Argh Powergen

ellielou_2

Powergen cancelled my DD in 2003, denied I was a customer for the next few years so refused to set up a new DD.

I tried to register for their on line system & failed but due to this they didn't forward me a bill for almost 2 years.

Now they send me a demand for £1700+!!!

I sent them this letter -
Further to your letter dated 28th August 2006 and previous correspondence regarding the above account. In an attempt to resolve matters, I would like to set out a number of key points which summarise the situation and are beyond dispute.

•Payments were satisfactorily made to the account by direct debit until the order was cancelled by TXU Energi, as notified in their letter dated 25 January 2003.

•A number of attempts were made by myself to set up a replacement direct debit. These were unsuccessful as I was repeatedly informed by yourselves that I was not a customer.

•A number of part payments were made by me following the cancellation of the direct debit mandate, in an attempt to bring the account into line.

•No bills have been sent to me for almost 2 years – since November 2004.

It is clear to me and crucially, it would be clear to the industry regulator, Ofgem, that there have been failings on both sides since the original direct debit payments were routinely and satisfactorily collected.

Accordingly, as a last resort before contacting Engerywatch, I am willing to consider, as a reconciliatory gesture, making a one off payment, in full and final settlement, of £431.97, this being commensurate with my degree if culpability. I would then expect you to confirm that the debt is considered to be repaid in full.


I received a letter from them offering to accept £163 for a repayment plan!!!! I'm a single mother & there's no way on earth I can afford this.

Has anyone got any ideas for my next plan of action or can anyone give me the name of the chief exec/ MD so I can write directly to them.

Any help would be vey much appreciated.

Thanks for reading.

espresso

Perhaps you should explain why you think offering to pay £432, should clear a debt of over £1700 "in full and final settlement". Contact Energywatch if you wish but if you have used the energy then you should pay for it.

Cardew

It appears to me that you have made it obvious that you knew you were not paying for your energy(gas? Elect? both?).

It surely would have been prudent to put money aside(earning interest) for the day this would all catch up with you.

Whilst I would expect Powergen to make some gesture and reduce your bill by 10% or so, I cannot see why you think it reasonable for them to write off 75% of the bill.

stewie_griffin

send an email outlining your complaint to directorofcustomerservice@powergen.co.uk or call their complaints team on 0800 096 1156 if you haven't already done so.

alan99_2

This may be worth a read. Esp post #13 from Gal.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=287682

Gal

alan99 wrote:

This may be worth a read. Esp post #13 from Gal.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=287682

This wouldn't apply to the OP as powergen have now sent her a bill. The post you refer to is only if no bills are produced and sent out in that time. If there has been a bill sent then she would be responsible for the usage.

I tend to concur with what others have said why do you think the amount your offering is acceptable?

ellielou_2

The figure I offered them as 75% was to start off the bargaining that they will obviously go through - a recent article was in the Mail a few weeks ago (I'm told, I'm not a Mail reader - or a newspaper reader at all) but her case was very similar and Powergen settled for 50%.

espresso

ellielou wrote:

The figure I offered them as 75% was to start off the bargaining that they will obviously go through..........

Do you know what 75% equates to? See here for an explanation. Do you think that it is fair that other customers pay for what you have used?

:rolleyes:

magyar

Ellielou, I'm not clear why you think this is Powergen's fault? It would be very reasonable of them to:
(a) apologise and perhaps make a token gesture towards the bill and;
(b) offer you a repayment plan which made the repayments over the three years you haven't paid them.
As a guideline, you should expect about £25-50 from Powergen in this instance. If you escalate this to Energywatch and let Powergen know this then you'll probably get an extra £10-20.

Gal

She would probably get 5-10% if powergen were to take anything off as a 'Goodwill Gesture' and spread the balance over the period of time she didn't receive a bill for which is fair in my opinion.

You do realise that a Direct Debit is only one method of paying a bill and just because they didn't / couldn't / wouldn't set it up doesn't mean its there fault.

You have mentioned:

•A number of part payments were made by me following the cancellation of the direct debit mandate, in an attempt to bring the account into line.

If this is the case why didn't you ask them to send you a copy of the bill you were paying?

•No bills have been sent to me for almost 2 years – since November 2004.

This doesn't mean bills were not being produced - When you have spoken to them have they said - We've been sending bills out - Or is it a simple case of there was nothing there - And if there was nothing there what are your part payments paying?

•Payments were satisfactorily made to the account by direct debit until the order was cancelled by TXU Energi, as notified in their letter dated 25 January 2003.

Powergen don't cancel DDs unless asked or unless notified by the customer or the bank to do so. A case of your account just stopping doesn't happen. I would ask them to see if A Cancellation notice was recieved from your bank.

And I wouldn't use this line - Or the last one about offering them £400 because whoever opens this letter is bound to check through the account and if something on there shows there going to dispute it whatever your opinion is. I would suggest rewording the letter to be more realistic otherwise your going to end up fighting against powergen and in theory they don't need to offer you anything - Just demand the payment.

Only my opinion -

ellielou_2

They did cancel my direct debit without anything from me or my bank - I have a letter from them infoming me they had cancelled my DD.

I made a few part payments to my account when I was receiving bills, but then they stopped & calls to Powergen resulted in me being told I was not a customer of thier's & they couldn't trace me.

Payments were stopped because I couldn't be sure the money was hitting my account as I had no bills and they couldn't find my records when I called them.

I feel I did everything I felt I could to reconcille this. However, the meantime, my partner left, I had a small child to look after and money is bloody tight - I just want to get this sorted & thought someone on here may be able to offer a little more advice.