npower raised price of electric units, left with shocking bill.

nPower

Hi oasismark,

I'm sorry to hear that you feel mis-informed here. We do send out letters to inform customers when their tariffs end, so I'm slightly worried why this doesn't seem to be the case.

If you could send me your account details to [EMAIL="forumresponse@npower.com"]forumresponse@npower.com[/EMAIL], I'll be able to see what's happened here and what we can do for you.

Many thanks,

Adam

davidgmmafan

I can see this from both sides. On the one hand its easy to accept that the customer didn't recieve the notification on the other hand it does say with such tariffs when they end and that when they end you would revert to standard.

If the OP was given wrong information when he called close to the end date then I would've thought that swings the balance...

oasismark

Hi all

Just to update this post.

I had a call from npower yesterday and as expected came up against a brick wall, npower claim they did inform me that my tariff was changing, so after going online, downloading 4 bills of 7 pages long each, about 30 mins looking through the bills, i found

'Please note: theres been a price change'

No mention of why the price change or how much!

Im pretty sure thats all i can find about this tariff change and price rise.

Went into a discussion asking why npower don't actively contact its own customers when tariffs end and find the best tariff for their customers instead of putting people on the highest tariff available. npower said something about 'we don't have the staff and cannot afford to do that!!' can you believe it with £96 billion profit or whatever! Yet they can hassle non npower customers to try snare them in with cheap offers only to whack it up after a year.

felt like i was talking to a robot who constantly repeated

'Im understand your point'

and

'we have done nothing wrong and havnt broken the contract'

and

'beep, wizz, unable to compute zzzzz, bbbrrrrr'

I think she was booting down at that point

I signed up 10 days ago to a cheaper tariff obviously to get me off this high priced one, I asked if there was a 14 day cooling off period and if i could leave npower or would i incure charges, she said there was NO cooling off period and it would cost me £40 to leave!

WHERE DO THEY MAKE UP THESE CHARGES FROM!!! :mad::mad::mad:

Adam ill send a email to see if you can assist thanks.

jalexa

nPower_company_representative wrote: »

We do send out letters to inform customers when their tariffs end,

Not all your tariffs terms and conditions specify notice by letter. Are you saying that regardless of T&C wording you always notify by letter?

macman

There is only a 14 day cooling-off period if you are switching suppliers. If you switch tariffs, it should be almost instant, and any ETC applicable to that tariff will be enforced.
Most tariffs (other than Standard) carry an ETC, it's up to you to read the details before you sign up, and to check your bills. The supplier is under no obligation to put you on the cheapest tariff (do your insurers, telecom or ISP do this?). When your discount tariff ends, you will go onto the default tariff (often Standard) unless you advise otherwise.
How hard is it to make a diary note for the date your discount tariff ends?

oasismark

macman wrote: »

There is only a 14 day cooling-off period if you are switching suppliers. If you switch tariffs, it should be almost instant, and any ETC applicable to that tariff will be enforced.
Most tariffs (other than Standard) carry an ETC, it's up to you to read the details before you sign up, and to check your bills. The supplier is under no obligation to put you on the cheapest tariff (do your insurers, telecom or ISP do this?). When your discount tariff ends, you will go onto the default tariff (often Standard) unless you advise otherwise.
How hard is it to make a diary note for the date your discount tariff ends?

When i sign up for a contract i dont expect that contract to change, without a letter in the post or a phone call saying why its changing, whats its changing to and when its changing.

Sky tv, telephone bill, water, car insurance, loans, house ins, tv licence, dog ins, council tax, broadband...etc.

Every single monthly payment i pay per month does not change unless im told well in advance.

A well hidden sentence saying 'price change' on the 5th page of a pdf stored online is not being 'well informed' if you ask me.

meggsy

My experience of npower was that switching to another tariff was not instant .. I posted this on another thread yesterday ..

"When I changed to another tariff with npower in 2010 they emailed to confirm I was now on Sol19, however a letter arrived confirming prices and a start date for gas which was almost 3 weeks later although the electricity switch was immediate.

A previous tariff change took 3 weeks for both fuels"

Mark, suggest that you always email, don't phone them, you need everything in writing with npower ! They are masters of deception and 6 monthly billing was a dreadful idea from the customers point of view !

j2011

The supplier is under no obligation to put you on the cheapest tariff

That is what is wrong with the whole electricity and gas business and any other business.

It should be made compulsory for companies to at least suggest that there is a cheaper tariff available.

Rip of Britain right enough.

backfoot

chanz4 wrote: »

When this Agreement ends
If you continue to take supply from us at the end of your Sign Online 25 Period, we will place you on our standard online standing charge product (“Go-Save S”), which may be more expensive than Sign Online 25, unless we have another offer that we feel may be suitable for you and have agreed alternative terms with you. We will notify you of your new prices before the end of your Online Price Control Period.

The NPower Rep has said this is by letter. If you pursue a complaint they will have to produce evidence that this was done.

If they can't prove it, you can claim breach of contract.

I would be asking them to produce that defintive evidence now or ask for the matter to be deadlocked and refer it to the Energy Ombudsman.

If they then later produce something, I think you may still win an adjudication because your complaint was handled inapproiately and wasted the EO's time.

I think you should be awarded the difference in rates plus compensation.

More generally, a simple process to find the next best tariff available for the Supplier, instead of a default to the expensive, should be operated.

From a Customer Service viewpoint this would be an excellent policy. Their default is at the opposite end of the scale with shoddy customer service.It would not be an onerous process by IT extract.

Complain only in writing.

spiro

When a tariff ends you should be free to choose what tariff you want not be put on a tariff a computers says is the cheapest for you because there are too many variables. Just imagine the outcry if they moved you to a tariff that you were tied into for 2 years and 2 days later they dropped their prices.

Everyone on this Forum uses a computer so how hard is it to set a reminder that your tariff is going to end and you need to search for the next good deal?

Customers are always put on the standard tariff unless they instruct the supplier to put them on another tariff. OFGEM has never disagreed or objected to that practice in all the enquires into the market.

All of the above may sound harsh but we are all adults and should take some responsibility to control our lives and not expect companies to do all the work for us which sounds more like a big brother state to me.