MSE News: Npower to pay £1m after customer complaints soar

plunt

i am in the same boat, and their systems even part cancelled the transfer as they took so long, so they re activated it and said it will take another 6 weeks!

anyways definitely claiming for distress and inconvenience and they also said to send in bills and rates from your previous provide and they will refund the difference as if you were on their plan from when you were ment to be... that catch... you can only claim from 6 weeks from when you signed up. as this is there period they are allowed to take to set up

anyways its worth while to push back!

Rich006

I switched my suppler from Npower to Spark Energy in Nov 2013. I pay by direct debit and was £900.00 in credit. Asked for the money to be refunded as I gave them my meter readings but refund did not arrive. Phoned a number of times and made a complaint in Jan 2014. On the 28th Jan started small claims court action as I had my final bill dated 21st Jan (account transferred to spark energy on the 2nd Jan) which showed £766.00 credit but refund never arrived.
Do not use Npower for energy. I wonder how many millions of customers money are they holding?

Uslot

We left N Power in October and changeover completed 6/11/13. They owe us up to £350 overpayment but no sign of paying it yet! State reason is this computer glitch. Computer worked fine sending bills until we left them! Unable to give date as to when it will be resolved and we will be paid. Ombudsman consulted but they are "only as good as the information N power provide" (Their words not mine) and dont seem to be able to do anything but reiterate our complaint to N Power so what is the point?! Ombudsman said if they are unable to produce final bill due to computer glitch then they are unable to do so until computer fixed. Since November????!!!!! And this is acceptable???!!!
Frustrated and amazed!

mikeyorkie10

I made the mistake of switching to NPower last Novemeber. I switch regularly and this is the worst big6 company I have gone with. The switch did not go smoothly at all - I had issues with meter readings - I think even EDF (previous supplier) gave up in the end. More seriously I have still issues with direct debits and have to make manual payments as they are making requests to my bank that are refused as the DD has not been set up. As its a no penalty fix that I'm on - I will be switching away next week after another failed DD attempt by them. I don't think customer services/account even look at the account before sending responses - in fact I'm not sure they actually exist. :mad:

SCRIBES

NPOWER customer services - what a joke!
They still haven't got it right - don't believe a word they say. perhaps the money they spent advertising that they are crap should have gone to employing another 800 staff? Here's my recent complaints letter:


To date I have not had a reply to my letter of complaint posted to you 3 March 2014. You haven’t explained why it has taken so long to issue a final invoice and why my account hasn’t been rectified. I have therefore contacted the Energy Ombudsman reference “ WEBENER122808C” and have asked them to intervene and deal with the matter.
Your customer service is an absolute disgrace and the way you have dealt with this matter is utterly unacceptable. You are clearly not abiding by the advert that you placed earlier this year and have a long way to go to satisfy your customers. Making false promises is not the way to go. Taking on an extra 800 staff hasn’t resolved the problem. It seems to me the problem is with your management and it needs to be addressed quickly! How difficult is it to write a letter and inform your customers that their complaints are being dealt with and give a timescale when they might be resolved?
Perhaps you might consider replying to me with a suitable explanation why you didn’t respond to my initial letter?

lea2001gb

Had a problem with Npower since November 2013. They wanted to change my DD from £100 pm to £240 per month. Luckily I cancelled it and paid by SO instead. Got debt collection letters from 3 different companies (illegal) and no-one could sort it out and passed it back to Npower. Post a complaint to Npower on 20th December 2013 and it took till March 2014 to get a response to which I got 'we have closed your complaint as you have not supplied the requested information!! Phone Npower 19 times and still got no where. Contact OFGEM they were utterly useless. You cant speak to complaints as you can never get through, even their own employees cant get through to them. I am at my whits end and it would seem that Npower ignore letters and phone calls and instead send me threats of breaking into my home and changing my meter. I asked them to take me to court so I can present all my evidence but instead they obtain a warranty behind your back and have no idea when they are going to court to do this. Incidentally I changed my SO to £150 per month (even though I can barely afford to do this) and this still wasnt good enough for Npower and they refused the £50 increase. I did it anyway and was told by the Npower employee, you will be taken to court if you dont pay. I pay every month without fail but they just seem hellbent on threatening with breaking in instead of trying to resolve the matter at hand.

Any advice would be gratefully received before I completely lose it and take them to court for harrassment and phone call charges!!

Richie-from-the-Boro

£240 x 12 = £2889.00. I assume by the end of the year that nPower wanted you to change ""to DD from £100 pm to £240 per month"" you would have owed them nearly 3 grand. Paying them £150pm leaves a shortfall of £90.00pm unpaid each year so :

- year one you will owe the energy consumed + £90 + costs + arrears
- year two you will owe the energy consumed + £180 + costs + arrears + debt collection agency costs
- year three you will owe the energy consumed + £270 + costs + arrears + debt collection agency costs

I'm no friend of nPower but assuming an annual £1200 average energy cost that puts you £1500 in arrears to nPower before you changed from DD to SO and now have an 'any~ones~guess of £housands of additional money to pay to debt collection agencies. The initial solution was to pay for the energy you used by changing your DD as they asked - and / or - come to an arrangement with nPower and accept a prepayment meter. nPower have washed their hands ["" closed your complaint as you have not supplied the requested information!! ""] of you, I'm assuming you are still being supplied energy and surprised they have not forced a prepayment meter on you. You are only 6 months into this, eventually your costs will mount on a multiplier [see above] and may take you decades to recover from. Get yourself to the CAB [or other agency] and get a third party to help you sort out the mess you are in.

Nada666

£150 doesn't cover the £170 usage never mind pay anything off the £900 debt. If you don't want to pay more than £150 per month then your only choice is a prepayment meter.

With a prepayment meter debt will be set at about £20 per week over twelve months or they may allow you to repay £10 over two years. Or, if on benefits, to less than £4 per week. You would then be free to use as little as you like for ongoing usage.

(Richie and my figures are based on the debt being accumulated over only twelve months - if a longer period then the assumed £170 p.m. ongoing usage will be lower, of course.)

lea2001gb

Seriously??? You must be an employee of Npower for condoning the use of force into someones property. I use £40 on Gas and £30 on electricity per month! Npower have already confirmed this. They are the ones who have messed up on the billing and I ended up with a duplicate account which they were charging for me for also. They got rid of the duplicate account but added it to my normal account so they are trying to say I owe £2040 per year!!
£70 per month x 12 = £840 per year NPower would owe me £2040 for year one, £4080 by the end of year 2 and £6120.
I can do maths too, plus already been to the CAB which is what lead to the OFGEM complaint in the first place. Unfortunately NPower are completely useless, employee complete idiots and dont know their backsides from their elbows. I was the one who opened the complaint with Npower and never received a response, only an automated email in December saying thank you for contacting us. Like I say you are either an employee of theirs or never had the unfortunate experience of dealing with their underhanded goings-on. I have demanded now they take me to court - as per CAB instructions so this can be dealt with there and their bullyboy tactics can be stopped.
@Richie from the boro - Like I said I pay every month and always been in credit until they changed their computer system and created a duplicate account which put my account in arrears even though I paid every month. I cannot pay on 2 accounts for the same thing!!!

lea2001gb

Nada666 wrote: »

£150 doesn't cover the £170 usage never mind pay anything off the £900 debt. If you don't want to pay more than £150 per month then your only choice is a prepayment meter.

With a prepayment meter debt will be set at about £20 per week over twelve months or they may allow you to repay £10 over two years. Or, if on benefits, to less than £4 per week. You would then be free to use as little as you like for ongoing usage.

(Richie and my figures are based on the debt being accumulated over only twelve months - if a longer period then the assumed £170 p.m. ongoing usage will be lower, of course.)

Who said anything about £900 debt and £170 a month?? As I stated, NPower have already kept check on my meter and confirmed I use £40 and £30 on each utility - I am not at home most of the time so there is no way £240 per can be justified.

Unfortunately, if you do not know my circumstances, please do not make assumptions or guesses on amounts.

The debt around from Npower creating a Duplicate account!!!!!