Npower - no bill for 19 months! Then bam!

alittlehelpplease

Hello everyone, I am new here but was recommended it as a please to find advice for problems like this!
We moved in to our rented house at the end of 2011. Shortly after we moved in we received a welcome letter from Npower with mine and my housemates name on it, saying that a customer number would follow shortly. So we know that the account was set up correctly by our letting agents. Since then we have received nothing in the post from Npower but in that time we have provided several meter readings and called them several times asking where the bills are.
Just recently we have received a bill address to "the occupier" as apparently they have lost our details sometime in these months. The bill is for nearly £2000 and just for our electricity, it should be lower but the meter readings it is based on are wrong.
I will call them up to try and sort it out, of course, but I wanted to seek advice first on these issues related to it:
Are we not entitled to some sort of reduction in the bill or payment plan because of these errors on their part? It is hardly good practice by them to send such a huge bill after so long despite asking for one several times. Is there some cut off point for how far back they can claim all at once?
Also, is there grounds for a discount given that we have not been given the option of switching on to one of their other tariffs in all this time that would have better suited our consumption and therefore resulted in lower bills. We also haven't wanted to switch supplier in all this time because of this problem and the probable ensuing confusion, and that too would have resulted in a better deal for us.
Any other help or advice would be great too! I want to know where I stand before we battle through on the phone again!

Oh, and we still haven't received any word on our gas bill!!

alittlehelpplease

I have just found this on the Consumer Focus website about back billing so I expect that will apply for us??
"Ofgem directed all domestic energy suppliers to stop back-billing customers for energy used more than 12 months ago, if the supplier was at fault for not having sent a bill to the customer’"

Cardew

Welcome to the forum.

Your situation is similar to this current thread:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4681853

I hope you kept the letter welcoming you?

In the situation you describe it seems pretty certain that the back-billing provision will apply and you can only be back billed 12 months.

undaunted

I agree with others above - that you can argue with them that there is a case for back billing - but you will probably have to prove the efforts you made to obtain a bills.

I suggest that you not try to do this by telephone but send a written complaint with copy documentation etc and request a written reply

Npower are not always the easiest of forms to deal / reason with. Good luck

nPower

alittlehelpplease wrote: »

Hello everyone, I am new here but was recommended it as a please to find advice for problems like this!
We moved in to our rented house at the end of 2011. Shortly after we moved in we received a welcome letter from Npower with mine and my housemates name on it, saying that a customer number would follow shortly. So we know that the account was set up correctly by our letting agents. Since then we have received nothing in the post from Npower but in that time we have provided several meter readings and called them several times asking where the bills are.
Just recently we have received a bill address to "the occupier" as apparently they have lost our details sometime in these months. The bill is for nearly £2000 and just for our electricity, it should be lower but the meter readings it is based on are wrong.
I will call them up to try and sort it out, of course, but I wanted to seek advice first on these issues related to it:
Are we not entitled to some sort of reduction in the bill or payment plan because of these errors on their part? It is hardly good practice by them to send such a huge bill after so long despite asking for one several times. Is there some cut off point for how far back they can claim all at once?
Also, is there grounds for a discount given that we have not been given the option of switching on to one of their other tariffs in all this time that would have better suited our consumption and therefore resulted in lower bills. We also haven't wanted to switch supplier in all this time because of this problem and the probable ensuing confusion, and that too would have resulted in a better deal for us.
Any other help or advice would be great too! I want to know where I stand before we battle through on the phone again!

Oh, and we still haven't received any word on our gas bill!!

Hi alittlehelpplease,

Something doesn't sound quite right here, I agree, and I'd like to take a look into this for you.
Please can you email me your details - the address is on my profile page.

Many thanks,

Adam

Wywth

Based on what you have posted, and especially if you have that welcome letter, then I also think the 12 month back billing rule will apply.

Regarding any compo for not switching, you may have got some if you had tried and nPower stopped it, but I doubt you'll get any as you didn't even try switching.

I suggest you take up Adam's offer. Who knows, he might throw in a small goodwill gesture as additional recompense?

alittlehelpplease

Thanks very much for the responses. I didn't know there were company reps on the forum - great! I'll private message Adam now and report back later with an update.