A HOMEOWNER was left 'stressed out of her head' as an energy firm continued to take thousands from her bank account after she switched providers.

Deborah Boyle, a single mother-of-three from Accrington, was originally with Green Network Energy and was automatically transferred to EDF Energy when the former became insolvent.

The 44-year-old, who runs a beauty business, decided to switch to Eon in October when EDF notified her that her tariff was set to increase.

Ms Boyle began paying the monthly instalments to Eon, only to realise in November that EDF had taken £833.03 from her account.

She said: "After numerous calls, nobody could figure out why I was still being charged. Apparently, the account appeared closed.

"Now, I've had seven bills from EDF quoting different amounts each time which their customer service team couldn't explain.

"I was stressed out of my head and scared on a daily basis about what was going to happen next.

"On November 12, I thought they'd finally realised their error when I received a credit for £197.30 - though final bills kept on arriving.

"On November 30, they then tried to take £1,552.44 which thankfully bounced as I had closed the direct debit.

"By this point, it was impacting my Christmas and mental health and I was checking my bank daily to make sure they hadn't tried again.

"When I finally got through to the complaints department at EDF, I spoke to a very helpful lady who actually apologised and agreed this all didn't make sense on my account and she couldn't give me any answers as to why this was happening to me.

"She asked to have some time to investigate and so I agreed.

"When I next heard from her, she advised me that all this was happening due to my old provider billing me incorrectly, but said due to them going bankrupt they had no evidence to support this.

"She apologised again and reassured me that this was through no fault of my own and things would be sorted with her managers possibly wiping the £1,552.

"Then, I got a message from a different employee telling me not to worry. The account was now closed with nothing owed."

However, further bills arrived throughout December and a frantic Ms Boyle contacted customer services again.

A spokesperson for EDF said of Ms Boyle's complaint: "On further investigation, we have discovered an error on Ms Boyle’s account due to an incorrect reading provided to EDF during the Supplier of Last Resort (SoLR) process, which led to her receiving incorrect charges for her energy.

"We have now fixed this and as a result the outstanding charges on her account have been cleared and a credit has been issued.

"A refund will be provided to Ms Boyle and in recognition that her experience did not reflect the high standards we aim for, we have also provided her with a gesture of goodwill."

That gesture of goodwill, according to Ms Boyle, was knocking £50 off her most recent incorrectly issued bill of £716.

She added: "My new supplier Eon then tried to take £500 out of my bank because of this ongoing situation with EDF.

"So, now I'm having to ring them too, go through the whole situation again and I managed to get my money back from the bank.

"On New Year's Eve, I got yet another final bill from EDF, so yet again I messaged saying how upset I was.

"They tell me to actually ignore the last message as now they want £716.50 off me but will take £50 off as a good will gesture. I'm at my wits-end and have decided to go to the Ombudsman for help.

"Still nobody can explain where and why I owe all this money.

"My case was opened and EDF messaged me asking me what might resolve this situation.

"I reply by asking for all of my money back that they took without permission or evidence, plus compensation for ruining my family Christmas and my mental health when I've enough to deal with as a single parent of three and caring for my disabled son.

"I'm then told this will be escalated to management who will look into it and my balance is on hold until February 4.

"They ended the chat so I can't reply back and now I'm left in limbo trying to pursue this with the ombudsman."

On January 10, Ms Boyle says she contacted Eon and asked them to take her normal monthly payment so that she does not fall into arrears.

An Eon operative said the figures that EDF had sent them 'did not make sense' when looked at side-by-side with her meter readings.