Huge utility bill sorted - here's what I did...

GingerAngles

Hi Folks....

I posted a thread on here a couple of weeks back regarding a huge >£400 bill from NPower for an electric account which had built up to this amount since may '08. I'd not had any statements since Jan '08 and felt this was really unfair!

Basically I spoke to consumerdirect who gave me some really good advice and I weote the following letter:

Further to my letter dated 27 January 2010, I have considered the information you have sent though to me (namely statements from May 2008 to December 2009) and I have also taken advice from Consumer Direct prior to compiling this response.
In order for you to fully understand the reasons behind the requests to follow, I think it is important to consider that I have not received an electricity statement from yourselves since January 2008 and hence I was not aware of the arrears on the account.
I have been advised to request the following course of action:

• I would request a reassessment of the electricity usage since the account was 1st in debit (May 2008) to ensure that the bill reflects the energy price per unit as and when it was used.
• I would request that the bank charges I have incurred as a result of your direct debit increase for the payment taken on 2 November 2009 are subtracted from the account. These total £63 and were incurred as a direct result of me not receiving notification of the increase in payment (as stated above I have not received statements).
• I would request that a good will gesture is made by yourselves and the amount owed on the account is reduced by an appropriate percentage to reflect the fact that I had not received statements since January 2008. I would also ask that consideration is made to the fact that despite regular meter readings having been taken, the direct debit was not increased until the debit on the account was allowed to reach over £400.

I would appreciate it if you could let me have, by return, your assessment of the above and, from there I shall be happy to discuss payment arrangements to clear the account. I must also inform you that I am currently in a sensitive financial situation, and I am currently on an ‘arrangement’ with several creditors to clear substantial debts and will be looking for the repayment period to be 24 months. I would also ask you take this into account when assessing the level of reductions you are willing to make to the amount owed.
I look forward to receiving your response.


Yours faithfully,


Ben Charlton


Basically they have called me up today and following a bit more explanation the have taken off the £63 for the charges, along with a further £50 good will gesture and set up a 2 year payment plan which keeps the monthly payments to a minimum!


I'm well chuffed with that and I hope this may help some of you should you have similar issues...


:beer: