I have changed my heating from oil to an air to air system. I contacted EDF to check on my supply contract and asked for a letter to confirm the new arrangement.
My request for a letter was refused, the EDF correspondence refusing to use any system but email.
Is this a new scam?
What would the scam be?
A lot of companies no longer have regular mail facilities or contracts. Gone are the days of secretaries putting things in envelopes and taking them to a mailroom.
I was with EDF for the past 30years and for the last five years at least, they stopped sending paper bills out every two months or even every six months, it all had to be done via email so not a scam, just modernisation of the way they do business. The idea is to take copies from emails and keep them just like the invoices.
Not everyone has a computer let alone a printer…
my nextdoor neighbour (35 yr old) has a smartphone (?) but needs to use my printer to provide documents as and when he needs them… and many people in the commune have nothing at all… just the basic phone.
some people use France Services. (?) … but that means a special journey… some use the Mairie (where the staff are really helpful)
Not heard anyone asking for EDF stuff yet… perhaps this insistence on email is a recent clampdown which has yet to filter through to “the sticks”…
but, I hope not…
I was wondering the very same.
Something changes and it is immediately labelled a scam, will we ever know when there is a genuine one?
I am surprised at the trusting nature of correspondents. You do realise that email is totally insecure and that verbal agreements are worth the paper they are written on.
EDF wanted my IBAN ,although they already have it, My response was that I did not reveal any of my banking details on the phone or by email an that he should send me the contract by post and I would respond. He refused to do that and the blustered that it was illegal to do this in France.
I terminated the conversation.
We use our personal EDF online account to communicate, seems pretty secure to me (as much as anything is). Given that an EDF printed out justicatif is considered acceptable for official purposes I’m not sure why the suspicion. Yes of course companies can and do get hacked, and are not all totally honest in their dealing, but getting something by post seems no more robust to me as proof.
You did not mention about the IBAN demand hence my response.
@Poons
Any dealings you have with EDF should be in your espace client sécurisé, within which you have a channel for communication with them. Paper is no longer used, that’s just how it is, I’m a boring civil servant and none of our admin is on paper.
If you contacted EDF, then why would an EDF officer scam you? Now, if ‘they’ contacted you, then yes, be aware…
I think the only thing I get in paper form these days are the green vignettes for the cars. As Vero says, it is pretty well all on the internet thankfully 
I just save the relevant documents as PDF files and put them in an appropriate folder on a system that produces automatic multiple backups in different locations. Believe me, it’s far easier, more secure and more reliable than any filing system I ever had for paper documents!
I had a scam this morning.
Someone said there was a problem with my health account and please ring this number.
No way.
We still get paper bills from EDF every 2 months,so don,t be taken in with the old"we don,t do paper anymore" stunt.That is what they want you to believe so that they can save themselves the big inconvenience of putting a bill in an envelope.
Or the cost? Time + paper printing + envelope+ postage must be 10’s of centimes. Multiply that by their 33 million customers and that’s a sizeable amount that I would prefer to come off my bill and just get an email.
Am afraid I have no idea what you are talking about regarding backups etc. I have always kept paper copies as when first arriving and the obligatory CDS early 90’s, you had to show paper copies of invoices etc they required and again when we did the brexit CDS. My computer is about 12 years old so would not put anything on it in case it breaks down and its lost forever.
This is not true. You can still choose the option to still have old-school paper wasteful paper bills sent to you through snail mail.
See this bit in the “Préférences” bit of “Mon Compte” in your EDF espace client…
I believe EDF bills are also available in braille for those who need this service…
