Advice on NPower Issue

polythenegirl

Hi There

Hopefully comeone can offer some advice on this for me.

We have been with NPower for a year now and from April - December my monthly payments (Gas & Electricity combined) was £98. I got a ltter back in December saying I was almost £400 in credit and they were reducing my monthly payments to £21. At the time I thought that was very low, considering we were in the winter months, and I rang and spoke to an advisor. She stated that it was all correct and I would have no issues whatsoever with that amount and it was correct for my usage.

Now, in April, I have received a bill for an outstanding debt of £690. I rang and spoke to them and it turns out that the £21 payment was far far too low and based off of estimated readings only and it shoudl never have been put down that far. To cover my actual usage now and pay off the arrears (over 2 years!) my monthly payments will need to be £120 a month, which is a sum that I cannot pay every month.

When I spoke to them at the weekend I upped my DD to £70 for the moment to at least cover my usage and asked them to lodge a complaint about the advice I was given. At the end of the day I am in debt with them due to the advice given by them.

I received a letter this morning stating " We hope you are happy with teh explanation and resolution we have offered you". To whcih I thought "What resolution?" So I have rang up again today and logged another complaint(!) and the advisor I spoke to was very sympathetic but seemed very unlikely to actually do anythign to help me sort out the debt apart from reduce my usage rates/monthly DD's moving forward. She is calling me back tomorrow about this as she needed to reset my bills (?)

Obviously I don't want to move companies with that debt still there are it will just go against me and I'll have mroe to pay off, but what else can I expect?

I don't understand how I can be liable for a debt that was created off the back of their advice!

Anyone any ideas where I should take it from here?

undaunted

Unfortunately if you've used the energy I suspect based on what you've said above that whatever you do you will almost certainly be found liable to pay for it, bad advice or not (as this had no impact on the amount of energy ultimately used).

You can however complain if you wish - initially to Npower, if they fail to satisify you you could try the Energy Ombudsman. You could possibly also consider trying an application to Npower Enrgy Trust to clear the debt if you wish.

penrhyn

Start taking regular meter readings yourself. Read your bills and make sure you are not paying on the basis of estimates.
Are your payments now based on actual meter readings?
If so you will have to negotiate a suitable repayment plan.

polythenegirl

I guess I'm just really frustrated that I've paid everything they have told me, never missed a payment and I'm still in debt with them. I don't think its an acceptabel way to treat customers.

Yes the payments are now based on actual meter readings and I will be taking these monthly to ensure that it doesn't happen again

undaunted

This is Npower you're talking about - they have a strange view of what is acceptable (what they can get away with?) in my opinion - & whilst you're in debt they can keep your business of course. This is a company that needs someone to teach it some manners, unfortunately we have such spineless regulatory & related bodies that for the moment they just do as they like much of the time.

nPower

Hi polythenegirl

Sorry to hear about your problem. Something clearly isn't right there - could you send in your details to [EMAIL="forumresponse@npower.com"]forumresponse@npower.com[/EMAIL] and we can look into this for you?

Best wishes,
Sally

polythenegirl

Thanks Sally - I've just done that.