NPower My Complaint advice reqd

stevenm37

Ive copied below a letter of complaint ive drafted. In short i switched to npower, despite providing hand over meter readings they didn't bill me for three months, then set the bill what i think now was artificially low. Today I get a letter and my bill have more than doubled, they say to repay the debit. If any one could take the time to read my letter and offer any suggestions or advice id really appreciate it.
Thanks Steve


I am writing to make a complaint about what I consider to be a failure in your levels of service resulting in me being issued with an increased direct debit payment.
When I switched to yourselves I provided a meter reading for the handover from my previous utility provider. I provided another reading further to this but didn’t receive a bill from npower for around three months.
I was eventually provided with a direct debit of £34 per month. This seemed low to me but in view of the fact that I am a single man and am only at home for around half the week I just assumed it was accurate for my energy consumption.
I was shocked to receive a bill dated 27th July informing me of my new payment of £80 per month which would reduce my account debit over 6 months. I immediately called npower to speak to an advisor who extended the repayment period thus reducing the bill to £64 per month.
I consider this to be an excessive increase which is in no part attributable to myself. The reasons it has increased are clearly due to my account being in debit but I attribute this failure to the substandard service levels provided by you.
Put simply I would like you to address the following issues which have caused this situation:
• Why did it take so long to create my first bill?
• Why was the first bill set so low?
I would like to understand why your inefficiencies in effectively processing my account has so dramatically increased my bill and as I can not afford to pay the debit off I am effectively compelled to remain with npower until I’ve repaid.
If I do not receive a satisfactory response I will be taking my complaint to the relevant ombudsman and further if necessary.

evilmonkey69

How did you apply to join Npower? If you applied online (self quoting) then you don't really have a complaint to speak of. If you feel the sales rep deliberately quoted a rd lower than usage causing the issue, then maybe you have a point. Suppliers bill customers (usually) every 3-6 months reviewing xx on every bill, or every other bill. They have extended the arrangement which is normal and they may be able to spread over a longer period if needed. Make sure you're on the cheapest tariff as this may help bring dd down. I'm quick to criticise Npower left them 4 yrs ago and vowed never to return, however from your post not sure they have done anything wrong unless a sales mislead issue. U can switch if you're not happy as if you keep dd active you can leave and set up arrangement when final bill arrives for areas. Make sure you have correct usage for quotes to avoid re-occurrence of this is so common issue.

stevenm37

Thanks for your replies. I was approached by NPower via a marketing call where they promised to reduce my bills. I was with BG paying £44 per month combined(already low I know but i'm rarely home and I never use the heating...wooly jumpers instead, I am a tight s*d)
BG ceased supply in Nov 2010 and actually refunded me over payment. I recieved three bills of £14 (yes £14!!) per month from NPower Nov 2010 dec 2010 jan 2011 then it went upto £34 in Feb 2011. the im told ive under paid, feels like theyve engineered the whole situation to me. I guess these bills were estimated but then again as I have been told im so far behind it seems all the amounts theyve billed me were estimates!!??

eurmalian

I think you need to make sure that you are clear over what is a bill and what is Direct Debit. I could be wrong, but I'd immagine that those first 3 bills for £14 would be Direct Debit payments, not bills? There is a lot of difference between the two...

cing0

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=44403636&postcount=8

PM me for an email address at Npower - sending a letter won't help.

stevenm37

Thanks eurmalian, I might be being a bit naive here but as far as a customer is concerned arnt they the same thing? I gave my bank details and provided a reading and assumed that the DD and the monthly bill were one and the same?

eurmalian

Usually, unless you're on a very specialised set up, what happens is your your bill is the actual ammount that you've used over the last month or three months, depending on how it's set up. The direct debit, though, should be the ammount that the supplier expect you to use over a year, divided by 12. It means that in the summer your bill should be less than the Direct Debit and in the winter the bill should be higher as the payments balance out...

You do get Monthly Variable Direct Debit, where they take tha actual ammount that you've used, but if your first three were all £14, it doesn't sound like that is being used.

undaunted

stevenm37 wrote: »

I would like to understand why your inefficiencies in effectively processing my account has so dramatically increased my bill and as I can not afford to pay the debit off I am effectively compelled to remain with npower until I’ve repaid.
If I do not receive a satisfactory response I will be taking my complaint to the relevant ombudsman and further if necessary.

Whilst it has to be said it's not ultimately unreasonable for you to have to pay for electricity you have chosen to use I reckon the answer to your first point on being forced to stay with them therafter is basically because, wrong as it may be, they like it that way!

As to your second I wouldn't hold my breath on them helping you. What is required is a legal challenge to forcing consumers to remain with a provider. One consumer is attem,tping this but I believe Npower are currently trying hard to stall any such challenge with questionable legal tactics.

Absolutely dreadful company to deal with!

ihateyes

when they said the can be cheaper then BG did the form this on you monthly ddeb o did the take you actual usage and kwh into account... if not they jut missold the products to you

Shashwoo

It is quite possible that they have agreed on a monthly DD amount based on an average single person consumption. Until they have 3+ months of usage from you they cannot accuratly work out what your monthly payments should be.

When you sign over to a new company e.g brom Bgas to Npower as long as you have given Bgas & npower the same readings to close & start your account and your 1st quarterly bill is based on an actual then they will have adjested your payments based on these figures.

If however your 1st quarterly bill was based on a estimated reading it is quite possible that their system has incorrectly worked out your consumption based on this reading.

Check your 1st bill, was it and actual start read to actual read or was it actual to estimate? if it was to estimate then I would suggest you provide an actual reading to get a more accurate monthly DD payment

If they have based it on an estimate and you haven't prvided an actual then they cannot be blamed for this, they may have tried to send a meter reader out and you have not been home (you said you are only there part of the week)

stevenm37

I took the reading from both meters (gas & elect) and passed these to BG as the outgoing provider and npower as the new one. BG had no issues with this and closed the acount whereas npower kept asking me for the reading. I gace it over the phone a couple of times and by post on their initial letter. The boxes are situated outside on an external wall.