N Power Compensation

Jonny1275

Hi all, I’m looking for a bit of advice as to what compensation figure I should hit N Power with. I’ve been with them since October 2010 and have prepayment meters in my property. I did a bit or research last December and believed I was being charged far too much for the amount of gas & electric I use, I spend most of my time at my girlfriends and probably only spend two nights a week at home but I’ve been paying more than most of my friends who have kids and are at home 24/7. I raised this with N Power in December and to cut a long story short my complaint was kicked around from pillar to post until February this year when the wheels started slowly turning. They have done a test on the electric meter and said it’s working fine (no proof of this has been given to me), this was after the first engineer said it was collecting a £5 a week debt payment even though I do not owe any debt!!!! The gas meter was replaced pending a diagnostic check after the engineer said it was again trying to recover a debt, and they are now saying this diagnostic will take up to 8 weeks. When the gas meter was removed I asked how I go about topping up the new meter and I was subsequently left without gas for 5 days whilst waiting for a new payment card. It’s has taken over 16 weeks, over 50 phone calls, myself taking several mornings off work to wait for engineers that don’t turn up and only now are N Power slowly starting to finalise the complaint. Ofgem have said I need to put a compensation figure to N Power but they cannot advise me of how much, can anyone suggest a figure?

chanz4

Well if you were living at your girl friends, what you lost?

Jonny1275

As I put in my post, I stay at my girlfriends most of the time and just use my house as a base. I’m not there a great deal but still end up putting £10 - £15 in each meter per week, there’s not a great deal of things left on, just lights and the answering machine. My concern is that when I contacted N Power they acted like they weren’t bothered and it’s taken over four months to get them to address this. Ofgem advised me the limit is 8 weeks and then I can escalate the complaint to them but to be honest I just want it settling asap. Ofgem have told me to come up with a compensation figure I’m happy with but I’ve no idea how to calculate this. I know it’s taken 51 calls so far, 21 emails, the engineer failed to attend three times and I’ve had to make myself available another 3 times on top of that. You asked what I’ve lost? I’ve not lost anything so to speak, I’ve simply asked N Power to explain why my meters are charging so much and have received completely mixed responces and only now after nearly 20 weeks is my complaint being drawn to a close. So I ask again, what compensation figure do I set???

Terrylw1

If your supplier booked in dates for an engineer to come and look at your meter that is an agreement which covered under Ofgems Guaranteed Standards Of Service (GSOS). If they decide to cancel or rearrange, they have to give you 1 days notice or pay you £22 in compensation. If they fail to pay your compensation within 10 days, they fail the standard and have to pay a further £22 of compensation.

Ofgem should have told you this for a start, that's their standard! Ofgem are not good in my book and never have been. Use the ombudsman for a complaint because the delays won't happen as they will be monitored and pursued by the ombudsman. If you register an ombudsman complaint it also gets published with everybody else's in the monthly performance reporting in terms of numbers of complaints.

Jonny1275

N Power have payed me the missed appointment amounts, but at the end of the day when it costs £70 to take a morning off £22 doesn't really compensate!!!. The compensation figure I need to raise is to cover the complaint in general, the fact that it has taken over four months to be addressed and the time and effort I've had to put into getting to this point. Plus a few quid on top as N Power were not interested in dealing with this until I mentioned that I'd spoken to Ofgem.

Terrylw1

The GSOS is ofgems policy, so a supplier wont go higher knowing ofgem will back them up.

You could submit the cost of communications to them. In terms of a dispute, there is a policy on this somewhere but its low money, something like £25 per month of dispute. I would have to search ofgems site so suggest asking them if you are in contact.

Aside from the mornings off, is the inconvenience just the aggro? If so, they may offer £25-50. Beyond this, telephone costs and GSOS isn't an arguing issue...and ofgem need to be able to justify its reasonable as well, so what is their policy? They may not support your claims otherwise.

undaunted

I would have thought you wanted your £5's back if they have been incorrectly collecting, a token amount to cover phone calls, postage & inconvenience but I doubt you'll get a fortune offered. If you want to fight for more you'll probably have to take it to the courts.

Roughly what figure did you think you should be asking them for?

chanz4

Didnt think ofgem advice on individule complaints?

Jonny1275

After 20 weeks of this complaint going on I've given up chasing N Power and forwarded the complaint to Ofgem. N Power called on Wednesday and offered £50 to settle the comlaint, I pointed out that didn't even cover the compensation for knowingly leaving me without gas for 5 days and their responce was that they offered to have engineer come out and reset the meter. I'd already explained i was working on the Friday & Saturday, couldn't arrange a day off but would be home for 6pm if they could come then but they replied that the engineers don't work that late?!?!? I given Ofgem an 11 page comlaint details all the calls I've had to make, copies of emails that havn't been answered plus a bullet point summary of the complaint. One to quickly mention they said they had compensated me £22 for the first failed gas appointment on the 14th February, I've never received this and when they looked into it they found that it had been credited to my gas account?!? I'm on a prepayment meter and there is no way of this payment filtering through to me and also should compensation be provided in a gas credit? I would have thought it should have been provided in cash.

macman

If you expect to claim consequential loss (eg lost income/wages) forget it. It's a residential contract.

jalexa

Jonny1275 wrote: »

After 20 weeks of this complaint going on I've given up chasing N Power and forwarded the complaint to Ofgem.

Unfortunately Ofgem don't adjudicate individual consumer complaints, however you would appear eligible to ask the Energy Ombudsman to consider the complaint. I agree with others you are unlikely to get compensation calculated as you would like. Equally, if you have a valid argument, I would be quite surprised if the Energy Ombudsman offered less than £50. I guess there is advice there.:D

Another piece of advice, try to thin the complaint down. 11 pages:( does not make it a good complaint but the good bits can easily be overlooked.