EDF basically admitted to priceing cartel over phone

Chrysalis · 14-03-2008, 14:25

I signed up to edf's online v5 tariff in dec 2007 the unit prices were considerably cheaper around 30% cheaper than my current supplier atlantic.

Atlantic then decided to move me back in feb 2008 and I then rang edf 2 days ago to move back to them.

The problem started here I noticed edf put me on their standard tariff which is way more expensive even more than atlantic, I then checked online to compare and maybe see if the online tariff simply went up in price and the price I had matched the quote online. I did some googling but the results indicate the online tariff was still much cheaper.

So I went back to the price comparison site again and even tried different price comparison sites and I then noticed its the standard tariff they offering the online efectively removed, the cheapest available was ebico which is barely cheaper than what I have now so effectively the cheapest option is now about 35% more expensive than it was 3 months ago.

I rang again today telling them this isnt on and I want switchng back to what I was originally on and they said its not possible so agreed to cancel me, then the guy started saying because of the regulator one company is not allowed to massively undercut the others in any area and after discussions with other companies who agreed they were unwilling to offer the tariffs in my area the online v5 was removed from sale even on price comparison sites. Which explains why all the prices are very close as they all within 10% of each other for my area.

The cheapest electricity unit price is nearly 10p per unit and cheapest gas is 3.5p per unit.

---------- Post added at 14:25 ---------- Previous post was at 13:52 ----------

sorry I think is in wrong section mod please move it

Tali · 14-03-2008, 15:21

Did you ask to be moved away from EDF to Atlantic? Or was it something Atlantic did in error?

If they did it in error, isn't there something EDF can do? Have you tried speaking to different people at different times of the day, or escalating to a supervisor or manager? Do you know if the transfer actually went through or whether EDF blocked it?

I'm not really sure if there's anything you can do. It seems that you're stuck between a rock and a hard place as far as pricing goes.