I was contacted by the agent in September 2024. He falsely presented himself as being from EDP Empresas-
He harassed me and stalked me for months pressuring me to sign a 5 year contract with EDP.
After he reviewed my existing invoices (with MEO Energia), he told me that his proposal would be a minimum of 0.12€ per kWH in comparison to what I was paying with MEO Energia of 0.1599 at the time of comparison.
He always referred to the price of electricity as 0.12€ per kwh, an offer much better than any other competitor. He never once mentioned that this price was energia ativa only and there would be another price for the redes.
My existing MEO invoices did not specify 2 energy prices, nor did my previous invoices with EDP (when I had contracts with them prior to changing to MEO in May of 2024). There was no reasonable way for me to understand that the full price of the energy per KwH would be more than 0.12 as the agent advertised to me on multiple occasions. I was only made aware of this months after signing the contract. This made my price of electricity higher with EDP than what I was already paying with MEO. This is against what I was told and also what is written in the contract - that they will match market offers. The contract I currently have with EDP Empresas, is more than what I was previously paying with MEO!
I was always informed he would be my manager and I would not have to contact the call centre for anything.
After the contracts were signed, the problems started.
He would not solve any of my problems and in the end blocked my calls and stopped responding to my messages.
He incorrectly set-up one of my contracts as tri fasico resulting in a loss of electircity for 24 hours. He told us he had called EDP and E-redes to solve, but we later found out he did nothing. We had to solve ourselves. We lost €500 in revenue due to the loss of energy and had multiple complaints and issues to solve with the guests from the loss of power.
He failed to set me up with email invoicing as requested and I had to call the customer service center to activate the invoicing.
He failed to activate one of my electricity contracts.
On 18th February after receiving my second month of paper invoices, I realised a huge problem with my EDP Invoices. The total value for the 15 contracts, for 1 month of electricity supply was €3,558.69. In comparison to what I was paying with MEO Energia previously of €1,350 (average per month) and the invoices I had received from EDP for the first month of energy supply of €1,169.15.
When I contacted my manager for help, he informed me he would check it, but did nothing. I sent him the invoices, requesting help on multiple occasions, but I never heard from him again.
On 3rd March, realising he was not going to help, I contacted EDP customer service who told me to send them an email. They responded on 7th March, saying the invoicing was correct and I had to pay. I immediately responded to this email with follow-up questions. I never received a response to my email.
On 17th March, I received letters in the post from EDP notifying me that if I did not pay my outstanding electricity on that day, they would cut my electricity. I immediately called to EDP and made complaint number 04751273. I was told me my invoices would be blocked until the issue was solved.
In this call, I discovered that my invoices were being issues based on estimates and medium consumption (I had only been with EDP for 1 month at this point) instead of as real consumption due to a problem between the invoicing date of the EDP Invoices and the reading date sent by E Redes. With Meo, I never had to report readings as my counters are intelligent readers, and the invoices were being correctly sent as real readings.
Between 17th and 25th March, I contacted EDP everyday to get help with solving the situation, expressing concern over how the invoices were issued and requesting help to make the payment. The response was always your invoices are correct and pay! No one would explain to me how the calculation was made, or why.
During these calls I discovered the person who made the contact with me was an agent and not an employee of EDP. I requested by email on 18th March, their details and where to make a complaint. Until today, my request for this information has gone unaswered.
During this time, we also spoke to Ivan Fernandes on 20th March who said he would make a request for a payment plan for our outstanding invoices and for a review of our contract. we were informed we would receive a call wihtin 48 hours tor discuss it. We never received any call.
On 24th March, our electricity started to fail in one property, in order to avoid the cut, I paid the invoice (€183.54) to ensure continued supply of the electricity and no loss of income.
On 25th March, I received an email from to inform me that my request for a payment plan was denied and that my electricity was in imminent threat of being cut if I did not pay the outstanding value of €3,558.69 immediately.
I immediately called to EDP, but after many hours on the phone, was told to pay or lose the electricity. They refused to escalate my situation, to accept pagamentos em conta, or to explain why the payment plan was rejected. They demanded I pay 3x my average cost of elctricity based on the highly exaggerated estimates or close my business.
There demand to pay did not consider the €183.54 I had paid the previous day, so I had to pay more than what was owed in order to not lose electricity. They would not give a new payment reference for the correct amount.
I always expressed my interest to pay the invoices for the real consumption Even until the last phone call.
As a final attempt to solve the situation, we visited the EDP store in Almada, only to be told they can not serve customers from EDP Empresas. They informed there is no phsycal store for EDP Empresas, we should contact our manager or call the customer service line.
With no other choice, we contacted our bank to arrange an emergency livrança (at a cost of €650) in order to not lose electricity which would close our business (Alojamento Local)
Until today, EDP Empresas has still failed to provide me:
1. The contract review to understand the penalty for exiting the contract (I was told they would call me within 48 hours from the date of the conversation on 20th March)
3. The contact information for the agent that sold the contract and where a formal complaint can be made (requested on 18th March on the phone and by email)
I want to know what legal standing we have to cancel the contract, specifically:
1. Is it legal for EDP Empresas to not have a physical storefront that we can visit?
7.Is it legal for the agent and EDP to not provide the information of the agent (how we can contact them) and to ignore our requests for information or to make a formal complaint?
8.It is legal to falsely present yourself as being an employee of EDP and refusing to inform that you work for an agency?
9.Is it legal to cut electricity based on estimated consumption (especially given the history given above)
10.Is legal to cut electricity when we were always cooperating and showing our full willingness to make a payment plan
11.Is it legal to guarantee me the lowest price of the market, but then have hidden extra costs that result in my electricity price being higher than what I was previously paying with MEO?
Finally, can we cancel the contract with EDP Empresas without penalty? Due to the circumstances in making the contract and everything that has happened since, I believe both the agent and EDP have behaved unetically, giving us reason to exit the contract without penalty
