My energy provider won’t reduce my payments

[Comefromaway]

We moved house in March 2020 (great timing). The previous home owners were retired, they were at home all day plus had an adult son with SEN living with them. They kept the house very warm.

we al know what happened next. Lockdown happened, me, Dh, Dd and Ds were all working/studying from home. During the winter of 2020 the house was occupied a lot more than usual. Ds was on alternate weeks in college plus his Btec course meant he was home 2.5 days a week anyway. There were numerous closures. We kept the house warm and comfortable all winter.

In Sept 2021 my fixed rate expired and I went on a variable rate. I handed in meter readings. We were at home less that winter but still had numerous periods of isolation, Ds was at home 2 days per week using a multitude of electrical equipment he always forgot to turn off and in college 3 days per week In addition fil used to come up in the day and we’d have the hearing on quite a bit. Dd left home to go to Uni in London. Due to a p/t job she only came home for a few days at Christmas and 1 week in August.

In March 2022 we were offered a fixed rate, twice the cost of our previous fix but one of the rates Martin Lewis advised people to grab whilst it lasted. Our monthly direct debit was increased. At the start of September I turned our thermostat down one degree. Ds left home to go to Uni.

Last month we got our energy bill based on estimated readings. Our direct debit was increased. It was very high so I handed in proper readings. It turned out electricity was pretty accurate but they had massively over estimated gas. Our bill was re-issued and we are currently £1,500 in credit.

I worked out that if we use the exact same amount of gas and electricity as we did last year but at our current rate £250 per month will cover it. I applied to reduce our direct debit from £460 to that amount explaining our usage Taking note that we used to have 4 people at home now we have two and we totally work out if the house whereas we were working partly from home so I expect to use less especially as we’ve turned the thermostat down.

They have refused to reduce our payments. Our current rate is only available to those who pay by direct debit. We can’t get a refund of our credit until at least our next review in March.

I sympathise, I have had similar problems with EDF. Despite being a lot in credit, they increased by DD by 70%. I tried using the online form for a refund, but they refused. I tried the online form to reduce the DD, but no. I phoned and spoke to someone who refused to do anything and told me I had to wait until my scheduled review that was 3 months away.

Edf really are awful! I've been with them twice due to previous suppliers going down, and then switched as soon as I could due to their poor billing systems and woeful customer service.
My advice:
Email and subject line of Formal complaint.
State how much your account is in credit and you want a refund of x amount (make sure you leave enough in credit and calculating further DD to cover slightly more than the next bill, also do the sums for them to show this)
State in kwh and cost of how much you've used in the last year (and do the sums for them) split it into gas and electricity and then total kwh and cost.

Tell them that they might do an automatic assessment of your account every 6 months, but that doesn't mean that you can't do it sooner or more often and you do not accept them holding on to so much of a credit balance.
Point them to www.ofgem.gov.uk/information-consumers/energy-advice-households/check-if-you-are-owed-money-your-energy-bill
and point out the part that says:
"Credit on a live account
You can ask your supplier to refund you at any time. Suppliers must do so promptly unless they have reasonable grounds not to."

Tell them they have two weeks (14 days) {the reason i state 14 days is otherwise they will take that to be 14 working days, which then takes you to nearly 3 weeks} to action this otherwise you wish a deadlock letter and will take this to the ombudsman.

And then take it to the ombudsman - The ombudsman are helpful and I've found them to be fair. Make sure you upload any correspondence between you and EDF and just set out what the problem is, how often you've contacted them etc etc

State how much your account is in credit and you want a refund of x amount (make sure you leave enough in credit and calculating further DD to cover slightly more than the next bill, also do the sums for them to show this)
State in kwh and cost of how much you've used in the last year (and do the sums for them) split it into gas and electricity and then total kwh and cost.

thank you. I did this but with all the sums worked out and if I didn’t hear back I will send another email with your other suggestions.