NPower Blatant Misselling

Terrylw1

backfoot wrote: »

Finally, the Regulator has woken up to this and if you look at the link I posted earlier, there is some talk of banning companies abusing the 'rules'.The clear tactic to defend themselves has been to put in place a so called Code Of Practice. If you study it, the effect is to divorce the company from the selling agent so that if any cases of abuse are found,they can put the blame down to them and be seen to have a management process. Secondly, and this was a new one to me,the Sales Investigation Team, has been set up to enforce this Division even more.The few words they said to me were very telling.It's them 'nasty commission based folk'.

Npower has had sales investigation teams for a long time to my knowledge. They had sales agent managers over 5 years ago who would investigate complaints which could lead to dropping the agent but they dealt more with the outsourced areas. So, as they brought selling back in house, they must have set this team up for them.

Npower have also fined their agents in the past for misselling, hence those agents just leg it to the next company and start again.

There will be a regular meeting going on somewhere in that place where they review the amount of complaints vs the amount of sales. Now, if that is dominated by sales managers...complaints won't really be a factor for them.

Npower has gone from a more customer centric organsation over the years to a hardball target only company from what I can see.

When the complaints rise, they will sack a few staff and the manager (or move them somewhere out of sight) and tell Ofgem they have done something. Ofgem, being a useless regulator will accept that. Ofgem constantly quote "we trust Suppliers to abide, introduce, self monitor, etc" but they never investigate whether this actually happens.

wriggly

I signed up to npower Sign Online 19 because it was much cheaper than my current supplier.

I have since received a letter stating that as they don't have my Meter Point Reference number, they've had to cancel my contract.

But another letter from them on the same date contains an Energy Supply Contract, including my MRN, but putting me on the more expensive Standard rate.

I'm calling them to query, and if they don't put me on SOL19, I will cancel.

This appears to be obvious bait-n-switch. Who is the best organisation to complain to: OFGEM or Trading Standards?

backfoot

I would write to or ring Consumer Direct.They will in turn report it to Trading Standards , I believe.


http://www.consumerdirect.gov.uk/

Also complain to Npower.

backfoot

An update or lack of it : :eek:

27/10/10 Acknowledgment letter saying they will respond to my complaint within 10 working days.(even though 5 days had already passed).

30/11/10 Phoned them about the 10 working day promise.

'You are number 1 in the list to be dealt with'.

Why is it taking more than 10 days?

'It's because it was Brokers and they take longer'

So why not let me know that?

'It shouldn't be much longer now, it's with 'Compliance'.'

Who are they, where are they based?

'I don't know.'

Don't you think you should? How do I contact them?

'You don't need to know, they will decide if your case is upheld or not'.

So yes, I am asking who they are? Is it an outside body or internal who decides?

' I think it's external'.

I think you should find out,don't you?

Eventually, he agrees to find out and it's an Internal Department making sure they abide by Government Regulations. :rotfl:

When will they respond?

'They will pass the file back to us and we will ring you or write if we can't reach you. It may be another week.'

Oh good, I will look forward to that. I can't wait !

Giggles from the other end.


I was sure at some stage, he was going to say 'Computer says NO !!:D

backfoot

Finally received a professional and substantive response today.

Npower accept the call made by the third party agency was misleading without reservation.The agent concerned had a record of similar incidents and disciplinary action has been taken.

I am satisfied with the outcome.

nPower

Hi backfoot

I'm really sorry to see it's taken us a while to deal with your complaint. While we obviously want to make sure everything is looked into, we also want to sort out any complaints or issues as quickly as possible for our customers!

It's good to see your complaint has been finally resolved and that you're satisfied with the outcome.

All the best,
Sally