Please help!! Npower £5000 / £2000 bill even though they admit its their fault!!!!

tomnmaz

Hi everyone

Were writing this from desperation before we are forced to pay our bill.

We have been with NPOWER now for over 3 years and had regular visits from meter readers and also sent in our own meter readings when we didnt have a visitor, we paid our bills every quater and had no problems - our electric we thought was low paying about £80 + odd a quater but we were assured it was correct by the staff.
A couple of months ago we received a bill for £120 + so we just called up NPOWER to ask why it had gone up, they asked us for a meter reading which we gave and they said they would send us the correct amount in the next bill.
Thinking we would get a cheaper accurate reading we waited for their reply... which we kept chasing weekly and was told it would be with us in the next few days which turned out to be a couple of months.

We then received a bill for over £5000 which they stated was because they had incorrect meter readings not down to our own fault as they received our meter readings and the meter readers readings but due to a computer fault and because they felt the meter readings were too high completely ignored the readings.

They backdated the bill over 12 months and took all our payments we made for the year and changed them to credits against the electric bill and this £5000.

They said they think we have a faulty meter and asked us to record our meter readings every day - which turns out to be roughly 4 - 6 units a day using heating, lighting, tv etc which they admit couldnt possibly make up to £5000 a year and stated that a family of 4 normally pay about £2000 a year in a house twice as big as ours yet we live in a 2 bedroom house and theres just 2 of us and a dog and unless the dog has learnt how to max out the electric or we have an electric eating ghost we cant understand how the bill is that large

We both work so are not in the house all day and the heating / lighting / appliances arent left on or on standby whilst we are in work - we had done everything as normal.

They then said they would come back to us and look at having the meter checked.

NPOWER came back to us they had taken nearly £3000 off due to policy as it had gone over a 12 month period so were forced to do so by ofgem they have completely accepted that they are at fault for ignoring the meter readings by their staff and us but would only knock of £70 if we paid it back in installments, so we are left with £2000 to pay if we pay in full they will knock a bit more off but have refused to allow us to have the meter checked saying that because we have been asked to check the meter we have decided to start reducing our usage even though we have kept everything the same.

Now my thought is we have done nothing wrong, they have admitted the !!!! up and admitted ignoring our readings and their own staffs readings and I feel that we should at least have the meter checked to make sure its not faulty before paying but why are we responsible if they are at fault?


Our main heating is from a calor gas bottle but we do have a small electric fire that is 2kw which we only use when it is ice cold to quickly warm the room, our tv, fridge, washer freesat box are all energy efficient ones or are low energy used ones, our boiler is only put on about 30 minutes before we have a bath and the only things we do use is the dryer once a week for about 60 minutes.

So were absolutely in shock for the bill in the first place, believe we have been treated unfairly and dont believe we should be responsible for anything more than the 4-6 units a day we use.

Any help support or advice on this will be appreciated... please!

mattcanary

I suspect one of two things have happened:

1) NPower used totally the wrong meter reading/meter details when they took over your supply
2) The meter has been changed at some point since NPower have been your supplier and NPower have been billing you based upon the old meter details ever since

Is it possible that either of these are the case? Do you still have the first statement you received from NPower? (this will give you the reading they used as the start reading when they took over your supply)

tomnmaz

we were originally with scottish power manweb on economy 7 which the previous owner owed a lot of money for - my wife stupidly paid for the previous tenants bill for the sake of moving into the house and switching supplier quicker without my initial knowledge but thats another story completely...

When we took NPOWER services they supplied us with a new meter at 0 but didnt bill us originally for something like 6 months (this was over 3 years ago) but it was a larger bill combining literally the £80 odd per quaters but we have always had staff doing the meter readings since with us receiving bills for £80+ per quater.

We think at some point there must've been a fault with the meter as there is simply no other explanation for the amount of usage of the electricity for a year, not even one of our friends carpet business uses that much electricity in a year and their lights and equipment are on 24 7 !!! but NPOWER will not send a technician to check the meter... if we actually consumed the electric we would hold our hands up and say we will pay it but it just smacks of NPOWER wearing a mask and a stripey jumper and swag bag.

Cardew

tomnmaz wrote: »

have refused to allow us to have the meter checked saying that because we have been asked to check the meter we have decided to start reducing our usage even though we have kept everything the same.

Now my thought is we have done nothing wrong,

Welcome to the forum.

It is not a computer fault as such, the computer is programmed to ignore readings that it 'thinks' are incorrect and then that happens on subsequent bills.

However they have acknowledged their responsibility by applying the 12 month back-billing rule and writing off £3,000 from the bill.

It has also to be stated that you share some of the responsibility. You have had 3 years of bills based on Estimated readings and have a duty to check those bills each quarter; which you clearly have not done. When you sent in readings you should have ensured that the amount on bill had used those readings.

They cannot refuse to check your meter; but you have to pay for that check if it is found to be OK - which almost certainly will be the case!

It is just not reasonable for you to expect that you will only pay for 4-6 units a day. Even without any form of electrical heating, hot water and cooking the average bill is 9-10 units a day - often a lot more.

Bear in mind the average bill, even with gas, is around £1300 pa and with all electricity is much more expensive - especially with Npower who have expensive electricity. You have been paying £260 a year!!!!

The bottom line is that NPower presumably have your opening meter reading from 3 years ago and obviously have your present reading. That means you have used nearly £6,000 worth of electricity and Npower have written off over half.

I have no time for Npower - an awful company - but you really have got to make out a better case why you should have a further reduction.

Sorry!

undaunted

I truly hate to say this - I view Npower as being in the same league as signing up with the devil & would love to see them forced to write it all off as a result of their failings - but sadly I'd have to agree with Cardew to a large extent.

4 - 6 units per day sounds unlikely to me too.

They have written of £3000, even if they did have to be forced to do it :T (I do love this bit!)

Expecting you to pay for £2000 worth in 2 years doesn't therefore sound unreasonable in itself.

If however your complaint is not that you should have to pay the £2000 at all but that you can only afford to pay it in installments then I think you do have a case to argue there - but it's Npower you're arguing with so you will probably need help from someone such as a Community Legal Advice service, C.A.B., Consumer Focus etc (The Ombudsman may also help but is so slow that it will probably take a year to sort it out)

Good luck.

mattcanary

I strongly suspect the bill is not correct and NPower know it's not correct. That is why they have offered to write off £3000 of it. NPower are a woeful company and I suspect they are trying to get out of calculating the correct bill, which I suggest is a lot less than £2000 in reality.
I extremely doubt that you owe £2000, let alone £5000 when you have been paying £80.00 + per quarter anyway.

Again, I suspect that NPower have not amended meter details when your meter weas changed upon moving to them. Ok, the reading was 0 but was that the reading given on the first statement after the meter was changed? And does the meter serial number on the statements since the meter was changed, match up with that actually on the meter. I suspect they don't match up - except for the most recent one when NPower have finally realised they have made a mistake and have corrected the details. I suspect that although they have amended the details, they didn;t recalculate all the wrong statements since the meter was changed - thus generating this likely garbage bill of £5000. One other thing, just because the statements say the meter has been read, doesn't mean it has been necessarily, or that the readings that the meter reader took have been actually used on the bill (as Cardew has already stated). Indeed, if a meter-reader has read the meter yet the readings have not been used on the bill, it only increases the chance of the statements being garbage. The computers may have rejected the readings (as Cardew has stated). They normally get rejected because they don't tally up with those on the supplier's computer records. Could that be because the computer records were wrong, eh?!

I may be wrong, but I suspect something like this has happened. I strongly advise you not to pay the £2000 until you have done these checks!

Good luck!

mattcanary

tomnmaz - I wouldn't bother trying to get the meter checked for accuracy until you have taken the above steps.

It is unlikely the meter is faulty - well, at least to the extent that it is faulty enough to produce this demand for £5000! You also have to pay around £50.00 upfront to get a meter checked for accuracy. If it is found to be accurate, you don;t get that money back.

Cardew

It should be fairly easy to confirm if Matt Canary's suspicions are correct.

The meter was at zero over 3 years ago when OP moved to NPower and got a new meter. All they need to do is read the meter now - surely NPower did this when they carried out their investigation? - If it is reading around 50000 then they have used around £6,000 of electricity.

It seems to me that the OP's case is that 'they couldn't possibly have used that amount of electricity in over 3 years' - and pinning their hopes on a faulty meter.

Personally I think the situation appears straightforward.

Meter readings were ignored by NPower and the OP apparently never checked their bill in over 3 years.

NPower have paid for their error to the tune of £3,000.

They have offered the OP the chance to pay back over a period of time, or a further reduction if they pay cash.

tomnmaz

im sorry maybe I didnt make myself clear from the bill - the bill is infact for 12 months only! and yes we are only using between 4 and 6 units a day!

(You have had 3 years of bills based on Estimated readings and have a duty to check those bills each quarter; which you clearly have not done. When you sent in readings you should have ensured that the amount on bill had used those readings.)

We have had regular staff readings and have supplied our readings when our bills have stated they were estimated but NPOWER themselves have said they have ignored them blaming their computers etc..

(The computers may have rejected the readings (as Cardew has stated). They normally get rejected because they don't tally up with those on the supplier's computer records. Could that be because the computer records were wrong, eh?! )

yes this is exactly what they have said they have done mattcanary!

Were not trying to get something for nothing but I just cant believe that the company would ignore every single reading given, I personally think that they have ignored them all on purpose, if we had found out earlier we couldve sorted the problem immediately now it just makes me think what else would they do in the future!?!?

the whole point is we were going to be charged £5000 for 12 months electric and NPOWER tells us this is correct, as I previously said we know a business that uses more electric and its bills are no where near ours!

Whatever happens we are not staying with NPOWER for how they have treated us.

molerat

Now I might be missing something here but surely if the current meter reading is divided by however many months it has been installed for and multiplied by 12 that will give the average useage for a year :doh:The OP could use that figure as a basis for negotiation. It seems at the moment Npower are saying "you used that" and the op is saying "No I didn't" with neither coming up with any solid figures to back up their case.

What is the meter reading today ?

Cardew

tomnmaz wrote: »

im sorry maybe I didnt make myself clear from the bill - the bill is infact for 12 months only! and yes we are only using between 4 and 6 units a day!

(You have had 3 years of bills based on Estimated readings and have a duty to check those bills each quarter; which you clearly have not done. When you sent in readings you should have ensured that the amount on bill had used those readings.)

We have had regular staff readings and have supplied our readings when our bills have stated they were estimated but NPOWER themselves have said they have ignored them blaming their computers etc..

(The computers may have rejected the readings (as Cardew has stated). They normally get rejected because they don't tally up with those on the supplier's computer records. Could that be because the computer records were wrong, eh?! )

yes this is exactly what they have said they have done mattcanary!

Were not trying to get something for nothing but I just cant believe that the company would ignore every single reading given, I personally think that they have ignored them all on purpose, if we had found out earlier we couldve sorted the problem immediately now it just makes me think what else would they do in the future!?!?

the whole point is we were going to be charged £5000 for 12 months electric and NPOWER tells us this is correct, as I previously said we know a business that uses more electric and its bills are no where near ours!

Whatever happens we are not staying with NPOWER for how they have treated us.

I am not sure you understand what has been explained.

1. You have been in the house with Npower as your supplier for over 3 years.

2. You were getting estimated bills despite you and Npower(their meter readers) supplying readings. However for 3 years you have never checked your bills. Had you done so you would have discovered that you were being undercharged by a huge amount.

3. It has been explained how Npower's computer(wrongly) ignored meter readings. They have acknowledged this error on their part and written off £3,000 of your bill.

4. You have been paying insufficient for the whole time you have been with Npower(because of the under estimated bills) and will have built up a large debt of £5,000.

5. This you can confirm by looking at your present meter reading(let us know what it is please)

6. So the debt Npower say you owed is that built up over the whole time you have been with Npower. However because they were at fault they have said they will only charge you(back-bill) for 12 months. You have paid approx £1,000 in quarterly bills in the 3 years. That plus the £5,000 debt is £6000.

7. You cannot be using 4-6kWh per day for heating, hot water, cooking, dryer etc. If you were your meter would be reading that you have used between 4,000 and 6,000 units(kWh) in the 3 years and thae total bill for the 3 years would be £600 to £800 and Npower would be owing you money.

8. You appear to be totally ignoring the fact that to have used approx £6,000 worth of electricity in 3 years you will have used around 50,000kWh and that must be what your meter is reading. Thus an average of around 40kWh per day or more.

9. So what is it?

a. your meter is reading around 4500 to 7000 which it would be if you use 4 to 6 units a day?

b. your meter is reading around 50000 if you have used £6000 in 3 years?

You say "if we had found out earlier we couldve sorted the problem immediately". That is 100% correct! You should have checked your bills and you would have found out.

You earlier blamed a faulty meter - yet you say it is only showing that you use 4 to 6kWh a day.

To be quite honest everything points to the fact that from the electricity you have used, you have had £3,000 written off and yet you are still not satisfied.

If I have got this wrong, then please explain how and why you shouldn't be paying NPower what they demand.