Electricity bill was a shock... at €164.8million

Reader Hilary Whitford got a shock when she opened a letter from EDF warning her that her next electricity bill was going to be large... at €164,800,260.

Even worse, when Mrs Whit­ford contacted EDF to complain she was told that “Yes, the bill is correct” and that her adviser was there to help her organise a payment schedule.

Speaking from her home in Puy-de-Dôme, Mrs Whitford said: “I was stunned, especially when he said I had to pay.

“There was not even an apology, even at the end of it all once I had persuaded them the bill was wrong no one apologised.”

The letter was to advise Mrs Whitford that the money would not be taken out of her account straight away and that EDF was offering to set up a payment schedule.

But, she said: “How was I going to pay a bill like that; how could I even run up a bill the size of that?

“Eventually he looked at it again but when he came back it was still not correct and he gave me the bill for last year... then the line cut off as my phone line is bad and I had to call a second adviser who was able to give me the proper sum, of €1,648.26.”

A spokesman for EDF told Connexion Mrs Whitford had not been sent a bill but her advisor had sent a warning that her next bill was going to be large... and “a typing error saw a series of extra zeroes added by mistake” in the letter.

After we spoke to EDF Mrs Whitford received a letter from her advisor – in English – offering the much-awaited apology on behalf of EDF and offering a “goodwill gesture” of... €40.

Mrs Whitford said: “Wow!”