N Power - What would you do?

boysim34

Leave, it's quicker and easier. I changed my dad to n-power from Scottish power in November last year. they could not get the payments right, on line was crap. anyone knows you don't change from one system to another without making sure it works, customer services it's quicker to send a letter and wait for the reply. changed him back to Scottish power again now

Simon7685

Unless I can force N Power to change her meter, she cannot leave as the meter is not accepted by other companies, something to do with the archaic tariff she has been on for 15 years. Scottish Power and British Gas both advised that unless the meter was changed by N Power a switch would be cancelled.

This is something I need to pursue as well as resolving the billing issue.

I will be ringing them again today, as well as getting the official complaint lodged in writing. I will also cancel the DD today as she is not paying them another penny until they bill her.

Nada666

£95 is 32% of £300. It is 24% of £400. Even if you are talking single fuel £52 on a £400 is still more than double the 6% other companies offer.

DO NOT cancel the direct debit.

nPower's travails are not forgiveable but there is no need to pettily increase your costs for no reason. Wait to see if the complaint is resolved.

Quite frankly, I would concentrate on and be worried that an 82 year-old is keeping her home warm enough. Even with a £250 + £135 discount I would expect her to have more to pay unless she is in a particularly insulated and small property.

Simon7685

Rang N Power today.........

I was informed and had it confirmed that whilst the notes on the account clearly state a complaint was registered on 03 Jan and 10 Jan, in reality no compalint was ever opened. This is why I had not received the obligatory phone call I had been waiting for.

N Power agree that this is completely unacceptable and the fact I was told that complaints had been opened when they hadn't was a shambles and not what a customer should expect. In addition the case was referred to a manager on 10 Jan and he failed to do anything either.

There is no issue with this, N Power have confirmed it and in addition to everything else we will be looking at compensation once the case is resolved, this has also beeen recorded on the complaint (Allegedly).

After a great deal of discussion, at times heated (I do not like being fed bull ****) and lied to (again agreed by N Power). The important thing is a bill needs to be generated manually, although they cannot give a date when this will be done:eek: They cannot at this stage advise why it hasn't been done but agree it is unacceptable. The problem is the new computer system cannot produce bills for this tariff or accept meter readings, which as I pointed out is laughable and really not the customers problem - again agreed by N Power.

In the short term they have calculated that my figures they believe to be accurate and after outstanding charges are debited and outstanding credits are made, due at the end of January they have made a refund of
:D:D£300:D:D:D. I was actually asked how much I would like refunding and not told.:eek:

As a result I have chosen to leave the DD in place to be reviewed once the account is up to date. I have also advised that I will be ringing up again if no bill is received within a month.

The bottom line is still the eternal question of where is the bill? However offering a refund, agreeing in principle to my calculations and finally getting a complaint registered I guess is some sort of process. However there are further credits amounting to around £52 due to be credited to the account, which means once the bill is produced there will be a large credit on the bill still outstanding, which they have assured can be refunded or used against future bills.

I know my calculations are correct, after all it is not rocket science to be able to work bills out and I have been doing so for a long time now with accuracy.

I am also following up with a letter confirming everything, including my calculations and asking for answers to the difficult questions.

So it isn't a complete solution or resolved the billing issue but at least it is a positive step, together with £300 refunded and compensation to come once fully resolved.

Consumerist

If you were not issued a complaints reference number, you can probably expect nothing to be done. That's their style and they're well practised at it.

Good luck. You're going to need it.

Simon7685

I have a complaint ref no now as of todays call. It was my mistake not to ask for it during the 2 previous calls. Having said that I was told today that I should not have had to ask for it, it should have automatically been done.

The important thing moving forward having got £300 refunded is to keep on the case until they fulfil their obligations and issue a bill.

I also forgot to mention earlier, I advised them today that having done my research and in accordance with regulations they only have until 19 February to supply the up to date bill. If they fail to meet that deadline they start to lose the right to charge for energy used from 20 Feb last year because of the Back Billing regulation.

If a supplier fails to bill a customer for 12 months they cannot bill for energy used that is over 12 months ago. The regulation states that is the case where the fault of not billing is their fault. The reason for them failing to bill is that their wonderful new software is not able to deal with the Super Tariff and cannot accept the readings either. That is entirely their fault and there is no reason why in 12 months they could not manually create a bill.

So any energy charges from 20/02/13 cannot be billed after 20/02/14 so they will start to lose money. Apart from the other actions that will be pursued.

Consumerist

Just to clarify, the 12-month charging limit is not actually a regulation; it's part of an industry voluntary agreement signed up to by the big six.

It might not necessarily apply to the smaller companies but the Ombudsman might enforce it, anyway, as being consistent with best practice.

DaveTheMus

Simon, have you thought about moving to the Co-op for your Mum? I'm with them and they're great, online service is simple and efficient, easy to update meter readings and they only have one tarriff and one payment method...online tariff and ddeb...it would save your blood pressure mate.

Consumerist

DaveTheMus wrote: »

Simon, have you thought about moving to the Co-op for your Mum? I'm with them and they're great, online service is simple and efficient, easy to update meter readings and they only have one tarriff and one payment method...online tariff and ddeb...it would save your blood pressure mate.

They added another two tariffs in December. I'm in the process of switching to Fixed March 2015, now replaced, unfortunately, by Fixed July 2015 but still competitive with reports of good customer service.

Nada666

DaveTheMus wrote: »

Simon, have you thought about moving to the Co-op for your Mum? I'm with them and they're great, online service is simple and efficient, easy to update meter readings and they only have one tarriff and one payment method...online tariff and ddeb...it would save your blood pressure mate.

The Co-op are much more expensive than npower for the sorts of usage suggested by the OP's posts. Perhaps more than 20% more expensive.

npower can be frustrating but they are easily one of the cheapest and not by a small margin.