Npower - I owe £650 for their mistake.

Phillandmel

I received a letter from Npower recently saying they were increasing my bill by £150 per a month. I phoned Npower today and they said i owe them £650 due to under paying.

I have lived in this house for 8 months and have given them meter readings 3 times in 8 months, yet they have not phoned to say i have been under paying. I have paid the amount they requested without fault every month by direct debit.

I understand them upping my monthly payment however i don't see how they can get away with saying i owe them £650!

Would anyone know if they can do this? I would prefer not to have to pay £650 due to their mistakes!

I am disgusted with Npower as they made no effort to contact me about this and let the bill rack up. I had to call them to find out.

Any insight and help would be very grateful.

Thanks, Phill

jalexa

Phillandmel wrote: »

I received a letter from Npower recently saying they were increasing my bill by £150 per a month.

How much were you paying per month originally and how was that amount set?

bris

It happens all the time, you estimate what you use at the start of the agreement and a plan is set up based on that. Usage is never the same and it becomes apparent after about a year. Yes you need to alter your payments, if you think £150 is too much, renegotiate, but it will have to be an amount that covers the bills plus pays back a little of the arrears.

You owe them £650 because you used the energy.

YoYoY

Phillandmel wrote: »

I received a letter from Npower recently saying they were increasing my bill by £150 per a month. I phoned Npower today and they said i owe them £650 due to under paying.

I have lived in this house for 8 months and have given them meter readings 3 times in 8 months, yet they have not phoned to say i have been under paying. I have paid the amount they requested without fault every month by direct debit.

I understand them upping my monthly payment however i don't see how they can get away with saying i owe them £650!

Would anyone know if they can do this? I would prefer not to have to pay £650 due to their mistakes!

I am disgusted with Npower as they made no effort to contact me about this and let the bill rack up. I had to call them to find out.

Any insight and help would be very grateful.

Thanks, Phill

To have been underpaying your energy bills by over £80 per month does seem somewhat strange - we don't even consume that amount of energy.

Check nPower have calculated your latest bill based on actual, accurate, meter readings. Check also that the start meter readings were correct.

It would be unlikely that nPower have otherwise mis-calculated the cost of your usage. However, if you think there has been a miscalculation (or that the meter readings are incorrect) then contact the supplier with full details who will investigate and advise. They will probably hold off, on request, any increase in your monthly payments whilst the bill is under dispute.

If it turns out you have actually used £650 more energy than you have paid for, then you will have to pay the balance. Usually suppliers allow customers to repay such amounts over the period it was accrued.

StuC75

Its not really a question of how much you have been paying, but more about how much gas & electricity have you actually used..

Over the 8 months what have the bills shown? has there been a gradual debit balance building up??

You say that understand payments going up - well that infers that you are using more than you are paying so such a debit balance seems beleivable..

KonkyWonky

Something doesn't sound right here. To have run up a deficit of £650 over 8 months takes some doing, did you never check your bill?

Terrylw1

As others have said, is it even correct?

Switches are a big root cause to incorrect readings and an impact to DD's.

They should have used your previous consumption you gave or your DD value, all provided by you hence it should be similar.

You need to post details of your readings as its unclear if there is an issue.

If it turns out to be correct, you will have to pay it as you've used it but there is a Standard Licence Condition (SLC) which states the DD should reflect accurate usage hence your readings should have been taken into account. So, you may still have grounds for a complaint. I'll list you the doc and SLC number for you to use if it comes to this after you provide more info.

Another question is, do you normally pay this and if so, why would you slip being now. Have they switched you and under quoted your DD value which means you can make a miss selling complaint.

Tupperware_Queen

You did keep a record of your initial meter readings didn't you? Should be easy to calculate your usage from those and get a reasonably accurate total for yourself

gwapenut

What did your last 2 quarterly bills say? If you gave them accurate readings then the bills should have been correct. You didn't thnik the icnreasing balance was a good thing, did you?