I came home and Npower/metre plus have changed my metre to a prepayment metre.

inklove

I own npower money, I don't despute that, and I have been trying to arrange a payment arrangement with them.

Last week, on Wednesday I came home and found a letter from metre plus stating that I had 7 working days to sort of out the debt for they would disconnect my electricity.

I contacted npower immediately and was told to wait for them to call me back.
I then spoke to someone else who said they would need to look into my account to decide on an appropriate payment plan and call me back, the offered me something totally ridiculous, £25 per month, I said no, I'm a single parent on benefits I can't afford that on top of my current bill, they said they would consider my offer of £10 per month and get back to me.

This morning I have come home and found that someone has been and fitted a prepayment metre (my electricity metre is outside)
There is no key for it but a letter saying that £20 per week will be taken off the metre to cover the debt.

The metre is currently showing £4.83 of E credit.

I cant call Npower until Wednesday as I don't have any credit and that is when I will be able to top up my phone but I have emailed them.

Does anyone have any advice?

Thanks.

chanz4

They have every right to fit the pre-pay, due to none payment. I would however send proof of benefits to them and they should lower your debt recovery rate

inklove

It isn't due to non payment.

My direct debit was incorrect and I unknowingly underpaid for a few months, I have offered to pay back the money I owe over a reasonable time frame but they wanted me to pay it back before the end of the year, which I can't afford to do.
I was under the impression that we were in discussions to arrange an apropriate payment plan.

PollySouthend

What would of happened if you had someone there with medical equipment running? Surely they should not have disconnected the power without checking it was safe

NittyGritty

personally I would email the ceo of npower, and complain, explain things and see how you go from there, you should get a more favourable response, than ringing customer services etc

login to npower, click contact us, put complaint in pull down box, and it should show you 2 email addresses, other than that it should be on google somewhere if they don't help

ValHaller

chanz4 wrote: »

They have every right to fit the pre-pay, due to none payment. I would however send proof of benefits to them and they should lower your debt recovery rate

Even if it was for non payment - which it is not - they have still abused their own process and have not allowed the 7 working days they stated to resolve the problem.

inklove

Thank you for the replies.

It annoys me because firstly I am was trying to sort out a repayment plan, secondly I have made it clear to them that a prepayment metre is not a workable thing for me (I have mobility problems at the moment and can only walk short distances with the aid of crutches, my nearest shop that does top ups is too far for me to walk and I wouldn't be able to afford to get taxis to the shop every time I needed to top up) and thirdly they gave me seven working days last Wednesday, there is no way they can think Wednesday to today is seven working days.

I will certainly make a complaint. Thank you.

nPower

inklove wrote: »

Thank you for the replies.

It annoys me because firstly I am was trying to sort out a repayment plan, secondly I have made it clear to them that a prepayment metre is not a workable thing for me (I have mobility problems at the moment and can only walk short distances with the aid of crutches, my nearest shop that does top ups is too far for me to walk and I wouldn't be able to afford to get taxis to the shop every time I needed to top up) and thirdly they gave me seven working days last Wednesday, there is no way they can think Wednesday to today is seven working days.

I will certainly make a complaint. Thank you.

Hi Inklove

Thanks for your post on the forums

Having read through the content you've mentioned our collections process and I'd like to address this with you and take the time to explain how this works.

On average it takes ourselves as a supplier 6-9 months (in some cases longer) to get to a point where we would consider fitting a prepayment meter. Fitting a prepayment meter is a last resort where we've been unable to come to a payment arrangement with our customer's.

There are several steps in place before we get to this point. Firstly, we'll send reminder letters and make calls to our customer's to remind them of a balance owed. At a later stage we'll send an agent round to your property to discuss the balance with you amicably to see if we can come to agreement. Sometimes, we'll call on up to three occasions and we'll leave letters if we're unable to get in touch.

As a last resort we'll then go to court to request access to your property to fit a prepayment meter. We'll write to you a few weeks in advance notifying you of a court date and explaining you have the right to attend court to put your case across. We abide by the law and we can only enter your property to fit a prepayment meter if the judge grants us a warrant and right of entry.

The above process takes many months and I therefore find it unlikely we've provided you with a week to come to an agreement. To make sure the correct process has been followed you're more than welcome to send me an email to the the email address provided on our profile page.

As you've mentioned you're in receipt of benefits we'll be happy to look at an affordable recovery rate set to the meter on a weekly basis if you'd like to send me an email.

Thanks

David

C_Mababejive

As NPower bod says, court sanctioned actions such as these dont happen overnight or indeed in 7 days. It goes on for months and months and months.

Bottom line...debt has been incurred, npower have decided to put a stop to it.

Now there will be no further accruals of debt and the debt will slowly be paid off.

Credit isnt a right.

Energy debts are massive in this country and energy companies are IMHO way too easy going and need to be more assertive. Of course they cant be because they have to demonstrate a certain level of care and social responsibility.

chanz4

I think the rep doesn't know what hes on about, when I worked along meter plus they did 7 day forcefits for outside meters. They don't have togo to court for them. But I do agree you would be far down their process

chanz4

ValHaller wrote: »

Even if it was for non payment - which it is not - they have still abused their own process and have not allowed the 7 working days they stated to resolve the problem.

I believe it would state 7 days, not working op scan a pic