The great power debate

So, things cost a little more nowadays, right?
Sure they do, in this fragile economic climate everyone has the right to make a living and therefore charge just a fraction more for goods and services. These increases are supposed to be proportionate to the country's inflation rate. Now to be honest, I have no issue with this, every year things cost a little more, I work harder, earn a little more and make ends meet accordingly.

Well, much to my surprise, upon my return from vacation, EDF, my French owned electricity supplier decided to increase my monthly payment (which I may add is paid for by Direct Debit) from £65/month in 2008 to £100/month in January 2009. So it's £35! Perhaps it's a billing mistake or they'll not take that much off in February. Well, I guess I got that wrong when February this year I was once again billed £100. The same happened again for the month of March 2009, so I took the onus of calling customer support

Armed with my account number I listened to the pre-recorded messages telling me to press thee # key to start and rattle through the 90 seconds of recorded waffle outlining the endless choices I have by pressing 1, 2 or 9. (What would have happened had I have pressed 3,4,5,6,7 or 8?)
I press 9 for customer service only to me told by another recorded message telling me for "training purposes" all conversations are recorded, I am in their queuing system and will be attended to accordingly
Whilst waiting EDF's recorded propaganda tells me that EDF have UK based call centres. great now the French are attempting to patronise me with a recording of Nationalistic value. In my opinion it doesn't matter where the call centres are, BT for example have excellent call centres based in Mumbai.
So i get through to this Northern woman who told me her name was Phylis could I please tell her my account number. Done! Then comes a barrage of security centric questions like postal code, favourite sexual position, great grandmother's middle from last name etc. I am then asked the nature of my inquiry. At last! I inform her that I am recording this conversation for legal reasons.

I query as to why my billing has gone up from £65/month to £100/month. She tells me the magic scripted formula that it's calculated on estimated monthly consumption, so I profess that I cannot possibly be using £100/month worth of power as I am not trying to get the DeLorean up to 88MPH without Mr Fusion* in my dining room or anything like that.
She then informs me that I am in fact "in credit" by £131! I asked for the money to be credited into my account. Phylis then tells me that this is not possible as my consumption may go up and the credit will be used to offset any extra electricity use.
Now in the words of Bender Rodriguez**, this "does not compute" and I demand my £131 overpayment back. No can do she says.

Somewhat dazed at how efficiently she has answered my questions (or read the scripted replies flawlessly) I ask if I can cancel the Direct Debit monthly payment. yes I can, but then I lose my Direct Debit Discount. w00t! 3D's in concurrence. I tell her I am not happy with her French masters overcharging me on a monthly basis and keeping my money in their coffers and earning interest on it. She diligently tells me that this is not the case and proceeds to repeat the billing process.
Anyway I come to the conclusion that I am being defeated telephonicaly by a woman who probably earns a lot less than me, puts up with smart asses like me all day, values her job and really looks forward to going to work.

I suggest that I will probably cancel my Direct Debit and pay monthly, even if I do lose my (big cahuna) discount. She diligently tells me she will cancel it immediately. I remind her that I have not given her the go ahead to do this and that I am recording the call and will rewind it if she wants me to. Needless to say I am not recording the call and hoping she doesn't call my bluff on this one.

So, the good news is I got my meter reading from Phylis and on a positive note she informed me that I may actually pay less for April's bill as I was in credit. I checked the meter when I got home and I feel assured that the EDF man is doing his job and reading my meter.

One of my work colleagues overheard my conversation and made a suggestion that I move suppliers and use the service he has. This entails providing the supplier with monthly meter readings online and then paying electronically. He told me it saved him 15%. Bargain and I most certainly will take his advice.

Conclusion:

Most of Britain's Utilities companies are owned by French and German corporations. As the British consumer is little protected against exploitation, companies like EDF raise the prices way beyond the national inflation rate to hike profits and also provide lower tariff increases in their home countries, where the consumer is protected against exploitation
In addition to this, EDF overcharges British consumers and makes money from the interest gained on the overcharge amounts. This unfair practice was raised on BBC Radio 2's Drive Time Show when Rebeca "the fox" Pike interviewed some or other consumer rights watchdog organisation who's name eludes me now and probably forever

/rant = over

*Back to the Future when 1.21 gigawatts of electricity is need to get the DeLorean from 1955 back to 1985

**Bender Rodriguez the kleptomaniac robot from Futurama