MSE News: Npower price hike to hit 130,000 customers

MillicentBystander

Caddyman wrote: »

Having just re-checked my estimated annual energy cost over a year for both gas and electric with Npower (£774 inclusive of £100 dual fuel discount - figures taken from latest Npower letter informing of their price increase) on my current online January 2014 tariff, even my rubbish maths brings my daily total energy cost in at £2.12 a day over an entire year.

I have one of those wireless Npower electric power consumption meters. I'm not sure how accurate they are, but as of 10.16 pm today, I've used just £4.51 of electricity over the last 7 days and just forty nine pence worth of electric today.

If that is considered in any way expensive by anyone to run my 3 bed semi, then I'm stumped! I'm certainly not going to bother my backside trying to find a tariff a few pennies a week cheaper in the hope of saving myself maybe 40 quid a year just yet!

You can't at the moment anyway as you would lose the annual discount! You're a captive customer

PS Only way to work out if it's still a competitive tariff is to input your annual consumption into a switching site.

PPS Of course this flat fee annual discount works in exactly the opposite way when you are looking for a tariff as on low consumption the £105 discount becomes proportionately bigger.

Charade

Greetings again,

I wasn't going to write anything else on this particular matter, but there does seem to be lots of huffing and puffing going on that I don't really understand. Mind you I've lived for 60 years in that state.

Up to the time of writing, I've been with the MEB as we knew it and Npower since they "merged" with it. When I've thought the price increases too high I've price compared and Npower always seem to have a satisfactory tariff to change to.
Since the "merger" I've had seemingly blinding rows with Npower virtually every bill but got it sorted quite quickly, and funnily enough I've always got my own way when there has been a "problem" because I have the readings and I know what's been used historically. I use a computer, but a notebook would work just as well.

Sorry - that last paragraph wasn't what I was going to write here.

As for continuation of the Loyalty Discount, when I change tariff within Npower, there is a continuous "service record" so to speak and I receive my discount at the same time of year, every year for a lot of years.

When I've compared prices with the likes of E-ON, Scottish Power, EDF and the smaller companies, many have no discounts but the standing daily charge can be up to double that of Npower - the end result being virtually the same per annum price give or take a few pounds (granted I consider a few pounds insignificant and I fully accept this is not the case for everyone). I've come across one or two comparison sites that don't seem to take this into consideration.

Npower do have an early exit fee for most of their "older" tariffs. In April I was considering changing tariff within Npower and I asked Customer Services if they would drop the fee. I was surprised by his answer and asked him to confirm it to me by emails. He did so as follows (well the interesting bit anyway):-

"Hello Mr W
Thank you for contacting us about your energy account.
In our phone call earlier today, you advised you sent an email asking if you were to change your tariff to Energy Online August 2014 E7, would you incur an early exit fee of £30.00. This email is to confirm that this charge would be applied to the account, however, after a discussion with my manager, I advised we would remove that charge when it appears on your bill if you contact us to do so."

So it seems to me that Npower, for all their faults, is still for me the cheapest supplier (again ignoring the few £'s as mentioned above) as most other suppliers have cheaper prices but the hidden costs bump up the final bill. Swings and Roundabouts.

Apologies again for this inane scribbling, I probably don't understand what's really going on.

AndyW

By the way - has anyone else noticed that our Julie is no longer Customer Services Director (Domestic)? She seems to have "vacated" the post in February (if my Director Search is correct)It's a chap called Gareth Pickles now.
I wonder if that explains one or two things - hmmm

Caddyman

MillicentBystander wrote: »

I think maybe we will have to agree to disagree here but my belief remains that you haven't *totally* understood the significance of the T&Cs. Funnily enough, your argument along the lines of 'my consumption is so low it doesn't matter' is way off the pace - the £105 discount is a flat rate and applies whether you spend £700/yr or £7,000/yr but obviously becomes a far bigger hit if you spend just £700/yr on your fuel. 15% on £700/yr as opposed to 1.5% on £7,000.

I assure you, I am perfectly able to comprehend the small print. If I am in your words 'a captive customer' then I'm not in the slightest bit bothered because I'm perfectly happy to be a customer of Npower at this time, indeed, I've been with them for a considerable time now and as I stated earlier, I do check every year via the comparison sites that I am still on the best tariff. I don't feel like a 'captive' customer at all and I'm certainly not moaning about the prices I'm being charged. As I stated earlier, if anyone here thinks that the provision of gas/electric for just £2.12 a day inclusive of charges over 365 days is expensive, then I really give up!

As it stands, Npower provide a pretty good all round service to me and have done so for nearly 5 years whilst remaining the cheapest option for me. If it does prove they are not at the end of my current tariff, I'll move on.

Bootsox

Despite npower's tariff increase, a quick "u-switch" reveals that I would only be marginally better off switching so I think I will probably sit tight on this one (well until Jan 14 anyway).

However, I still feel npower have been duplicitous and this will not be forgotten.

Woodville

I signed up to Npower using the August 13 tariff, which promised NO increases in prices until that date. However, I received a notification that my prices would increase well before this date. I queried it, and was informed that in fact, my prices would be 7% less than that charged on their standard tariff. Now that they had increased the standard tariff, then my prices would be 7% less than the new price, thus giving me a 7% increase in real terms. I complained that this was not in keeping with the original agreement, and it was pointed out that they did not state that my prices would not increase, only the fact that I would be 7% less than standard. So if the standard price had gone up by 200%, then that is the increase I would have had to cough up. When you sign up to Npower, make sure you get all the facts right from the agent, and do not be lulled in to a false agreement by slick, fast talking salespersons. I have now stayed with Npower, but signed up to their "December 15" tariff, making sure that the rate is not allied to any other tariff, but completely independent and not liable to any increase in prices until December 2015. Slightly more than at present, but the way things are going, it should be profitable in the long run.

MillicentBystander

Bootsox wrote: »

Despite npower's tariff increase, a quick "u-switch" reveals that I would only be marginally better off switching so I think I will probably sit tight on this one (well until Jan 14 anyway).

However, I still feel npower have been duplicitous and this will not be forgotten.

Are you taking into account the loss of the £105 annual discount here or not?

fr3dy77

Hi, regardless all the publication that I read on Energy Online January 2014, Npower does charge me £60 early exit fee (for dual fuel). I even have called the customer service team twice prior to the switch and they confirmed on both occasion that there is no exit fee.

However, when I did the switch, they do charge me the exit fees. I called up to raise the complaint and the complaint team said it was incorrect information given by their customer service team.
I urge everyone that did the switch to check their final bill to make sure they don't get the same problem.

By the way, what should I do on this case?

nPower

fr3dy77 wrote: »

Hi, regardless all the publication that I read on Energy Online January 2014, Npower does charge me £60 early exit fee (for dual fuel). I even have called the customer service team twice prior to the switch and they confirmed on both occasion that there is no exit fee.

However, when I did the switch, they do charge me the exit fees. I called up to raise the complaint and the complaint team said it was incorrect information given by their customer service team.
I urge everyone that did the switch to check their final bill to make sure they don't get the same problem.

By the way, what should I do on this case?

Hi fr3dy77,

I'm sorry to hear that you've been given conflicting information here.

Please can you email me your details (address is on my profile page) and I'll take a look here and see what we can do

Many thanks,

Adam