Uncommunicated change in Direct Debit (twice) - nPower

veryintrigued

Hi all

Currently in the midst of an official complaint with nPower regarding the fact that they changed the level of Direct Debit without advising me.

A similar thing happened last year.

This time - after three emails they have tried to fob me off with 'we told you on x bill which is available online' for a bill which I never received and they later admitted isnt available online.

They called again at lunch to advise they would be sending an email this afternoon - guess what no email.

Has anyone had similar experiences?

Am in the midsts of excalating this to the ombudsman. Would the FSO and the Energy Supply Ombudsman both be interested in this issue?

Regards as always in advance.

undaunted

You could request through your bank that any direct debit which didn't comply with the Direct Debit Guarantee be refunded to you immediately (by the bank). In reality however they would in turn collect the money from Npower again & you'd therefore ultimately end up having to pay it back again at some point.

Whether Ombudsman etc would be interested I don't know for sure but my "gut feeling" would it would probably be more hassle than it's worth to you in this case.

Seems to me that your only real sanction is to take your business elsewhere if service (rather than necessarily price) is the priority to you

BenNevis

This isn’t the first time someone has complained about npower increasing their direct debit without first giving the required notice and as you’ve complained to npower you’ve got to allow them a chance to respond before you complain about them to the Energy Ombudsman.

If you haven’t already had a look, its worth looking at the Energy Ombudsman’s website under “Making a complaint to your energy company” and “Making a complaint to the Energy Ombudsman”

It says “If 8 weeks have passed and your service provider hasn't sorted out the problem to your satisfaction then you should let us know.”

So you’ve got to give npower 8 weeks to come up with a satisfactory answer to your complaint but somehow I don’t think npower will be able to do this unless pigs can fly.

Premier_2

Have you contacteed your bank? If there is any issue with a DD, that is who you should contact (irrespective of who is ultimately responsible)

Do a search for Direct Debit Guarantee.

All such claims are monitored and, where the originator is at at fault which appears to be the belief here, the originators sponsor (the bank which allows nPower to operate the DD scheme) will take appropriate action.

a&akay

You'll probably eventually find that they've increased the DD based on the last 6 months' usage rather than the 12 months stated in their DD leaflet. They did with me, now resolved using their complaints email. As Dec 10 was the coldest month for 100 years this will inflate the DD figure. It should be 12 months plus or minus the credit/debit on the last bill divided by 12.

nPower

Hi veryintrigued

I'm concerned to hear about this as if we make any changes to our customers' direct debit payments, we will always notify them within 14 days before the change?

If you would like someone to take a look into your account, could you send in your details to forumresponse@npower.com and they can look into it for you?

Best Wishes
Sally

veryintrigued

nPower_company_representative wrote: »

Hi veryintrigued

I'm concerned to hear about this as if we make any changes to our customers' direct debit payments, we will always notify them within 14 days before the change?

If you would like someone to take a look into your account, could you send in your details to [EMAIL="forumresponse@npower.com"]forumresponse@npower.com[/EMAIL] and they can look into it for you?

Best Wishes
Sally

Sally - appreciate the response.

Its a better response than your colleague who promised (on a voice mail message) to respond via email 2 days ago and this is yet to be received.

My final email was sent to Mark Brown yesterday - reference NPREF:LE-98915103. As this is the last of my emails it makes no reference to the fact that this is the second time my DD has been changed in the last 12 months without communication. This concern is contained in earlier emails.

For the benefit on other forum members here is an exert:

Today I have received copies of two 'paper bills' at my home address from your company. One dated 20th January and one the 25th January - both refer to account code *** 6995.

Firstly these have never been sent to me before either postal or are available via your 'My nPower' internet site (the last bill on the later on these is the 9th August 2010).

I have in possession a 'Your summary' document dated the 25/1/11 which WAS sent out at this time. This relates to account number **** 6981 i.e. different from above. It makes no reference to any direct debit change, or any gas account and states I am £22-98 in debit for my electricity account.

NONE of these three bills are available online (indeed the ******6981 cannot be added as an account).

I can categorically confirm you that the these two 'bills' were never received at my home address although I did receive the one for ********6981.

Your systems are a shambles - hopeless beyond belief and it is this I will highlighting to the ombudsman. If you would like an electronic copy of the bill I DID receive please shout up - I'll be only too happy to waste even more of my time.

BenNevis

Veryintrigued - as a matter of interest do these bills show the same meter number and is it the same as on your meter? I’m asking this because as you say, those bills don’t show the same account number.

As for npower rep Sally’s post, asking you to start all over again with another department of npower is frankly pathetic and it shows exactly how little npower seem to care when things do go wrong.

Not only have you got a serious complaint regarding the unannounced increase in your DD but when you complained npower screwed up yet again and no apology from Sally for this at all.

Sally - I suggest you should have offered to look into this matter yourself including why npower couldn’t handle the OP’s complaint properly and that you state publicly here on this thread exactly what went wrong and why. Let’s have a little transparency instead of trying to sweep this matter under the carpet.

mattcanary

NPower are a dreadful company. I recommend you change to a different supplier - even if their prices are lower than anyone else's. They are not worth the hassle.

joolsybools

I'd be taking my business elsewhere

veryintrigued

BenNevis wrote: »

Veryintrigued - as a matter of interest do these bills show the same meter number and is it the same as on your meter? I’m asking this because as you say, those bills don’t show the same account number.

Yes its the same meter BN

Hopefully get this resolved very quickly.