Cliff D'Arcy explains how he really wanted to pay his energy bills, but couldn't...
Five months ago, I moved home. It wasn't anything exciting, as my family and I are still in the same town.
In fact, we moved purely to be closer to my children's school. As a bonus, this short move also saves us £300 a month in rent, plus another £100 a month in Council Tax and energy bills.
Online failure
After four months, I got my first gas and electricity bills from my provider, EDF Energy. Little did I know how much frustration this would bring.
My electricity bill was around £105 and my gas bill was roughly £92, so I owed EDF a total of £197. My first problem came when I attempted to set up an online account so that I could make payments, provide meter readings, etc. by Internet.
Alas, I was unable to sign up to EDF's online service, because this is available only to customers with account numbers beginning with '67'. My account numbers don't, so I couldn't sign up for this facility.
I'm told that EDF is installing a new computer system and, surprise, surprise, is having teething problems. In addition, I found lots of 'dead links' on EDF's website which produced annoying 'page not found' errors. Apparently, EDF "aims to have all customer accounts upgraded by autumn 2011" -- which is around now, by my reckoning.
Please let me pay my bill
As I couldn't pay online, and I don't have a cheque book, I decided to telephone EDF to pay my bill. In hindsight, I wish I'd used online banking to pay EDF.
I dialled the freephone 0800 number and was greeted by an automated message that warned of long delays before calls would be answered. The first time I called EDF, I gave up after 10 minutes. The same happened with later calls. Then I gave up and went on holiday for two weeks.
After I got back from holiday, two red bills warned me that my payments were late. Oh dear.
I tried calling EDF again and, after waiting 16 minutes with the phone handset cradled between my neck and shoulder, I finally got through to EDF. The man I spoke to was very helpful and efficient, but a 16-minute wait is unacceptable, regardless of staffing levels.
As well as paying both bills, I set up two monthly direct debits to collect future payments. I should have done this as soon as I moved in April, but let it slip. This will reduce my future bills by 6%.
Also, I was cross to learn that, despite having both gas and electricity supplied by EDF, I wasn't getting their dual-fuel discount. While this 5% saving will apply in the future, it should be applied back to day one.
Finally, in common with other energy providers, EDF Energy immediately placed me on its standard gas and electricity tariffs when I took over supply. As these are sure to be its most expensive tariffs by far, I intend to shop around for cheaper gas and electricity.
Poor service and higher prices
Had the EDF representative I spoke to not been so friendly and helpful, I would already be with a new energy supplier.
Still, I did raise a smile when I saw a survey ranking customer service at the 'Big Six' energy suppliers. As my lovemoney.com chum Robert Powell revealed, EDF came bottom, thus earning it Rob's accolade of The UK’s worst energy provider.
Then again, I scowled today when I read that EDF is to follow in the footsteps of other major domestic-energy providers by raising its prices. From 10 November, the French energy giant will raise its UK gas prices by 15.4% and electricity prices by 4.5% -- the last of the Big Six to do so.
As a result, the yearly cost of a standard dual-fuel EDF bill paid by direct debit will rise by £114, to £1,165 from £1,051. However, based on my recent experiences, EDF will have problems collecting this 10.8% increase!
In summary, EDF has raised prices, failed on customer service, and forced customers to jump through hoops just to pay their bills. Remind me why I'm one of its customers?
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