A seven year old fault in EDF Energy’s automated telephone meter reading system has caused approximately 100,000 customers to be overcharged.
When EDF Energy customers receive a bill which estimates the amount of energy they have used, they have the opportunity to call the companies automated telephone meter reading system and give the correct meter reading.
The system fault caused any users who called this automated system to be charged at the new billing rate for the energy supply. This has meant that any users who called after a price drop had been announced were undercharged and any who called after a price increased were overcharged.
EDF Energy have confirmed that they are not going to chase customers for any money if they were undercharged, but they will reimburse any customers who were overcharged, with interest.
If you are an existing EDF Energy customer, you will automatically be reimbursed by the 30th September. If you are no longer an EDF Energy customer, the company have confirmed that they will write to the address that they hold on their system to advise how to claim your money back.
The energy supplier have confirmed that these errors took place between October 2003 and May 2010 and they have also indicated that the total amount of money that has been overcharged is in the region of £200,000.
They estimate that approximately 100,000 people have been affected and whilst one user was overcharged by £500, the majority of individual excess charges amount to under £5.
EDF Energy have re-iterated that this has only affected people who have used the automated telephone meter reading system. Any person who has called their call centre and spoken to an advisor will not have been affected by the error. They have also added that the error has now been fixed.
A spokesperson for the energy supplier has issued an apology for this mistake and have assured people that as soon as the error was diagnosed, the company took steps to fix it.
However, Adam Scorer, from the consumer group, Consumer Focus, has indicated that customers have have the right to know that their bill is correct and if they take steps to confirm their exact meter readings, the company has no excuse for getting the bill wrong.
Mr Scorer has also indicated that many people are concerned about how they are being charged by energy supplier. However, he has welcomed the steps that EDF Energy have taken to address the error they have made.
Ofgem, the industry regulator, confirmed that the company did not break any specific conditions of their licence to supply energy and as such they do not have any power to fine the company.
A spokesperson confirmed that they had instead used consumer protection regulations to make sure that overcharged customers were properly reimbursed.
Ofgem have also confirmed that they are liaising with other energy suppliers to make sure that this incident is a one-off.