). We go back to the porperty in mid Feb  but, even if we can't be there, our notaire has a key which could be collected by the EDF if they want to visit earlier (maybe that's wishful thinking on my part!?!?!?).

 

Incidentally, does anybody know how easy (?!) it is to increase the electric dupply to a house in France. The meter box fitted (and the first bill we received) show 30 Amps and, ideally, we would have liked to increase it to 45 Amps (the box seems to imply that this is feasible). If anyone has had experience of approaching the EDF with such a request, that would be useful. we have realised that, as the Auvergne gets pretty heavy snow, we need to add more raciators etc (the main heat source is the wood burner but we also have 3 oil filled radiators and ideally would like to add a further 2). I am just concerned that, if we happened to have literally everything swtitched on simultaneously, everything would go POP !!

Thanks again anyway.

Julia

[Gyn_Paul]

[quote user="juliap"]

Thanks to you all who have replied so far. I

will have a look at the EDF website - good idea - I have a phone number

and contact name but, like probably many people, although I can survive

speaking french face to face, it seems miles harder on the phone (I

guess partly as that means I can't point at things etc!!). If I can get

an email address for the EDF in Thiers (the nearest large town), I

could then email over some of the photos and I am sure the chap there

would then understand our position (the meter bax and its cable do look

appalling!!!). We go back to the porperty in mid Feb  but, even if

we can't be there, our notaire has a key which could be collected by

the EDF if they want to visit earlier (maybe that's wishful thinking on

my part!?!?!?).

 

Incidentally, does anybody know how easy (?!) it is to increase the

electric dupply to a house in France. The meter box fitted (and the

first bill we received) show 30 Amps and, ideally, we would have liked

to increase it to 45 Amps (the box seems to imply that this is

feasible). If anyone has had experience of approaching the EDF with

such a request, that would be useful. we have realised that, as the

Auvergne gets pretty heavy snow, we need to add more raciators etc (the

main heat source is the wood burner but we also have 3 oil filled

radiators and ideally would like to add a further 2). I am just

concerned that, if we happened to have literally everything swtitched

on simultaneously, everything would go POP !!

Thanks again anyway.

Julia

[/quote]

Julia,

Do you have a laptop and a digital camera? - I had a similar problem at

my previous house. When it had been converted from a farm out-building

(sometime in the 70's) the 3-phase supply had been reduced to one.

However, the unused 2 phases were terminated and left bunched at the

side of the incoming cable right below where the water ran off the

(gutterless) roof. Over the years the ingress of water had damaged the

insulation and the plastic had peeled off revealing bare, live metal -

most dangerous!. I took a number of photos and put them on the laptop,

and took it to my nearest EDF office where it was then comparatively

easy to explain the problem. Your photographic evidence of the poor

workmanship should spur them into action (esp. anything which is

electrically unsafe as opposed to esthetically unpleasant).

You are asking to augmenter la puissance - to raise the level of

the current from 30 to 45 Amps. The nice lady in the EDF shop will

probably confuse you by saying its a change from 6KVA to 9KVA, but just

go with it (you know, of course, that if you talk about changing from 6 to 9KVA, she will naturally talk about a change from 30 to 45 ampaires!) .

An EDF man with a screwdriver will come round and take the front off

your mains switch and change it to read '45' and you're done. The visit

is free, but your monthly abonnement will rise.

Paul

[juliap]

Hi Paul

 

Your advice is great - many thanks. I will contact the EDF next week! I had heard it was comparatively easy to upgrade from 30 to 45 but wasn't exactly sure how to go about it! Fingers crossed!

 

Julia

[La Guerriere]

We raised our power many years ago, it is just a matter of asking and the man comes and makes the adjustment. But if you go above the 9kW up to 12kW (next step up) it needs a new "disjoncteur d'abonnement" for shich they might charge

Jim

 

[Teamedup]

Depending on which tarif you are on the abonnement can go up substantially each year to get this power. All the details are on the edf.fr site.

Incidentally it was the best thing that we ever did having ours upped, used to drive us potty when things used to go off all the time.