Npower - advice please!!

jonosh82

Hi there

First time I've posted anything so I apologise if this the wrong area to stick this query and sorry if it is rambling, but I am at my wits end. :mad:

Npower claim I owe them more money then I believe I do and I am locked in a dispute with them. I have been with them for 4 years and everything was fine until they raised my dd to £136/month for gas and electric (previously paying £46/month). They refused to reduce the dd so I cancelled it (after they refunded me £800+). I changed supplier for my elec but they stated I could not change gas as there was debt on the account.

After much arguing, they have discovered they were incorrectly billing me (imperial units vs metric units) but still claim I owe them over £2000 in gas. They are using estimated readings when I have been providing them with my own readings.

I reckon I use about £40-£50 a month in gas. So a rough guide would suggest I have used £2,400 in gas over the last 4 years. I had paid £1600 to them until I cancelled my dd and have not paid anything for over 14 months. So I reckon I owe them about £800

I have asked them to send me a final decision letter so i can involve the ombudsman but they won' t. Any ideas on what I can do to resolve this?

t0rt0ise

It doesn't really matter what readings they have used so far as long as they now use an actual reading. Then they could work out what is owed to them. Have they not done this? You should demand that they use an actual meter reading and provide an updated bill.

nPower

Hi jonosh82

I am concerned to hear about the problems you are having with your gas account.

I would like the opportunity to take a look into this for you. Please send your details to forumresponse@npower.com and I will get on to it right away.

Best Wishes
Sally

dogshome

Hi jonosh82 - You are certainly having a hard time with n'power - Welcome to the club

I'm afraid it's up to you to do the homework to challange a Gas Bill demand based on estimated readings.
The important data is your Gas meter reading when you moved in, the meter reading at the point when n'power realised you had a Metric meter and the meter reading now.


Go thro' all your gas bills, (if you don't have them all WRITE to n'power requesting copies- they have to supply them)
On every bill dated before the day n'power realised you had a Metric meter, divide the bill total cost by 31.5 and then mulitiply the answer by 11.2 to get a very close figure of what the bill total should have been - You will see from this that for every £10 on the Imperial meter based bill, you have been overcharged by £6.55.

Then deduct your payments from your new totals on these bills to work out what n'power owe you, then adjust this figure against the debt you have with n'power for gas that has been correctly billed but you have not yet paid for.

YOU MUST put your figures to n'power in WRITING with the letter headed Complaint

n'powersrefusal to issue a 'Deadlock' letter is totally out of order and in fact you don't need one - You can go to adjudication if the supplier fails to answer your query after 6 weeks have elapsed from the date of your complaint.

It's worth bearing in mind the the Ombudsman is funded by the industry and therefore not totally independant, and whilst they usually do an good job, there have been decisions that have the smell of Industrial Politics.
However, Consumer Focus are independant, state funded and have shown themselves to be unafraid of the Industry - It was they who pilloried n'power and forced them to hand back £70million to customers.
Good Luck

undaunted

If it's been going on for more than 8 weeks you can contact the Ombudsman whether they agree / issue a letter or not. Have a look at http://www.ombudsman-services.org/energy.html

Personally I've my doubts about the Ombudsmans supposed independance but you can but try.

As above Consumer Focus may also be worth a go. Good luck