I am struggling at the first hurdle with EDF and could do with any insight or process which might help.
The house I bought was previously registered to EDF as a business so on a "yellow" commercial tariff (or green, 20k v)). They have their own transformer and everything was working. They went bust and the electricity supply turned off.
I completed the sale in beginning Sept '15 and was onto EDF english help line to re-establish the supply. That got turned down they tell me now. The second attempt in October also turned down they tell me. The reasons: ERDF did not like the telephone number (EDF gave their own as they were in contact with me), and they did not like the address even though you can plug the house name and code into Google maps and the flag is right over the house with no neighbour for 300m.
Of course I had given them a picture of the meter with number and address. Apparently useless as it's a different system so they can't pinpoint the meter from its number.
So I enlist the help of a French electrician who contacts them and still nothing, just waiting.
I again call them just the other day and finally manage to get into the system (at least they sent me some paperwork). I forwarded this to the electrician.
I'm told this is a temporary supply but there's limitations and it could still take a month or more. A permanent supply (which I asked for way back in September) will take anything between 3 and 6 months.
Am I doing something wrong here? Anybody got any insight or way to speed this up?
(I'm waiting to move out and in the meantime the house is being vandalised again)
I have used emails to CEOs successfully to EDF, SFR, Orange..after three weeks of talking to SFR with no result i sent an email to the CEO and the next morning to my surprise there was an engineer knocking on my door to solve the problem
Welcome to France there customer service is crap …you need someone to shout on your behalf!
They left me and I had a similar run around…then two years after they connected us and me chasing for a bill they come and pulled the plug on us …even though it was there fault they had not billed us…
I have nobody vulnerable but I have given their system a fair chance so I've fired off email.
I was not sure about approaching Mr le Maire as I have so far not met him personally (don't ask, the whole purchase was a nightmare). I have to contact them soon to see about paying my fonciere so will raise the matter then if no response from Mr Proglio office.
You're really being given the runaround here Mike. Have you tried the mairie to see if they can help? It's winter (almost) so I doubt they can leave you without electricity. If the house is being vandalised the mairie may be able to help and you could make a formal complaint (at least what is known as a "main courante" -- basically a record of your complaint) at the gendarmerie and ask them to keep an eye on the house. They are obliged by law to register your complaint. They may not like it or do anything about it but if it ever came to an insurance claim, the fact that you reported it to the police will be an essential element.
If a member of your family is vulnerable in any way, very young/old or has a health problem (needs heat, hot water...), this will speed things up no end in my experience.