To ombudsman or not?

MoneySavingKate

Hi guys,

I am hoping someone can help me out with a long running dispute I have had with npower.

In 2006 I was incorrectly billed for £500 on my account, I lived above a bakery who in the same month received a bill for £30 so it all seemed quite obvious and easy to sort out! To cut an enormously long story short, they faffed about for years putting my account on hold, taking it off again, putting it back on etc. I made a few months payments for the amount above the incorrect £500 but as my account was on hold for most of the time I couldn't make payments and in between all this was hassled by debt collection agencies for the £500! I moved out of that property and sent a strongly worded letter of complaint and notification of my moving, alongside an offer to pay for what was owed. They claimed to not have received this and I didn't sent it recorded :mad:

Anyway about 1.5 years later I get an incredibly nasty and facetious phonecall from a lady at npower, I am sure some people on here know the sort of thing. Total lack of common sense on their part and being really pushy etc! It left me quite shaken up but either way I made another complaint, my account went on hold and after another 6 months I got a bill for ... £500!

Another round of complaints and a further 6 months I finally got a feeble phonecall apologising for the mix up and promising to send a bill for the outstanding amount of gas that I'd used whilst the account was on hold. I got it and in my hurry to pay it off I arranged to pay back £30 per month for the gas I owed (£400) using a card that they sent me. I attempted to pay with this card on the phone several times, and it didn't work. I also attempted to call them to complain again and got disconnected 3 times so just gave up and wrote a good old fashioned letter, on the advice of the ombudsman.

It was very long and had copies of all my documents, and in the letter I asked for the debt to be written off as a gesture of goodwill on their part. I have always been willing to pay for what I owed, but now, 3 years later I don't really see why I should when their customer service etc has been so abhorrent. They wrote to me offering me a £72 (I don't know how they worked that out, lol!) discount from the total. I wrote back saying that I did not accept this and my last complaint still stood, that they should issue me a deadlock letter or offer me something else.

Since then I haven't heard anything. I have moved but notified them of this in my last letter, it has been a year since I have heard anything and I am now on the move again.

I would like to just get this sorted and think that the ombudsman is my next step but to be perfectly honest there is a part of me that thinks 'f--k them if they want it they can come and get it'. I think I have spent literally in the £100's on phonecalls to their customer services and posting letters etc and have reached the end of my tether. I was just wondering if anyone knows that if I did do nothing (that is not complain to the ombudsman or chase npower) would I be weakening my rights in the complaints process if npower did track me down? Or do these things expire? I am pretty sure it hasn't affected my credit score and with other things to pay off I am not totally motivated to sort this out at the moment! Also, although I have borrowed money I don't expect things for free and am not looking for a get out of jail free card, I just think that their mistake and subsequent mistakes and terrible customer service isn't really my problem!

Sorry this is a novel and I would appreciate any advice or comments.

Thanks for you time!

Premier_2

If you wish to make a complaint, you need to follow the complaint procedure of the supplier. You can request this from them if needs be.

If you try contacting the ombudsman without having followed the correct procedure, the ombudsman will simply tell you to do so.

dogshome

From your post it appears that a year has elapsed since you wrote asking for a deadlock letter.
By my reading of the post you presently owe £300 on correct billings, but have not paid it because of the failure of the payment arrangements n'power put in place. However you must have quite a file on this meter mix-up which was the fault of the meter reading service n'power employed and for which,they have responsibilty.
Most certainly move the complaint back to the Ombudsman, but also send a bill for your time to the CEO of n'power at the rate of £12 a letter,( This a rate approved in a court case), and £8 per phone call - both incoming and outgoing) - and as the matter has been running for years it will be quite a bill, say around £270?