Have I been overcharged for years?

Irn-Bru-Kid

Hi,

I have just had a very interesting conversation with n-power and I would appreciate your thoughts.

I called n-power to negotiate a better deal. Looked into switching and found a better deal but thought I would give n-power the opportunity to look into it before switching.

I have just fitted a new gas boiler, log burner and we are two adults and a baby down from this time last year, so our winter bill will be considerably less.

Anyway, after telling them that I have fitted the new boiler, I was told that won't make much difference as I have electric heating with night storage heaters. I don't, our heating has always been gas.

The advisor at n-power told me that as they had me down as having night storage heating, I have been paying a higher rate for electricity during the day for the past five years!

She has reduced my monthly payment from £142.00 to £85.00 and they are coming to fit a new 'flat rate' meter.

Am I right in thinking that I have been overcharged all this time because they assumed I had night storage heaters when I haven't?

And the big question is, am I due money back from them?

If any of this isn't clear, please let me know

Many thanks

Swipe

Yes, you have been over charged but it's your own fault and you cannot put the blame on the electricity provider. It your responsibility to ensure you are on the correct metered tariff for your requirements.

energysavingexp

Irn-Bru-Kid wrote: »

Hi,

I have just had a very interesting conversation with n-power and I would appreciate your thoughts.

I called n-power to negotiate a better deal. Looked into switching and found a better deal but thought I would give n-power the opportunity to look into it before switching.

I have just fitted a new gas boiler, log burner and we are two adults and a baby down from this time last year, so our winter bill will be considerably less.

Anyway, after telling them that I have fitted the new boiler, I was told that won't make much difference as I have electric heating with night storage heaters. I don't, our heating has always been gas.

The advisor at n-power told me that as they had me down as having night storage heating, I have been paying a higher rate for electricity during the day for the past five years!

She has reduced my monthly payment from £142.00 to £85.00 and they are coming to fit a new 'flat rate' meter.

Am I right in thinking that I have been overcharged all this time because they assumed I had night storage heaters when I haven't?

And the big question is, am I due money back from them?

If any of this isn't clear, please let me know

Many thanks

its down to you to check which tariff you are on and change it if its not the right one for you.
is not down to your supplyer to tell you that you are on the wrong tariff.
so no you will not get a refund.
why did you not check what you was paying for each unit day and night rates and compair it to other tariff rates and go for a better deal

Irn-Bru-Kid

energysavingexp wrote: »

its down to you to check which tariff you are on and chane it if int not the right one for you.
is not down to your supplyer to tell you that you are on the wrong tariff.
so no you will not get a refund.
why did you not check what you was paying for each unit day and night rate and compair it to other tariff rates and go for a better deal

Thank you for your comments. The tariff we were on was the tariff that the provider gave me when I signed up. They were already supplying the house when we moved in. So, they put us on the tariff, we didn't choose it. And the tariff they put us on charged us more during the day as in their system we had night storage heaters, when we don't.

Also, the meter was already fitted when we moved in.

Cardew

However some people, even without night storage heaters, Still have an economy 7 tariff as they use appliances on cheap rate electricity. Also if you have oil or LPG central heating, it is cheaper to heat water on cheap rate.

It is also probable that originally the house did have night storage heating and when removed, the previous owners didn't bother to change from E7

You have possibly paid more than you should have done, but that is not the same as being overcharged.

macman

The provider doesn't have a clue about how you heat your house. All your bills would have been marked E7 and would have shown a split day/night rate for your billed units.
If the previous resident had it as E7 supply, and didn't change it over when the gas CH was installed (which is presumably what happened), then it would still be on E7 when you took over the supply.
And you would also have noticed that you still had a dual rate meter when taking readings?
So the error is down to the previous resident, and you failed to notice it.

undaunted

You say you inherited the supply so was this on a "Deemed contract" & if so did Npower make you aware of it's main terms?

You possibly have more grounds for complaint if not but could it be worth a call to watchdog either way?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/watchdog/2009/01/economy_7_meters_in_a_muddle.html

Irn-Bru-Kid

undaunted wrote: »

You say you inherited the supply so was this on a "Deemed contract" & if so did Npower make you aware of it's main terms?

You possibly have more grounds for complaint if not but could it be worth a call to watchdog either way?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/watchdog/2009/01/economy_7_meters_in_a_muddle.html

Thanks for your input. About two weeks after moving into the house, we received a letter addressed to 'occupier' from n-power. They intended to cut off the electric and gas. I'm not sure why, maybe the previous owners owed them money? Not sure, anyway, in a panic we phoned them and they signed us up then and there. They told us that the tariff the previous owners were on was the best one for us and that was it.

Now I find out purely by chance that it was not the best tariff for us and we have been overpaying for electricity for almost 5 years.

The others are correct, I should have perhaps looked into it. I have always had gas central heating in all my houses and I never new the set up with economy 7. Perhaps I was wrong to assume that the energy company were offering me the best deal, I just took their word for it.

I do think that is unfair that I was 'mis-sold' a tariff and I am out of pocket.

undaunted

It may have been a letter saying they would possibly have to disconnect the supply if they didn't know whether the property was occupied / intended solely to get you to contact them rather than anything to do with debt.

It may be worth complaining (in writing) to Npower stating what you say above & asking for a copy of your file under the data protection act (they will probably want to charge you £10) to see what they say as if they did incorrectly tell you it was the best tarrif you may have grounds for complaint.

Standard license conditions (page 28) state:

[FONT=Arial,Bold]"Information for Customers about Deemed Contracts[/FONT]
7.7 If the licensee supplies electricity to a Customer’s premises under a Deemed
Contract, it must take all reasonable steps to provide that Customer with:
(a) the Principal Terms of the Deemed Contract; and
(b) Notice that Contracts, with terms that may be different from the terms of
Deemed Contracts, may be available and of how information about such Contracts may be obtained."

Obviously in an express contract the same requirement to notify you of it's main terms (and give you the opportunity to cancel) still applies

You may wish to seek legal advice if you get nowhere with Npower

http://epr.ofgem.gov.uk/document_fetch.php?documentid=15997

SwanJon

They would have been working on the information available to them, and the meter in your property is an economy7 meter.
As Cardew says, plenty of people make E7 work even if they heat their home with gas.
So, unless you told them that this wasn't how you planned to manage your energy how would they know?

That said, always worth asking for a goodwill gesture...

macman

You haven't been mis-sold anything. You ignored about 20 bills which had Economy 7 on them, and failed to research which tariff was most suitable for you. No one is going to compensate you for that.