Energy Misselling successes

sarahdonnelly

I was with EDF and my combined gas/electric account was £200 in credit. I switched to nPower via a door to door salesman who claimed he could save me money. The d/d was set too low and we ended up over £500 in debit.

When we realised how bad the arrears were, we had to struggle for a year to pay our current bills plus the arrears. We have now left nPower and the account is in £150 debit.

Following Martin's advice, I complained to nPower, as when I re-worked the salesman's figures I realised I had been mis-sold as the d/d was set far too low given the information I provided at the time of sale. After their investigation, they agreed I was mis-sold, but only offered £150 to clear off the last of the arrears.

What does everyone else think, is this enough? Given the length of time and amount of debt we got into as a result, £150 seems a slap in the face. I am unsure of what a realistic figure would be. If I take it to the ombudsman I need to have a figure in mind and reasons why apparently. Any ideas? Anyone ever received more than this?

dan7146

Hi,

Sorry if this is in the wrong place but I couldn't figure out how to create a new post and am after a bit of advice.

Back in September 2009, my wife was walking through Bolton town centre when she was approached by a Southern Electric salesperson. At the time we were with NPower and not overly happy with their service. This salesperson asked my wife who we were currently with in relation to energy suppliers and how much we paid a month. Once supplied with this information the salesperson offered my wife Gas and Electric with his company for £55 direct debit for the two. This was cheaper than NPower and naturally we moved. Gradually this DD increased to the point where we are now paying £86 p/m. Now, i'm not saying that they are over charging us because we are obviously using what we are using, but is this mis-selling??? We would not have moved but for the offer of a cheaper bill.
I'm currently in a complaint procedure with Southern Electric with their representative adamant that no mis-selling took place in our case, however they would advise their compliance team who would feedback to the representative who stitched us up. I rang them up following this correspondence as I wasn't satisfied however I received a similar response and was also told that due to the fact we had left it 2 years to complain, he didn't think we had a case.

Do we??

Cheers in advance,

Dan

stanley2004

I don't have all the facts to hand but am so wound up I need to let off steam! I have been with Npower for just over 12 months on an economy 7 tariff. at approx 11 months we are told the meter has been misread and they amended the bill increasing our annual usage by £200. in the winter 2010/11 I spoke to npower to see if we were on the best tariff and despite a first misleading call saying we could halve our bill which I found too good to be true I was told we were on the best tariff for our usage. our meter had at this time been read by a 'professional' meter reader. so I was a happy customer.9 months later I am told the meter night and day readings have been mixed up - had I been aware of this at an earlier date we would not have stayed on economy 7. I complained I said it wasn't right we don't have a big property both work full time we are not extravagant electricity users something must be wrong. an engineer was sent and he found faulty equipment which he took away and said he would write a report. he agreed that the usage we were being charged was excessive. this was at the beginning of October and I have heard nothing from Npower. I emailed on 26/10/11 and got a standard email response saying give them 5 working days. to date I have heard nothing. I do not want to stay with npower I have no faith in them I do not want to stay on economy 7 as I don't want this to happen again I want a straight forward single reading meter and commitment to meeting response deadlines and a good customer service - not too much to ask when I a am currently paying £73 per month DD recently increased from £42. Can I switch supplier whilst this dispute is on? can I change the meter to a single read from economy 7 I don't want to wait 8 weeks and continue to pay over the odds if we aren't on the right tariff.:eek:

mothyS

I'm a student and last year lived in a rented house that had the same number as 3 other houses on the street. British Gas closed my account without telling me and then sent a lot of really expensive bills to 'the occupier'. I phoned up and was told to throw them away as they weren't addressed to me. I then phoned again explaining the situation and it turned out that we had been sent bills for the wrong gas metre. They had discovered that the serial number on the meter had been wrong and so closed my account without telling me. We have then had to deal with British Gas sorting this out over the last 6 months. This has led to an enormous bill because we had been sent the wrong bills for the last year and owed masses. I have made a complaint to British Gas but they haven't got back to me yet. I was wondering if I had a case to get any compensation? And it's been 2 weeks since I made the complaint without hearing back - what should my next step be?

nPower

Hi stanley2004,

It's very disappointing to read about the length of time you've had to wait.

Would you like me to look into your account for you? You can send me your details to forumresponse@npower.com and I can take a look.

Best wishes

Sally

dmoore87

I moved to npower in July 2011 due to E.on billing me incorrectly. I moved into the property (all electric) in January 2010 and they were billing me incorrectly - £6 a month. I addressed this immediately with them and they started to charge me more - £25 per month. Still wrong, E.on continued to charge me incorrectly. In May 2011. I was warned of a high bill. It was following this I switched supplier after a bill for £1056.56. After complaining they reduced the bill by £375.57.

I have asked E.on to apply the best billing code, which hasn’t been done. Instead, they sent a list of my last payments, which are as follows:

July ’10 Statement - £56 (£24 in debit)
October ’10 Statement - £66 (£5.08 in credit)
January ’11 Statement - £34 (£174.56 in debit)
June ’11 Statement - £723.19 (The final statement already includes a goodwill adjustment £371.57)

I have raised the issue with Ofgem and they have advised to apply the back billing code and request the goodwill on top, which hasn't been applied.

Has anyone had a similar problem? I don’t want to pay for their mistake which I constantly asked them to correct?

Any more help or advice will be greatly appreciated.

poole3

hi i am new to this but am hoping someone could help. i recently rang e on to change some personal details and query our £20 plus a week electric pre pay key meter (this is without our electric heating on). while on the phone the very helpful lady explained that the meter we had was the wrong one and in fact we should have an economy 7 pre payment meter (have booked it to be fitted a week tuesday) i then had the thought that if we have the wrong meter that has been fitted by e on over 12 months ago we have been over charged for this entire length of time. i have emailed e on. just stating the facts and i have had a reply in broken english saying no refund is nessessary. i am going to wait until the new meter is fitted and then start asking more questions???? any advice would be a great help

Shell999

I am at my wits end and not sure what to do next.
I have been with the company for around 8 years and have just been issued with a letter telling me that my direct debits will be going up to £352.00 per month(I nearly dropped through floor) I had previously been paying £90 and it had gone up recently to £120 which I was already finding a struggle to manage.
After contacting the company I was informed that my account was in debt by over £3.900 and this seems back dated to 2007. When I asked why this had happened I got very little explanation just that there had been a lot of estemated bills. I was confused about this as since I had a new meter fitted last year the meter seemed to be getting read every month.
I asked why I had only just been informed of this.
(Apparently it can take a while to sort)
I explained that I could not afford more than £140 max and was not sure that I could afford that until I did the math, and could i be fitted with pay as you go meter?
I was told that I could pay £151 per month and that was the least they could get it to. But the £352 for this month would still come out on the 28th as it was over the 14 day window.
No talk of the meter.
I have done the math and £130 is just about manageable if I cut the cloth yet again
And the £352 for this month will send me into the red with the bank unless I can borrow the money from someone.
Does anyone know what I can do? And if I force the issue with a meter will it just charge me the £151 monthly anyway? I have a two year old and the thought of electricity being cut off is driving me to despair.:(
I don't even know how I got into this mess.
Please help

E.ON_Company_Rep_Chris

I’m so sorry about this Shell999 I’m sure I’ll be able to help.

Looks like a lot has gone on here, possibly a catch up bill after estimates or a problem with the meter exchange?

Either way; the main thing is to make sure that you don’t get any bank charges this month and that your payments are set at an amount you can manage, that still covers your use and repays the balance.

With Christmas around the corner and a little one to think about. I know this is all hassle you can do without.

I’m sorry that we didn’t help when you called us. If you send an email to the address on my profile page with your account or address details, I can check that any problems are now sorted out and that the balance is correct.

I can also look at your options in getting the monthly payments as low as we can or if you prefer look at getting you a prepayment meter.

Please try not to worry, there’s lot’s we can do to help and I can find a way to make sure that you’re not £352.00 out of pocket next week.

I’ll keep an eye out for your email and get onto it straight away

Speak to you soon

Amanda

SnowMan

Shell it is possible the back billing rules might apply in your case. If the supplier is at fault for not billing you then the Energy Retail Association guidance says that they should not send a bill which includes unbilled energy consumed more than 1 year prior to the bill being issued.

Go to the consumer focus website here and type back billing into the search box.

It will depend on the reason for the underbilling whether back billing will apply in your case.

Hope you get it sorted and well done to the EON rep for replying also.