My interest free loan to Npower :/

starstreaker

I recently noticed that NPower had (without my consent) gradually increased my direct debit monthly payments without consulting me. It looks like this;

Jun - 80
Jul - 80
Aug - 80
Sept - 80
Oct - 103
Nov - 103
Dec - 103
Jan - 103
Feb - 293
Mar - 293
Apr - 293
May - 293
Jun - 293

I realised and thought Id phone them. I also found out;

Customer service exec could not tell me the date I became a customer

Meter readings had taken place but not recorded / updated

My billing was incorrect and is still incorrect, with the customer services exec unable to tell me last Friday what I owed to date with the correct meter readings I had taken that day

Subsequent to my phone call an amendment was made to my account which was over £2k in credit, when questioned what that payment was for it was made clear to me the advisor did not know.

The advisor had different figures on his machine that I had on my online account which I was looking at as I was talking to him.

I have gone through my bills, which are wrong and I am still confused. I am currently waiting for a credit of an amount I feel is incorrect which will take "up to 21 days" because "that is how long it takes someone higher up the tree to look at it"

There is more in the catalogue of errors but ill leave it there for now.

If anyone knows of anything I should be doing please post because I have never had to deal with something like this (because never previously been an npower customer?)

Imagine if they do this to 1 million consumers, hundreds of millions in an interest free loan they refuse to pay back until "21 days".

gc_bus

It would appear that Npower's billing systems etc are in complete disarray currently. The website etc seems to be taken offline every couple of weeks or so for a number of days at a time. I'm still waiting to completely resolve a query I made in early April!!

dogshome

As already posted by gc_bus, n'powers systems are in a complete shambles due to a botched software update
The problem is that with incorrect bills, you have no way of knowing if the credit actually exists, let alone has a value of £2000

Customer Service Desk staff are out of their depth with this sort of problem, so the route to get it sorted is a letter headed Complaint - This word triggers
set procudures which n'power must abide by

Complaint 1) Utilty suppliers must advise you in advance of changes to the D/Debit value - If you have an online account are you sure there aren't unread messages sitting in your account box, or perhaps they gave notice on one of the sheets, on the back ?, that make up your bill.
If you are certain you had no notice, then it's a Complaint of a very serious nature

Complaint 2) Inaccurate billing - Fortunately this hasn't gone on too long, (13 Months?), but you do have your Start Reading(s) and know what your meter(s) read now, so include these in you letter with the demand that n'power issue correct bills for the entire period, together with an accurate figure of the balance on your account

Richie-from-the-Boro

CTRL PrtScr, open paint, paste, keep a copy.

Should have been done from the first second and every change / amendment made to to your e-account. Dated chronologically a pictorial, evidential, record you will certainly find useful later.

Best of luck.

starstreaker

Thanks all.

I called today and confirmed my DD had been stopped as instructed and that my refund has been requested, which apparently it has (its over £800)

I had begun today taking and saving screenshots since the account changes that had been made that no one could find afterwards.

Apparently the reason why the human being meter readings from their staff were not recorded is because "if the system doesnt like the number, it continues to use estimates" - I find this odd.

According to the advisor "my account looks as it should in the summer" - even though I have paid over £1,500 in the last 6 months and had I not checked this my next "revised" DD amount would have been over £440 per month :S

I have requested my entire history to date with them as well as from my bank and also taken my meter readings as they were when I became a customer (found out eventually) so I can scrutinise them later. I want my refund before I confuse things more though so I will wait to do this.

Also asked for a definition of what the "standing charge is" (I have no idea) The guy does not know but apparently you can have a higher unit charge and have no standing charge. - I am still confused about this.

I dont blame the staff for this (well, not the low level telephone guys) but unfortunately it is their problem as they have to deal with people like me who are slightly argumentative because their company is a shambles.

Cardew

starstreaker wrote: »

Thanks all.

I called today and confirmed my DD had been stopped as instructed and that my refund has been requested, which apparently it has (its over £800)

I had begun today taking and saving screenshots since the account changes that had been made that no one could find afterwards.

Apparently the reason why the human being meter readings from their staff were not recorded is because "if the system doesnt like the number, it continues to use estimates" - I find this odd.

According to the advisor "my account looks as it should in the summer" - even though I have paid over £1,500 in the last 6 months and had I not checked this my next "revised" DD amount would have been over £440 per month :S

I have requested my entire history to date with them as well as from my bank and also taken my meter readings as they were when I became a customer (found out eventually) so I can scrutinise them later. I want my refund before I confuse things more though so I will wait to do this.

Also asked for a definition of what the "standing charge is" (I have no idea) The guy does not know but apparently you can have a higher unit charge and have no standing charge. - I am still confused about this.

I dont blame the staff for this (well, not the low level telephone guys) but unfortunately it is their problem as they have to deal with people like me who are slightly argumentative because their company is a shambles.

The 'all powerful' computer with every company will indeed reject a meter reading(even by a meter reader) if it 'thinks' the reading must be a mistake. Of course once it has rejected one reading because it thinks it is a mistake, the next reading will also be rejected for the same reason.

It should earmark such an occurance for a real live human to investigate, but often it doesn't.

The Daily Standing Charge is xxpence per day with electricity at a flat rate. The majority of new tariffs have this arrangement.

Previously companies used the Tier system where you paid for the first units consumed at a higher rate(Tier1) and the remainder at a lower rate(tier2) - many of those tariffs are still in use.

Richie-from-the-Boro

I'm with SP. If I make the claim that I have not had a meter read in 10 years am I correct or not ? You see, looking at my e-account I've read my meter every 4-6 weeks for the last decade - so my account shows a 'read' meter every 4-6 weeks and not one single 'E' [estimated] set of counters in a decade.

BTW, the tetrahydrocannabino has done well on this trust-meter non-read regime.

RachelD

I've got economy 7 storage heating which dates from when the house was built in 1988. It is a 3 storey town house. I've had roof insulation and new double glazed windows and door. I can't apparently have new cavity wall treatments as there is an existing form of insulation probably from when the house was built.

I changed my supplier from British Gas to Npower in Jan 2013. Bad idea and I will switch again -but that's a different story. My bill from NP for 5 months was £879. In the telephone conversations I've had with them my % night use is 89%. I've gone back over 8 previous years and the % is around 80-82. The average nationally is apparently 54.5 %. My projected total bill is £2100 per annum.

I don't know how to reduce my total bill nor what is the best way to to get a less costly form of heating. I think I've done all the fuel saving things. There is no gas available in my street and it would cost to bring it from a few streets away. I had a local electrician quote for new storage heaters (£2300). He couldn't give me any idea of whether it would save money or not.
I can possibly switch more things to the lower tariff - washing machine/dishwasher.

I'd welcome advice on how to reduce my costs - for example is it possible to function with fewer than 7 hours of economy 7 and how would one do that? Is there any other form of cheaper heating?

Many thanks.

Cardew

RachelD wrote: »

I've got economy 7 storage heating which dates from when the house was built in 1988. It is a 3 storey town house. I've had roof insulation and new double glazed windows and door. I can't apparently have new cavity wall treatments as there is an existing form of insulation probably from when the house was built.

I changed my supplier from British Gas to Npower in Jan 2013. Bad idea and I will switch again -but that's a different story. My bill from NP for 5 months was £879. In the telephone conversations I've had with them my % night use is 89%. I've gone back over 8 previous years and the % is around 80-82. The average nationally is apparently 54.5 %. My projected total bill is £2100 per annum.

I don't know how to reduce my total bill nor what is the best way to to get a less costly form of heating. I think I've done all the fuel saving things. There is no gas available in my street and it would cost to bring it from a few streets away. I had a local electrician quote for new storage heaters (£2300). He couldn't give me any idea of whether it would save money or not.
I can possibly switch more things to the lower tariff - washing machine/dishwasher.

I'd welcome advice on how to reduce my costs - for example is it possible to function with fewer than 7 hours of economy 7 and how would one do that? Is there any other form of cheaper heating?

Many thanks.

Frankly I think that the figure of 89% Economy 7(i.e. off-peak) consumption is not achievable.

I suspect there have been some incorrect/estimated meter readings to give that indication.

New storage heaters will not produce any more heat, but should retain the heat better.

Also to have an estimated annual bill of £2,100 with 89% E7 consumption will mean consumption something over 35,000/kWh.

I would check the figures on your bills and post them here. Particularly the last Npower bill.

nPower

starstreaker wrote: »

I recently noticed that NPower had (without my consent) gradually increased my direct debit monthly payments without consulting me. It looks like this;

Jun - 80
Jul - 80
Aug - 80
Sept - 80
Oct - 103
Nov - 103
Dec - 103
Jan - 103
Feb - 293
Mar - 293
Apr - 293
May - 293
Jun - 293

I realised and thought Id phone them. I also found out;

Customer service exec could not tell me the date I became a customer

Meter readings had taken place but not recorded / updated

My billing was incorrect and is still incorrect, with the customer services exec unable to tell me last Friday what I owed to date with the correct meter readings I had taken that day

Subsequent to my phone call an amendment was made to my account which was over £2k in credit, when questioned what that payment was for it was made clear to me the advisor did not know.

The advisor had different figures on his machine that I had on my online account which I was looking at as I was talking to him.

I have gone through my bills, which are wrong and I am still confused. I am currently waiting for a credit of an amount I feel is incorrect which will take "up to 21 days" because "that is how long it takes someone higher up the tree to look at it"

There is more in the catalogue of errors but ill leave it there for now.

If anyone knows of anything I should be doing please post because I have never had to deal with something like this (because never previously been an npower customer?)

Imagine if they do this to 1 million consumers, hundreds of millions in an interest free loan they refuse to pay back until "21 days".

Hi starstreaker,

I've just read this post and your later one below and I'm sorry to hear about the problems you've been having. This is not the level of service we expect our customers to receive.

If you'd like me to take a look into this further and see if we can get this all resolved as soon as possible, please pop me an email (address is on my profile page) with the details.

Kind regards,

Adam