NPower - Deadlock (Please Help)

DarkKnightUK

I live in a 1 bedroom small flat, built in 1982 (brick and well insulated). The flat only provides Electricty. When I moved into the flat in 2006 the electricity was through Scottish Power, 2009 i moved to E.on and then Oct 2011 i moved to Npower. They were charging me £55 per month and i always paid (£660). October 2012 the plan ended and they moved me to a standard plan. Somehow immediately my DD increased to £200 per month without my knowledge (Paid £860 at this point).

I queried it and they advised me they believe in 13 months i have used 8000kws of electricity and therefore my annual bill for that period totals £1350 so they increased the DD and going forward they expect me to use the same so £200 is correct and justified according to their calculations.

In the One bed flat i live alone, out the building 8am to 6/7pm everyday except weekends and only awake for around 5hrs whilst there so i cannot have used all that electricity. I am now told it is based upon the estimated final reading that E.on gave Npower when i moved and when i gave up to date readings NPower find i used all that electricity.

They have advised they will not reconsider despite the E.on reading only being an estimate and all the information about the flat. I have made them aware i have no intention of paying a further £500 on top of the £860 already paid in 13 months...So we are now at a DEADLOCK..Is there anything I can do?

dude89

DarkKnightUK wrote: »

I live in a 1 bedroom small flat, built in 1982 (brick and well insulated). The flat only provides Electricty. When I moved into the flat in 2006 the electricity was through Scottish Power, 2009 i moved to E.on and then Oct 2011 i moved to Npower. They were charging me £55 per month and i always paid (£660). October 2012 the plan ended and they moved me to a standard plan. Somehow immediately my DD increased to £200 per month without my knowledge (Paid £860 at this point).

I queried it and they advised me they believe in 13 months i have used 8000kws of electricity and therefore my annual bill for that period totals £1350 so they increased the DD and going forward they expect me to use the same so £200 is correct and justified according to their calculations.

In the One bed flat i live alone, out the building 8am to 6/7pm everyday except weekends and only awake for around 5hrs whilst there so i cannot have used all that electricity. I am now told it is based upon the estimated final reading that E.on gave Npower when i moved and when i gave up to date readings NPower find i used all that electricity.

They have advised they will not reconsider despite the E.on reading only being an estimate and all the information about the flat. I have made them aware i have no intention of paying a further £500 on top of the £860 already paid in 13 months...So we are now at a DEADLOCK..Is there anything I can do?

Do you have any actual readings from approximately a year ago? If not do you have any actual readings at all from a previous time?

At the moment, you have to appreciate why npower have reached this payment amount. Giving them information about flat size and times you are in doesn't affect your consumption. For all they know you might be out all day but you have left the immersion on etch.

One thing to consider is whether they are correctly billing you for your day/night usage. It is possible they have them the wrong way around

chanz4

Wont be wrong way around, will be the estimate. The complaint should be with eon or the op himself for not taking a read.

fed_up_and_stressed

I take that when you state you are deadlock with npower that you have exhausted their internal complaints procedure and that npower have agreed they can not proceed any further with your complaint. If so you can go to the energy ombudsman (they can only deal once you have exhausted the internal complaints procedure).

I suggest you take regular meter reads so you can work out rouhly what your opening reads should have been based on your current consumption. Npower customer services would not get the meter reads from your time with your previous supplier however YOU can. Use this information on any actual reads they have and you get from Eon to see if your opening reads were roughly correct . If not you can ask the ombudsman to challenge the opening reads and re bill through both companies.

Legally suppliers only HAVE to read your meter once every 2 years and I know Npower bill 6 monthly so it is really important when you get a bill to give ACTUAL reads ...you will have had a letter from your old supplier asking you to provide a change of supply read at the point of change of supplier which i take it you haven't which is why you had an estimated change of supply bill.

As you didn't now we wont know if you actually used this power when you were with Eon or Npower but obviously the companies have to have a cut off point which is why the closing read will have been based on your consumption with Eon.

Obviously power companies can only bill off data they have so saying the amount your dd was costing you compared to now is almost irrelevant if the data npower had to go off to "guess" your consumption was estimates and not forgetting the cost of energy has gone up so to say your dd has gone up.

To say blame npower for all of this is quite wrong. If you want accurate bills and therefore no massive shocks then giving one set of actual meter reading over a couple of years can lead to that ! Whenever you get an estimated bill ring through / email reads its free and takes seconds ! I know i am supplied by npower!


If you get the proper (actual reads) ie taken by the mop (meter operator) for your times both with eon and npower and need me to help you work out what your opening /closings should be let me know. I worked in the industry doing closing accounts for many years.

DarkKnightUK

Thank you for the reply. I spoke to NPower originally 27th Dec and then several times over the next few days and on two occasions told them i want to complain..I found yesterday no complaint was raised and they were raising it yesterday. I spoke to the complaints department who went away and he called me back 2hrs later.. he confirmed they were billing me correctly and not mixing the day and night readings and it is all based on the reading from E.on.

I made it clear i had no intention of paying a further £500 and depending on the outcome i plan to take it to the ombudsman for them to look at it. He seemed keen to try and convince me to consider all other options such as speaking to energy efficency department to identify where i could be using it. I asked would there be any point as despite that chat he has said everything with them is right so isnt going to change anything. At that point he wanted more time and asked if he can get back to me within a fortnight, he wants to also ask his managers to review the case before a final decision is made. I agreed to give him the time.

I called E.On today to get readings. They advised all they seem to have mentioned is a estimated reading which is the one they gave to NPower. They did however mention half way through my E.on contract my meter was changed from an old style meter to a new style dual reading meter. Could that have caused the problem possibly? E.on dont seem to have much information available on my file anymore

Ich_2

They will only have readings if they have taken them, or you have and given the reading to them.
Start taking your own readings and pass them on

DarkKnightUK

I cant recall if gave E.on readings im sure someone did come out and read the meter atleast once and that resulted in the change from old style meter to new style one happening. I've been taking readings every few days at the moment and intend to continue for a month/two to show i am not using 7000kwhs a year. Do you think thats a good idea or am i just getting carried away?

dude89

DarkKnightUK wrote: »

I cant recall if gave E.on readings im sure someone did come out and read the meter atleast once and that resulted in the change from old style meter to new style one happening. I've been taking readings every few days at the moment and intend to continue for a month/two to show i am not using 7000kwhs a year. Do you think thats a good idea or am i just getting carried away?

Taking regular readings will help you realise how much you are using and help you identify high usage items.

On what grounds do you feel you have to refuse to pay this bill? (Saying there is no way you have used that amount won't work unless you can prove there is a fault or error somewhere)

The meter is proof of usage so even if the estimated reading at the time of switch is incorrect all that would mean is that you could of owed eon more money as they had under estimated the final reading. You should correct any incorrect estimates

DarkKnightUK

Based upon the readings so far seems i have used more than half that they are predicting i use each day. I gave the guy yesterday at NPower readings for 10 different dates and he agreed there is a big difference but he still had to go with the original reading even if it was wrongI was paying E.on £75 per month with a total £900 paid in 14 or so months so im confident i didnt underpay them. I am not sure how i would be able to correct an estimate from 2009 and E.on dont have much available on file..

fed_up_and_stressed

Please for your own sake DarkKnightUk ...and I mean this nicely ... Dont get caught up in in how much a month you were paying them in money ... The thing we need to sort out and what Eon and Npower are interested in to bill you is readings.

When The MOP (meter operator) exchanged your meter the installed reading taken at that time will have been sent to your supplier at the time via data flows and these will be classed by the supplier as Actual reads (in effect generally trusted) which they much prefer to bill on than say estimated reads (for obvious reasons) or customers reads which customers may read wrongly be confused vy etc (not suggesting you have done this btw).

Get from Npower and Eon details of all ACTUAL reads taken by the Mop for your property and the dates of these well as customer reads so you should be able to work out average daily consumption over a nice long period (cause obviously eon only have info from when you were with them and the same with npower) ... it also means you can check and see if it does look like a transposed reading issue. (The day and night rates being mixed up) and so then can have more info over a longer period to work out a more likely to be accurate opening reading and then ask both suppliers to accept this. If they don't escalate this through npowers complaint procedures.

On the flipside it looks like npower are already on the case and investigating it on their end so it isnt deadlock. -however as i have mentioned they will only have access to data from when you have been with them and i suspect some or more of the "extra" usage you are referring to may have actually been used when you were with another supplier which i why i urge you to get the customer and actual reads and the dates of each of these from Eon as well as Npower.

DarkKnightUK

Thanks Fedupandstressed Deadlock was the term he used but im glad he decided to speak to his seniors first and see how we can avoid it going firther. E.on just fobbed me off today saying they just have the reading they gave to Npower as they dont keep data longer than a year. will call them again tomorrow see what i can get. I am just stressed out i guess as i just cant afford paying £200 per month for electricity