npower fuel estimate

96mgb

I joined Npower when we moved into a rented house on 14 Sep 10. The property had previously been with Npower and after supplying them the meter readings for gas and electricty they estimated £70 a month for 2 people living in a 3 bedroom house.

We like to think that we are energy concious we dont leave lights on or leave computers running all night etc. Also for 2 months i was away on work so it was just 1 person in the house and we both work full time so arent there during the day.

Imagine my surpise 6 months later i get my first bill saying i owe £474! This is over 100% more than quoted. It says in that in 6 months i used£323.56 of electricity and £500 of gas (we use heating on a timer and over the period it was on 7 hrs a day)

When i looked at the new estimate for the next 6 months it says ill use £260 electricity and £163 gas. which is the same monthly payment of £70!( However I have to pay £140 a month to repay the bil)l.

I have spoken to customer relations to complain and they offered me a 'better' rate of based on my previous usage of £56 for gas and £33 for electricity. Thats £87 a month which is more than the normal tariff! They said that the quote on my bill must be wrong.

What do people think is going on here? Have they really mucked up and inputted some wrong numbers?

Is £70 a month for electritcity and gas about right?

The way i see it there could be a few things that have happened...

1. We really used that much gas and eletricity, however that doesnt explain why the new quotes so low.

2. The company miss heard or mis inputted the origional readings.

3. Npower is deliberaterly hugely underestimating the cost to keep me with them.

Please tell me am i being unreasonable to think that an estimate that is 100% out is a bit odd or even mis selling?

eurmalian

I'd check the reading on the bill as best you can, expecially the resent ones. Make sure that they're not estimated or anything like that. If not then the bill is likely correct. The figures that you're quoting aren't too much over the odds for 6 months over winter. Especially not the worst winter that we've had in however many years it was.

Remember that over the next six months you should use a lot less, especially on the gas, because of it being warmer, lighter, etc. It probably won't make up the full defecit with the current ammounts that you're paying, but it may well reduce it a lot.

That's likely why a cheaper tarriff doesn't result in too much of an increase to your payments, as they're expecting your lower usage to take care of a lot of the difference too. Having said that, the new quote still seems a bit low for both fuels in a 3 bedroom house, especially giving your current balance.

I'd definitely suggest moving off of the standard tarriff, no matter what you do. It'll help to keep things down in future.

96mgb

I just checked the bills initial readings. Interestingly the initial gas 'reading' says it was an estimate even though we gav them a reading unfortunately we dont have that reading. I am now wondering if some how their initial estimate of our starting figue was off....

spiro

96mgb wrote: »

I just checked the bills initial readings. Interestingly the initial gas 'reading' says it was an estimate even though we gav them a reading unfortunately we dont have that reading. I am now wondering if some how their initial estimate of our starting figue was off....

Ask you LL for your move in reading and check it matches the opening reading on you initial bill. If it does not contact your supplier and raise a dispute.

Andy_WSM

96mgb wrote: »

(we use heating on a timer and over the period it was on 7 hrs a day)
<snip>

Is £70 a month for electritcity and gas about right?

Sounds too cheap to me for 7 hours a day of heating, but clearly this would depend on the temperature you set the thermostat to and the insulation levels of your home.