problem with Npower billing

susieanne

If i believe that my billing is wrong with Npower who would be the best person to ask to speke to when phoning them ?
I have rang them and all they say is they will print out all my bills and post them to me but i want someone to go through my billing with me over the phone

chanz4

Get them to send them out and call them up once recieved.

dogshome

Get those bills from n'power and if it is a case of you being totally confused by them, your best bet is to take them to your local Citizens Advice office.
If it's a problem with just one or two things, then post the detail here

susieanne

Thanks everyone , things are in such a mess i will have to wait to get the statements then go to CAB .

Basically all the problems started 18 months ago . Around that time 18 months ago npower started to send me a combined bill gas & electric on one bill . A few of the combined bills had been estimated so when i rang to give them the correct readings it resulted in me getting a massive combined gas & electric bill of £2100 :eek: . Npower set up a payment plan for me of £210 per month . I only get billed every 6 months so even though i have been paying them £210 per month everytime i got my bill the amount i owed doesnt seem to be coming down . I have just got a new bill and it says i owe £1800 i cant understand this, how i have been paying £210 for the last 18 months yet i still owe a massive amount . Its like getting blood from a stone when i phone them i cant seem to get any where . All i want them to do is tell me how much have my bills been for the last 18 months and how much money have i paid to them over the last 18 months . They are going to send me a print out .

To make matters worse because they are saying i still owe £1800 they have increased my payment plan to £520 per month , knowing full well i cant pay that , they are insisting i have pre-payment meters fitted which i dont want but i dont seem to have a choice . Im at my wits end getting know where with them

dogshome

From the figures on your Post 4 I can see the reasons for your concerns.

Whilst there isn't enough detail to make firm judgement, it appears that with only £400 paid off debt when you have made monthly payments of £210 over 18 months, the actual cost of your Gas/Elec consumption is an astounding £2,320 a year.
You haven't given details of your home, but that figure would service a busy Bed & Breakfast.

N'power have a history of being aggressive and arrogant in these circumstances. To protect yourself WRITE to them a.s.a.p heading the letter Complaint - In the letter set down your type of dwelling, family size and Gas/Elec use habits, saying that you have severe doubts about the accuracy of the billing, and that you need to have the bills examined by an independant scource before you can agree to any changes to D/Debit payments or meter change, and that you need a clear 21 days after reciept of the duplicate bills in order to do this.

When you do get the bills
Check the Meter Nos. on the bills against those on the actual meters to see that they match
Check that Final meter reading on the first bill, matches the start reading on the next bill, and then so on forward for every bill you have
Check that somewhere within these 18 months of bills, n'power have allowed the annual D/Debit credit of around £100

There is a common problem with Gas meter billing, which if it has occured could account for your costs - There are two types of gas meter:
Imperial marked ft3 on the front, and Metric marked m3 on the front. Look at your gas meter to see which it is, as sometimes the supplier thinks you have one type, when in fact you have the other

On that bill you have just had, divide the number of Kwh charged into the meter units used.
If the answer is appx. 31.5 you are being charged on the basis of having an Imperial meter.
If the answer is appx. 11.2 you are being charged on the basis of having a Metric meter
If the chargeing formula doesn't match the meter - GET ONTO n'power IMMEDIATELY

chanz4

You cant go off dwelling size , you have to go off exact appliances.

nPower

Hi susieanne,

That does sound a little worrying.

Can you send me your account details to forumresponse@npower.com and I can have this looked into for you?

Best wishes,

Adam

conorg2013

Hi,
I was with Npower for 2.5 years, for the first 2 years everything was fine, I was paying quarterly and I received an email every 3 months entered my meter readings and paid the bill online, not a problem, they were happy and I was happy. Then, i think in April 2012, I just stopped receiving correspondence from Npower, no emails and my account was all messed up online, with figures being added and subtracted, I stopped receiving normal bills and my account was in chaos. I started paying monthly £60 as I presumed that Npower would eventually get their act together and sort things out, but still nothing, no correspondance, until December 2012 when I started receiving Solicitors letters and fees for £453 that was owed on the account, including 3rd party fees, I made a complaint to Npower on the phone, spent 35minutes on hold and 5 minutes speaking, they denied their was a problem with my account but still were willing to refund some charges that were added to my account for invisible agents that called to check my meter (nobody called to my property) they denied they stopped correspondence with me, even though I checked my full gmail account and junk folder but received nothing from them. I just gave up with it and paid off what I owed on the account so I could switch suppliers, I just did not have the time or patience to spend a week online to attempt to get them to acknowledge to a customer that their billing system is a mess.
My advice is to NOT EVER USE NPOWER for anything, as they do NOT know how to provide any level of satisfactory customer service and are unwilling to help when things do go wrong and they will NEVER acknowledge their technical problems/failures. Even when their billing system was working in some form, it was still unclear and not easy to navigate, I guess their atitude is to keep customers in the dark so they can screw the most out of them. Thanks to Npower, I ended up paying 40% more for energy in 2012 than I did in 2011.
conorg

garold01

Try not to waste your time. Do NOT call anyone at Npower. Only deal in writing and e-mail. Log Everything. This is well known to be the most incompetent company on God's own earth. e-mail your complaint to the Chief Executive - paul.massara@rwenpower.com (he won't ever get it but a 'minion' from Npower will escalate your complaint. However, do not trust anyone as they are well trained to avoid real bills and simply make them up. Even after you leave (which I suggest you do asap) you will still be sent bills and be expected to deal with them. You need to be quite firm and escalate it to court if necessary. The Ombudsman won't deal with it and neither will OFGEM. Sorry to be so blunt. Do not trust this company.

macman

And how do you think the OP is going to be able to switch with £1800 of debt (apparently) on the account?

meggsy

So npower problems continue. So glad I switched away nearly 2 years ago. Remember npower were forced to repay £70m to their customers in 2010 ! They overcharged gas customers by up to £100 in the year 2007-08 but denied doing so at first. There was a thread on here which ran for 2 years called 'npower gas sculpting'

They are always bottom of the surveys for customer service. Bills are impossible to understand and they will try to deny you your discount either by ignoring it or preparing the bill early, then tell you it will appear on your next bill !

They have had many campaigns when they say they are going to improve, but believe me it never happens!

Throughout the 4 years I was with npower I never rang them, always email, you need everything in writing. Good luck OP