NPower - Have not transferred Gas 6 months later

BBSpringer

Good afternoon

I am hoping someone out there will be able to tell me what my rights are in regards to a problem I am encountering with NPower.

In Oct 12 I agreed to take out a contract with NPower to transfer by Gas/Elec, however from the offset I have been plagued with problems (no contracts, failure to take my direct debit payments, incorrect transfer dates etc).

However my main issue now is 6 months later I am still awaiting for NPower to take over my gas supply.

When I last spoke with NPower, there was still no confirmed date of when the supply would be transferred, but when I said about just cancelling this contract I was told that I was past my time scale to cancel (this is in the first 2 weeks of taken out the contract during which I never even had a contract) and that NPowers cut off point to stop it had also past.

I believe I have been more than acceptable with this matter, but after 6 months of long and lengthy telephone calls etc I have now loss patients.

My point is that I have kept to my part of the contract but NPower have failed to carry out their part in that they would connect my Gas/Elec within 6 weeks.

I have endured lots of extra expense due to NPowers fault such as telephone calls, time wasted hanging on the phone for up to an hour at a time, letters sent to the company and Odbusman, but mostly because I have been charged a high tariff during the winter months from the gas supplier (British Gas) who I was trying to transfer from.

I have logged a complaint with The Ombudsman even though in my opinion NPower tried to dissuade me from doing.

Can anyone out there please advise what my rights are.

Wywth

BBSpringer wrote: »

Good afternoon

I am hoping someone out there will be able to tell me what my rights are in regards to a problem I am encountering with NPower.

In Oct 12 I agreed to take out a contract with NPower to transfer by Gas/Elec, however from the offset I have been plagued with problems (no contracts, failure to take my direct debit payments, incorrect transfer dates etc).

However my main issue now is 6 months later I am still awaiting for NPower to take over my gas supply.

When I last spoke with NPower, there was still no confirmed date of when the supply would be transferred, but when I said about just cancelling this contract I was told that I was past my time scale to cancel (this is in the first 2 weeks of taken out the contract during which I never even had a contract) and that NPowers cut off point to stop it had also past.

I believe I have been more than acceptable with this matter, but after 6 months of long and lengthy telephone calls etc I have now loss patients.

My point is that I have kept to my part of the contract but NPower have failed to carry out their part in that they would connect my Gas/Elec within 6 weeks.

I have endured lots of extra expense due to NPowers fault such as telephone calls, time wasted hanging on the phone for up to an hour at a time, letters sent to the company and Odbusman, but mostly because I have been charged a high tariff during the winter months from the gas supplier (British Gas) who I was trying to transfer from.

I have logged a complaint with The Ombudsman even though in my opinion NPower tried to dissuade me from doing.

Can anyone out there please advise what my rights are.

What has the ombudsman advised you?

BBSpringer

I spoke with the Ombudsman today to chase up my complaint (I submitted it to them in Mar 13) and they said they cannot advise me but are investigating my complaint ;-(

25.6_Pre-contract_oblig

Hi BBSpringer,

Welcome to the forum!

Unfortunately, there are many issues with npower's 'new system' as documented in the long thread:

Warning: npower accept new customers without sending them a Contract
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4273611

See the recent posts for some examples.

From what you have posted, am I correct in thinking that your Electricity has Transferred but your Gas has not?

Has your Contract ever arrived (mine took many months to come)?

The whole situation is, I know, very frustrating: many of us are in a kind of 'limbo land' that should not, in theory, exist.

I would contact your current (the one you were trying to leave) Gas Supplier to see if you are still with them. If you are, you may be able to move your Gas to another Supplier. If you do I would phone them to give the new Supplier some background information about the bizarre situation npower have created.

For most Suppliers I would say "better to write than to phone": particularly if things are going wrong and/or you have a Complaint. However, with npower, as they have now got the Account is such a mess I would phone. I advise you to be proactive in your dealings with npower, the Customer Service staff are also having to use the 'broken system'.

Please give us an update about how you get on with the Ombudsman.

Sadly, the experience of Consumers, as reported here at MSE, has not been good.

See:

The Energy Ombudsman - Good or Bad ?
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4126943

What do you do if the Ombudsman gets it wrong??
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4195843

Energy Ombudsman compensation levels
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3962891

Best wishes,

25.6_Pre-contract_oblig

BBSpringer

Many thanks for all the advise

Yes I did eventually receive a contract in December but that was after many phone calls (I think in the region of 10 in which I could be on the phone for an hour to get connected).

Just to advise, NPower have connected the electricity, however that has not come without problems, as NPower then failed to take the direct debit payments from my account. Fortunately I noticed this error as I am quite on top of my finances, but I have had to resort to phoning them every month as to try to get this problem rectified. Eventually in March 2013 the first DD payment was taken. Not on though as some people may not have been on the ball in checking the bank account and then would have been stung with a massive bill to pay.

I tried speaking with the person who is dealing with my complaint yesterday to be told he was on a break (my first thought was "yeah that old chestnut") and that he would call me back in approx 20mins, but surprise surprise I did not receive a phone call back.
Just tried again to receive an automated voice message telling me they are now closed until Tuesday - FRUSTRATING!!!!!!!!

I also contacted the Citizens Advice Bureau yesterday for their advice, but all they said was wait till I was connected then pay to be disconnected!!!!!
However when I argued the point that surely NPower are in breach of contract as they stated I would have gas & elec within 4-6 weeks from the start of the contract, CAB said that only a judge could declare if they were in breach of contract but it could help if I write a letter to NPower stating this matter.

I will take your advise and ring British Gas to see if I'm still connected (I'm sure I am) but to add to this matter I am now going to be leaving this property in 2 weeks and to be honest have no idea how I stand if the gas supply isn't sorted out by then. At my wits end now and really do not need to be dealing with this on top of a move to the other end of the country :mad:

Worried1976

BBSpringer I feel your pain! I've had exactly the same issue when transferring from EDF to co-operative - tried to transfer gas and electric begining of Jan, electric went over no problems on 7th Jan, gas didn't get transferred until last week. I've now got a huge gas bill because I was left with a provider charging extortionate rates for gas (hence my desire to switch)! Funny how they both managed to switch the electric which wasn't subject to the same price rises. I too will be writing to the Ombudsman and both companies to complain. Looks like it's an industry wide scam to me.

nPower

BBSpringer wrote: »

Good afternoon

I am hoping someone out there will be able to tell me what my rights are in regards to a problem I am encountering with NPower.

In Oct 12 I agreed to take out a contract with NPower to transfer by Gas/Elec, however from the offset I have been plagued with problems (no contracts, failure to take my direct debit payments, incorrect transfer dates etc).

However my main issue now is 6 months later I am still awaiting for NPower to take over my gas supply.

When I last spoke with NPower, there was still no confirmed date of when the supply would be transferred, but when I said about just cancelling this contract I was told that I was past my time scale to cancel (this is in the first 2 weeks of taken out the contract during which I never even had a contract) and that NPowers cut off point to stop it had also past.

I believe I have been more than acceptable with this matter, but after 6 months of long and lengthy telephone calls etc I have now loss patients.

My point is that I have kept to my part of the contract but NPower have failed to carry out their part in that they would connect my Gas/Elec within 6 weeks.

I have endured lots of extra expense due to NPowers fault such as telephone calls, time wasted hanging on the phone for up to an hour at a time, letters sent to the company and Odbusman, but mostly because I have been charged a high tariff during the winter months from the gas supplier (British Gas) who I was trying to transfer from.

I have logged a complaint with The Ombudsman even though in my opinion NPower tried to dissuade me from doing.

Can anyone out there please advise what my rights are.

Hi BBSpringer,

Would you like me to take a look into this for you and chase the complaints team to see if we can get a resolution?

I'm over on [EMAIL="forumresponse@npower.com"]forumresponse@npower.com[/EMAIL] if you can send me the details?

Kind regards,

Adam

BBSpringer

Many thanks Adam but I would prefer to leave it in the hands of the Ombudsman.

As I'm sure you will appreciate, after enduring this matter and numerous other issues for 6 long months, I have lost all of my faith with NPower hence why I will be leaving the company as soon as I my present contract will allow me too.

BBSpringer

Just a quick update, the Ombudsman have been in liaison with NPower and have hopefully come to an compensation agreement. Additionally the Ombudsman have also managed to agree with NPower that there will be no termination fee for the gas supply that was never connected when I move. I still have to wait for NPower to contact me with their acceptance so the matter is not closed however hopefully I have a glimmer of a light at the end of the tunnel.

Wywth

BBSpringer wrote: »

Just a quick update, the Ombudsman have been in liaison with NPower and have hopefully come to an compensation agreement. Additionally the Ombudsman have also managed to agree with NPower that there will be no termination fee for the gas supply that was never connected when I move. I still have to wait for NPower to contact me with their acceptance so the matter is not closed however hopefully I have a glimmer of a light at the end of the tunnel.

The supplier shouldn't need to be agreeing anything with you, now you have involved the ombudsman service.
(Your previous post declined the option given by nPower to help you - you said you preferred to leave it up to the ombudsman to resolve)

It's the role of the ombudsman service to seek a mutually agreed resolution to the dispute. The ombudsman will usually ask for your written agreement to any proposed resolution they have negotiated.


If the complaint requires the ombudsman to make a final ruling, the supplier is compelled to abide by that ruling, (assuming the customer agrees) but the customer is not obligated to agree to such ruling

Parafira

BBSpringer wrote: »

Just a quick update, the Ombudsman have been in liaison with NPower and have hopefully come to an compensation agreement. Additionally the Ombudsman have also managed to agree with NPower that there will be no termination fee for the gas supply that was never connected when I move. I still have to wait for NPower to contact me with their acceptance so the matter is not closed however hopefully I have a glimmer of a light at the end of the tunnel.

Hi BBSpringer,

What was the outcome of your problems? Did you get paid, did Npower eventually sort everything out?

I am in the same situation, have been having problems with Npower since November 2012, for a couple of months their "Executive Complaints Team" was pretending to be doing something, for the last 2,5 months they have just been ignoring me. My case is with Ombudsman.

Thanks,