Npower-how much compensation should I ask for?

hels234

Npowers fault, they kept moving the wrong property despite being given the correct details for my property. Mistake on their computer and poor staff. Their communications with me (letters and phone calls) have been contradictory and just one big mess, when they phone now, I always ask for it to be recorded and then confirmed in email

backfoot

£50. No more no less.:)

hels234

That doesn't even cover my phone bills to them never mind the extra I've spent whilst waiting to move! I was just thinking of trying to get back my losses at least! A number of times they've left messages for me to call them and when I do it's only to tell me that they are dealing with my complaint, no progress just dealing with it! Arrrrh!

backfoot

The point of my post was to illustrate that only you know what you want. As soon as someone suggests an arbitrary figure, you have responded. If I now say £200 no more or less, you will have another reaction.

Where things go badly wrong, I nearly always claim compensation for inconvenience,time spent etc. That is a matter for the two parties to agree on. If you can't agree, then you have to back up your claim with other action,which usually concentrates the mind of both parties.

BTW the Energy Ombudsman usually suggests a goodwill payment where they find in favour of a customer. Often £50 for inconvenience which is the figure I first started with just for that aspect.:)

hels234

What I was hoping for was responses as to what things people thought were reasonable to be taking into account when calculating an amount, should i take the quidco bit into account? Should i add my time spent and what value do put on this? I also hoped another poster may have had a similar experience and could let me know how they got on.
Sorry I wasn't clear enough in my original post.:o

tipsychick

Hi hels234

I'm in the throes of claiming compensation for a transfer to EDF dating back over a similar period of time as yours and although the details of my complaint are different, I agree it's difficult to know how much to ask for.

Whilst this is my first experience of claiming for compensation from an energy company, I have had a number of successful claims against financial institutions for fairly routine admin type problems, e.g. ISA transfers that have gone wrong.

When I've asked for compensation in the past, I've calculated the total I've asked for in the following way:

(1) Expenses incurred - actual cost of phone calls, stamps, etc. Doesn't have to be to the exact pence but if you've been phoning from a mobile I imagine this figure could be quite high for you. In my case, as EDF have an 0800 number, it is quite low, say £5.00 for stamps, paper, etc.

(2) Time spent dealing with the matter - hours spent waiting on the telephone, having conversations with their staff, writing letters, etc. The Financial Ombudsman says it is reasonable for your time to be calculated at £10.00 per hour, although I don't know if this figure would be amenable to the Energy Ombudsman though. Personally I'm about 15 hours down in my dealings with EDF, so that's £150.00.

(3) Gesture of goodwill - this is for the distress and inconvenience you've suffered. I plan on asking for at least £200.00, although I'm tempted to add a nought to that!

In total, therefore, I'd be asking for £355.00 based on the workings above. If this is similar to the amount outstanding on my bill (if they ever manage to calculate it correctly!), I might ask them to waive that instead.

I always provide my working (pretty much exactly as I've laid out above) and have never had my figures queried. However, I don't know if the Energy Ombudsman would calculate compensation owed in the same manner as the Financial Ombudsman.

I, too, would be very interested to hear from anyone who has had compensation paid out, how they reached a final figure and what that final figure actually was.

tipsychick

I've just read through your posts again and I'd personally put the extra amount you've paid to your previous provider whilst they sorted it out in section (1) of my breakdown above, as it's actually an expense you've incurred.

Regarding Quidco not paying out, you should probably attempt to claim it via Quidco (you might have left it too late now though?) but given all the hassle you've been through, I'd try claiming it from Npower direct. It may well be the fact that Npower mucked up your transfer that caused Quidco not to pay out and at this late juncture, it would probably be easier to obtain the money direct from Npower. It doesn't really fit into any of my three categories above, so it might warrant its own paragraph!

energysavingexp

why did you not ask npower to call you back as soon as you got through?
they allways called me back as soon as i asked them to.

they also record the calls as standard

hels234

I did ask them to call back, they also use to tell me they would be calling on x day with updates but guess what? Yep, no call backs! They even closed my complaint once even though it wasn't sorted claiming it was because I'd not been in touch with them! I did query with quidco but npower declined even though I explained it was due to their own mix up and quoted the complaint ref, meter point ref number and details. It's been a complete nightmare.

chanz4

It may be the builders error when registering the mpr/ mpans on the central database. How did you signup? Think your compensation claim above is a bit ott, most £100 compo