The most outrageous energy bills came to light, with one customer receiving TWO demands for £8,000… another fearing he would lose his home. Now SALLY SORTS IT reveals how to fight back
In April 2024, EDF Energy said I owed £8,000 for my gas alone. A promise was made to correct the error, but another bill for £8,000 arrived. In August, an advisor agreed something was wrong. I sent the details of the device but seven weeks later I was told I owed £7,000. EDF has also not credited the payments I have made in all that time.
FC, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffs.
Energy bills are tough enough for households as we head deeper into winter and 10 million pensioners are denied the winter fuel allowance. But what makes matters worse is the pain countless customers face in ensuring their bills are correct.
I receive dozens of emails and letters from readers struggling to correct utility bill blunders, and this week I decided to make public a snapshot of what I’m seeing.
Let’s first look at FC’s case. You tried to help EDF by carefully collecting data on the gas and electricity units you had used in the two years since moving to your new home and calculated that the total – for both gas and electricity – should have been closer to €5,953 .
During the period you had also paid £6,282 to the company for both. You thought EDF owed you money, rather than the other way around.
I have urged EDF to step up your complaint. A few days later it was determined what had caused the inflated bill of £8,000 and then £7,000. Last April your meter was belatedly put into service correctly – that is, assigned to EDF under your address and name when you moved in – but the mistake was to then take the readings as if they were starting from scratch, using the previous owner was ignored. another provider.
EDF has now corrected the original value, re-billed your account, processed a refund and credited £100 as a goodwill gesture. A spokesperson said: ‘We are sorry for our error and that it was not resolved sooner.’
Elsewhere, KC, from Dorking in Surrey, was also involved in a battle with EDF. In September she was told her electricity bill had a credit of £5,154. It is the customer’s right to have a credit refunded upon request.
When pursuing this, customer service blamed the size of the amount involved for the delay in issuing the money. She was later told that the refund was being processed, but it still hasn’t arrived.
When I intervened, EDF sent an email explaining that she was not owed a refund after all. It turned out that her meter was broken and the readings did not reflect her actual usage, leading to the phantom credit. EDF then tried to persuade her to have a smart meter installed – the kind that automatically sends readings to the provider – but she refused because she feared they were unreliable.
I asked EDF if they would get a standard model instead. Suppliers are reluctant to replace these ‘outdated’ meters when they no longer work as they are under government pressure to roll out smart meters to most customers by the end of 2025.
But in KC’s case, it said it would make an exception.
£13,000 claim for mistaken identity
Meanwhile, reader KV in London explained how he moved into a two-bedroom rental apartment in April 2023 after splitting from his wife. He lives alone, but his two children often stay over. Since then, his annual Eon Next electricity bill has been around £780. But in October 2024, he was shocked to receive a bill for £13,000 from British Gas Lite.
A mistake or fraud, he assumed, but he couldn’t convince British Gas Lite via the chatbot or emails, even though he provided proof he wasn’t a customer, and he was still hounded for the debt. At KV’s request, his landlord disclosed his rental agreement to the supplier, which revealed that the account in question was in the name of a food company. Yet British Gas Lite still held our reader liable. He feared this would mean losing his home and risking access to his children.
When I asked British Gas to get to the bottom of this, it only took a few days for me to spot the error. Two properties are listed in the land registry with the same address as his – apparently because his landlord split the property in two but never updated the register.
KV received an invoice that should have gone to the other tenant – a company. British Gas Lite only offers rates to businesses, so this should have flagged the problem for British Gas. The company said it would discuss this with the landlord and apologized to KV for not resolving it sooner.
In Blackburn, Lancashire, a vulnerable customer was chased by Eon Next for £600. AM wrote to me about her disabled 42-year-old son who was a tenant in supported housing until February 2022 – like a care home, but where individuals have their own unit or flat and pay their own bills.
When the lease expired and he moved in with his family, AM brought all utilities up to date at the time and paid his final bills. Despite this, a demand of £600 was later generated for the period from February to October 2022 – the period between her son’s departure and the eventual closure of the entire property as supported housing.
As the latter tenant, her son had been chased for the bill a year ago, but after his mother’s intervention, the debt collectors accepted he was not responsible. But a year later the beak reared its head again and Eon set the dogs after her son again. Eon did not respond to her communication and evidence – sent via registered mail. She told me the stress was making her sick.
I asked Eon to investigate, and it confirmed that the account had been incorrectly opened in her son’s name after his lease ended. This was reportedly because the management of the property he left informed Eon that the lease for the property would be terminated in October 2022 – correct for the entire property, but not for AM’s son’s lease.
Eon has now wiped the bill and offered £100 as an apology for the upset caused. AM was extremely relieved, but still fuming that Eon is such a mumpsimus (someone who stubbornly sticks to his guns despite being wrong).
Unfortunately, mumpsimuses are widespread in the energy sector and beyond, and I’m sure I’ll be opposing even more of them in 2025.
Boots says it is aware of the scam. It advises customers not to click on links and delete the email.
To report it, first forward the email to report@phishing.gov.uk.
Straight to the point
I was unable to get online 12 days and it’s hard to talk to a human on my provider TalkTalk. The company blames another telecom provider, but that company says it is a TalkTalk problem. I’m going around in circles.
BJ, Bournemouth, Hants.
TalkTalk apologizes and says the connection has been restored. You get £88 credit and half-price broadband internet for six months.
My husband passed away 12 years ago and in January last year I received a letter from a pension company stating that I may be entitled to his pension from a job in the 1980s. I sent the documents, but I still haven’t heard anything from the company, which has now been taken over by another pension company. Why does it take so long?
So, Wigan, Lancs.
The company apologizes for the delay and you have now received the £2,000 payout.
I bought two sizes of Uggs on eBay with the intention of returning one. They were shipped from Ireland, but the return address is in China. One pair has been confirmed to be counterfeit. I was told I had to return them by eBay before they could investigate my case, but I can’t as it costs £50 and I don’t have all the seller’s details.
RG, via email.
eBay apologizes and says you can request a return under its “item not as described” policy.
- Write to Sally Hamilton at Sally Sorts It, Money Mail, 9 Derry Street, London, W8 5HY or email sally@dailymail.co.uk – include telephone number, address and a note addressed to the offending organization giving permission get to talk to Sally Hamilton. Please do not send any original documents as we cannot take responsibility for this. The Ny Breaking cannot accept any legal liability for any answers given.
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