After more false assurances and then being ignored by the landlord I emailed EDF myself and laid out the situation. They told me they'd got my name from a credit check since no one had claimed the account, but they would put it in the landlord's name instead. Good I thought we're getting somewhere

They asked me do I have his contact details. Yes I replied here's the cunt's phone number. I didn't call him that in the email
Then another agent replied saying OK Mr (my name) we've put the account in your name and I was like WHAT that's the OPPOSITE of what I wanted to happen

So then the ORIGINAL agent replied again saying Sorry my colleague was mistaken it's been put in the landlord's name. And the cherry on top was they used the wrong name for their colleague. But OK whatever it's resolved. I thought!

Then the bills started coming and it became clear that instead of just changing the name on the account, they'd reversed all charges on it - leaving it with a big credit balance since the landlord had paid most of it off - opened a new account in the landlord's name and re-billed everything to that

So that means I have this now inactive account with a £600-something credit balance on it, in my name, and that same £600-something has been billed to my landlord, who was the one who paid it in the first place. So I asked if they can transfer the credit to his account. No they can't. Cool

At this point btw I have to introduce the additional wrinkle which is that I have a separate gas account with EDF, in my name, which I pay myself. This has been fine so far. But I know it could confuse things so I'm always careful to clearly state the relevant account number when I contact them

So anyway I then ask, please just refund the credit balance for (electricity account number)
Today at 4:55pm I get a reply from another agent saying Uhm actually (gas account number) does not have that much credit :)
Mother fucker I did not ask about the gas account!! I told you the account number!!

By the way I first contacted them 3 weeks ago. This shit just keeps dragging out. It takes them 1-2 days to reply to every email and they ignore half of what I say and just do whatever. I just want to be rid of this fucking account that never should have had my name on it in the first place

God help me but this has VERY slightly 0.0001% made me sympathise with my landlord in that I do now believe him when he told me he'd had a lot of trouble dealing with EDF
He's still a wanker though

And sorry for the big thread going off about my administrative problems with the electricity company

@lion fucking hell I can't believe this still hasn't been sorted after all that time