Npower's over estimation of electric usage due to wrong meter reading

DUTR

beelzebeck wrote: »

Thanks for the welcome and I didn't realise I was treating the readers as stupid?
My point about the £19 quid a month was that I had obviously overpaid by a huge amount and it suited my circumstances at the time to accept the new lower monthly amount, however I was never informed that I was up to speed with the overpayments until i was back in debt again.........anyway my concern is about the £1700 debt that i am now told I will be in due to the incorrect meter readings taken by Npower.....:eek:

I can now see why you accepted the new lower payments without question, I know my electric is near £25 per month on it's own so any DD request at around double that I would question as I know all I will have is an accrueing debt to bite me later on
Hope you get it resolved , although I fear it won't be a simple "oh our mistake ...forget about it "

jalexa

beelzebeck wrote: »

Thanks for the welcome and I didn't realise I was treating the readers as stupid?

I don't go along with criticism of acceptance of a supplier set low monthly payment. I apply a different test which is whether you updated statements containing estimated reads with customer reads.

Regarding the "£1700", unbilled energy supplied more than a year prior may be subject to back-billing relief under the "Billing Code". Check here...http://www.energy-uk.org.uk/customers/energy-industry-codes/code-of-practice-for-accurate-bills.html

Regarding the blocking of your switch (for £250), an account debit balance arising from the monthly payment being inadequate is not a "debt" if you have fully maintained the payments. On that issue you may find a formal complaint productive.

As an aside, be aware that if you were on a "deferred discount":eek: tariff (quite likely) you would have forfeited any unearned discount if you switched.

beelzebeck

Thanks for the advice.....Going over past bills it would appear that from 2005-2008 I was being billed correctly but since then my day and night units have been 'mixed up' hence the HUGE bill.
I am waiting for Npower to contact me to tell me the next step as I have only been told over the phone so far that I am liable for the bill and they will take the £400 credit I have built up towards it...:mad:
Whilst I am not trying to 'get something for nothing' I'm sure others would feel the same if say the water company suddenly sent a huge bill as they had charged you incorrectly for years!

The link you sent looks very interesting so that's a definite port of call....thanks again...:T

Terrylw1

Transposed reads are a big industry problem.

Things to consider for your complaint:

- how many readings did they receive showing the reads were the wrong way round
- what other information did they have
- why have they taken so long to resolve this
. How many times have their staff seen errors reported to them and what did they do

They would be really poor if they backbill you beyond 12 months as transposition is a 2 way street and they should be receiving lots of data over the years showing there is a problem.

You should also be checking the bills match the meter but the ultimate responsibility lies with the supplier here. You may also find your meter has stickers on it to reverse the readings.

beelzebeck

Terrylw1 wrote: »

Transposed reads are a big industry problem.

Things to consider for your complaint:

- how many readings did they receive showing the reads were the wrong way round
- what other information did they have
- why have they taken so long to resolve this
. How many times have their staff seen errors reported to them and what did they do

They would be really poor if they backbill you beyond 12 months as transposition is a 2 way street and they should be receiving lots of data over the years showing there is a problem.

You should also be checking the bills match the meter but the ultimate responsibility lies with the supplier here. You may also find your meter has stickers on it to reverse the readings.

Thanks for the response and the pointers on the complaint, i''ll definitely be using those. I had no idea this was such a problem!!

jhigman

Hello

I've just had the same thing - a £1000 bill from npower because they've been transposing the meter readings between day and night. It looks like they're trying to backdate it to March 2011, too, which looks way outside the 12 month backbill period that's supposed to apply.

I'm furious - I've always supplied meter readings when requested, and they've read the meter several times themselves.

Anyone had any success with fighting these huge retrospective bills?

Atidi

jhigman wrote: »

Hello

I've just had the same thing - a £1000 bill from npower because they've been transposing the meter readings between day and night. It looks like they're trying to backdate it to March 2011, too, which looks way outside the 12 month backbill period that's supposed to apply.

I'm furious - I've always supplied meter readings when requested, and they've read the meter several times themselves.

Anyone had any success with fighting these huge retrospective bills?

Not sure why you dug out this 6 month old thread.

Presumably you've sent Adam @ nPower an email?

jalexa

jhigman wrote: »

I'm furious - I've always supplied meter readings when requested, and they've read the meter several times themselves.

Anyone had any success with fighting these huge retrospective bills?

Keep calm. "Set a trap" by asking them (in writing or by email) why they do not consider backbilling relief to 12 months applies. There may be a valid reason, or there may not be. Consider the answer, post for further advice.

And as the last poster points out, it would be better if this was in its own thread (and not multi-posted:(). Go here... http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=13 and click the "new thread" blue button top left.

Welcome to the forum BTW.

Terrylw1

jhigman wrote: »

Hello

I've just had the same thing - a £1000 bill from npower because they've been transposing the meter readings between day and night. It looks like they're trying to backdate it to March 2011, too, which looks way outside the 12 month backbill period that's supposed to apply.

I'm furious - I've always supplied meter readings when requested, and they've read the meter several times themselves.

Anyone had any success with fighting these huge retrospective bills?

Use the advice on here and on the other thread.

Suppliers often flout the billing code, waiting to see if you are aware of it...then they back down.

I would also question any rebilling inside the last 12 months where they share the blame.

susie93

I'm new to this post hope it's still running - I have been having a problem with N Power. I have a six digit digital meter which I have had from new in 2009. The meter readings were fine until Scottish power tried to take us over and N Power closed our account. When I told them I was not going to Scottish Power they said that they would have to give me a new account number - fine - but then they suddenly could not read the meter properly and left off the first digit which is a 0 and put in the last five rather than the other way round which is the first five digits including any 0s and leave off the last digit. This amounted to me receiving a bill for £3,000 plus. After complaining they said okay its not £3,000 its £2,800. then £1,800. and said I was using over twenty thousand units per year. What???? I went through the proper channels but they would not re-calculate the bill still insisting that was correct. I went to OFFGEM ombudsman (WHAT A WASTE OF SPACE AND TIME) they obviously work for the energy companies as they agreed with them despite me sending photos of the meter showing the first 0. I don't know what to do now. I am on pension credit and I know now that the ombudsman has sided with them I am going to get a massive bill as this argument has gone on for over a year. It took the ombudsman 6 months to look at this. I have all the telephone transcripts from N Power that I requested on a SAR and all the way through I am asking "do I include the first zero" Yes is always the reply. Help!!! whata do I do now. I cannot believe they think I use on average 54 - 70 units a day in electricity in the summer!! I have taken my own readings and it is about 5 - 6 units a day which is approx 1850 to 2000. I have read that once these big companies have billed you they will not back down.