NPOWER credit payment HELP!

yogaflame

Hi there,

I am having a major problem with NPOWER in regards getting a credit refund on my account.
Due to several frustrating phone calls I feel that I need advise on how to progress with the issue in hand. I will try to keep it brief and not dwell on the details, here goes.
On the 17th of September I received a credit for £1163, on the bill it says it was from an estimate reading from the 02/12/11 to the 23/05/12. I was being charged £283 a month. Rang them up and they needed actual readings, a second phone call allowed me to give them this and was then told I would have to wait 5 days for a bill to be generated. So this period of time was given with a third call stating that no refund could be given due to my wife maiden name being on the bill, and would need removing. This I understand and was told that when she was removed a refund would be issued, so that sounded satisfactory.

However tonight I have spoken to billing and they are contradicting what I have previously been told. Due to no bill being created, a system issue apparantly no refund can be given. Also they would have to generate one and then knock off what I have used against the credit with what is left as either credit to use or get a refund.

what I am struggling with is one how ineffecient this service is and second that from that date of 23/05/12 I have made 4 payments of £283 which is clearly more than I should be paying. this would suggest I would receive a larger credit/refund which he stated may not be the case.

So as you can imagine 4 phone calls down the line I am not a happy bunny. Do I have to wait for the 28 days which they say it takes to make a bill or can I complain and push this through. Due to the bill not being made I cant even reduce my bill so paying much more than I need to.

Any advice is really appreciated, if I have got it wrong then please tell me I am so annoyed about this taking so long, I am not sure about cancelling which may be my next line.

Regards,

David
Yogaflame

macman

Since you've been so relaxed about submitting actual meter readings (when did you last do that if you have built a massive credit of over £1100?), why are you now so impatient to get a credit? You've been quite happy to provide them with an interest -free loan for at lest 12 months?
Obviously no provider is going to issue a credit until they've accurately calculated what your account balance is.
Since you are apparently in credit, you need not pay any more until you have a revised statement. You can then negotiate a credit and revised DD.
In future submit readings at lest every 3 months to avoid this scenario.

jalexa

yogaflame wrote: »

Any advice is really appreciated,

I will give advice which may shock you but it is purely tactical. Forget about the refund, concentrate on getting an accurate bill generated. If necessary police any failure to fulfill that "demand" via the complaints procedure.

Be wary about the "you need not pay any more" advice you have received. It is likely that you are receiving a "deferred discount":eek: which requires you to keep paying by direct debit.

Once you have an accurate bill/statement the next thing to do is to correctly calculate the monthly payment for your consumption and have that set as the DD amount. Then having done that you need to look at the projected account credit balance at the next 'annual review' date. That is the figure you are entitled to request to be refunded. The supplier either has to comply or explain why not. If you are not satisfied with the suppliers decision, you have recourse to the complaints procedure.

HTH

Terrylw1

It seems you need to use a complaint route to resolve the 2 issues you have in the credit and the incorrectly high DD's.

These are covered in Standard Licence Condition (SLC) 27.14, 27.15 & 27.16.

Use the supplier .PDF's in the attached link to Ofgem's site.

http://www.ofgem.gov.uk/Licensing/Work/Pages/licence-conditions-consolidated.aspx

You can also refer a complaint to the ombudsman after 8 weeks or deadlock, whichever happens first.

In terms of 28 days or 5 days even to produce a bill, that garbage. Supplier billing systems, even if they are using 30 year old Legacy systems, produced the bill overnight. Weekends & bank holidays are usually non processing days as are big payroll runs.

In newer SAP systems, the bill can be viewed immediately and produces overnight.

If it can't be produced, it means it has rejected for some reason. Given your reading is lower than the high estimate, it needs an amended account by the sound of it hence the delays. All this means is that they can't recalculate the current bill in a simple transaction and need previous bills backing out so it can be billed up again.

This means it will be handed off so the delays are actually queues. Amended accounts can often mean several day processes to allow system processing inbetween so 5 days would be fine but 28 days is only about queues.

If they couldn't do a simple rebill in their new SAP system, there would be many thousands in the same boat. Previous Legacy systems will have been doing this standard action for decades.

Even if it is a system problem (which is always a call centre favourite excuse) that's not your problem.

A complaint will mean jumping the queue.

yogaflame

Hi thanks for the responses. In response to the first post I guess you are right, I have been lax there is no denying that and I have been naive in how much I was paying. However as you can appreciate if you were to receive a credit for £1100 which you were unaware of you would openly persue it, irrespective of what has gone on before. I think the problem I have is the time taken, again I could of been more assertive but feel but I feel NPOWER are purposley dragging there feet.

Jelexa yes I am going to follow your advice and push for an accurate reading, the phone operator was saying about using more fuel in the winter period(which I agreed with him) so maybe I need to set a middle ground or should I def just go for an actual reading? If that sounds stupid please tell me and give me a wrap on the knuckles.

Regarding complaing last night I put a complaint through the web site and wait a reponse, even if it just speeds up the process I would be happy. If I get no where after the 28 days I will def pursue with ofgen.

Thanks again, good to get different peoples thoughts on a situation.

macman

Your DD should be set so that you carry some credit through into the winter period to cover the much higher usage, maybe £10-£20 for most households. Certainly not £1,100!
Your current credit is almost a year's cost for the typical household paying around £1,350 pa for a dual fuel account.

jalexa

yogaflame wrote: »

I just posted thus to another thread.

https://customerservices.npower.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/492/~/monthly-direct-debit-explained

Study it carefully and ensure that NPower are 100% in compliance with their own procedure. If not - complain.

Regarding the point about the winter period, that does not affect the need to give an accurate customer read. From that starting point, with a knowledge of your typical annual consumption and the date of your next 'annual review' a reasonable account balance and/or refund can be calculated. NPower should do the calculation. There is no arithmetic reason why it shouldn't be right except I don't trust energy companies. I estimate you might need to be about 1 monthly payment in surplus at this time of year.

chanz4

jalexa wrote: »

I just posted thus to another thread.

https://customerservices.npower.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/492/~/monthly-direct-debit-explained

Study it carefully and ensure that NPower are 100% in compliance with their own procedure. If not - complain.

Regarding the point about the winter period, that does not affect the need to give an accurate customer read. From that starting point, with a knowledge of your typical annual consumption and the date of your next 'annual review' a reasonable account balance and/or refund can be calculated. NPower should do the calculation. There is no arithmetic reason why it shouldn't be right except I don't trust energy companies. I estimate you might need to be about 1 monthly payment in surplus at this time of year.

I use triple my summer consumption in winter.

Swipe

Well I had my bill the other week and had a credit balance of £68 ready to take into winter and today, for some bizarre reason unbeknownst to me, they have gone and refunded it. I didn't request this. Now I'll probably end up in debit at the next six monthly bill. You couldn't make this up!!

jalexa

chanz4 wrote: »

I use triple my summer consumption in winter.

What is your point? Is it that approximately a one month surplus (on a dual-fuel basis) is not sufficient to carry forward a 'spring annual review start' for "standard domestic" profile consumption? Have you done the calculation (of "profiled" vs. flat rate)? Do you know of the "standard domestic" profile? If you don't agree (arithmetically) with "approximately one month surplus" what is your calculation?

Of course, being NPower, it is possible the tariff is "sculpted" but that should have neutral effect over 12 months.