Npower bill of £1800

lishmh53

Im hoping someone might be able to offer any advise on my G&E bill. Since moving into our house 7 years ago with have had nothing but trouble with regards to our G&E. Mainly because our supply number did not relate to our postal address but instead to the original plot address. However, today I had a different problem.

We received a bill for £1800.00 We have had actual readings for both our gas & electricity. Our gas is correct but or Electricity is unbelievable!!!!!!!

Even though Npower have actual readings of our electric meter they choose not to use them and sent us bills based on an estimate, vastly lower than the actual meter reading they had on file. My OH called them about our bill in July 2010 because it had been sent to the plot address and was told we were £900 in credit, so didnt think anythink of it when our DD was reduced. They have sinced checked the meter twice and realised we have been underpaying them for nearly 2 years because they were basing the DD on an estimated reading.

We were not told there was a problem, we were paying £31 a month even though we were showing as £1800 in debt, they did not contact us to increase of DD to a modest amount. It was only when we got our 6 monthly statement that we realised there was a huge problem.

My husband called them and explained the problem, they couldnt understand why all the acurate readings were ignored. Npower cant do anything now till after the weekend.

In the two year period in which the bill relates to, we were paying a decent amount for the first 6 months, then it was drastically reduced. Instead of paying £2000 a year we have only paid £200 so far:eek::eek:. Will we have to pay the whole £1800? They said we could pay £350.00 a month for 18 months to clear the debt (and pay for the E) but Im not sure we could manage that on top of everything else.

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated

WhiteHorse

If you've actually used the electric, then you probably will have to repay them. Given the size of the debt however, and that it's largely their fault, their proposed repayment schedule is very harsh. Suggest something a lot easier, spread over a longer period.

If they are aggressive or unreasonable, then complain, if necessary to the ombudsman. The final resort is to invite them to sue you for it and let the court set a reasonable repayment tariff.

Premier_2

I agree you will probably have to pay for what you've consumed.

The supplier will normally allow repayment over the period the original debt accumulated - which they appaer to be allowing i.e. 18 months.

BUT ... the numbers don't make sense.

In the last 18 months you've paid £31 p.m. ( £558)
Unfortunately you've actually used £1800 more than this.
So in 18 months you've actually consumed £2358 worth of electricity.

So it would be expected you will use the same amount in the next 18 months
Plus you will be expected to repay the £1800 owed

So over the next 18 months you will be expected to pay a total of £4158
or £231 per month.

(That's just for the electric - you'll need to carry on paying what you currently do for gas too)

I would say that using £1572 worth of electricity over 12 months (£2358 over 18 months) is extremely high especially when you also have gas.
You should be able to cut that by 75% with a bit of effort.

I hope you sort things out, else they will fit a PPM in your home.

mbeast

depends really, I used 18612 kWh of gas and 16348 kWh or electricity in the last 12 months (hobby uses 30 kWh electric per day)

Premier_2

mbeast wrote: »

...(hobby uses 30 kWh electric per day)

How are your plants coming along?

mbeast

Premier wrote: »

How are your plants coming along?

lmao

its 8x3x2.5ft and full of fish and corals

plants would make me some cash probably but I don't think they grow in salt water with 14k 400w halides

Joyful

If they have been receiving readings from you and ignoring them make sure they use the 12 month back billing code. This means if they have built the debt up over longer they should make a deduction from it for incorrect billing.

lishmh53

Can you clarify something for me please.

I have had changes to the DD over the two year period where the error has occurred. Firstly I was paying £185 per month. Then they reduced it to £2.00 per month because apparently I was in credit by £900 pounds and then changed my direct to £31.00 per month.

so if I have only paid £200.00 in the second year will the back billing make a difference. I will still owe them about £1800 for this year. ( £2000.00 per year minus the £220 paid) Will they get rid of both the debits and the credits on the account for the first year!:mad: Im so confused!!!!!!!

Also they said that they were unable to read the meter because we have a gate to the side of the property. The meter is at the side of the house. less than 50cm away from the gate. Is it the case that they can come on to my property (front garden and drive way) but are unable to open the gate?

As you can tell Im no expert in Gas & Electric but after this experience I will be sending them my own reading every month.

Thanks

nPower

Hi lishmh53

I am sorry to hear about the problems you have been having with your statements and direct debits. We would like the opportunity to look into this for you if that's ok?

Please send your account and address details to forumresponse@npower.com and I will get someone to look into this straight away.

Best Wishes
Sally

Premier_2

lishmh53 wrote: »

Can you clarify something for me please.

I have had changes to the DD over the two year period where the error has occurred. Firstly I was paying £185 per month. Then they reduced it to £2.00 per month because apparently I was in credit by £900 pounds and then changed my direct to £31.00 per month.

so if I have only paid £200.00 in the second year will the back billing make a difference. I will still owe them about £1800 for this year. ( £2000.00 per year minus the £220 paid) Will they get rid of both the debits and the credits on the account for the first year!:mad: Im so confused!!!!!!!

Also they said that they were unable to read the meter because we have a gate to the side of the property. The meter is at the side of the house. less than 50cm away from the gate. Is it the case that they can come on to my property (front garden and drive way) but are unable to open the gate?

As you can tell Im no expert in Gas & Electric but after this experience I will be sending them my own reading every month.

Thanks

All payments you have made will be used to offset any amount you may now owe. Rest assured, the supplier will not 'lose' or otherwise ignore any payments for any reason.

Yes, it is a normal condition for meter readers that they may not open a side gate without express permission to gain access to your meter.
Either you must do that for them, or perhaps consider moving the side gate so that it's the other side of the meter

lishmh53

nPower_company_representative wrote: »

Hi lishmh53

I am sorry to hear about the problems you have been having with your statements and direct debits. We would like the opportunity to look into this for you if that's ok?

Please send your account and address details to [EMAIL="forumresponse@npower.com"]forumresponse@npower.com[/EMAIL] and I will get someone to look into this straight away.

Best Wishes
Sally

Thanks Sally, I have sent you my details, any help on his would be grately appreciated.

Thanks