Npower I wish I hadn't bothered

paulo1888

Switched to Npower from Scottish Hydro back in early February. Electricity switch no problem, all set up on the internet. The same can't be said for my gas switch. I've phoned countless times asking what is happening and they basically cannot give me a definitive answer. They hit me with all sorts of Jargon relating to corrupt data, computer problems, "bad flow", whatever that means! All I am asking for is my Gas bill as I need to budget for future costs. They will not even take a switch payment from me even though they are supplying my gas. All they tell me is that they don't know how much I owe, they don't know when the issue will be resolved and they seem to have difficulty transferring me to the customer service team. I have logged all calls made and what was discussed. I politely asked if they would be good enough to write to me to let me know where I stand, but I have not had the courtesy of a reply. ALL I WANT IS MY GAS BILL. Is that to much to ask? Npower customer service Representative, what have you got to say about that one.

Fire_Fox

Write a letter of complaint, invoke NPower's complaints procedure. NPower are having computer nightmares and have been for some time.

paulo1888

Thanks for that fire fox. I know I can't go directly to the ombudsman, so I will write to Npower today, at least that's a start.

Cheers

nPower

paulo1888 wrote: »

Switched to Npower from Scottish Hydro back in early February. Electricity switch no problem, all set up on the internet. The same can't be said for my gas switch. I've phoned countless times asking what is happening and they basically cannot give me a definitive answer. They hit me with all sorts of Jargon relating to corrupt data, computer problems, "bad flow", whatever that means! All I am asking for is my Gas bill as I need to budget for future costs. They will not even take a switch payment from me even though they are supplying my gas. All they tell me is that they don't know how much I owe, they don't know when the issue will be resolved and they seem to have difficulty transferring me to the customer service team. I have logged all calls made and what was discussed. I politely asked if they would be good enough to write to me to let me know where I stand, but I have not had the courtesy of a reply. ALL I WANT IS MY GAS BILL. Is that to much to ask? Npower customer service Representative, what have you got to say about that one.

Hi paulo1888,

I received your email this morning and our complaints team are looking into this as we speak.

We'll have an update to you as soon as possible.

Many thank,

Adam

paulo1888

Many thanks for your reply, nPower company representative.
I received a letter from your company dated 18 April 2013 stating that "an adviser within the complaints team is looking into this and they will ensure it is resolved and keep me informed of progress". As of 7 May, I have heard nothing. I am requesting that you now escalate this to the second stage of your complaints procedure which states "In the unlikely event that we've been unable to resolve your complaint or you remain unhappy you can ask for your complaint to be referred to our Executive Complaints Team and request that they contact you by phone or letter." By escalating this to your "Executive" complaints team, you can speed up the formalities and I will be further forward with my complaint to Ombudsman Services, which obviously, is the direction in which this is heading. Many Thanks

nPower

paulo1888 wrote: »

Many thanks for your reply, nPower company representative.
I received a letter from your company dated 18 April 2013 stating that "an adviser within the complaints team is looking into this and they will ensure it is resolved and keep me informed of progress". As of 7 May, I have heard nothing. I am requesting that you now escalate this to the second stage of your complaints procedure which states "In the unlikely event that we've been unable to resolve your complaint or you remain unhappy you can ask for your complaint to be referred to our Executive Complaints Team and request that they contact you by phone or letter." By escalating this to your "Executive" complaints team, you can speed up the formalities and I will be further forward with my complaint to Ombudsman Services, which obviously, is the direction in which this is heading. Many Thanks

Hi paulo1888,

I'm really sorry to hear that you haven't had any response to this. I will chase this up with the Executive team right away and find out what's happened.

Kind regards,

Adam

paulo1888

A warning for anyone thinking about switching their energy supply to Npower.
As per other posts on this forum it is clear that Npower have problems with their computer system but clearly have bigger issues in relation to their customer complaints charter.

Quote from npowers charter - Putting things right
"We’ll carry out a review of all
the actions we’ve taken and all correspondence between us.
We’ll keep you informed through to resolution."

I am at the third and final stage of the complaints process having been through

1. The Specialist Complaints Team
2. The Executive Complaints Team
3. Head of Customer relations Team


Below is the last correspondence I received from the company.
I have had no reply or progress update AGAIN.


Thank you for your email dated 8 May 2013 via our Social Media Forum. Further to my email below dated 23 April 2013 I have been asked to provide you with an update to your complaint.
I can see from your email that you have requested that your complaint be escalated to the second stage of our complaints process and as mentioned below your complaint has been passed to our Executive Complaints Team and I have been allocated as your case handler. Due to a technical issue on your account I have now escalated this to the third stage in our complaints process and have passed your details onto our specialist department and I have this morning chased the progress on this and I am currently waiting for a reply from one of my colleagues. As soon as I have received an update I shall forward this information onto you.

I shall also contact you by 23 May with regards to where we stand in resolving your complaint and if in the meantime there is anything I can do to be of assistance then please do not hesitate to contact me.

Your sincerely,
Paul Hocking
Executive Complaints Team
npower

gc_bus

Good luck!

Wywth

Hi paulo1899, I can help you with a very good indication if you would like to know how much your gas & electricity consumption has cost you to date.

If you would like to take up my offer I will need the following information from you please:

1. Actual date switches went live (one for electricity & one for gas)
2. Start meter readings (one for electricity & one for gas)
3. Todays meter readings (one for electricity & one for gas)
4. Whether your gas meter is metric or imperial.
5. The exact name of the tariff you are now on with nPower

(I assume you are on a single rate electricity tariff, but if you are on E7 I will obviously need both registry readings for day and night at start and today)

paulo1888

Thanks Wywth, I'll take you up on that. I'll get the info and get back to you.

paulo1888

Looking back at this debacle, what is now clear is that each time I telephoned Npower, I got nowhere fast.
When I post on the Social Media Forum, Moneysavingexpert I get an immediate written reply from the company representative, which on the face of it sounds encouraging.

I posted on this forum on 23 May 2013 @ 1.18pm complaining that the company had again failed to get back to me by 23 May as they promised, and received a reply an hour later stating "I am writing as agreed to provide you with an update to your complaint as agreed in my previous email"
Fair enough, maybe it was just coincidence they got back to me and nothing to do with my post on MSE.

What they have written is this
"I shall check on the progress on your account after the bank holiday weekend and will provide you with an update by next Friday, 31 May 2013"

Well here's hoping