NPower gas 'sculpting'

The Guide to Switching Away from Npower

Npower are renoun for rejecting switching services. The general rule of things is if you owe them more than £100 they automatically refuse, so make sure you give accurate readings and pay them asap. Also when you get a switching date (from your new supplier), you are only meant to give the new supplier the readings and then they pass them on, that process can take upto 4 weeks (but usually 2 weeks) especially for the gas as it has to go through transco first. So taking that into account, give Npower final readings as well, as it makes sure they do at least get the final readings quickly, but usually can not act upon them until it has come through your new supplier / transco. If after 4 weeks from the date of switch Npower claim that your new suppliers readings have not come through (from your new supplier and/or transco), your new supplier can re-apply / re-send again, at this point in time your new supplier has more control in the matter. In general its best to act as a communicator between both companies of the current status in switching.

Make sure during the period of switch / final readings, you keep regular contact with npower and your new supplier to find out your status of switch, ie. if transco / new supplier have passed on the readings. I would recommend contacting them at least twice a week during that period, giving assurances to Npower that it will be paid straight away, and write down who / when you spoke to. During this time, you may wish to negotiate with Npower to get your account flagged up to automatically approve the switch, regardless of what you may owe them, even if you get the flag onto your account (usually takes a couple of days), the switch may still get rejected due to the flag being reversed !! (usually billing reverse it)

Hopefully it should run smoothly, but very often Npower reject switches, hence keep in contact with them at least twice a week during that period. If you find out Npower rejected the switch (billing department / team), assure them you will pay what you may owe. They will also inform you that you need to contact your prospective new supplier to re-apply again !! for new switch dates (and your new supplier will contact you if the switch failed). This is in fact a ploy to make it more difficult to switch, they have a procedure called D68 FLOW, this reverses the rejection and takes 24 hours to go through, generally they wont inform you about this, and some staff dont even know that this procedure exists. Be firm with Npower and hold your ground. You may find it usefull for your new supplier to help on your behalf too in this situation. If your new supplier gets involved and experiences the difficulty you are having, they may offer a small compensation payment as encouragement to switch.

Also check any final bills from Npower, especially if you switch around the time of price increases and got your prices frozen at the previous rates, they often bill you at the new rates !!. If you encounter any of the problems above then make a complaint to Npower, as you may get a small reduction in your final bill for the hassle / problems / mistakes. Once switched and paid your final bill with Npower, get a letter from them confirming your account is cleared and the account is closed. Also with your new supplier, confirm everything is correct, especially imperial / metric meters, and how you wish to be billed / when.

Anyone contemplating issuing a County Court summons against npower, this is the correct company and address to put on the court form as the defendant.

Npower Northern Limited
C/O RWE Npower plc
Windmill Hill Business Park
Whitehill Way
Swindon SN5 6PB

npower get another mention.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/money/consumer_affairs/article4219590.ece

RM5 wrote: »

Interesting, so they do sculpt electricity as well, albeit with a much flatter sculpting profile. Shame they only explain this on request! I wonder if this was suspended in summer 07 as well? If they used this profile throughout, Ms Poole was indeed not overcharged, but nPower should not be surprised that customers complain due to the secrecy surrounding the sculpting.
If only their gas sculpting reflected actual usage! The old profile did but the new profile (19.3% each for nov to feb) certainly doesn't.

RM5,

This is not sculpting as it is nothing to do with Tier 1 units.

All Utility companies have this procedure when there is a price change(up or down) in the period of a quarterly bill.

The computer has an algorith that calculates average consumption each month and on the date of the price change estimates the pre and post price rise consumption. So had Mrs Pool's quarterly bill been from 01 Dec to 28 Feb(with the price rise from 04 Jan) the allocation of pre and post rise units would have been different.

BG do exactly the same. Even though I am on a fixed rate tariff my quarterly bills still estimate my consumption pre and post the prise rise date - and have been very accurate(although for me it wouldn't matter if it was wrong)

Npower's explanation is both plausible and accurate and Mrs Pool does not have a case for complaint IMO.

I hope the Times don't 'push' this situation implying that it is another scam as it will detract from the very real 'sculpting' scam.

You are right, cardew, in case of electricity they only use the sculpting for splitting usage across price changes and not for tier one units. I checked a recent electricity bill and it is all consistent with 728kWh at tier 1 with a flat profile.