Silly Season with nPower

dglp
dglp Posts: 27 Forumite
This is a mixed post - part rant, and part head-scratching mystery.

I have both gas and electric with one supplier. However, it seems the supplier is actually two unconnected organisations pretending to be a coherent entity.

Here's the story. Last year, late summer, I started getting collection agency notices for my electricity account. When I went to check my balance online, I couldn't log in. After trying various other things I rang Customer Service and was told there'd been a glitch in transferring my account over to a new computer system, but that it was in the process of being sorted. One system couldn't talk to the other, apparently. My electricity account had somehow gone walkies, although I was still being billed for it.

Fast forward a few weeks and nothing's happened. More notices arrive. Doing some further digging, I find that my automated bank payment is being diverted to my gas account. Put another way, the bungled transfer of my nPower account details from one system to another had started siphoning my electricity payments to my gas account, which was by then over £1,000 in credit.

Another phone call ensues. The agent, Elizabeth, says it will be sorted in a matter of weeks, during which I may get another collection agency letter, which I should ignore. She helps me get access to my electricity account, which somehow disables access to my gas account. No matter, she says, all your accounts will be combined in the new system.

Elizabeth says that with my permission, nPower will transfer money from the overpaid gas account to the electric account, make sure everything's in order, and get in touch to confirm it. Fine, I say.

We are now into January 2013. I wait patiently for news that everything's been sorted. On 25 Feb, I get a letter referring to an unspecified complaint and asking that I get in touch via an 0800 number. (I would post a scan here, but need to find an external place to upload it first.)

The letter says, in part: "I have been trying to contact you in respect to this matter as I feel it would be best if we could discuss my proposed resolution together and the action we need to take to address your enquiry. It would be helpful therefore if you could contact me as soon as possible on the phone number below.'

As this is the first response I've had since January, I have to wonder what sort of contact has been tried. Certainly nothing by phone or in the post. Has nPower upgraded to telepathy perhaps? But more importantly, I'm wondering why there's any need to discuss an unspecified resolution, when I'd already agreed they could transfer my balance back to where it belongs. Simple, really. You'd think they'd just get on with it.

So I rang the number, but didn't get through, instead hearing a message about the number being unrecognised. I tried again. Same thing.

Then I noticed the phone number has the same end digits as my account number, e.g. if my account is 91173245, I was given the number 0800 1173245 to call. Coincidence or not, the number doesn't ring through. So I tried the 0845 number on the letter (0845 070 4856) and heard a message saying that number has been replaced by 0800 316 9328. Trying that third number, I heard a message saying the queue is 45 minutes long.

So, nPower is asking me to get in touch via phone lines that don't work or are jammed, to help me sort out a problem of their own creation. I am puzzled as to why the agent feels a need to have me involved in fixing their broken systems.

Does anyone have a suggestion about dealing with this? Including changing suppliers, I suppose. :)
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Comments

  • Wywth
    Wywth Posts: 5,079 Forumite
    dglp wrote: »
    This is a mixed post - part rant, and part head-scratching mystery.

    I have both gas and electric with one supplier. However, it seems the supplier is actually two unconnected organisations pretending to be a coherent entity.

    Here's the story. Last year, late summer, I started getting collection agency notices for my electricity account. When I went to check my balance online, I couldn't log in. After trying various other things I rang Customer Service and was told there'd been a glitch in transferring my account over to a new computer system, but that it was in the process of being sorted. One system couldn't talk to the other, apparently. My electricity account had somehow gone walkies, although I was still being billed for it.

    Fast forward a few weeks and nothing's happened. More notices arrive. Doing some further digging, I find that my automated bank payment is being diverted to my gas account. Put another way, the bungled transfer of my nPower account details from one system to another had started siphoning my electricity payments to my gas account, which was by then over £1,000 in credit.

    Another phone call ensues. The agent, Elizabeth, says it will be sorted in a matter of weeks, during which I may get another collection agency letter, which I should ignore. She helps me get access to my electricity account, which somehow disables access to my gas account. No matter, she says, all your accounts will be combined in the new system.

    Elizabeth says that with my permission, nPower will transfer money from the overpaid gas account to the electric account, make sure everything's in order, and get in touch to confirm it. Fine, I say.

    We are now into January 2013. I wait patiently for news that everything's been sorted. On 25 Feb, I get a letter referring to an unspecified complaint and asking that I get in touch via an 0800 number. (I would post a scan here, but need to find an external place to upload it first.)

    The letter says, in part: "I have been trying to contact you in respect to this matter as I feel it would be best if we could discuss my proposed resolution together and the action we need to take to address your enquiry. It would be helpful therefore if you could contact me as soon as possible on the phone number below.'

    As this is the first response I've had since January, I have to wonder what sort of contact has been tried. Certainly nothing by phone or in the post. Has nPower upgraded to telepathy perhaps? But more importantly, I'm wondering why there's any need to discuss an unspecified resolution, when I'd already agreed they could transfer my balance back to where it belongs. Simple, really. You'd think they'd just get on with it.

    So I rang the number, but didn't get through, instead hearing a message about the number being unrecognised. I tried again. Same thing.

    Then I noticed the phone number has the same end digits as my account number, e.g. if my account is 91173245, I was given the number 0800 1173245 to call. Coincidence or not, the number doesn't ring through. So I tried the 0845 number on the letter (0845 070 4856) and heard a message saying that number has been replaced by 0800 316 9328. Trying that third number, I heard a message saying the queue is 45 minutes long.

    So, nPower is asking me to get in touch via phone lines that don't work or are jammed, to help me sort out a problem of their own creation. I am puzzled as to why the agent feels a need to have me involved in fixing their broken systems.

    Does anyone have a suggestion about dealing with this? Including changing suppliers, I suppose. :)

    Put your complaint in writing to Npower as per their official complaints procedure. Send it recorded delivery.

    Try to be succinct in your complaint, whilst at the same time stating all the relevant information.

    Explain the reason for complaint and what you are ideally looking for from the supplier by way of a resolution.

    They will have a maximum of 8 weeks to investigate and resolve the matter, it often happens much quicker, but if it takes any longer you will be able to escalate the matter to the ombudsman.
  • dglp
    dglp Posts: 27 Forumite
    edited 28 February 2013 at 5:56PM
    Thanks Wywth. That rings a bell. I think I may have already written sometime last year, well more than 8 weeks ago. Need to search my folders for a letter to nPower and copied to my city councillor.

    If that's right, should I write to ombudsman now?

    Secondly, what would you say I should ask for by way of resolution? Simply that they do what they said they would? Or should I be asking for something over and above, given their non-responsiveness to date? If so, what?
  • dglp
    dglp Posts: 27 Forumite
    edited 28 February 2013 at 4:43PM
    Just confirming that I had sent a letter by post, dated 22 December. Just over 8 weeks, then. Pretty sure I got an email reply shortly thereafter, which led to the phone call in January. Need to check that too...

    Got it, dated 3 January:
    Thank you for your letter and for taking the time to detail your concerns clearly.

    I am sorry your payments were stopped on the electricity account, whilst we were updating our systems and for your having to contact us once more regarding this issue.

    I have logged this as a complaint onto your account and you have a unique reference number, which is ********. I have requested the complaints team transfer £***.** from your gas account onto the electricity account.

    We can set up monthly direct debits on both accounts; these would need to be separate for a short while. When we have completed updating our systems, we would tie the payments together once more.

    If you wish you have your direct debits re-instated, please contact us on the number below and we will be happy to do this for you.
    I did contact them, as described earlier.

    On a slightly different topic, I don't recall any notice from nPower that they were combining accounts and that I should be alert to possible glitches. Given my memory, they may have, but I nonetheless wonder if they did make any such effort.
  • Fire_Fox
    Fire_Fox Posts: 26,026
    Name Dropper First Anniversary Combo Breaker First Post
    Forumite
    As Wywth suggested follow the formal complaints procedure, it's eight weeks from when you invoked that, not eight weeks from first contact. Basically it means you would have headed your letter 'complaint' and/ or written to the Complaints Team. Do refer to all previous contact (dates, times, name of staff member), they may deem the complaint to have started earlier which would speed things up. Ombudsman will not take the case until you have been exhausted that/ been ignored or reached stalemate.
    http://www.npower.com/home/customerservices/contact-customer-services/complaints/index.htm
    Declutterbug-in-progress.⭐️⭐️⭐️ ⭐️⭐️
  • dglp
    dglp Posts: 27 Forumite
    Aha. Okay. I take it that dealing with Customer Service is not the same as dealing with Complaints.

    From the tenor of what you say, I suppose that my secondary question about what to ask for is also very cut & dried: I should just ask to have the problem fixed and leave it at that.
    Fire_Fox wrote: »
    As Wywth suggested follow the formal complaints procedure, it's eight weeks from when you invoked that, not eight weeks from first contact. Basically it means you would have headed your letter 'complaint' and/ or written to the Complaints Team.
  • undaunted
    undaunted Posts: 1,870 Forumite
    Don't get bogged down in that - just tell the ombudsman that you complained 8 weeks ago (you did!) & it hasn't been resolved you now require ........... in order to resolve it & let them get on with it.

    If your request is simply to have a balance transferred from one account to the other & the accounts billed properly in future I can't see why they should have any problems with that.

    You may or may not be offered a token goodwill sum for inconvenience but don't expect much there.
  • dglp
    dglp Posts: 27 Forumite
    Useful input, that.

    I think what I'll do is write to nPower once again, pointing out that I first phoned about this issue back in Sept/Oct (will look at phone records for dates), and they really should have sorted it by now.

    I'll cc it to Ombudsman for reference, with a comment that nPower's handling has been a shambles, and that what I require is a more responsive service that fixes problems without going round the houses for 6 months or more, plus a reporting feature that gives regular updates on open problems. Neither of which is likely to happen (!), but it adds weight to any eventual changes required by OfGEM.
    undaunted wrote: »
    Don't get bogged down in that - just tell the ombudsman that you complained 8 weeks ago (you did!) & it hasn't been resolved
  • ccbrowning
    ccbrowning Posts: 426
    First Anniversary Name Dropper First Post
    Forumite
    You're not alone in having issues, unfortunately. I'm being billed for large amounts (and no itemisation or meter reading numbers from them) even after I switched! I need to get it sorted somehow...

    Do their bogus credit agency letters go on your credit file?
  • dglp
    dglp Posts: 27 Forumite
    Hi CC,

    I have no idea what goes on my credit file. So far, whatever's on there has not stopped Barclay's from offering me unwanted lines of credit... :)
  • Wywth
    Wywth Posts: 5,079 Forumite
    ccbrowning wrote: »
    You're not alone in having issues, unfortunately. I'm being billed for large amounts (and no itemisation or meter reading numbers from them) even after I switched! I need to get it sorted somehow...

    Do their bogus credit agency letters go on your credit file?

    You've not even contacted the supplier, apparently :cool:
    http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=4475317
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