Refunds from npower

CallumF

Any advice on successfully getting a refund from npower?

I've had an absolute nightmare of a time with them the last couple of months, since they finally agreed that charging me £175/month (!) was a bit steep I'm now hundreds of pounds in credit, but getting the money back is proving to be next to impossible.

I've twice had conversations with CSRs who've said the money will definitely be refunded in the next couple of days, and that the problems were due to a billing system migration. On both occasions the money was never refunded and the next months bill was for £175 again rather than £60 -- I've cancelled the DD so last month's didn't go through, and this month's won't either (got an (automated I presume) email from them complaining about that today), but the first months did. And on both occasions they never contacted me to give any explanation why.

Last Wednesday I spoke to a CSR who was utterly useless, I said I wanted it escalating and for someone to call me back to explain what's going on. Inevitably, nobody did. On Thursday I lucked out and got a smart/helpful/clueful CSR who seems to have gotten to the bottom of part of the problem (apparently there's a "billing block" on my account and that's why the previous refunds didn't go through -- my response was basically (i) why did the previous CSRs never mention this, and (ii) I don't care what the excuse is, give me my money back.

Clueful CSR (unlike his predecessors) then does escalate this, and I quickly get a call from a manager who, although she's very helpful and confirms that it's with the complaints team, is basically useless -- the "billing block" dates from the system migration a few months ago, but she can't say why it hasn't been resolved, or why it was never mentioned before, or why nobody's contacted me, or anything other than that only the complaints department can resolve this as the billing department isn't able to (for some vague reason). Oh, and it'll probably take the complaints team another 7 days, plus the 3-5 days for the BACS refund to got through.

I say I'm not happy with it taken even longer for them to refund the hundreds of pounds that they've been promising for months to refund me whilst still continuing to try to take more money from me. I say that I want someone from complaints to call me to explain when this will be fixed. Another 2 working days later, obviously no calls from them, but today I get an email complaining that I've cancelled the DD (odd that), and a letter in the post saying that they're aiming to resolve it within 28 working days!

Any suggestion on what I should be doing to get this fixed?

Thanks,

dogshome

N'power's entire systems are trashed at the moment due to a botched software upgrade, so where in these circumstances I would advise writing a letter headed Complaint, to do so would only delay things further by adding to the pile of Cr*p that n'power are trying to deal with.

You are probably best off letting things run with the 28 day promise - The alternative would be to slam in paperwork from the Small Claims Court that includes a copy of the Court Fee cheque.

CallumF

Thanks for your suggestion dogshome, however I don't see what benefit there is in simply waiting another 28+ days to see whether or not they do what they've been saying they'll do for the last couple of months. They've not even promised to have it resolved in 28 days -- just that they "aim to resolve [my] complaint within 28 working days", that's by far the weakest response I've had from them yet and means that by the end of July they could still have done absolutely nothing to return the money they owe me, all the while continuing to try and charge me £175 a month.

There's got to be something I can do short of taking them to court -- I hope!

MalekRic

The Complaints Team is the best place for your query, trust me. Note down the date it was escalated, the clock is ticking and you have 8 weeks before you are able to take it to The Ombudsman.

I suggest calling the complaints team, see if they can fix it for you, instead of waiting for a call back. If you seriously want this money back as quick as possible, then calling the complaints team is probably the best thing to do.

nPower

CallumF wrote: »

Any advice on successfully getting a refund from npower?

I've had an absolute nightmare of a time with them the last couple of months, since they finally agreed that charging me £175/month (!) was a bit steep I'm now hundreds of pounds in credit, but getting the money back is proving to be next to impossible.

I've twice had conversations with CSRs who've said the money will definitely be refunded in the next couple of days, and that the problems were due to a billing system migration. On both occasions the money was never refunded and the next months bill was for £175 again rather than £60 -- I've cancelled the DD so last month's didn't go through, and this month's won't either (got an (automated I presume) email from them complaining about that today), but the first months did. And on both occasions they never contacted me to give any explanation why.

Last Wednesday I spoke to a CSR who was utterly useless, I said I wanted it escalating and for someone to call me back to explain what's going on. Inevitably, nobody did. On Thursday I lucked out and got a smart/helpful/clueful CSR who seems to have gotten to the bottom of part of the problem (apparently there's a "billing block" on my account and that's why the previous refunds didn't go through -- my response was basically (i) why did the previous CSRs never mention this, and (ii) I don't care what the excuse is, give me my money back.

Clueful CSR (unlike his predecessors) then does escalate this, and I quickly get a call from a manager who, although she's very helpful and confirms that it's with the complaints team, is basically useless -- the "billing block" dates from the system migration a few months ago, but she can't say why it hasn't been resolved, or why it was never mentioned before, or why nobody's contacted me, or anything other than that only the complaints department can resolve this as the billing department isn't able to (for some vague reason). Oh, and it'll probably take the complaints team another 7 days, plus the 3-5 days for the BACS refund to got through.

I say I'm not happy with it taken even longer for them to refund the hundreds of pounds that they've been promising for months to refund me whilst still continuing to try to take more money from me. I say that I want someone from complaints to call me to explain when this will be fixed. Another 2 working days later, obviously no calls from them, but today I get an email complaining that I've cancelled the DD (odd that), and a letter in the post saying that they're aiming to resolve it within 28 working days!

Any suggestion on what I should be doing to get this fixed?

Thanks,

Hi CallumF,

I'm really sorry to read about the problems you've had in getting your refund back.

Please can you pop me an email (address is on my profile page) with your details on and I can chase this up for you?

Many thanks,

Adam

Wywth

CallumF wrote: »

Any advice on successfully getting a refund from npower?

I've had an absolute nightmare of a time with them the last couple of months, since they finally agreed that charging me £175/month (!) was a bit steep I'm now hundreds of pounds in credit, but getting the money back is proving to be next to impossible.

I've twice had conversations with CSRs who've said the money will definitely be refunded in the next couple of days, and that the problems were due to a billing system migration. On both occasions the money was never refunded and the next months bill was for £175 again rather than £60 -- I've cancelled the DD so last month's didn't go through, and this month's won't either (got an (automated I presume) email from them complaining about that today), but the first months did. And on both occasions they never contacted me to give any explanation why.

Last Wednesday I spoke to a CSR who was utterly useless, I said I wanted it escalating and for someone to call me back to explain what's going on. Inevitably, nobody did. On Thursday I lucked out and got a smart/helpful/clueful CSR who seems to have gotten to the bottom of part of the problem (apparently there's a "billing block" on my account and that's why the previous refunds didn't go through -- my response was basically (i) why did the previous CSRs never mention this, and (ii) I don't care what the excuse is, give me my money back.

Clueful CSR (unlike his predecessors) then does escalate this, and I quickly get a call from a manager who, although she's very helpful and confirms that it's with the complaints team, is basically useless -- the "billing block" dates from the system migration a few months ago, but she can't say why it hasn't been resolved, or why it was never mentioned before, or why nobody's contacted me, or anything other than that only the complaints department can resolve this as the billing department isn't able to (for some vague reason). Oh, and it'll probably take the complaints team another 7 days, plus the 3-5 days for the BACS refund to got through.

I say I'm not happy with it taken even longer for them to refund the hundreds of pounds that they've been promising for months to refund me whilst still continuing to try to take more money from me. I say that I want someone from complaints to call me to explain when this will be fixed. Another 2 working days later, obviously no calls from them, but today I get an email complaining that I've cancelled the DD (odd that), and a letter in the post saying that they're aiming to resolve it within 28 working days!

Any suggestion on what I should be doing to get this fixed?

Thanks,

A cheque was issued whilst I was on the phone to them.

But it takes about 7 days to actually arrive

CallumF

nPower_company_representative wrote: »

Hi CallumF,

I'm really sorry to read about the problems you've had in getting your refund back.

Please can you pop me an email (address is on my profile page) with your details on and I can chase this up for you?

Many thanks,

Adam

I gave up waiting this morning so called yet again, on the third attempt (cut off the first time, told the systems were all down the second time) I got through to the complaints team. They confirmed most of what I was told last week, said the money should be repaid in 3-5 days (obviously it's impossible to transfer money immediately, oh wait, no it isn't...), and that I should only be being billed £60/month, but couldn't explain why this whole debacle had happened, why it took so long to get fixed, etc.

At present this is all stuff I've been told before, whether or not it's the truth this time remains to be seen. It's just as well that I've repeatedly called the company about this, as it looks like even though they knew of a problem (hence the original "billing block" -- the details of which seem vague) they'd have just continued taking £175/month, never returned a penny, and never contacted me about it.

If you want to do something useful then you can check & confirm here what the CSR in the complaints team I spoke to this morning said would be done; I'll send the account details & complaint ref# to forumresponse@npower.com

nPower

CallumF wrote: »

I gave up waiting this morning so called yet again, on the third attempt (cut off the first time, told the systems were all down the second time) I got through to the complaints team. They confirmed most of what I was told last week, said the money should be repaid in 3-5 days (obviously it's impossible to transfer money immediately, oh wait, no it isn't...), and that I should only be being billed £60/month, but couldn't explain why this whole debacle had happened, why it took so long to get fixed, etc.

At present this is all stuff I've been told before, whether or not it's the truth this time remains to be seen. It's just as well that I've repeatedly called the company about this, as it looks like even though they knew of a problem (hence the original "billing block" -- the details of which seem vague) they'd have just continued taking £175/month, never returned a penny, and never contacted me about it.

If you want to do something useful then you can check & confirm here what the CSR in the complaints team I spoke to this morning said would be done; I'll send the account details & complaint ref# to [EMAIL="forumresponse@npower.com"]forumresponse@npower.com[/EMAIL]

Hi CallumF,

I received your details and our complaints team have taken a look into this for you.

My colleague has left you a voice mail this morning and has also popped you an email.

Best wishes,

Adam

CallumF

nPower_company_representative wrote: »

Hi CallumF,

I received your details and our complaints team have taken a look into this for you.

My colleague has left you a voice mail this morning and has also popped you an email.

Best wishes,

Adam

Good afternoon,

Once the refund has been received, and assuming the next bill will be for ~£60 then I'll accept the I'll accept the response, and the credit & goodwill gesture as described in Paul in the email, and will consider the complaint resolved.

Thanks, Callum