Eleven Month Technical Fault with npower stopping my switch - advice needed

studavis

Hi all

This is fairly complicated situation that has led me into an ongoing complaint against npower. Unfortunately now, it has reached the point where enough is enough and I'm after advice on how best to progress this past this point. Ok, here goes:

Moved into a new property last December and did the usual dual fuel switch with npower - going onto their Football45 tarrif (now discontinued).

Switch seemed to go well, but I noticed after a few months that my gas wasn't being charged for and I couldn't enter the reading on the website. After a few phone calls (March) it turns out that they said there was a fault registering my gas but it would be rectified shortly and not to worry. Well a number of months passed and it got to May with no resolution (various phone calls took place saying that I should just wait) so they offered to formalise the situation with a complaint. I wasn't able to set my direct debit up at any point as the account wasn't seeing both fuels so wouldn't accept the DD. I hadn't paid a bill by this point, as no bills had been generated.

Further months passed with no news from npower so I emailed their Executive Complaints department and the Chief Exec (communication from them had stopped) on the off chance and they upgraded the complaint to an Exec one - note that the fault still hadn't been fixed.

I have had various correspondence with their executive complaints team since then (June) expressing my concern that this wasn't progressing. Nothing has really changed since then, it is now November and the fault still hasn't been fixed (they now state they are having trouble registering my gas account because it is on an Independent Gas Transporter). To cut a long story short, I still haven't paid a gas bill yet or been able to set up my direct debit.

Clearly, in October I had had enough and decided to transfer away from them (my tarriff) allowed that. So applied to EDF on a dual fuel tarrif. The Electricity went through fine and I'm changing this week, but obviously with my gas it's a different story.

npower now seem to think because they haven't registered my gas (their fault) that they won't be able to transfer it to EDF.

So I'm stuck in a position with a technical fault that npower haven't fixed after 11 months that's now restricting me to moving to a different tariff because they can't put something right.

Their support (exec and normal) have been nothing short of useless - saying things have been prioritised, and apologising but we're getting absolutely no further forward. I have a full email chain of all correspondence.

So any advice on where I can go from here?? It's such a long winded and complex situation and I'm absolutely sick to the back teeth of constantly writing, chasing etc with no end in sight.

Can anyone suggest my next move? Ombudsman? I'm tempted to go down the solicitors route, as they are effectively restricting my ability to swap providers?

Long one, so thanks for reading - ask away with any specific questions. Thanks.

chanz4

Is it a new build

newbie1980

i dont know what you can do except ombudsman

whatever happens i hope you have put some money aside for when they do come and sort it out

studavis

chanz4 wrote: »

Is it a new build

Nope, built in 2004.

nPower

studavis wrote: »

Hi all

This is fairly complicated situation that has led me into an ongoing complaint against npower. Unfortunately now, it has reached the point where enough is enough and I'm after advice on how best to progress this past this point. Ok, here goes:

Moved into a new property last December and did the usual dual fuel switch with npower - going onto their Football45 tarrif (now discontinued).

Switch seemed to go well, but I noticed after a few months that my gas wasn't being charged for and I couldn't enter the reading on the website. After a few phone calls (March) it turns out that they said there was a fault registering my gas but it would be rectified shortly and not to worry. Well a number of months passed and it got to May with no resolution (various phone calls took place saying that I should just wait) so they offered to formalise the situation with a complaint. I wasn't able to set my direct debit up at any point as the account wasn't seeing both fuels so wouldn't accept the DD. I hadn't paid a bill by this point, as no bills had been generated.

Further months passed with no news from npower so I emailed their Executive Complaints department and the Chief Exec (communication from them had stopped) on the off chance and they upgraded the complaint to an Exec one - note that the fault still hadn't been fixed.

I have had various correspondence with their executive complaints team since then (June) expressing my concern that this wasn't progressing. Nothing has really changed since then, it is now November and the fault still hasn't been fixed (they now state they are having trouble registering my gas account because it is on an Independent Gas Transporter). To cut a long story short, I still haven't paid a gas bill yet or been able to set up my direct debit.

Clearly, in October I had had enough and decided to transfer away from them (my tarriff) allowed that. So applied to EDF on a dual fuel tarrif. The Electricity went through fine and I'm changing this week, but obviously with my gas it's a different story.

npower now seem to think because they haven't registered my gas (their fault) that they won't be able to transfer it to EDF.

So I'm stuck in a position with a technical fault that npower haven't fixed after 11 months that's now restricting me to moving to a different tariff because they can't put something right.

Their support (exec and normal) have been nothing short of useless - saying things have been prioritised, and apologising but we're getting absolutely no further forward. I have a full email chain of all correspondence.

So any advice on where I can go from here?? It's such a long winded and complex situation and I'm absolutely sick to the back teeth of constantly writing, chasing etc with no end in sight.

Can anyone suggest my next move? Ombudsman? I'm tempted to go down the solicitors route, as they are effectively restricting my ability to swap providers?

Long one, so thanks for reading - ask away with any specific questions. Thanks.

Hello studavis,

This doesn't sound good. Could you send me your account details and complaint reference in an email to the address on my profile page and I will chase this up for you.

Thanks

Carmel

spud211

Hi studavis - did you ever get this resolved?

I am in a very similar situation - a problem transferring my gas meter 5 months ago and it's now stuck in limbo - with no movement or progress from power since then.

I have just spoken to an admittedly helpful/friendly person in the complaints team who told me:

"It's a technical fault and there is nothing we can do until there is a fix available. Your account has been passed to the complaints team however there are around 500 people in front of you"

Honestly I don't know what to do next, it's clearly ridiculous to be left in this state with an answer of "sorry there is nothing we can do", but well, I can't really see what else I can do. Despite the helpful/friendly nature of the call center chap, I don't get an impression that n-power are really bothered/consider it their problem either, its more like "meh it's a technical fault, deal with it". The timeline they gave to fix this was MONTHS rather than days or weeks.

I am in a slightly better situation as my gas meter has actually returned to my previous supplier (so I can still pay a gas bill), but it's on a standard tariff now rather than a fix, so I am clearly paying more.

very curious to see if you ever got this resolved, or if Carmel was able to help at all..I have never had such a poor experience with an energy company, and I have been with Spark Energy in the past! That should tell you something....

I'm lucky that I can afford to pay the extra bills until this is sorted out, but I can't imagine the stress this would cause someone who's right on the breadline


As a second question - any idea what n-power tend to offer as standard as compensation for this kind of problem? I would expect them to "put things right" with respect to my bills (and the extra I have been paying to scottish power), and then to offer sizeable cash compensation (3 figures) considering the length of time this has taken to resolve, which I don't think is unreasonable..but is it unrealistic?