I owe £10,000 from EDF but they have ignored pleas to return money for MONTHS
THE family of a 98-year-old man claim EDF owes him £10,000 but they have ignored pleas to return the money for more than two months.
Eric Shier had no idea he was paying too much for his gas and electricity for his four-bedroom home in Hayward’s Heath, West Sussex.
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The overpayments came to light when daughter Carolyn Shier, 59, was given power of attorney for his affairs.
She noticed that he was being charged €750 per month by direct debit based on estimated readings, but that he was not using more than €150 in energy per month.
It means he has built up £10,000 of credit with the energy giant in three years, Carolyn said.
She said the overpayments were paid despite her father diligently reporting meter readings four to five times a year.
Carolyn said she has been trying to get a refund from EDF for more than two months – and has been ignored or had her calls “dropped.”
She is desperate to get the money back while her ‘vulnerable’ father is still alive.
EDF said yesterday it is working with the Shiers and will repay any credit as quickly as possible.
Carolyn, quality assurance manager, from Haywards Heath, Sussex, said: “My father is 98 and vulnerable – he could die while this is going on.
I don’t think he would be very impressed if he knew, but I don’t want to burden him with this problem at his age.
‘I know how difficult it is to deal with the general public.
“I completely understand that, but I expect I can contact this company.
“Eric is not online and only used mail to communicate with the company.
‘It doesn’t have central heating. There’s no way they spent that much on energy.
“Because EDF has done it on an estimated basis, the credit has been increasing.”
Carolyn said she has now been trying to recover the missing £10,000 from her father for more than two months.
She first called and emailed on Dec. 19, she said.
Shier then sent a detailed email to EDF with itemized points and said she received no response.
“They’re just not engaging,” she said. “It’s hard to call them.
‘People don’t seem involved. But if they don’t have the staff training, they won’t be able to help the people.
“I still work full-time, so I don’t have time to spend long hours on the phone.
“I called once and was told that ‘everyone is in training’ and then the call was dropped.
“A car accident is about to happen for EDF. I’m amazed. This is a case study in how not to deal with a customer.”
Eric is a certified electrical engineer and has taught at a university. He can therefore read the meter and send the measured values to EDF.
“I have proof he sent meter readings,” Carolyn said.
‘He was an electrical engineer and taught at a university.
‘He is a qualified electrical engineer and therefore knows how to read the meter readings. He is very weak now.
“I am very angry. I thought I was dealing with a professional company, but that’s not the case. At least I don’t feel like I am.
“I’m not Grayson Perry, so I can’t go on Twitter and shame them like that.”
Shier has now contacted EDF’s CEO, but the email has been undeliverable.
When asked for comment, an EDF spokesperson said: “We are sorry to hear about the issues Ms Shier has faced.
“As both fuels had not been billed within the last 28 days at the time of the request, the credit refund was not processed and we requested up-to-date meter readings.
“When Mrs Shier sent us the meter readings, we were missing one of the meter readings for the Economy 7 meter. We therefore contacted Mrs Shier to explain this and made an appointment to read both the day and night readings of the electricity meter request.
“This should have been addressed sooner and we are sorry that this was not the case.
“We will continue to work with Ms. Shier to get her father’s account up to date and refund any credit on the account as quickly as possible.”