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

dogshome

Hi susie93
You are quite right - The Ombudsman is not a Govt. Agency, it is actually a Trade Assn funded by the Utility Industry.
There have been several posts about it's inefficiency and some oddball decisions, but none as inept and as serious as your case.

What to do
The hard truth is that haveing failed to get justice from the Ombudsman, your next port of call is the Small Claims Court, but you will need tightly organised paperwork to use them.

The Citizens Advice Bureau are now part of the 'Official' route for Utility for complainants, so I would suggest phoning your local office for an appointment.
Whilst your problem is financially huge, it's actually very simple, and documention from the CAB will be good suppport for your case, and possibly get you to 'Consumer Futures' who are a new, but as yet untested, Govt Agency for Utility Complaints

dogshome

A new OP has bumped an old thread titled " N'power over estimation of electric useage due to wrong meter reading"

Susie93's post is astounding, I've made as good a reply as I can, but would ask that some of the more experienced regulars climb on board

dogshome

Hopefully more help on the way

DirectDebacle

If the E.O. have reached a perverse decision then you can request that it be reviewed.

The review decision is final and there is no right of appeal. Should you not accept their findings then as dogshome rightly points out your last resort is the County Court (Small Claims Division).

My and many others experience with npower is that they will do all they can to settle a claim before it ever reaches court.

undaunted

Interesting, will have a look.

My instant reaction however is that there is not some secret collusion between Npower and the Ombudsman alone, just a terrible regulatory system, an inevitable degree of interest in your funders / continuation and an inate tendency amongst staff who come from similar industry backgrounds to reach similar conclusions and, given that the regulator takes no issues with them that they must therefore be okay / correct.

undaunted

Whilst I have limited faith in the CAB's abilities to deal with Court / legal issues I'm afraid Dogshomes advice seems generally reasonable / what is available to me

I've no idea what your experiences of Npower are Direct Debacle but I believe you are entirely misguided on that one, they will only resolve if it suits them / involves the consumer giving in in my experience. Even Energy Watch / Ofgem have suggested Npower have previously suggested that Npower have a consistently reputation for not resolving complaints as well as other suppliers.

You could also contact your MP and request that they contact the supplier & attempt to resolve this with Npowers Parliamentary liasion woman for you and that they ask the Parliamentary Ombudsman to look into the Energy Ombudsmans handling of this matter

If you are not happy with the Energy Ombudsmans process / decision you can also complain to them about their handling (and consequentially obviously incorrect decision rather than directly / generally about the decisions).

DirectDebacle

Unfortunately the OP has not stated the reasons why Npower and the E.O. have rejected the claim. On the face of it the complaint appears to be fairly straightforward.

If the Op is sure that the E.O. decision is erroneous then there is no harm in asking for a review. Whilst this is being done the OP could go to the CAB with their evidence and have it error checked.

Assuming the claim is correct then the OP can wait for the result of the review. If the result is unsatisfactory the OP can make a claim through the court.

In my case I took Npower to court. There was 6 months between the summons being issued and the date of hearing. During that time Npower made several offers to settle the claim, each offer being an improvement on the previous one but short of the amount I was claiming. I refused to accept any of these offers.

Forty eight hours before the hearing Npower offered to settle my claim in full. Naturally I accepted.

Other MSE members with similar claims followed my example and Npower repeated their pattern of first denial and then offering lesser amounts until finally settling in full prior to the matter going to court.

There are no guarantees but if the OP has a legitimate claim then Npower are likely to adopt the same approach if court action is initiated.

Npower are not the easiest company to deal with in respect of putting matters right and I have little confidence in the E.O.

If you have a valid claim then determination, persistence and resolution are often required to reach a satisfactory outcome.

I've no idea what your experiences of Npower are Direct Debacle but I believe you are entirely misguided on that one...

You are entitled to your opinion.

undaunted

Indeed, though it is far easier to bully the consumer than risk going to court and it isn't merely my opinion. Npower were previously shown to disconnect more struggling consumers than any other supplier and Ofgem stated they "encourage npower to look hard at what more they could do to proactively manage customers in debt at an earlier stage to limit the numbers who end up disconnected and to bring them in line with other suppliers' practices." (link2, P16) going on to say "Whilst npower demonstrated some elements of good practice, as set out below, it has the most improvement to make to bring its practices, and disconnection rates, in line with those of other suppliers." (P19)

I'm not aware that any more recent surveys have updated Ofgems perception on this?

http://www.ofgem.gov.uk/Media/PressRel/Documents1/Ofgem%203.pdf

http://www.ofgem.gov.uk/Sustainability/SocAction/Publications/Documents1/Debt%20and%20disconnection%20best%20practice%20review.pdf

DirectDebacle

susie93.

Having read your other threads and posts on your complaint I think you have received as good advice as MSE members can give.

I think your best option is to contact the Extra Help Unit at Consumer Focus Scotland. They may well be able to take this matter forward for you.

nPower

susie93 wrote: »

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.

Hi susie93,

From what I have read in your post you mention the first '0' being missed off. If your meter shows a reading of '01234.56' then the read we would use is '1234', which is correct.

In order for me to look into this for you, please can you send me an email with all your details? (you'll find the email address on my profile page).

Can you also confirm the meter readings and if you have any photographs of the meter with the readings, this would also be useful.

Many thanks,

Adam