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We all like to have a good moan about utility companies but EDF's behaviour the past few days with me really does take the piss.
Their prepayment gas meter went faulty at the weekend, so I couldn't top it up. I was kept on hold for the usual hour on their customer 'service' line and still couldn't get through. Eventually, I rang their emergency number as I had no gas supply and even this number took 20 minutes to get a reply. Anyway, an engineer was sent just after midnight and agreed that it was faulty and replaced it. He then told me that I'd need a new card for the meter and I'd have to ring the customer "service" line for one. In the meantime, he put a £10 emergency credit on it. Of course ever since then, I've tried ringing and ringing their bloody phone number and not got through. It might be easier to get through during office hours but I can hardly wait on hold during my employer's time, even if I'm using my own mobile, now can I?
I foolishly agreed to go on prepayment meters voluntarily last June. The electricity had a few hundred quid debt on it and it seemed better to go on prepayment voluntarily than for them to go to court for a warrant and then have to pay the costs on top. However, my gas usage has been very low (not least because this house has an obsolete boiler that conks out after a minute every time you try to use it) and I should never have allowed them to put this thing in my house. At least with the electricity meter, you buy £20 worth of credit and that gets put on the meter. With the gas one, it deducts a percentage of "debt", plus any used emergency credit etc the moment you insert the card and then it continues deducting "standing charge" even when you are using feck all gas. I put in £60 just before Christmas and it went into "emergency credit" and cut off this weekend when I've used fuck all gas since I only have the hob and the almost non-functional boiler. Go figure.
Also the only places where you can top these keys/cards up are mini-mart type shops, so you are limited to their opening hours, and they all insist on you paying cash rather than using your debit card. Very inconvenient now that I'm working again. Even more inconvenient when I can't even get EDF to post out a new goddamn card!
Now I have tried other ways of contacting them, i.e. by email, including their "Exec Team" who had been quite helpful in the past. On this occasion, however, I got a rather snarky response from the "customer liaison" man, who also "recommended" that I leave EDF. However, he did at least arrange for someone from the prepayment team to call me, which they did. But obviously she rang during office hours but she needed me to be at home in front of the meter to answer some "health and safety" questions before they can send a new plastic card. I told her I could hardly do that when I'm at work, so she arranged to call me between 6 and 8pm that evening. She didn't.
I sent an email to EDF customer service again about this and they said she would call again last night. She didn't. Now I've been trying yet again to contact them today and suddenly they seem to be under orders not to respond, I am getting no replies at all. I tried raising it on Twitter and was asked to email them about it. Yet again, no reply once I gave them my account details.
I've even emailed the CEO to complain and cc'd it to my MP, who has raised the issue with them himself on my behalf. And still they haven't replied today. If they think ignoring me will make the problem go away, they're making a big mistake. I'll be onto BBC Watchdog and the newspapers next.
But I'm mystified as to why they are being so ridiculous over a stupid plastic card in the first place. The "safety" schtick just won't wash as an engineer has only just put the damn thing in and tested it.
Their prepayment gas meter went faulty at the weekend, so I couldn't top it up. I was kept on hold for the usual hour on their customer 'service' line and still couldn't get through. Eventually, I rang their emergency number as I had no gas supply and even this number took 20 minutes to get a reply. Anyway, an engineer was sent just after midnight and agreed that it was faulty and replaced it. He then told me that I'd need a new card for the meter and I'd have to ring the customer "service" line for one. In the meantime, he put a £10 emergency credit on it. Of course ever since then, I've tried ringing and ringing their bloody phone number and not got through. It might be easier to get through during office hours but I can hardly wait on hold during my employer's time, even if I'm using my own mobile, now can I?
I foolishly agreed to go on prepayment meters voluntarily last June. The electricity had a few hundred quid debt on it and it seemed better to go on prepayment voluntarily than for them to go to court for a warrant and then have to pay the costs on top. However, my gas usage has been very low (not least because this house has an obsolete boiler that conks out after a minute every time you try to use it) and I should never have allowed them to put this thing in my house. At least with the electricity meter, you buy £20 worth of credit and that gets put on the meter. With the gas one, it deducts a percentage of "debt", plus any used emergency credit etc the moment you insert the card and then it continues deducting "standing charge" even when you are using feck all gas. I put in £60 just before Christmas and it went into "emergency credit" and cut off this weekend when I've used fuck all gas since I only have the hob and the almost non-functional boiler. Go figure.
Also the only places where you can top these keys/cards up are mini-mart type shops, so you are limited to their opening hours, and they all insist on you paying cash rather than using your debit card. Very inconvenient now that I'm working again. Even more inconvenient when I can't even get EDF to post out a new goddamn card!
Now I have tried other ways of contacting them, i.e. by email, including their "Exec Team" who had been quite helpful in the past. On this occasion, however, I got a rather snarky response from the "customer liaison" man, who also "recommended" that I leave EDF. However, he did at least arrange for someone from the prepayment team to call me, which they did. But obviously she rang during office hours but she needed me to be at home in front of the meter to answer some "health and safety" questions before they can send a new plastic card. I told her I could hardly do that when I'm at work, so she arranged to call me between 6 and 8pm that evening. She didn't.
I sent an email to EDF customer service again about this and they said she would call again last night. She didn't. Now I've been trying yet again to contact them today and suddenly they seem to be under orders not to respond, I am getting no replies at all. I tried raising it on Twitter and was asked to email them about it. Yet again, no reply once I gave them my account details.
I've even emailed the CEO to complain and cc'd it to my MP, who has raised the issue with them himself on my behalf. And still they haven't replied today. If they think ignoring me will make the problem go away, they're making a big mistake. I'll be onto BBC Watchdog and the newspapers next.
But I'm mystified as to why they are being so ridiculous over a stupid plastic card in the first place. The "safety" schtick just won't wash as an engineer has only just put the damn thing in and tested it.
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