Help with npower please.

driver24ian

Ive been a good customer with npower for a few years and back in May i started a DMP so i moved bank accounts and so all my direct debits moved to my new bank.

For some reason npower only took 1 debit out my new bank account back in May, since then they haven't took their monthly payment even though there have been funds in my account.

I only noticed this when i was shreading bank statements etc so i rang npower to ask why. After i told cust services my problem they put me on hold for 10 mins to find out why, they told me there had been a 'issue with them and the bank and the next payment would follow as normal the following month'.

I then asked about the money i owed them as i am a little worried i wont be able to pay the amount as im on a DMP and hardly have much cash to spare. Npower told me they could spread the payments over 6 -12months.
So instead of my monthly payment being £123 it will £189!

That was it, no apology, no real explanation to what the 'issue' with them and the bank was. Am i in the right to ask them to reduce my payments due to the circumstances (dmp & their fault they didnt continue to take the monthly payments).

I know you should really check your bank statements every month to make sure things are going out as they should but i thought after the 1st month of all my debits going out as they should i didnt see a reason to check, i thought a direct debit was a easy and convenient way to pay!

Thanks in advance.

Premier_2

As they successfully took the first payment and then claim "there had been a 'issue with them and the bank", perhaps you should enquire what specific type of issue and then make further enquiries at your bank?

driver24ian

just spoke to a very helpful lady at npower. She firstly apologised and told me they 'manually suspended any payments on my account whilst they calculated my bill'.

In a nutshell they stopped my direct debit then forgot to acitvate it again when they finished messing around calculating my bill.

Dropped my monthly payment from £188 down to £126. £3 more than im paying now. good result but still a little annoyed nobody noticed there was a problem.

Premier_2

It's all very well them dropping the price down to just £3 extra per month, but if you have missed 6 payments of £123 (and assuming they werre correctly set based on 1/12 of your annual consumption) you now owe them £738 which will take over 20 years to pay off at the current rate! :eek:

factoryworker

nice to get someone nice at your energy company; firstly you haven't paid the money previously so you've not lost out; secondly i don't think its unreasonable to spread the debt over the minimum of the time built up or a year.

what you shuld be more concerned about adressing is your fuel cost; you are either paying too much (wrong tarif/suppier) and/or using too much

I suspect the latter....you could easily cut this by 10% putting you in a better position to repay debt; i think you should pay more than £3 a month-thats unrealistic

I'd speak to the nice lady again ask for a reduction for poor service (10%) AND budget to pay more than £3; £170 is more realistic and what you should be budgeting for.....no more Starbucks coffe for a while....

stubbsey

scrooge_mcduck wrote: »

I definitely agree with Premier. This sounds like you could possibly be stacking up a whole heap of doo for the future. If you run up a debt you will be unable to switch elsewhere untill it is paid back, and npower will quite cheerfully wack your DD up again to cover it.

Was the last bill you received estimated? If it was, and you are not already doing so, I would at least supply npower with up to date meter readings.

This statement is not correct. You can swap to another energy supplier while still oweing money to another. I know this as fact as it was an option given to me by npower during a #@*% up in direct debit payments that they made. They can offer you a 24 month payment plan to clear the debt.

Also while your on the phone ask to get swapped to their cheapest tarriff. You'll make a saving to boot