NPower gas 'sculpting'

Just a quick update on my claim submitted to npower way back in April.
Letter and cheque received (without any admission of liability) for an amount which was only just short of the amount I was claiming.
I'll be back later ...... keep at 'em ....;)

Just a quick update on my claim submitted to npower way back in April.
Letter and cheque received (without any admission of liability) for an amount which was only just short of the amount I was claiming.
I'll be back later ...... keep at 'em ....;)

Good news meggsy. Persistance pays.

I also found some bills for 2004/5 but I seem to remember that I destroyed most of the bills from before 2007 - can I ask to have these sent to me so I can work out ho much they have overcharged me for previous years?

Of course you can ask. They may well give you some bill details over the phone but may be limited as to how far they can go back in this way due to the change in billing systems. Probably archived most of the ones you want but they will have the details so go for it.

Endora wrote: »

So can anyone explain what this means exactly and if I still have a good case to request a refund for the possibly overcharging?

Your case for a refund is not affected in any way; you were still overcharged.

The [strike]explanation[/strike] excuse they gave you applies to all their customers, yet many have been given a refund.

In essense what they are doing is explaining the rationale behind 'sculpting'. This is a way of ensuring that they extract the maximum 'fixed charge' by getting customers to pay for 4,572 tier 1 units, instead of those low users in summer paying less.

Other than leave the company, nothing can be done about sculpting as such if it is explained in their terms and conditions.

Where the company are culpable, is that they suspended 'sculpting' in the summer(when very few tier 1 units should be charged) and charged all their customers for far more tier 1 units each month.

This meant that all of their customers who were with them over this period were charged for in the region of 2,000 extra Tier 1 units over the 4,572 that was stated in their terms and conditions.

If you pursue your claim they will pay up, they will still get away with their scam for millions of customers.

DirectDebacle wrote: »

Endora thank you so much for going to the trouble of reproducing this letter. I agree with Cardews' summary. In short they are admitting planned overcharging and have put forward an example of how they tried to compensate for it.

I cannot go into my reasons on here but it is my belief that neither you or any gas customer overcharged in this way by npower has been fully compensated, if at all. What they have said does not mean you don't have a claim. In fact they are saying the opposite. They are saying you have already been compensated for a claim which they anticipated last May you might be making. In one respect you have already won. They admit overcharging and have claimed you were compensated. So the argument has moved on. It is now merely a dispute over the level of compensation. Tell them you want the full amount plus compensation, when you know it.

How/when will I know what the full amount is? I know this could take a while as it took almost a year to get a refund from BT from overcharging us for a dial-up service we weren't using as we were using broadband, in the end they didn't even acknowledge any of our correspondence, apologise for the inconvenience or inform us of a refund, it just appeared on a following bill (but that's another story).

It was only a few days ago that I discovered this excellent and important thread concerning the overcharging of millions of Npower customers. Having read much of this thread (which took a while) perhaps I may add a few comments, which I hope may help. I have put them in numbered order for ease of reference.

1. We seem to be looking at a national scandal here; in fact we are looking at two.
a. the said Npower debacle and refusal to admit it is in the wrong, and
b. that Energywatch, Ofgem and The Office of Fair Trading have all thus far completely failed in their respective duties to protect the consumers in this case by bringing this matter to a proper resolution. A full enquiry should have been made into Npower’s actions by at least one of these organisations, followed by an order to compensate every affected customer - plus a sizeable fine. Instead (if I understand correctly) there has merely been complacent buck passing of this problem by each of these consumer protection organisations in turn. This lack of proper response in such an obvious situation is as much of an outrage as the issue itself and should be investigated by an appropriate parliamentary select committee with sufficient powers to see what has gone wrong here.

2. I wondered how many customers had been affected, and found from Times Online it is estimated that around 2.2 million Npower gas customers could have been overcharged, and that the average overpayment could be in the order of £50 each. On those figures Npower appear to have wrongly taken around £110 million too much from its affected customers. I believe the figure will prove to be much higher.

3. Who are these affected customers? I calculate anyone that is (or was) a gas customer of Npower for at least twelve months and that this duration included some or all of the six calendar months of May 2007 to October 2007 (this being when customers were deprived of their summer reduction in the number of gas units charged at a higher rate).

4. We should be able to rely upon the ability of a company of this size and importance to get its charges right in the first place, and (if it does make a mistake) for it to have the honesty and business integrity to put matters right without argument. This £110 million or so that should be paid back is not a fine (though it should be); it is not even Npower’s money – it belongs to its overcharged customers, who should be reimbursed without delay or dispute.

5. People may say that if the company has to pay all this money back its prices will go up to pay for it. I say, in that case we the customers can switch to another company. If Npower goes out of business, I say, let that be a warning to other companies to get it right.

6. With £110 million at stake it’s no great wonder that Npower is doing its best to avoid being found liable. And when you are on a loser the best thing is to kick up as much dust and confusion as possible, which it seems to be doing. In other words Npower is coming up with as many spurious excuses and arguments as possible in the hope of blurring the issue. Its management hopes that most if not all of its customers will simply give up. From what I have read in this thread some customers have even suffered rudeness from Npower telephone operatives when attempting to discuss this matter. I for one consider that to be a form of intimidation, which should also be fully and independently investigated.

7. So lets look at a couple of these spurious arguments or excuses put forward by Npower in writing to its customers (and which have been set out verbatim earlier in this thread), and lets see how easily they can be shot down, as can any others in similar fashion.
a. First is Npower’s written claim (by email to Colonelhall - #66) that their count of high tier units begins afresh with a new price rise. I for one don’t believe any court in the land would let them get away with that one. Why? Because Npower’s own words nail it firmly to the mast. The very first sentence in their printed customer information notes entitled “How to work out your gas bill” (dated 5 November 2007) says, “Over the year we charge a maximum of 4572 KWh’s on the high rate tariff”. There is no subsequent statement in that document to qualify or modify that simple sentence in any way whatever. A maximum is a maximum, and in the absence of any words to the contrary in that document, the maximum is 4572 high tier units a year. The document is after all entitled “How to work out your gas bill”.
b. Second is Npower’s claim that their year for these purposes begins in November. Well even if it does, their customers have still been overcharged by around £40. But hold fast, if you look again at their first sentence quoted in the previous paragraph it begins, “Over the year…” They make no mention of November or any other month for that matter. So what does the phrase “a year” mean? My own opinion is that it means a customer’s year; that is a year beginning on the date when each individual customer began receiving gas from Npower. Any other interpretation I believe is nonsensical, and would be unfair to the affected customers.
Indeed any other interpretation makes it impossible for an individual to correctly check the amount of high tier units being charged from the date of becoming a customer of Npower. Npower also promises its customers various refunds after they have been with it for a year. Again the clear implication is that time begins to run from when each customer begins to receive his or her supply. So attempting to suggest all our years begin on 1st November regardless would be laughed out of court (and it wouldn’t have avoided liability anyway).

8. In the absence of any of the official bodies mentioned above bringing Npower to book, it looks as though some or all of its affected customers are going to have to take Npower to court. It has already been stated earlier by various contributors to this thread that Npower is already settling claims by paying out “goodwill” compensation to customers who are threatening legal action, rather than risk losing in court - which would presumably allow the floodgates to open. Because once Npower’s liability is established in court, it will be legally bound to repay everyone affected who claims.

9. This brings us to another problem upon which Npower management is no doubt pinning its final hopes (of the company keeping the vast bulk of the estimated £110 million in dispute). That is the seemingly complex and stealth-like nature of what has happened and the fact that practically every affected customer’s claim will be for a different amount (albeit within a limited financial range of less than £90 or so). But I have no doubt that all such difficulties can easily be overcome as the following may demonstrate.
a. The first task is to establish the number of units above the maximum 4572 each affected customer (as defined in para 3 above) has been wrongly charged for. The obvious method is by checking past bills for the twelve months in question. But in order to have your individual year’s reckoning starting on the right date (see para 7b above) that usually means apportioning the high tier units in the bill’s for the first and last months of that individual year. It sounds worse than it is to do. Other than that it’s just a question of adding up the high tier units up from the bills over that “year”, and then deducting from the total the maximum 4572 to give the number of excess units wrongly charged for.
However, there is a shortcut. I have created an Excel spreadsheet that is based upon Npower’s information notes mentioned above. Virtually all I have to do is put in the relevant year start date, and the answer for the number of overcharged units instantly drops out. I have checked this very thoroughly against Npower’s own examples and my own manual calculations; and also it fits DD’s calculation (#612) perfectly well for the year beginning 01/11/06 at 5595 (his is 5593) meaning 1023 units above 4572. The slight difference of 2 units out of over five and a half thousand is of course negligible.
In fact there are only about 547 possible dates on which a claimant’s year could begin; ranging from 2nd May 2006 to 31st October 2007. So perhaps a published simple grid or table giving the answer for each date would a practical way, that people could simply look up and find the number of overcharged units immediately. I would be happy to supply this if there is a demand for it.
True, this shortcut gives a theoretical answer rather than one based on the figures taken from the actual bills concerned (as apportioned etc), but since the spreadsheet calculations are done in accordance with the method as prescribed by the said Npower information notes, the result should be the same give or take a unit or two. It certainly worked with my bills when I compared the results. So I don’t think Npower would dare to disagree with this in court. If they did, I believe they would be obliged to produce their own records and calculations in rebuttal well beforehand; which would I’m sure would only happen where each sides’ figures are far apart. In fact they would be wise not to dispute this method at all.
b. Now some affected customers’ years end in the period between the six months from May and October 2007, as opposed to straddling it, in which case those with two complete years with Npower have to look at two consecutive years and get a figure for each, as they will have been billed for too many high tier units in both years. This of course merely requires a repetition of the previous step for the second year.
c. Once you have the (total) excess units, it is just a matter of multiplying them by the price difference (including VAT) to give the amount claimed. For example let us take someone whose start date is 2nd March 2007. He will have been overcharged for 2231 too many high tier units. If the price difference is say 3.85 pence, the claim is for £85.89.
d. What about price changes during the year in question? My own belief is that one should select the high and low tier unit prices current at the end of the year concerned and use the difference between those for the calculation in the previous paragraph. I doubt that Npower would argue. To do so would smack of splitting hairs.

10. I would not waste time telephoning Npower with such a claim, although it might work for some. I for one would write what is known as a letter before action, setting out the claim and giving Npower 28 days to pay up within that time, with a clear warning that its failure to do will result in county court proceedings being commenced without further notice. A previous contributor to this thread (see #608) had some very useful information on all of this, although I don’t think every claimant has to go and get the run-around from Energywatch or Ofgem (as is suggested) before going to court; I say that simply because of the combined failure of those agencies to take any action in this matter.

11. I would send such letter by “recorded special delivery” to Npower’s registered office, which I understand is at Windmill Hill Business Park, Whitehill Way, Swindon SN5 6PB (and not to their Customer Service or similar which I personally don’t consider appropriate for such letters). I always feel it is advisable to get proof of delivery (in case it may be necessary to prove to the court you did send it and that Npower received it). I find it amazing how often companies deny having received claims letters). It goes without saying that you need to keep a copy of that and any other letters you send. To obtain proof that your letter has been delivered you merely need to visit the Royal Mail website and enter the reference number on your postal slip and printout the Royal Mail’s confirmation of delivery and keep it with the copy of your letter to show to the court if necessary. In addition, sending a letter by recorded special delivery tends to show you mean business, (especially if it’s sent to its registered office) and it even adds to the pressure if your letter actually states at the top that it has been sent by this method. Even if you can’t get proof of delivery because Npower become deluged with such letters (to many to individually sign for) you still have your Royal Mail slip as proof of postage, and that should be sufficient.

12. The small claims procedure is designed to be as helpful as possible. But somehow I think most people will find Npower won’t defend it beyond the steps of court. So it should be just a matter of form filling.

13. Please forgive the length of this contribution, but I can’t help finally mentioning
a. In reference to paragraph 7a above, that Npower’s worked examples in their said information notes are quite specific and those examples certainly do not make any mention of re-starting the count of high tier units upon a price rise, which they would have done if this was the case. They are only saying it now. And this subsequent attempt by Npower to re-write history after that document (dated 5 November 2007) is both shameful and invalid.
b. Also there is a glaring arithmetical mistake in their worked example for the period 15/09/07 to 14/12/07 in that the total percentage figure should be 40.53 and not 51.33 as shown, resulting in a wrong answer of 2338 KWhs as shown, instead of the correct answer of 1853 KWhs. Such an arithmetical mistake in Npower’s own customer information notes seems to be the very hallmark of a series of billing mistakes by that company and shows an inexcusable lack of attention to detail.

I hope you all find this helpful. Please let me know if any points need clarifying.

Sterling