Woman's £4,500 EDF bill as worker calls her 'entitled and forgets to hang up'

26 November 2023 , 21:14

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A disabled woman says she was hit with a whopping £4,500 EDF energy bill after customer services forgot to hang up.

Mel, who was diagnosed with fibromyalgia and severe anxiety, was stunned to see the massive bill from EDF Energy. But when she rang the company to ask what was going on, she was less than impressed.

The 31-year-old from Preston, Lancashire, is currently on the company's 'vulnerable' list, allowing her support for paperwork and bills. But she said despite being told her bills were on track during two direct debit reviews, Mel and her partner Dave received a £4,500 bill with a letter threatening legal action.

After calling EDF to discuss the situation, Mel was shocked by what she claimed to hear when the staff member thought they had ended the call. After the pair had finished their conversation, Mel didn't hang up straight away - and was then shocked by what she heard on the other end.

Woman's £4,500 EDF bill as worker calls her 'entitled and forgets to hang up' qhiddxiqkiuuinv

Mel was shocked by the interaction

Mel, who did not want to give her surname, told LancsLive: "I just had a feeling she was going to say something about me, just because of the way she was on the phone. She starts saying she doesn't like doing all of this work, all of these investigations, because she likes having her work and having it done.

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"She said because it's dealing with debt, we're not nice people anyway - she said that as a generalisation about everybody. Then her words were exactly, 'do you know what puzzles me? It's those people who have like mental health, the ones I talk to are lovely and so sorry, for any situation they are in and are really sincere and you can tell.

"'The likes of her, it's just blatantly using it as an excuse and yes there's more things than mental health, there's the physically impaired. She's registered disabled but she thinks she's entitled to the world. I just don't think it's fair'."

Mel said she was "gobsmacked" after reportedly hearing the staff member talk about her in such a manner, particularly as she had only been discharged from hospital three days earlier. She added: "I thought for a company like EDF, why are you saying that about your customers?"

After the call, Mel said she spoke with one of the managers at EDF and asked them to listen to previous calls, where she was promised her account would be kept at zero. She continued: "I explicitly said, this is going to be enough isn't it to keep my account at zero?"

"She said 'yeah, yeah, yeah, don't worry whatsoever, you're paying more than enough and your account won't end up with a big debit on it'. The manager literally said, 'I'm not going to listen to those phone calls', she said 'I don't have time for that'."

Mel is now in discussions with a senior manager at the company, where she has been a customer for the past four years. She's hoping to sort things out with EDF, but isn't asking for any money.

To settle the debts, Mel and her partner Dave are working with a management company to cover the energy bill. "I don't think it's fair that she should be working with vulnerable people and talking like that about somebody," Mel explained. "I know how I felt listening to that about myself, luckily I had my partner here and I said Dave, can you listen to this? Because I was shaking. Honestly I felt so degraded and just horrible."

Since 2017, Mel has been seeing a psychiatric consultant and has undergone dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). Explaining her condition, Mel said: "I'm also under the community living skills group at the moment because I honestly don't have the motivation to get dressed or shower myself every day."

"I have a professional therapist come three times a week, so I'm not just somebody with depression. It's more than that, I struggle massively with anxiety and that whole call was just unreal."

An EDF spokesperson apologised for the issues, saying: "We're sorry to hear about the problems [Mel] has been facing and we're investigating this as a priority. We remain committed to helping as many customers as possible, including providing debt relief and installing energy efficiency for those in fuel poverty."