The wrong MPRN?

sarah2222

Hi everyone, I hope you don't mind me asking for some advice?

I'll try to keep this as short as possible, but:

We moved into our new business property just over a year ago- it had been empty for about 18 months. The previous gas supplier was British Gas.

The PA to our MD (just a small family company) phoned around to get quotes for gas and at some point was told the MPRN.

Eventually she decided on Npower and entered a contract for the supply of gas. They came out to do a site check of the meter and everything went smoothly.
We did get sent a few bills with the wrong meter number (not MPRN) and address on so we rang up repeatedly to tell them.

A year later we decided to switch suppliers and entered into a contract with E.ON. The total paid to Npower over the year was approx £1700.

Then we received a bill from British Gas for the same period we had paid Npower for. The bill was over £6000.

It turns out that the MPRN was wrong and registered to a different address (obviously why bills got sent to the wrong address). Clearly at the start they chose to assume the meter number and address was wrong rather than the MPRN so had just changed the easier numbers!
They had never officially registered to take over the MPRN so were never deemed to supply us.

The switch to E.on had alerted British Gas of the previous years usage so we were billed at their 'out of contract rate'. They did say we could be back dated to the contract rate if we signed up with them. Obviously we have just contracted with E.on so face penalties as they denied the sales person on the phone told us of a 9 day cooling off period (apparantly the recording of the call was 'inconclusive!').

We have gone to the Energy Ombudsman who has now ruled that as we gave Npower the wrong MPRN then we would only get the £1700 refunded (which they have already done) plus £100 compensation for bad service.

Now, obviously we have a number of options,

1) Do we pursue Npower for the difference between the £6000+ bill and the £1700 we were refunded as we gave them the MPRN to the best of our knowledge (bear in mind this is an industry figure and we couldn't simple look it up on the meter itself). Did they have a duty of care to check all details once they were alerted to the wrong meter number and address details. If this was done at the start, it could have avoided a years worth of arguing? At the end of the day, they were contracted to supply us gas and they did not. We have even asked if they will give British Gas the 'gas' back at wholesale rate!
Imagine if we had stayed with them for 5 years and ended up with a £30000 bill from British Gas!

This would possibly be through a publicity campaign combined with contacting the local MP and small claim court application.

2) Do we pursue British Gas to reduce the amount to a reasonable amount? Personally, as previous supplier, I think it was them who gave the PA the wrong MPRN but nothing can be proved.

3) Or pay the £6000+ bill and put it down to experience- whether we would be able to stay in business after this is a whole new question!

Any help or opinions on this is really appreciated- we have to either accept or reject the obudsmans findings and are fighting off British Gas who are threatening us with court action.

Thanks and best wishes to all x

mynameisthehulk

sarah2222 wrote: »

Hi everyone, I hope you don't mind me asking for some advice?

I'll try to keep this as short as possible, but:

We moved into our new business property just over a year ago- it had been empty for about 18 months. The previous gas supplier was British Gas.

The PA to our MD (just a small family company) phoned around to get quotes for gas and at some point was told the MPRN.

Eventually she decided on Npower and entered a contract for the supply of gas. They came out to do a site check of the meter and everything went smoothly.
We did get sent a few bills with the wrong meter number (not MPRN) and address on so we rang up repeatedly to tell them.

A year later we decided to switch suppliers and entered into a contract with E.ON. The total paid to Npower over the year was approx £1700.

Then we received a bill from British Gas for the same period we had paid Npower for. The bill was over £6000.

It turns out that the MPRN was wrong and registered to a different address (obviously why bills got sent to the wrong address). Clearly at the start they chose to assume the meter number and address was wrong rather than the MPRN so had just changed the easier numbers!
They had never officially registered to take over the MPRN so were never deemed to supply us.

The switch to E.on had alerted British Gas of the previous years usage so we were billed at their 'out of contract rate'. They did say we could be back dated to the contract rate if we signed up with them. Obviously we have just contracted with E.on so face penalties as they denied the sales person on the phone told us of a 9 day cooling off period (apparantly the recording of the call was 'inconclusive!').

We have gone to the Energy Ombudsman who has now ruled that as we gave Npower the wrong MPRN then we would only get the £1700 refunded (which they have already done) plus £100 compensation for bad service.

Now, obviously we have a number of options,

1) Do we pursue Npower for the difference between the £6000+ bill and the £1700 we were refunded as we gave them the MPRN to the best of our knowledge (bear in mind this is an industry figure and we couldn't simple look it up on the meter itself). Did they have a duty of care to check all details once they were alerted to the wrong meter number and address details. If this was done at the start, it could have avoided a years worth of arguing? At the end of the day, they were contracted to supply us gas and they did not. We have even asked if they will give British Gas the 'gas' back at wholesale rate!
Imagine if we had stayed with them for 5 years and ended up with a £30000 bill from British Gas!

This would possibly be through a publicity campaign combined with contacting the local MP and small claim court application.

2) Do we pursue British Gas to reduce the amount to a reasonable amount? Personally, as previous supplier, I think it was them who gave the PA the wrong MPRN but nothing can be proved.

3) Or pay the £6000+ bill and put it down to experience- whether we would be able to stay in business after this is a whole new question!

Any help or opinions on this is really appreciated- we have to either accept or reject the obudsmans findings and are fighting off British Gas who are threatening us with court action.

Thanks and best wishes to all x

Accept the ruling, you are lucky to get the £100, its your responsibility, especially as a business, to know your correct MPRN.

monkeybear_2

hello

Its unfortunate, but basically npower were never your supplier so i dont think you would get any more than your money back that the refund of your bills.

If British gas were sending your bills to an incorrect address then they are at fault and should be made to re-bill you at more competitive rates. If they were sending them to the correct address to start with then you would have realised something was wrong at the start rather than after a years worth of usage had passed. I would suggest going back to british gas and explaining that you legally cannot go back to them as a supplier (as you are now under contract with eon) and seeing what they can do with your rates. If British Gas were doing what they should be doing they should have notified you when your contract rate ended and the 'out of contract' rates started - they may have done this but sent it to the wrong address? hope this helps and good luck