The customer hit out after EDF “took advantage” of the fact they “didn’t know” how the system works.
EDF sent a customer a £2,700 bill in their first home after foster care. The customer hit out after EDF “took advantage” of the fact they “didn’t know” how the system works.
The Guardian reader wrote into the Guardian newspaper and voiced their shock after they received a demand from EDF stating the electricity bill had not been paid. They wrote: “I am living in my first home since coming out of foster care.
“I moved into the flat in 2020, and topped up my credit meter with £50 a month, as instructed by my housing association. I understood that this covered my gas and electricity use.
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“In 2023, I received a demand for more than £2,700 from EDF, stating that I had not been paying my electricity bill. It has since had me on a payment plan of £108 a month. I’ve now been told that it should not have billed me for more than a year’s worth of arrears.
“I feel that it is taking advantage of the fact that I don’t know how the system works.” After intervention from the Guardian, it emerged the housing association flat is on a communal heating network.
But as well as the prepayment meter the customer uses, the Guardian investigated and found a second meter, supplied by EDF,was locked away and accessible only to the housing association.
EDF – which is rivalled by British Gas, Ovo, Octopus and more – reduced the debt by £105 and moved the vulnerable customer to a better tariff that reduces your monthly payments, the Guardian reported.
The housing association also stepped up and issued a statement, telling the newspaper “it was unaware” that the author of the letter on Tuesday (June 17) was vulnerable.
Its support team will now be in touch with the writer, according to the Guardian report.
