Challenging Electric Bill from nPower

pevil

Hi everyone, I've signed up on this forum hoping you can possibly help me out with a problem me and my flatmate are having with nPower.

My flatmate and I have been living together for approximately 5 years. In all that time, we've always paid *roughly* £300 annually for our electric. We have been in 3 different flats, in all our consumption was roughly the same (washing machine/dryer used maybe 3 times a week, electric shower, oven, 2 pcs left on maybe 12 hours a day at most, consoles that are sometimes on, lights, heating etc). We both work most of the day, particularly with it coming up to christmas and we're both in retail, so between 9-6, 3-5 days a week, no one is home.

However, we recently received a bill from nPower stating that from Sept 07 to Sept 08, we owe them £1600. This is ridiculous; no way general rates have increased 500% and we certainly are not using 5 times the electric we used to! I could possibly forgive up to £500 but not £1600.

We have double checked the meter (the bill was based on readings we gave them over the internet last sept/this sept), we turned everything off in the flat last week for a few hours and it did not go up at all, so we're not plugged into someone elses supply. We are in a quite old complex that is basically part of a shopping centre and has a very old meter, which is on Economy 7 (we plan on getting rid of that if possibly and just having a flat rate bill, as from what I've heard, it doesn't work out much cheaper at all).

The account is in my flatmates name and he just wants to pay it off (though he is already £2000 in debt). I however don't feel comfortable just paying it off unless we absolutely have to. I've spoken to many other people who use far more electric than us, and pay ~£300 - £400 annually. Not only this but our second customer service rep that we got hold of said that was outrageous compared to what she pays for in her 3 bedroom house! Our first rep however said she thought that was about average :rolleyes:

Anyway basically we're going to get them to come out and check the meter (being old it could be faulty I guess... I hope), but if it turns out it's not a faulty meter, is there any (preferably cheap) way of challenging the bill and either getting it revised or at least getting some help towards paying it? His parents have offered to pay £500 of it, but only if mine put in £500 and quite frankly, I'm not happy asking them. It's not their problem, they don't have a ton of spare money and they have given me enough anyway!

Any information, advice or whatever would be very gratefully received, particularly as while doing a search, I noticed there are some nPower employees on these boards!

Thanks in advance

WhistleBlower

If the meter is faulty they won't charge you for the bill as a rule, (or they will just charge a portion of it) but they will charge you to have the meter checked (£65 i believe but i'm not 100% sure)

Double check the reads on the bill, are they the ones you provided?

If you call NPower enegry efficiency on 0800 022220 then they'll be able to do some rough check sto see how your meter is running (the kettle test etc) and should be able to advise if the accuracy test will be a good idea.

And ignore the first rep, that bill is fine for a larg ehouse but not for a flat.

With help towards paying it, NPower will spread it out over a significant ammount of time for you, or possibly (depending on income etc) their first step program may help.

As for contesting it, i'm afraid i can't help wiht that one, it's not something i really know about.

Also, check the calculations themselves on the bill (units used x unit price = cost) i've seen system errors on that before.

Magentasue

It does seem high but then you say you're on Econ7 which means you're paying a bit more for your daytime electricity. Some thoughts:

Do you run washing machine/drier at night? That could cost a bit over the year used during the day.
What heating do you have? Again, if you use electric heaters on a daytime rate, that would cost.
Electric shower also expensive.
Immersion heater? Could it be faulty?

How long have you been in this house? I wonder if you have a more powerful shower, more heaters, inefficient or faulty immersion heater etc. different to your previous places and that these are using more electricity that you're paying a higher rate for.

Of course it may be a faulty meter but most people I know who have had high bills (including ourselves in the past) immediately think there must be something wrong with the meter. Invariably, it's been using the electricity without realising it or something being faulty.

WhistleBlower

One thing you don't mention, is this your first bill at this place? You say you've moved around before but not how long you've been here.

pevil

Sorry, thought of that just now WhistleBlower! hehe. We've been at this flat since May 07.

Magentasue:
We tend to use the washer/dryer during the day, but as I say only 2 or 3 times a week. I'm aware that Economy 7 is more expensive during the day, but surely not 5 times more expensive as 'normal rate' tariffs would be?

Heating is horrible electric storage heaters; we avoid using them as much as possible. The odd thing is, looking at our monthly breakdown (which I know is only estimates), the times it was far too cold to not have the heaters on, aren't the most expensive months. Either way, we avoid putting them on if we can.

Electric shower, agree, but again, we've always had one so unless that is faulty.. and it is always possible with the immersion heater as well of course; pretty much everything in this flat is old and could well be faulty! hehe.

As I say, I'm 99% certain we're not using 5 times the electric we used to use, so it either must be something faulty, or something wrong with the bill! We're also trying to put off paying it over an extended period of time. Quite frankly, I'm saving to migrate to Canada (which is hard enough work as it is on my wages!) by March, so ideally I'm out of the country in 6 months. They want us to pay it off in 6 months, which means a monthly fee of £275; nearly our annual bill for the previous 4 years every month!

Thanks for the advice so far, we'll look into getting the immersion heater checked. Any other thoughts are welcome!

Magentasue

What about your bill May - Sept last year? Was that high?

No, the e7 day rate isn't that much higher. Not enough to explain such a huge rise. But an old immersion heater and old storage heaters could easily do it, I'd imagine. We had the same for one winter and spent a small fortune on electricity that winter.

In our present house, we had a faulty immersion heater. In the month of February, we used £200 of electricity! To start with, we just thought it was inefficient. Found out it was never turning off - we ended up having to take fuse out to turn it off.

wishiwasarichgirl

what was the bill like for May 07 (when you moved in) to Sept 07?

pevil

I'll have to try and find it out; it can't have been that high though as we'd have noticed it (we used to average ~£75 per quarter, so May - Sept being much higher than that would've triggered us). Will have to wait for the flatmate to get back; in theory it should be in our 'important' drawer... in reality god knows where he put it

Incisor

Do you have your initial meter readings, do these agree with the bill and does the current bill agree with the current meter readings?????

pevil

Yep as stated, we gave readings last sept/this sept and they match (which is why I'm hoping it's something faulty!)

Apparently we didn't get a bill may-sept, we were just put onto an £18 per month direct debit based off initial readings (and I assume based on the size of the flat)

We just checked as well; since the bill came through (19th Sept), we have supposedly used 279 units. Taking the higher rate of 25p per unit, this works out as £70 in 3 weeks. We've had everything but the fridge switched off unless using it. We have energy saving bulbs, I use a pc maybe... 4 hours a day (from 6am - 8am and then again from 7.30pm til 9.30/10pm), flatmate uses his maybe 6 hours a day, if not he uses a console 6 hours a day (6pm til midnight for him). We've probably used the shower... 21 times in those 3 weeks. Used the washing machine 3 times, the dryer 3 times. Cooker for 20 minutes... well lets say once a day, so 21 times. I think that pretty much sums it up.

One thing we're considering regardless of if this is right or wrong, is switching to Scottish Power. Would we have to pay the outstanding bill off in one lump sum or could we still pay it monthly if we switched? Also I'm going to call consumer advice on Friday... this just seems to be getting worse and worse.

Sorry to keep bugging you all! It's just, well... depressing. And it takes a lot to drag me down. Two adults working 61 hours a week between them shouldn't be scared to turn their shower on, or living off 18p Asda beans

WhistleBlower

You'd still be able to spread it out.

They allow 6 months on a closed account. No interest would be charged.

Only kind of payment plan they can do on a closed one though is a card payment scheme, but you can make the payments any way you chose (card/bank/post office/internet/standing order) but do be aware of clearing times for payments.

(This is one of the things i actually do daily as my job, heh.)