How much is my bill??

Bradfield

I have had my current standard "Dual-fuel" account with NPower for the last four years and four months. It now looks like they have got my account mixed up with someone elses (and have had for some time). They appear to have the correct meter readings but seem to have mixed up the DD payments with someone elses account. I now fear that they may try to hit me with a large bill.

I have started to gather the "facts" ready for the struggle. I know exactly what my meter readings have been over the period. I have toted up all of the DD payments that I have made. I have added £400 as I get £100 bonus each year for having the Dual fuel paid by DD. I have deducted two refund payments that they made to me over the period.

I cannot work out the bill myself because the rates have changed several times over the past few years and I get charged different rates for the first so many units and etc. Also, I dont know how they work out the gas charges so it is beyond me.

I would not expect anyone else to be able to work out the bill either but was just wondering if I gave the basic facts whether people could just look at the figures and maybe give a "ball-park" assessment.

Over the past four years and four months I have used 16482 units of electricity. I have also used 540 units of gas (cubic feet).

After adjustments for the bonus and refunds I have paid a total of £3502 over the whole period.

Would be grateful for any observations.

grahamc2003

If you want a ballpark, I'd start the ball rolling with a guesstimate, taking into account tier 1 and 2, including vat, of a 4.3 year typical average price of 11p/kWh for electricity (i.e. nearer to 11p/kWh than 1.1p/kWh or £1.10p/kWh. So about £1800 for electricity would be my guestimate. No idea for gas.

notbritishgas

Well my figures.
Yes agree with Graham on electric, about £1813 for the period, that is taking average price of electric as 11 p. That is just above average usage for electric.

Now gas. You have used 17010 kwh during the 4 and a bit years. That is very low, about the average for 1 year. But the cost, taking the average gas price as 3.5 p is £595.

I have no idea what ther prices were 4 years ago and my average could be on the high side, so actual cost could be a bit less.

macman

If you put your kWh total figures into any comp site as an annual total with your tariff, that will instantly tell you the current cost. Then pro-rata usage per year or price period. You can then take a guess at the reduction due to price increases over the disputed period.

jalexa

Bradfield wrote: »

They appear to have the correct meter readings but seem to have mixed up the DD payments with someone elses account.

Please tell me what I am missing. If the meter readings are right then the "cost" calculation of the bills must be right. Only the "balance" would be suspect. No?

dogshome

From your post it seems that the bills over these 4+ years have been correct to the meter readings at the time, but now you have realised that the Direct Debit payments credited on later bills are of a higher value than the payments leaving your Bank Account - I suspect you have already done this, but the first thing to do is check the Bank Account entries.

If it is an n'power mistake, you will of course owe n'power the differential between the value of the D/Debits they have recorded and that of the D/Debits you actually made, but do not take n'powers word for what is owed - Demand a copy of every bill they issued that they say is affected by this error and check each one for the differential.

This is a very unusual situation, and depending how long it has been going on you may be able to claim relief on part of the debt under the "12 month back-billing limitation"
rule

Bradfield

jalexa wrote: »

Please tell me what I am missing. If the meter readings are right then the "cost" calculation of the bills must be right. Only the "balance" would be suspect. No?

I am only assuming the meter readings are right. I do send them in to Npower from time to time. The statements themselves are a nightmare with a mix of "customer", "estimated" and "actual readings" and several "amended statements". I cannot now access my online statements so cannot investigate further. In future I will make sure I get hard copies through the post.

You are correct in saying that when the matter is sorted out only the balance should be suspect. Thankfully, the meters have not been changed so the usage can be verified without too much difficulty. They did actually try to change the gas meter a couple of years ago but the fitter said he could not do it because the sink unit had been built around it.

It is because the "balance" is suspect that I have asked for advice here (about what that figure might be) and I am extremely grateful for the very helpful replies that have been given to me. Thankyou to all.

Bradfield

dogshome wrote: »

From your post it seems that the bills over these 4+ years have been correct to the meter readings at the time, but now you have realised that the Direct Debit payments credited on later bills are of a higher value than the payments leaving your Bank Account - I suspect you have already done this, but the first thing to do is check the Bank Account entries.

If it is an n'power mistake, you will of course owe n'power the differential between the value of the D/Debits they have recorded and that of the D/Debits you actually made, but do not take n'powers word for what is owed - Demand a copy of every bill they issued that they say is affected by this error and check each one for the differential.

This is a very unusual situation, and depending how long it has been going on you may be able to claim relief on part of the debt under the "12 month back-billing limitation"
rule

The first indication I had that there was a problem was when they had changed the name of the account holder (me) to someone else. The had actually done this once before but quickly corrected it previously when I pointed out the error.

This time they were not at all quick to correct the mistake and I noticed that I was suddenly unable to access my online statements. I was able to access the online record of my DD payments however and noticed that many of them bore no relationship to the actuall DD payments that I had made. Many of them were much lower than the payments that I had actually made.

So the current situation is that they seem to have my account mixed up with someone elses account. They seem to be using someone elses DD payments on my account and, for all I know they are crediting someone elses account with my DD payments.

I will keep you all posted. Thanks again for the useful advice.

dogshome

As this account name change has now occured twice, with the further complication of your Direct Debit payments not being recorded at their true value, n'power have a real gremlin buried in the software that deals with your account..

With n'powers records showing lower value D/D payments than you have actually made, the current balance of your account is either a Credit that is much lower than it should be, or worse, a "Phantom" debt.

You must get proactive to make n'power sort this out once and for all, particularly as n'power have a very aggressive attitude in dealing with debt
WRITE to n'power heading the letter Complaint, setting the history of this account and if you can do so, include a list of the value and date of every D/D you have made from your bank records, as far back as you can go

Bradfield

dogshome wrote: »

As this account name change has now occured twice, with the further complication of your Direct Debit payments not being recorded at their true value, n'power have a real gremlin buried in the software that deals with your account..

With n'powers records showing lower value D/D payments than you have actually made, the current balance of your account is either a Credit that is much lower than it should be, or worse, a "Phantom" debt.

You must get proactive to make n'power sort this out once and for all, particularly as n'power have a very aggressive attitude in dealing with debt
WRITE to n'power heading the letter Complaint, setting the history of this account and if you can do so, include a list of the value and date of every D/D you have made from your bank records, as far back as you can go

Thanks for advice. Luckily for me I can provide evidence of all DD payments made by me. Last time I spoke to the customer services advisor on the phone he told me he was escalating the case to "customer dissatisfaction" or some thing like that and the matter was being sent to the "back office" to be looked at.

With it being Xmas I will have to wait a while before I can expect the matter to be resolved but I will be on the case very strongly from now on.

Will let you know what happens and thanks again for the advice.

dogshome

Hi Bradfield - Unless you have a very simple query, phoning any suppliers Customer Desk can be a complete waste of time
A quick trawl through this site will show just how varied customer problems are and there is no way that one person at the end of a phone has the knowledge to resolve them all
At the moment you have a verbal promise to move the matter up the chain, but all too often this promises are forgotten because another call came in immedately after yours.

However a written communication headed Complaint operates a 'magic' switch, whereby the supplier by the terms of their licence has to deal with the problem within 56 days, (8 weeks) - If they fail do so, it's off to the Ombudsman you go