npower and back billing.
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Hi I wanted to share my experience with the hope of someone clearing up the rules re:back billing. This is a long one so apologies. If i can explain my sitiuation...
I am renting privately and have economy 7 with npower. We unfortunately have night storage heaters which I tend not to use as they are useless, there is one by my front door and one in my bedroom. My sons bedroom has a heater that we use (not storage) and I use a portable radiator in my front room. There are no other form of heating. I live in a 2 bed small terrace.
I have been in the property since March 2015 and since that time I have sent regular meter readings to npower 15x from myself 1x by npower themselves and 4x estimations from npower. I had received 8 bills - April, May, July, Aug and November 2015, Jan, June, November and now Yesterday (final amended bill) 2016 making it 9. I had an annual summary March 2016. I pay online, sometimes in advance to cover winter time and/or when I receive a bill. I didn't set up DD as the accommodation was initially meant to be temporary, sadly we haven't managed to find a house to buy yet ( that's another story).
I checked online for my bill at the end of November. As I had been doing over the period of June - now, I hadn't received one as I was one of the many that had received a letter to from npower stating they were experiencing a "system issue" delaying some of the bills.Last week my bill is online on my account and it is £600+ in credit. I was baffled I thought eh? How? So I queried it. Phone them.They said that it was incorrect and they needed to ammend it. A week passes by I ring again as my account now says £550 in debit. By this time my little peanut brain has shrunk even smaller. I speak to a lady who informs me the whole bill is still wrong. She informs me that I have been sending wrong Meter readings from the get go and I have been charged incorrectly from the day I moved in and I am in arrears of the amount shown. Up to this date I had paid £850.36. At this point sheer panic ensued. I put the phone down and proceeded to go through everything with a fine tooth comb. Thank goodness I did. I went through all the bills online. I discovered that I had in fact been sending through the CORRECT readings and npower had got them mixed up and charged me the other way round so expensive Night rate - cheaper Day rate. I called back and informed them off my intention of getting ofgem and citizens advice involved ( not really knowing if I could or not at this point) they put me on hold. The lady came back on the phone and she had someone sat with her on the call.
I start by asking her if I had sent the wrong readings she said yes it looks that way. I then said so the reading sent by your employee and your estimated readings are also incorrect? Yes she said. I informed her that npower in fact were given the right info but it was them that had inputted the readings incorrectly and mixed the day and night prices, charging me less for day etc. She then said oh I don't know which way round it is supposed to be and put me on hold. She came back to say yes I had been correct and that they had made a mistake.She then said it would need to be logged as a complaint and get passed onto ''technical'' to go through the whole account and amend the bill. I was given a complaint number.
I have since been in touch with citizens advice and they are contacting npower to see exactly what they have done. I can see it and now it looks as if they also have seen the errors. I have been checking my account ( rather obsessively ) and yesterday the account has been back dated and charged the right way round. In one day my account read - £600 credit, £1100 credit £550 debit £250 debit now it reads £371 debit and I have to pay this by 20th December! Merry bloody Christmas to them too!
I have worked out everything my end and with everything as it SHOULD have been I have worked out that my usage was from 03/15 - 12/16 (£1288.87p) and I have paid £850.36p which leaves £438.51 outstanding on my bill. OK this is undeniable I have used this electricity and although I am shocked at the price, there is no getting away from it.It's what i owe.I have never been on this kind of tariff before now and carried on my merry way thinking I was paying enough so to speak.
Can they back bill it to March 2015? I am pretty sure they can, if so can I choose the way I pay them the money back? I am awaiting to hear from the Cit.Advice more complexed department who has given a 10 day period for npower to respond to letters sent by them re: back billing and bill issues.
The npower customer service has been a complete shambles.What sort of company doesn't train staff to know which way day and night readings are supposed to be billed. I paid in good faith and I sent my readings in good faith.I feel stupid that I didn't notice and I have learnt my lesson! I am not the only one who has suffereed unnecessary stress at the hands of npower either so how on earth do they get away with it.
Thanks for reading, that's made me feel slightly better typing all of that.
I am renting privately and have economy 7 with npower. We unfortunately have night storage heaters which I tend not to use as they are useless, there is one by my front door and one in my bedroom. My sons bedroom has a heater that we use (not storage) and I use a portable radiator in my front room. There are no other form of heating. I live in a 2 bed small terrace.
I have been in the property since March 2015 and since that time I have sent regular meter readings to npower 15x from myself 1x by npower themselves and 4x estimations from npower. I had received 8 bills - April, May, July, Aug and November 2015, Jan, June, November and now Yesterday (final amended bill) 2016 making it 9. I had an annual summary March 2016. I pay online, sometimes in advance to cover winter time and/or when I receive a bill. I didn't set up DD as the accommodation was initially meant to be temporary, sadly we haven't managed to find a house to buy yet ( that's another story).
I checked online for my bill at the end of November. As I had been doing over the period of June - now, I hadn't received one as I was one of the many that had received a letter to from npower stating they were experiencing a "system issue" delaying some of the bills.Last week my bill is online on my account and it is £600+ in credit. I was baffled I thought eh? How? So I queried it. Phone them.They said that it was incorrect and they needed to ammend it. A week passes by I ring again as my account now says £550 in debit. By this time my little peanut brain has shrunk even smaller. I speak to a lady who informs me the whole bill is still wrong. She informs me that I have been sending wrong Meter readings from the get go and I have been charged incorrectly from the day I moved in and I am in arrears of the amount shown. Up to this date I had paid £850.36. At this point sheer panic ensued. I put the phone down and proceeded to go through everything with a fine tooth comb. Thank goodness I did. I went through all the bills online. I discovered that I had in fact been sending through the CORRECT readings and npower had got them mixed up and charged me the other way round so expensive Night rate - cheaper Day rate. I called back and informed them off my intention of getting ofgem and citizens advice involved ( not really knowing if I could or not at this point) they put me on hold. The lady came back on the phone and she had someone sat with her on the call.
I start by asking her if I had sent the wrong readings she said yes it looks that way. I then said so the reading sent by your employee and your estimated readings are also incorrect? Yes she said. I informed her that npower in fact were given the right info but it was them that had inputted the readings incorrectly and mixed the day and night prices, charging me less for day etc. She then said oh I don't know which way round it is supposed to be and put me on hold. She came back to say yes I had been correct and that they had made a mistake.She then said it would need to be logged as a complaint and get passed onto ''technical'' to go through the whole account and amend the bill. I was given a complaint number.
I have since been in touch with citizens advice and they are contacting npower to see exactly what they have done. I can see it and now it looks as if they also have seen the errors. I have been checking my account ( rather obsessively ) and yesterday the account has been back dated and charged the right way round. In one day my account read - £600 credit, £1100 credit £550 debit £250 debit now it reads £371 debit and I have to pay this by 20th December! Merry bloody Christmas to them too!
I have worked out everything my end and with everything as it SHOULD have been I have worked out that my usage was from 03/15 - 12/16 (£1288.87p) and I have paid £850.36p which leaves £438.51 outstanding on my bill. OK this is undeniable I have used this electricity and although I am shocked at the price, there is no getting away from it.It's what i owe.I have never been on this kind of tariff before now and carried on my merry way thinking I was paying enough so to speak.
Can they back bill it to March 2015? I am pretty sure they can, if so can I choose the way I pay them the money back? I am awaiting to hear from the Cit.Advice more complexed department who has given a 10 day period for npower to respond to letters sent by them re: back billing and bill issues.
The npower customer service has been a complete shambles.What sort of company doesn't train staff to know which way day and night readings are supposed to be billed. I paid in good faith and I sent my readings in good faith.I feel stupid that I didn't notice and I have learnt my lesson! I am not the only one who has suffereed unnecessary stress at the hands of npower either so how on earth do they get away with it.
Thanks for reading, that's made me feel slightly better typing all of that.
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Comments
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Welcome to the forum.
The code of practice for accurate billing is here:
http://www.energy-uk.org.uk/customers/energy-industry-codes/code-of-practice-for-accurate-bills.html
Note it is a code of conduct, not a regulation.
If you play 'hardball' I would think that for the period from March 2015 to 08 December 2015 you would pay the sum they billed i.e. rates reversed. This would appear to be covered by this paragraph:Back billing
not ask customers to pay any extra for energy used - and for which through the suppliers’ fault no accurate bill was received – if more than one year has elapsed before the bill
is produced.
In any case you most certainly can pay back any sum owing over a period of time to suit yourself.
Personally I would attempt to get the whole amount of the debt written off.0 -
This company doesn't even understand how a deemed contract can and cant be formed lol. Go for full write off including ombudsman they hate themDon't put your trust into an Experian score - it is not a number any bank will ever use & it is generally a waste of money to purchase it. They are also selling you insurance you dont need.0
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Doesn't surprise me,had the same problem,they always got my farthers e7 readings the wrong way round,as well as other inaccuracies.
It makes you wonder how they are still allowed to sell utilities.0 -
The cynic in me wonders if failing to bill customers properly, until they decide to leave, works as a ploy to keep them on board.
When we'd had enough of them and decided to leave, the final bills totalled over £1300, that was ok for us we had the funds to pay and good riddance.
Many people would not have those funds available (i would have been in dire straits in previous times) and would probably have been forced into staying with them and paying the excess off over a long period.
The amount of similar tales has one wondering if this might not be pure incompetence.0 -
gilbert_and_sullivan wrote: »The cynic in me wonders if failing to bill customers properly, until they decide to leave, works as a ploy to keep them on board.
When we'd had enough of them and decided to leave, the final bills totalled over £1300, that was ok for us we had the funds to pay and good riddance.
Many people would not have those funds available (i would have been in dire straits in previous times) and would probably have been forced into staying with them and paying the excess off over a long period.
The amount of similar tales has one wondering if this might not be pure incompetence.
People need to be aware of what they are paying, give regular accurate readings and notice any missed bills.
Mine is a few days late and I've complained already.0 -
People need to be aware of what they are paying, give regular accurate readings and notice any missed bills.
Mine is a few days late and I've complained already.
That is absolutely right, expect you need to be a qualified barrister to be able to understand nPowers bills, never have i seen such a convoluted mess, perfect for bamboozling the enemy, sorry, customer.
In comparison Robin Hood's and Zog's are simplicity itself to read at a glance and know exactly where you are.0 -
gilbert_and_sullivan wrote: »That is absolutely right, expect you need to be a qualified barrister to be able to understand nPowers bills, never have i seen such a convoluted mess, perfect for bamboozling the enemy, sorry, customer.
In comparison Robin Hood's and Zog's are simplicity itself to read at a glance and know exactly where you are.
I am not a barrister , but don't find the bills difficult to understand. They clearly show the unit rate with units used between readings and standing charge with number of days. I wouldn't want any less detail.
My recent complaint resulted in an immediate bill and compensation.0 -
You shouldn't have to chase bills,especially when on DD,Npower have been doing this long enough that the should estimate fairly accurately .I am not a barrister , but don't find the bills difficult to understand. They clearly show the unit rate with units used between readings and standing charge with number of days. I wouldn't want any less detail.
My recent complaint resulted in an immediate bill and compensation.
But with my dealings with them the failed to bill for 6 months took another 2 months to get a completely fabricated bill out,then a total of 15 months to get a accurate bill out.
And they send meter readers around and either didn't use the readings or the get the day and night readings the wrong way round.
On top of that constant ringing emailing and messaging did barely nothing until the ombudsman had to step in.
Totally utterly useless.
All the other utilities manage to estimate and bill without all this hassle,I have only found Scottish power as bad.
Green star energy can estimate within a pound or 2 on my account,and send meter readers around and use the readings! Wow and these are newbies.0 -
It really is no wonder every time I look Npower have lost another 100,000 customers.0
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stevegrass777 wrote: »You shouldn't have to chase bills,especially when on DD,Npower have been doing this long enough that the should estimate fairly accurately .
But with my dealings with them the failed to bill for 6 months took another 2 months to get a completely fabricated bill out,then a total of 15 months to get a accurate bill out.
And they send meter readers around and either didn't use the readings or the get the day and night readings the wrong way round.
On top of that constant ringing emailing and messaging did barely nothing until the ombudsman had to step in.
Totally utterly useless.
All the other utilities manage to estimate and bill without all this hassle,I have only found Scottish power as bad.
Green star energy can estimate within a pound or 2 on my account,and send meter readers around and use the readings! Wow and these are newbies.
I don't mind complaining (I can calculate my own bill anyway) as they pay me for doing so.
I don't bother with calls to the customer service department. I deal with executive complaints via email. This method gives you a named case worker, who sorts things quite quickly.0
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