NPOWER - PrePayment Meters

monkeymagic1971_2 · 7 June 2008 at 6:07PM

thanks for this,

However to raise an original point the reason for the debt is the meter was not kept up to date by Npower. They last time they arranged for the meter to be updated was June 2006. Surely they have a responsibility to keep this up to date? At no stage did they request access to update or advise me when I left the property there may be an oustanding amount. I was in the property for a further 16 months after the last update and before leaving the property and I feel it is their fault they did not make sure the meter was updated.

To cover other points rasied I was told the bill was issued 8 months after I left the property as the ombudsmen advised NPower they had to make sure each bill sent out was correct. So this is the reason why it has just been received and not because they didn't know where I was or that I have delayed payment. Out of interest if notification of a bill is not recieved wihin 12 months does this mean any monies from June 2006 to May 2007 will no be payable as the 12 month period would be May 2007 to May 2008 as the bill date?

However is the consensus I will have to pay? If so and others feel NPower are not to blame for self creating this debt there seems little point in taking this matter further with them and I might as well just pay.

Thoughts?

Incisor · 7 June 2008 at 6:08PM

Premier wrote: »

Great, lend us £100 will ya?

You'll get it back £10 per month for 10 months starting in 8 months time!

(There you go, you've even got the terms of the deal in writing!)

I'm not stoopid enough to sell you electricity and let your account fall into arrears. While it's good for nPower, that it because they are stoopid. Rnaking me as being as stoopid as them is flamebait.

monkeymagic1971_2 · 9 June 2008 at 6:48PM

thanks for input so far, is anyone able to help with my last post

SwanJon · 9 June 2008 at 9:07PM

There are a few threads around there on this, and the ned result is that the supplier can enforce the recovery of this amount legally.
Morally the case is less certain.
[Devils Advocate]
Can you prove that they didn't come round to correct the price on the meter but couldn't get in?
When they sent you notice of the price increase did you arrange for them to correct your meter?
[/devils advocate]
As above, I would ask for a bill with dates and meter reads (Did you take a reading when you moved out? Did you give them this reading when you told them you were moving out?) Just in case the difference was less than £70 (I think that the £70 is nPower's number, possible following prompting from enerywatch. Other suppliers will ask for the full amount or nothing at all).

Ask for as long to pay it back as it took to build up, they can't really argue with that.

Rodney706 · 24 March 2009 at 11:27AM

Thanks ‘Premier’ your text has been a useful guide when dealing with Npower.

‘Premier’ your statement that ‘prepayment’ meters aren’t vending machines caught my attention. I don’t think the power companies are doing enough to tell their customers that ‘prepayment’ meters are only a rough guide to what the actually owe. The word ‘prepayment’ should be changed to ‘estimated payment meter’. Has a power company ever told their customers ‘that the payments they are making may not be enough and have they considered making additional payments?’ Everyone I spoke to thought that a ‘prepayment’ meter is ‘what it says on the tin’ a meter where you pay for your electricity in advance.

I suggest utility companies are continuously cost cutting and not providing engineers to update pricing information in the meter and this has not been helpful to the most vulnerable in our society. This problem has been caused by the utilities. Letting ‘prepayment’ customs get behind with the payments is not wise.

I heard yesterday that legislation is now forcing utility companies to send out annual statements to ‘prepayment’ meter customers. This may be useful for some customers who are able to pay all their bills on time. But many ‘prepayment’ meter customers don’t pay their bills on time and that is how they got their ‘prepayment’ meter is the first place. If they understand the annual statement, and some won’t, do you think it is fair that the customer should inform the power company that their meter isn’t charging enough, when they are also wondering if they can make ends meet?

Sorry ‘Premier’ not getting at you just the lawyers and judges who made the decision that ‘prepayment’ meters are not vending machines. This is a careful play on words which seems to have successfully moved the responsibility for the problem caused by out of date meter information to the customers and power companies don’t have to be responsible for there own meters.

I disagree with lawyers on this one. The power companies should be responsible for meter pricing information updates. With prepayment customers the power companies should cover the accumulated debt as they neglected their meters.

Once again thanks ‘Premier’ your advice is useful.

SwanJon · 24 March 2009 at 9:05PM

Good dredging Rodney.
This should be becoming less of an issue as all suppliers have been told to get rid of meters that cannot be remotely updated.
As the meters needed to be manually updated, what would you do if a customer refused to allow the engineer entry and continued to pay at old, lower prices.

CloudedPearl · 8 April 2009 at 9:41PM

Rodney706 wrote: »

I suggest utility companies are continuously cost cutting and not providing engineers to update pricing information in the meter and this has not been helpful to the most vulnerable in our society. This problem has been caused by the utilities. Letting ‘prepayment’ customs get behind with the payments is not wise.

It is not in utility companies interests to delay updating the pricing information on a prepayment meter and either reclaiming the charges for energy used but not paid for at a later date by setting a recovery rate on the meter (effectively giving the customer an interest free loan) or cancelling/reducing the outstanding amount as a goodwill gesture and it is more often the case that the meter reader has been unable to gain access to the meter to update the settings - the costs of recovering the charges for energy used at a much later point or cancelling/reducing the charges far outweighs the cost of sending a meter reader to update the meter settings.

The move by all suppliers to replace token prepayment meters with key prepayment meters is due to the advanced technology which allows these meter settings to be updated remotely without the need for an engineer visit which is to the benefit of both the supplier (in ensuring that they recover the correct amount for any energy used) and the customer (in ensuring that they do not build up an unexpected debt).

As I've mentioned in previous posts, whilst you may not expect to owe money when using a prepayment meter, if the meter has not collected the full value of energy you have used, you are not being penalised or overcharged when you receive a bill - you are simply being asked to pay for the energy you have actually used but not paid for.

In addition, the numerous comments posted that you are being penalised and overcharged for using a prepayment meter are often unjustified - some suppliers, such as EDF Energy, have aligned their prepayment meter tariffs with their standard quarterly tariffs and some, such as ScottishPower, have reduced their prepayment meter tariffs to below their standard quarterly tariffs. In addition, most suppliers now offer a social tariff for certain groups of customers which ensure that their energy charges match their best deal (usually monthly direct debit) regardless of that customer's payment method.

NPOWER - PrePayment Meters

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