adjusted bills after switching

revenant_2

Earlier this year I switched (finally) my electric and gas from the traditional suppliers for my area. British Gas for the gas and nPower for the electric.

I had no problems with BG but nPower have been tricky from the start.

BG sent a final bill and after taking payment cancelled the DD themselves.
nPower sent an annual statement, adjusted the monthly amount and carried on as though nothing had happened.
After they had taken enough to cover the debit on the account I cancelled the DD, I got a nice letter telling me it had been cancelled and my account was in credit to the tune of £31.29.
Before I got chance to chase them for repayment of my money, they sent me a nice cheque in the post, for £13.43, attached to a replacement bill, where they had pushed the figures around to make the overpayment match the reduced cheque size.

As they had accurate meter readings on the original bill I have challenged them to explain how come, now that it has dawned on them that I am no longer prepared to pay as much as they are asking/demanding for electric, they need to recalculate the bill to extract an extra £18ish.

Like others have reported on the forums providing customer readings to nPower appears to be a waste of time as they do not use them, so there is one estimated figure that they have adjusted to re-estimate what was used when to ensure that they benefit. Sadly, I did not keep a record of the actual figure I read off the meter for the customer reading, but I do know that their estimates have always been lower than my usage. Meaning that had they used the reading I gave them then I would have been owed more than £31 not less due to the price rises.

I will update with any progress I make and any response they give.

I would be interested to know if I am alone and if anyone has been successful in getting them to back down.

--

Simon

crossleydd42

I'm neither impressed by npower nor Scottish Power (the latter having an 0870 customer helpline and a shockingly inefficient call-centre (why do those two things often go together, I wonder???). I would rate (Scottish &) Southern Electricity as being the best company I've dealt with. I'm with them through Ebico at the moment.

revenant_2

Finally received a reply from nPower last week. Basically, they admitted I was right but denied it was intentional.

They said:

"This was actioned in error when your account was rebilled in August and more
units had been billed on the higher rate. It is not clear who rebilled this
however, if I do find out, feedback will be passed to their manager."

How can they not know who has been recalculating bills?

I was also told:

"It is not normal practice to reduce customer's credit, which they are
entitled to for overpayment and I do apologise that this was the case for
you."

It would be interesting to see if this has happened to others or just me. Thinking about it I have in previous years received replacement bills a couple of times where the numbers had moved around. To my shame I never paid any real attention as the monthly DD did not change at the same time.

I have been told a cheque is in the post to me for the outstanding amount they owe me, a little extra would have been nice as a "sorry it took your time to get your own money back".

--

Simon

oldwiring

revenant wrote:

Finally received a reply from nPower last week. Basically, they admitted I was right but denied it was intentional.

They said:

"This was actioned in error when your account was rebilled in August and more
units had been billed on the higher rate. It is not clear who rebilled this
however, if I do find out, feedback will be passed to their manager."

How can they not know who has been recalculating bills?

I was also told:

"It is not normal practice to reduce customer's credit, which they are
entitled to for overpayment and I do apologise that this was the case for
you."

It would be interesting to see if this has happened to others or just me. Thinking about it I have in previous years received replacement bills a couple of times where the numbers had moved around. To my shame I never paid any real attention as the monthly DD did not change at the same time.

I have been told a cheque is in the post to me for the outstanding amount they owe me, a little extra would have been nice as a "sorry it took your time to get your own money back".

--

Simon

Why not ask them for something:D ?