Typical Amenity Company Theft Scheme

[Vincent]

I've been helping my Dad make sense of his amenity bills recently and found that both BT and EDF had decided to put his direct debit payments up. EDF has raised his payments by about £30 per quarter.
When I looked through the EDF bills, I found that he has been in credit for the previous to last three quarterly bills, ie; the amount they helped themselves to, (with his permission of course), out of his bank was more than the actual bill was. In the last quarter, he was just £4 in debit, ie; his bill was £4 more than they took out of his bank a/c.
Because of this £4 debit, they decided they would take £30 more out of his bank each quarter.
the same with BT. This time, my Dad had fallen for a junk mail scam and ended up with two expensive phone calls on the bill which made that quarter more than usual and more than the direct debit payment, (actual amount escapes me now but it wasn't a great deal), and they raised his Direct Debit payments, even though the amount that bill was over was settled straight away.
After a couple of well written letters by my Dad, we've received a very long message on the answer machine from some shiny arsed fucker at BT humbly apologising and informing us that the payments have gone back to as they were and over-payments now correctly credited. We've yet to hear from the EDF SAF.
So......... how many of the people that they do this to actually check their bills and how many believe, quite wrongly, that these companies are honest like in Olden Daze? I'm trying to work out how much of an earner this is for them No doubt someone got a big bonus for implementing this scam

Rant subdued..........................
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Space Is Deep

[Polarbear]

That is the one thing I hate about direct debit. The bank etc. say how wonderful it is for us, we pay our bills on time and there are no worries, we can cancel when we want.

What they don't say is the DD company can ask what the fuck they want and it will be paid as long as there is money/overdraft in the account. So a 'typo' could clean you out and you won't know till you check your bills or the banks expensive letters come through your door.
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Triumph Trophy Launch Edition

[Im-a-Ridah]

I only have one DD, and I keep a really sharp eye on it.

[Harold_Shand]

You just need to look at moneysavingexpert. The problems people have are hugely varied and very complex, but it always ends up in the energy companies favour.

Npower put an end to a pretty good tarrif I was on. They put everyone on it on to their most expensive 'standard' tariff. I phoned up before the change back and asked to be put on a fixed online tarif instead.

The DD started coming out and it was only £50, used to be £100 a month. I phoned up after a few months and somehow my electricity had been transferred to EDF. I have no idea how this happened and neither had Npower. It's being sorted, I have to be transfered back from EDF to Npower and this could take 6 weeks. I don't know how all this electricity is going to be paid for.

I hadn't signed anything or even expressed an interest in moving supplier. Npower customer service is brilliant with the everyday stuff, something a little more complicated and it went to shit.

Fuck them all... and now Cameron is letting them charge us £100 to invest in renewables... I know it must be an incredibly complicated and competitive business with massive outgoings but bloody hell, they take advantage of people who can't keep up and that is no better than someone who talks his way into grannys house and steals her purse.
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BCF's 6th favourite poster 2009-2010

Harold_Shand's theory might be the best explanation.

[iooi]

Easy answer to the problem.....

Pay the bills quarterly. And pay just what you owe them.
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Just because my bike was A DIVVY, does not mean i am......