Npower backbilling

frisbee201

I have a query about my Npower electricity bill, I will admit that I havent followed my billing as closely as I should have done.

I pay my bill online, and frankly hadn't noticed that I hadn't had a bill in a while. It turns out my meter was broken and not counting my electricity used. The meter has now been replaced and I've received a letter from Npower telling me that because they don't know how much electricity I used between 30/09/11 and 25/06/12 they are billing me at the industry average of 10 units per day for that period, which comes to £475.06 minues £120.42 credit I had on my account. Leaving a bill of £354.64 to pay.

Can they do this? I truly have no idea, if I have to pay the bill I will do immediately, but obviously, to be blunt, if I somehow don't have to I'd prefer that. It simply seems like an odd situation.

Thank you for reading this, if anyone needs more info I'll do my best to provide it.

Thanks

Wywth

frisbee201 wrote: »

I have a query about my Npower electricity bill, I will admit that I havent followed my billing as closely as I should have done.

I pay my bill online, and frankly hadn't noticed that I hadn't had a bill in a while. It turns out my meter was broken and not counting my electricity used. The meter has now been replaced and I've received a letter from Npower telling me that because they don't know how much electricity I used between 30/09/11 and 25/06/12 they are billing me at the industry average of 10 units per day for that period, which comes to £475.06 minues £120.42 credit I had on my account. Leaving a bill of £354.64 to pay.

Can they do this? I truly have no idea, if I have to pay the bill I will do immediately, but obviously, to be blunt, if I somehow don't have to I'd prefer that. It simply seems like an odd situation.

Thank you for reading this, if anyone needs more info I'll do my best to provide it.

Thanks

Yes, if the meter was faulty they will have to estimate your consumption for the period. Usually this will be based on your your own measured consumption either historically or in the months following the meter change (and allowing for seasonal adjustments)

If you are not happy with the estimate for a specific reason (e.g. the property had been left vacant for a period of time) then you can ask for this to be taken into consideration.

undaunted

It also seems odd that you didn't know you hadn't had an electricity bill in 9 months

Do you consider yourself to normally use less than the average consumption, ie does £475 for 9 months sound more than you would usually pay over that period?

If yes you may have a case to argue - ie that bill should be based on your avergae historical use - but if no pay up. Though it's obviously not what you hoped to hear, you simply don't have any case whatsoever for paying nothing as far as I can see from your post.

frisbee201

Thank you both for your help. You have essentially emphasised what I thought would be the case. Please believe me that I wasn't trying to have my cake and eat it so much as I just didn't know where I stood in the situation.

And in terms of not noticing my lack of bills, it's not my finest moment I will admit, but it is true. Im not very good at keeping my records, it's something I need to improve on.

Thanks again.

chanz4

undaunted wrote: »

It also seems odd that you didn't know you hadn't had an electricity bill in 9 months

Do you consider yourself to normally use less than the average consumption, ie does £475 for 9 months sound more than you would usually pay over that period?

If yes you may have a case to argue - ie that bill should be based on your avergae historical use - but if no pay up. Though it's obviously not what you hoped to hear, you simply don't have any case whatsoever for paying nothing as far as I can see from your post.

Hit the nail on the head, op hope you have saved up the money you have not been paying. 10 units a day is nothing, so if I was you I would just pay them

Terrylw1

No, they are not being truthful with you at all.

What was wrong with the meter? Was it stopped, running slow or speeding? The latter 2 being out of tolerance issues that require a Standard Load Test (SLT) to determine the % out of tolerance which the apply to the calculation.

Using the industry average is the last thing you do if all else fails.

Prior to this you use consumption prior to the period with any seasonal adjustment factor. If there isn't any data, the next step is to monitor the new meter to determine the daily averages (which the previous consumption would have given them) and apply the same seasonal adjustments.

Get a proper explanation and monitor you meter by taking readings at the same time each day over 7 days spraddling the weekend as your pattern could differ between weekday & weekend and going Mon-Sun discounts the 2nd day of the weekend thus creating a bias to the weekday average daily usage. Multiply this out with a % of how your usage increases if the seasons change and if its higher than 10 kwh per day...accept it, if not, you have been overcharged due to supplier laziness!

jalexa

undaunted wrote: »

It also seems odd that you didn't know you hadn't had an electricity bill in 9 months...

I'm not familiar with the NPower T&Cs but one bill per year is compliant with Edf T&Cs. So not necessarily "odd".

undaunted

Unless £475 sounds high for 9 months (including the winter) is it really worth the hassle though?

I think Npower are a dreadful company & yet "even I" read this one as them being fair / giving the poster the benefit of the doubt

Terrylw1

undaunted wrote: »

Unless £475 sounds high for 9 months (including the winter) is it really worth the hassle though?

I think Npower are a dreadful company & yet "even I" read this one as them being fair / giving the poster the benefit of the doubt

I read it as laziness. However, it could pay off in this instance! I would get it in writing though incase they try and overturn it later...possibly from that persons manager checking quality on the team and spotting this.

Don-lou34

Were you not still getting estimated bills? they produce them based on the previous 12 months. Without an actual read from you you should have still definitely been receiving bills based on previous year.
What they'll say anyway is "it's a customers responsibility to check their bills as it is to provide regular reads" The engineer only needs to check a meter once every 2 years by law.