The family of a 98-year-old man claim he is £10,000 in credit to EDF but the energy giant has ignored pleas to return the money for more than two months.
Eric Shier had no idea he was overpaying for his gas and electric for his four-bed home in Hayward’s Heath, West Sussex, but the issue came to light when daughter Carolyn Shier, 59, became power of attorney for his affairs.
She noticed he was being billed £750 a month via direct debit based on estimated readings, but he was using no more than £150 of energy a month.
Ms Shier calculated this means over three years he has racked up £10,000 worth of credit with EDF. The energy supplier said it working to get Mr Shier’s “account billed up-to-date” and would “refund any credit as soon as possible”.
But Ms Shier said the overpayments were made despite her father diligently submitting meter readings every four or five times a year.
She said she’s been trying to get a refund from EDF for over two months and has been ignored or her calls were “cut off”.
Ms Shier, a quality assurance manager, from Haywards Heath, Sussex, said: “My dad is 98 and vulnerable – he could die while this is going on.
“I don’t suppose he’d be very impressed if he knew, but I don’t want to burden him with this problem at his age. I know how hard it is to deal with the general public.
“I totally get that, but I’m expecting to be able to contact this company. Eric is not online, and he only used post to communicate with the company. He does not have central heating. There is no way they have spent that much on energy.
“Because EDF have done it on an estimated basis, the credit has built up and up.”
Ms Shier said she had been attempting to reclaim her father’s missing £10,000 for over two months, after first calling and emailing EDF on December 19.
An EDF spokesperson said on Thursday: “We’re sorry to hear about the problems Ms Shier has been facing.
“As both fuels had not been billed within the last 28 days at the time of the request, the credit balance refund was not processed and we requested up-to-date meter readings.
“When Ms Shier sent us the meter readings, we were missing one of the reads for the Economy 7 meter, so we’ve contacted Ms Shier to explain this and have booked an appointment, to gain both the day and night electricity meter readings.
“This should have been picked up earlier and we’re sorry it wasn’t.
“We’ll continue working with Ms Shier to get her father’s account billed up-to-date, refunding any credit on the account as soon as possible.”
