Goodwill gesture from NPower

jo2000

Hi
I am new to these forums but have recently taken charge of my £5000 debts including utilities. As I am scrutinising 'everything', I am coming across alot of discrepancies with my utility bills.
The one I am writing here about is NPower. I moved to a new property 11 months ago and wrote to NPower to give readings. 1st bill came estimated, 2nd bill estimated, so I sent a reading, no updated bill. This went on. When they finally read the meter last month after me paying estimated bills I had a bill 4 x times what I was expecting. My meter is fine, no-one is stealing electric and no NPower have not made a calculation error. I have used that much electric. Thats not all, within a week of that bill arriving, a collection agent (Bailliff) put a letter through the door demanding the full amount and charging me for his visit. I was still within the time of the bill for paying, how did a Bailliff get instructed when the ink on my bill wasnt even dry.
Anyway I wrote straight away to the Executive Complaints Dept, who rang me straight back. They apologised and said I would not be charged for a bailliff or have one visit to recover the money. They then went on to apologise for allowing me to be billed via estimates for so long, which in turn stopped me from monitoring my usage which in turn I would have been able to cut back on my usage and budgeted. NPower have told me to get readings, provide them and they will calculate a goodwill gesture to deduct from the huge bill. The bill is nearly £900. Advise please.... do I take the goodwill gesture ??? Has anyone else experienced this? I have been told NPower have allowed me to get into debt with this bill and should be doing more. Im happy with a goodwill gesture but I am also keen to make sure they do not get away with too little if they have really broken the rules. Any advice would be appreciated . . . ?

Magentasue

The supplier should read your meters at least every two years. You are responsible for checking them and budgeting accordingly.

However, you sent readings that they did not use, so I think that means they can only back bill you for a year. If they've offered a reduction, I think that's as good as it gets.

At lease you can learn from experience and check your meters regularly.

Cardew

Welcome to the forum.

I don't understand this sentence:

They then went on to apologise for allowing me to be billed via estimates for so long, which in turn stopped me from monitoring my usage which in turn I would have been able to cut back on my usage and budgeted.

What stopped you monitoring your usage?

If you have an estimated bill where the meter reading is say, 1,000kWh below the actual reading it is simple arithmetic to calculate that you have been charged £100 too little (assuming electricity is 10p/kWh).

You can either pay them £100 more than the bill demands, or set aside £100 for the time when you get a 'catch up' bill based on an actual reading.

If you have only been in the property 11 months, it is not at all unusual to have bills based on estimated readings. They only have to read meters every 2 years, and it is sometimes very difficult to gain access to read a meter when occupants are out at work. So they have certainly not broken any rules.

The baliff issue seems to be a Npower c0ck up.

Not updating your bill with your meter readings is a very common issue. If the reading is way different to the estimates, the computer 'thinks' it is an error and disregards the reading. You need to phone and chase the issue with a human.

So frankly apart from the Baliff issue, your situation is not unusual and you have suffered no financial loss, in fact you have had a £900 interest free loan!

I am surprised that they are offering any form of goodwill payment at all, - you certainly have no entitlement for compensation - so anything they do offer I would grab with open arms.

jo2000

Thank you for the advice. As I said I would be very happy with a goodwill gesture. I'm afraid I dont view things like this as 'a £900 interest free loan'. Speaking on behalf of the many people in the Country who are maybe not so clued up on reading meters and calculating these things or people who have learning difficulties or the elderly and find these things problematic I would say reading a meter once in two years quite unacceptable. According to the energy ombudsman this is not best practice either. I failed to point out in my original post that the supplier also had my meter readings the wrong way around which I inherited. I have always been able to manage with alternate bills being estimated and if I cannot I would provide the supplier with the reading. The property which I moved into 11 months ago has a few high consuming appliances etc which to be honest I would not have noticed untill a very high bill fell on my doorstep. Many consumers are the same. Suppliers cannot assume all their custmers are all able to become energy-watch experts. I certainly dont think my very independant grandmother would manage with a meter reading every two years and when we find ourselves speaking out about these things maybe we should spare a thought that not everyone is so clued up for one reason or another. Thank you for your valuable comments. Im certainly taking the goodwill gesture however big or small it may be.

Cardew

Nobody, but nobody, would defend the practices of all the Utility companies in the way they run their accounts.

The main problem is the over-dependance on the 'almighty computer' and lack of human intervention when there are problems; indeed there often is no mechanism to 'flag up' problems. The classic case is like your meter readings being disregarded by the computer as 'obviously' inaccurate or sent in a time period outside the 'window' that customer readings can be entered into the system.

BG have spent £500 million on a computer system that is great when everything is straightforward, but cannot cope with 'funnies'

andy2004

I would personally get npower paid off and switch to another company, i'm currently with southern electric for both gas and electric and never had any problems, we dont pay by direct debit but instead pay by payment card, and no thats not the dongle you plug into the meter, its like a credit card, you just pay at the counter paypoint, we pay once a week on 2 cards, 1 gas and 1 electric, all the payments you make get added up and then you are sent a bill, usually every 3months, stating how much you owe or are in credit by if anything. Makes for a nice small bill once every 3 months instead of a large one.
My mum had her bill in and one electric she was owed £135 and she owe'd them £33 on the gas, we phoned them up to transfer some of the 135 to the gas, and after giving them the new meter readings found out she was actually in credit by £19 on the gas and £202 on the electric, and so we asked them for a cheque for £150 out of the £202 as a refund and left £50 in case cost goes up of either the gas/electric, should be coming down. They agreed and are sending us the cheque which my mum can now put towards some of the other bills.

jo2000

I made the move to switch when this all first surfaced. Nothing personal to NPower I just found several suppliers with better deals. When NPower have decided what they want to deduct for a goodwill gesture following the bailiff and meter problems then I will pay the rest and get rid. Following this experience I am now familiar with how much my house costs to run and I know what I should be paying in DD's per month etc but it concerns me things like this have to happen in order for people to get on board. You only need to take a look at the forum to see how many people the utilities are getting a pound of flesh from at least once and many more will follow. It also concerns me we are also having to keep an eye out for the vulnerable, our elderly parents or grandparents, maybe youngsters living on their own, the mentally ill, the disabled, single parents just coping. The list is endless and our society is made up of all groups. With one method, one computer program and one response to all. Computer says no, pay up. Thanks for all the comments.