Npower nightmare!

Fumingflamingmad

In Oct 2013 I was using EDF and wanted to get a better deal. I used Uswitch and found a good deal with Npower jan 2014 fixed - just what I needed. That was October 2013, late December 2013 I switched, direct debits were supposed to be cheaper £70 a month for both gas and electric. Jan, feb went and no direct debit taken out.I expressed my concern about this and they said they were unable to take payment on phone but advised me to keep money in account. Well that's extremely difficult as I'm sure they know! They told me there was a problem on their systems which was causing a problem sorting out the Direct debit and said they would get it sorted in a few weeks and let me know. July2013 (6 months from start) they took out the first direct debit! A week later a letter to say the tariff will be going up! it went up to £75! I found this odd as I believed I was on a fixed tarrif. Then I received a letter in August to say apologies as there was problems with the system and they couldn't send me the bill! Phone calls later reveal that I had signed up for a varied tarrif and my outstanding bill was around £650. But all okay as the said I could add it to my direct debits for 12-18 months!!! Well I pointed out that was a great scam get someone into debt with them so you can't change after a year! I am going to seek legal advice - it's disgusting it made me wonder how many vulnerable people out there had been caught out by their scam?! I don't want them to supply my gas but I'm stuck because I can't afford to pay £650 . I would stay clear of them again, it has completely stressed me out.

Mat_Lock

I think you need to edit your dates for a start

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth

BoP will now interrupt for the hard of reading.

OP switched to another energy supplier in Oct 2012 and they failed to take their Direct Debit. After 6 months, it kind of got sorted and they started to take payments.

In the intervening time, OP righly kept some money in their account to pay the DD, but the scamming Electricity company told them to keep it, and allow them 12 to 18 months to pay it off on an increased DD.

We should not let the Electricity compnay get away with this!

It is not clear as to what has happened to the money OP held back to pay the £650.

matelodave

If you knew they weren't taking the money and they suggested that you saved it until it was sorted out then you should have it sitting in the bank, ready for when the bill came in - it's called budgeting.

There is no excuse for you not having the money to pay the bill, so if you are in debt then it's your fault not theirs. It's certainly not a scam. You knew you had to pay the money and have presumably spent it on something else. If they are giving you the opportunity to pay back the arrears over the next year to 18 months or so it sounds very fair to me.

Fumingflamingmad

Yes it was 7 Months a couple of phone calls to try and resolve but no luck. I completely agree that I should have saved it each month but even then it would have been a shortfall. Unfortunately, some of us who work full time and are trying to raise a family are unable to save because something always crops up like car breaking down etc.. That's the reason we pay by direct debit so it taken out straight away. My mistake for not noticing for a couple of months that they were not taking it out but I was lead to believe it would be a couple of weeks and someone would call me to let me know everything was ok. This did not happen. My point is, majority of people especially families live month to month it's extremely difficult to save and I didn't need to as I had agreed to pay by direct debit. It doesn't take very long to do this, and I do not believe they were unable to. I believe that they are aware that there are far more people who live month to month and what a fantastic way to keep customers after a year ..mess up their direct debits so there is debt and wham you have a customer for another year. Yes, this is a scam or perhaps a "tactic" some may prefer To call it. The total bill which they were able to tell me over the phone was over £800 but obviously I had paid direct debits since July. I have a few more things to check in relation to this bill. I'm not a financial advisor, I unfortunately choose the wrong energy firm thinking they were all above board, whatever could have been wrong with their systems for 7 months, it takes minutes to set up a direct debit! I do feel let down by them, and yes I have learnt a lesson ..not to trust these big organisations

matelodave

If you live month by month then surely you could see that see you were £70 a month better off at the end of it - there's no excuse for dipping into the "gas & leccy fund" or if you did, not paying it back again. It's your fault, even more so as you knew what was going on and had the opportunity to put the money aside, so stop blaming others.

You now appear to have the option to pay it back in instalments over a year or more so get on with it and stop whinging.

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth

Fumingflamingmad wrote: »

Unfortunately, some of us who work full time and are trying to raise a family are unable to save because something always crops up like car breaking down etc..

Thank goodness, Children were involved.

davidgmmafan

It is bad NPower didn't take the payment, and it is bad that it took a long time to solve.

A quick scan of the forums confirms they are having major system issues and have been for months.

I can't see any magic wand here, and whilst the above posts may come across as harsh, the money should have been kept to one side or paid by another means (at least then they would have it).

For example if the council or a loan company didn't take the direct debit payment I know I have it to pay so I know I need to keep that money.

Would be interesting if it went on for more than a year though as back billing could then come into play.

BTW it isn't a scam, just an utter !!!! up. Whatever people think of gas and electricity companies it isn't a sound business plan to allow customers to rack up huge sums of debt (which makes me wonder why they let it happen so much, but that's a whole different debate).