Npower Fiasco

Pernicious

Hi everyone,

I tried to switch from E.on to Npower back in Sept & have had no end of problems since, here is a letter I sent a couple of weeks ago now:-

Dear Sir or Madam

I would like to register the following points as a formal complaint:

On the 16/09/10 I arranged to switch from E.on to yourselves through www.energyhelpline.com. I gave all details requested on 27/09/10 & received several emails & letters back telling me you were processing my application & the electricity should be switched over from the 01/11/10 & the gas from 03/11/10.

After not receiving a final bill from E.on my partner rang them on 11/11/10 to be informed that they had received no notification of us switching & it would be best for us to ring yourselves. We did that & were told that there had been an error & that you had tried to take over our neighbour’s energy supply, which was stopped & the whole thing was cancelled. At no point were we informed of this until we rang you.

I have since received a letter from you dated 16/11/10 stating you have set up a direct debit for our electricity to be collected starting 06/12/10, I have had to call you again to resolve this & have been assured this was cancelled on the 16/11/10 after the letter had been sent.

During my call I enquired as to whether or not you would honour the rate agreed when I signed up (Sign Online 19) & was told, after holding for quite some time, that since this tariff is no longer available you could only offer me Sign Online 20 which I am not happy with & refused to accept.

I am unhappy with the level of communication and service from your company and require reimbursement for my time and costs to the sum of £30, this covers:

• Phone calls not only to yourselves but E.on to try & resolve this
• My time spent trying to resolve this & to find a new energy supplier
• The money lost due to having to wait two months to find a new deal when rates have increased since then, & the further 4-6 weeks it will take to actually switch to a cheaper energy supplier

I anticipate that your company will give this matter your urgent attention and expect your detailed reply with an enclosed cheque for the full amount as above, within 5 working days of your receiving this letter.

Yours faithfully,


Since sending this, I have heard nothing back about it but received another letter informing me a DD for the gas had now been set up, so once again I called up & was told this was with their "back office" department who don't work weekends & I would be called back first thing on Monday.

In fairness, I did actually get a call about this on Monday at about 10am, & again was assured the money would not go out & it takes a while for this to all go through on their database.

What grounds for compensation do I actually have here?

If I do not get a response soon do I need to contact Npower again or can I go straight to the ombudsman?

I am really annoyed at how much it has cost me when it was THEIR mistake, all details given were correct & clear & were given more then once so I'm not happy to just "let it go"...

Any help would be much appreciated thank you, sorry for the length.

KimYeovil

Pernicious wrote: »

What grounds for compensation do I actually have here?

Around about diddly squat.

PNPSUKNET

If they havent supplied you yet, they can cancel and give £0 compensation. Bet they will cave and give you £30 though.

dogshome

Hi Pernicious - If there were Annual Awards for Customer Service, N'power would fall into the "Have to try harder" category

BUT it's a worry that whilst enacting the Switch they apparently tried to take over your nieghbours meter.
It's possible that this is not n'powers fault and there is an error in the national database, CHECK that the meter number on your bills matches that on your meter - You may have been paying your neighbours bills, whilst they have been paying yours

Pernicious

You know what I hadn't even thought of that...it's all new to me as I bought my first house this year.

Thank you I will check that tomorrow after work!

backfoot

dogshome wrote: »

Hi Pernicious - If there were Annual Awards for Customer Service, N'power would fall into the "Have to try harder" category

Gosh they've improved a lot then. When did they move out of the 'basket case' category?

Is there a press cutting to confirm?

sfocata

backfoot wrote: »

Gosh they've improved a lot then. When did they move out of the 'basket case' category?

I think they were given special dispensation to move to the "special needs" category

I usually have no loyalty for utility companies, nor do I bear grudges. However, Npower[*] annoyed me so much (about 5 years ago) that they have their name carved on my extra-long bargepole.

Upon calling to harangue me for daring to switch to another company, their saleswoman swore blind that the price rises I quoted were a blatant lie by myself... despite the fact I was holding a letter (from them) warning me of precisely those price rises

[* I'm tempted to include First Utility there, but doubt they'll be in business long enough for me even to have a chance of using them again. Also, they're a comedy act, not a utility company.]

backfoot

Please don't start me. :eek:;)

Pernicious

Thanks for all the help - I got a letter through saying they will be sending a cheque :j That was easier then I thought it would be, I am glad the added expense is covered now though!

Better still is the numbers on the meters match up to our bills, so I've not got the headache of sorting that out!