Npower lied about dd payments they would take and doubled my payments help!

jokiera

I had a doorstep caller from Npower who told me that if I did not use more gas and electricity than I did with my previous supplier he promised I would not pay more than £80 per month over the next 12 months. I signed up as I had been paying £120 per month with my previous supplier so I would be saving money. I have been with them four months and paying the £80 dd per month but they have just sent me a letter saying that I owe them over £550 on top of what I had been paying and they are increasing my payments to £177 per month. I'm know I'm not using any more energy than last year and I cant afford these payments, do I have any comeback? Please help.

Terrylw1

Where does the extra amount come from? Since you have switched there could be a problem with handover readings so check your final bill and first bill match.

Its difficult to say without more info, but salesmen make mistakes/lie etc which would mean making a complaint but the than gesture of goodwill it won't go far. The real issue is why it has increased, are you using more, is the new supplier more expensive, etc.

npowerstinks

Imust post this as a warning to others those swap to NPower.
I did just that in October 2011 from British Gas because the dual rates were cheaper.
I have just had my first 1/4ly Gas bill from them....£225.
Now this compared to my Gas bill from the same period the year before is some £100 more. I checked the meter readings-correct to the last one with British Gas and to present meter reading. I truly believed that the meter must be going round too fast!!
On contacting NPower, I am told that it is because of their ''calculations''. On checking my bill again.....
80units/2812kwh=the first 2627kwh has been charged at the premium rate of £8.032, only 185kwh has been charged at the lower rate of £2.936. This means that £209.78 of my bill is made up from the higher rate charge.
If only I had known this when I moved to NPower!!!! My bank account is now in debt as stupidly, I did not account for their ''robbing ways'' . Has anyone else experienced this when changing suppliers?

undaunted

Do you know what your actual consumption is & if so can you calculate what your previous supplier would have charged you for this (bearing in mind any price changes since your switch)?

Do you have any evidence of what the salesman said?

If not can you demonstrate that Npower were never going to be cheaper than your last supplier (based on your usage and their rates at the time?)

Have Npowers rates changed sufficiently to justify the £550 since he / she called?

You appear to have a possible discrepancy of around £390 (£40 difference in payments for 4 months means you've paid £160 less than you would have done with your old supplier but you're being asked for £550) & may be able to make a complaint of misselling if you can show some / all of the above mean that you'd have been better off were you were

ihateyes

did you not compare unit prices? or did you simply switch on the back of the DD being cheaper?? i think form your post the latter.