Npower bullies

Inigo_Montoya

MarcoM wrote: »

Hi,

I received a threatening letter from npower. The letter says that I should ring to book an appointment for a gas meter safety inspection as they have not been able to gain access to the property. They say it has been more than two years since the last inspection.

Note that they have already been on 16 March to do this. They guy also took a meter reading. I can only guess that due to their systematic failure in their billing systems this visit was not logged hence the letter.

They are threatening to go to a magistrate for a warrant within seven days and enter the property even in my absence.

I do not really want to deal with the call centre but I am worried that if I write to the complaints department the issue may be dealt with after the seven days window I have left before any other action is taken. I have also read somewhere that once they go to the magistrate the process cannot be stopped.

I would like to know if other people have experience this bullying by npower.
At the end of the day they have already been and it is not my fault if their subcontractors do not log their inspections.

Thanks

Phone up & make an appointment for another visit but ask for the appointment to be as far ahead in the future as there system will allow - think its about a maximum 30 days in advance IIRC

As soon as you arrange another visit it should stop any court proceedings

This will give you some time to make the complaint - if the complaint does not progress quickly enough then just phone up again a few days before the next appointment & get it deferred yet again

I had a similiar issue with an empty property I own - I live 300 miles away from the empty house so I had to repeatedly defer the gas safety appointment until it co-incided with me visiting the property

I suspect they do these gas safety checks on properties they suspect might have meters that have been tampered with ( in my case the gas usage was very low as the property is mostly empty rather than a fiddled meter ! )

nPower

MarcoM wrote: »

it was not a meter reading visit because when i opened the door the operative said "gas safety meter check" and he also had a look at the pipes / wires around the meter.

Also the meter reading was not recorded on my account which suggests that the visit was lost.

Thanks for the offer but I have written and sent an official complaint by registered post.

Morning MarcoM,

I deal with our Executive Complaints team directly, so could get the ball rolling for you if you wanted?

You have the email address, so I'll leave this with you.

Kind regards,

Adam

chanz4

I wonder if the person had seen something untowards and flagged it to them

undaunted

MarcoM wrote: »

they have already done this in march.
I don't see why I should have to take another day off work.
All I am asking is that they check their records to find details of their previous visit.
It is not the customer's fault if they lose details of their inspections.

Am I correct in assuming that my complaint should at least stop the legal process?

It should but even if it didn't you could go to the Magistrates point out the inspection has already been done & therefore they are wasting his / her time as well as yours.

Assuming this is accepted as true I'd then seek your costs.

Samfleming92

Hi everyone, to make things more clearer since I work in the energy industry, a GSI (Gas Safety Inspection) is a VISUAL inspection when the supplier send out a metering agent to take an upto date meter read & to make sure the meter is safe (basically not hanging off the wall). A supplier has to carry out this work at least every 2 years which is a legal requirement as part of their licensing conditions. The strongly worded letters go out to stress the importance otherwise it could lead to possible action (£150 charge roughly). What you need to understand is it makes no difference who lives at the property as the correspondence is addressed to the occupier as the job is about the household in question & not the actual individual. A good will gesture may be given for the inconvenience but the complaint wouldn't go any further as its a process they carry out to their customers, hope this helps