nPower... give me strength!

Krojan

Can anyone advise as to what the heck I can do to actually get nPower to use some common sence and get their stuff together? Heres the situation..

Been with nPower for years, was provider at my previous address, had a few billing issues due to a faulty electric meter which wasn't flagged up, moved house and they replaced the pre-installed prepayment meters to postpayment meters for free... then the headaches began.

Firstly they set up the account but not the direct debit properly so no money was taken for the best part of six months, we only found out after recieving a decent sized bill from them, which we've been paying off literally until last weeks' bill/statement we'd finally cleared the balance that was carrying over by paying £97pm, and happily finding we were finally in credit of £85, however they wanted to put our DD payments up to a greater figure of £117pm, which over the next six months would equate to a major chunk of our annual fuel bill (averaged out at about £875 per year).

So I get on the phone, request a recalculation and then they come up with a dd of £156 per month!? thats £936 for 6 months which is more than we've ever spent over 12! Luckily I'd been spreadsheeting all our actual gas and electric use since we moved house (became more savvy), and removing the balance being carried over we worked out our proper payments should be £85pm, after spending best part of 30 minutes getting the guy on the phone to actually look at the actual use only, giving him a breakdown of our calculations and not the carrying over debit he finally saw that we were right and set the dd up for £85pm and arranged a refund of the £85 credit which should have been with us on tuesday 3rd or so we thought.

Tuesday came and went, no refund and looking online at our account the dd was put up to £156 and the credit remained on the account, so I got on the phone again, went through everything and basically got told that the 1st guy I spoke too had done naff all, so this guy apparently did everything the 1st guy should have done, and was apparently sorted and would be refunded the credit by friday 6th, to be fair the online account after talking to him showed the dd now being £85 and the credit at £0.

Now I've had an email saying that the dd is again set at £156 and the online account again shows the damned credit, so I'm almost back to square one, but with them wanting to take a whopping £156 out in a few weeks, I've raised a complaint but probably wont get responded to in time to prevent the £156 going out, should I just cancel the direct debit and send them a standing order of £85 per month? Im going to ring them again in the morning but given twice I've been lied too now I can't see the point?! Oh and I'm in a fixed tariff til end of January which'll cost me £60 to get out of if I switch out early and don't want to give them the pleasure of that.

Anyone got any further ideas on how I can get them to do what they've said they'll do twice now and haven't?

sbrom1ss

I signed a contract with npower at the end of October 2012 (yes LAST October). We have been paying a direct debit on our dual fual account now for 12 months (their estimate) and yet they still have been unable to provide a bill for the whole of the 12 months we have been with them. It went to Executive Complaints in July of this year (2013) and still no solution. I would really like to leave but feel forced to stay with them until I know what my bill is. Every so many days (to make sure they are within legal limits) I get an e-mail/phone call to say they are trying to resolve the problem but nothing ever happens. I haven't been to OFGEM yet as they don't seem to be able to exert any pressure on npower to sort out their problems.
If anyone is considering moving to npower - DON'T.

Strebor

I had all sorts of problems. Just move, Bill them any losses based on their inability to fulfill their contract, ie provide a bill.

I got so fed up I set up a petition. Please consider signing.

Cheers, Steve

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/56280

undercover_peon

"Can anyone advise as to what the heck I can do to actually get nPower to use some common sence and get their stuff together?"

I literally laughed out loud at this as I used to work there and I wondered this everyday.

Based on my experience and what you have said (plus a little reading between the lines) here is what I think has happened *deep breath*

The most recent bill, if there is one, probably isn't right. I am unclear from your post where the credit comes from as at one point you say ignoring the debit... then later say something about a refund.

The billing system they have is utterly hopeless, they decided to plough on with putting customer onto it regardless.

Anyhow if you have had a bill check it VERY carefully. In particular check the dates it bills from and to, the date of issue can no longer be relied upon and is best regarded as a piece of decoration.

There is quite a good chance the account has had a billing block put on it, which means basically the system won't send a bill as it thinks if a bill was issued it wouldn't be inaccurate. When this is removed it swings into action and bills to the date it should have billed to before.

There is one major snag, it will include any payments recieved up to day. So for example you could have a bill for usage to March, including payments taken until now, showing a credit which is not there. This would explain the massive direct debit you refer to.

Although the system is perhaps not showing the actual current balance it is pretty good at guessing what the direct debit should be within the paramaters set. It is probably trying to cover (Winter) usage and what it thinks the debit balance will be by the time of the next bill (this may be less than six months if the bills have been delayed).

The fact the direct debit has NOT been set to what the advisors agreed suggests either they are clueless (not entirely their fault, nobody really knows much about the system and it is therefore difficult to learn) or something is not right.

To help you further I would need to know the actual true balance now, whether it bills to accurate readings.

Oh and here's another corker, check the bill follows on from the previous bill. It is not unheard of to get a bill which misses a period, which the system then bills later...

I'm sure you can glean from this what a delight it was to work there. Don't worry though back office functions are going to India to 'improve service'.

The only other possibility I can see for the credit given the scenario you have outlined is the system has somehow reversed a bill and so it is showing an inaccurate credit balance (this would tie in with no refund being done).

With regards to the direct debit I would cancel it but keep the money aside (and perhaps a bit more besides). Complain, complain, complain, if only because it may get to someone with a brain and after eight weeks you can go to the ombudsmen after 8 weeks since you raised the issue.

Some tariffs require direct debit though, isn't that a perfectly vicious little circle?

Regarding the petition I will have a look, this whole situation shows Ofgem is totally unfit for purpose IMO.

jazzy

I agree NPower are the pits of energy companies. I am unable to submit meter readings through their website or the automated telephone service. NPower are sending me constant emails to send my meter readings, which is just proving to be impossible. I received and email yesterday that they want me to take a meter reading between the 9th November 2000 and 16th November 2000. Which is over 13 years ago!

I strongly advise anyone contemplating moving to NPower to give it a miss.

yorkieorchid

jazzy wrote: »

I agree NPower are the pits of energy companies. I am unable to submit meter readings through their website or the automated telephone service. NPower are sending me constant emails to send my meter readings, which is just proving to be impossible. I received and email yesterday that they want me to take a meter reading between the 9th November 2000 and 16th November 2000. Which is over 13 years ago!

I strongly advise anyone contemplating moving to NPower to give it a miss.

I also received an email asking for me to take a meter read between 9th November 2000 and 16th November 2000. I had already given my readings to an advisor via the phone the week before.

I really wish i had not started this switch. I thought it was meant to be easy!

undaunted

Krojan wrote: »

Can anyone advise as to what the heck I can do to actually get nPower to use some common sence and get their stuff together? Heres the situation..

Npower & common sense? Sorry, that's not advice you're asking for it's a miracle worker.

Beyond that I suggest you stop wasting your time with call centre staff & make any complaint in writing.

I'd be tempted to cancel the DDI just because I wouldn't have much patience for faffing around with these people but you need to be aware that you may lose any discounts gained by paying by DDI if you do so.

If an incorrect DDI payment is collected you can ask for it back from your bank under the direct debit guarantee. They will then have to reclaim it from Npower. Whether you then make a manual £85 payment or wait for them to correct it is upto you

nPower

Krojan wrote: »

Can anyone advise as to what the heck I can do to actually get nPower to use some common sence and get their stuff together? Heres the situation..

Been with nPower for years, was provider at my previous address, had a few billing issues due to a faulty electric meter which wasn't flagged up, moved house and they replaced the pre-installed prepayment meters to postpayment meters for free... then the headaches began.

Firstly they set up the account but not the direct debit properly so no money was taken for the best part of six months, we only found out after recieving a decent sized bill from them, which we've been paying off literally until last weeks' bill/statement we'd finally cleared the balance that was carrying over by paying £97pm, and happily finding we were finally in credit of £85, however they wanted to put our DD payments up to a greater figure of £117pm, which over the next six months would equate to a major chunk of our annual fuel bill (averaged out at about £875 per year).

So I get on the phone, request a recalculation and then they come up with a dd of £156 per month!? thats £936 for 6 months which is more than we've ever spent over 12! Luckily I'd been spreadsheeting all our actual gas and electric use since we moved house (became more savvy), and removing the balance being carried over we worked out our proper payments should be £85pm, after spending best part of 30 minutes getting the guy on the phone to actually look at the actual use only, giving him a breakdown of our calculations and not the carrying over debit he finally saw that we were right and set the dd up for £85pm and arranged a refund of the £85 credit which should have been with us on tuesday 3rd or so we thought.

Tuesday came and went, no refund and looking online at our account the dd was put up to £156 and the credit remained on the account, so I got on the phone again, went through everything and basically got told that the 1st guy I spoke too had done naff all, so this guy apparently did everything the 1st guy should have done, and was apparently sorted and would be refunded the credit by friday 6th, to be fair the online account after talking to him showed the dd now being £85 and the credit at £0.

Now I've had an email saying that the dd is again set at £156 and the online account again shows the damned credit, so I'm almost back to square one, but with them wanting to take a whopping £156 out in a few weeks, I've raised a complaint but probably wont get responded to in time to prevent the £156 going out, should I just cancel the direct debit and send them a standing order of £85 per month? Im going to ring them again in the morning but given twice I've been lied too now I can't see the point?! Oh and I'm in a fixed tariff til end of January which'll cost me £60 to get out of if I switch out early and don't want to give them the pleasure of that.

Anyone got any further ideas on how I can get them to do what they've said they'll do twice now and haven't?

Hi Krojan,

Thanks for your post. I'm sorry to hear you've encountered difficulties in having your payments adjusted and receiving a refund. I'd like to take a look into this for you to make sure all actions have been completed as promised.

Can you drop me an email with your account information using the address in my profile page and I'll review this further for you.

Thanks

Leigh

AD20

On 16 October I applied through the MSE Energy Club for a switch to an npower dual fuel fixed price deal. The only npower response was a request to confirm my email address.
On 28 November I emailed complaints @npower.com asking what was happening. I have had no response.
I know the offer was heavily subscribed, but have they just cast me adrift?