N Power - What would you do?

Simon7685

scaredofdebt wrote: »

They are having trouble processing refunds at the moment due to "systems issues"

Curiously having just logged into the online account, the credit balance is still showing as £631.49 in credit. Given that they said yesterday that the money would be in my Mothers bank by 28 Jan, I would have thought it would have already been "on the Way" and showing as having been taken from the credit balance.

My guess is it is not going to be in the bank and will end up yet another broken promise!

scaredofdebt

Simon7685 wrote: »

Curiously having just logged into the online account, the credit balance is still showing as £631.49 in credit. Given that they said yesterday that the money would be in my Mothers bank by 28 Jan, I would have thought it would have already been "on the Way" and showing as having been taken from the credit balance.

My guess is it is not going to be in the bank and will end up yet another broken promise!

Was this done by the complaints team?

A refund over £500 comes under the umbrella of "High Value Refund" as far as nPower are concerned and so the timescales are longer than the usual 3-5 working days as another team has to process them. If the complaints team has done it then I suppose they don't require further intervention as they have more "power" but I am not sure of that.

It doubt it will arrive by 28th of Jan as BACS transfers take 3 days minimum and so if the credit is still showing I doubt it's "on its way".

For a "normal" refund they can see it's been triggered as by leaving the account and then going back into it you can see it's "pending". You can ask the staff member to check that while on the phone to them.

Simon7685

Yes it was done by the complaints team, the refund was £300 and supposedly initiated on Thursday 23 Jan. When I spoke to them on Fri 24th they said refund WOULD be in the bank by close of business on the 28th.

I do not believe for one minute it will be, they have systematically lied over everything else, I just do not see it happening.

I am thinking about submitting a subject access request to get every single detail they hold on the account, which will cost £10 I know but it is reaching the stage where I am going to look at seeing if legal action can't be brought against them.

It maybe seems like drastic measures but when you look at it, why should they just be able to continually take money from someone, not produce a bill for 12 months, lie to the customer on numerous occassions and be allowed to get away with it.

It really is a disgrace and I do not believe that my Mother is the only person that is going to be in this sort of position. Had it not been for my intervention in January 2013, they would have had her paying £43 a month throughout last year and the situation would have been worse than it is now.

They cannot even state when she will get the bill requested 2 months ago, yet they expect her to continue to pay them money each month.

Simon7685

I have just checked her account and it is still showing as £631.49 in credit. The £300 refund is to be in the bank by close of business in 2 days time.

Like that is going to happen:rotfl: Even if they initiate it tomorrow it will still take 3 working days. So I think it is safe to say that once again N Power have lied to the customer and failed to do as promised.

I wonder what grounds I can commence legal action through. Fraud maybe?? Breach of Terms and Conditions? I am sure there must be quite a few categories.

scaredofdebt

To be fair they've not lied, they probably have tried to do the refund but the system has failed to put it through - it's a common problem with nPower.

lindsaygalaxy

We closed the account in November when moving. Twice I hve been 'assured' the refund has been requested and done while on the phone to me. I am yet to see it yet (over £300). Tomorrow I willbe calling and trying again. They always say the right things and are perfectly polite, but nothing.

somethingcorporate

I've been trying to get a final bill out of nPower for over 3 months that is based on an actual reading rather than an estimated one and "the system" keeps generating legal threats despite me contacting them about a dozen times to get the reading corrected. They are the most inefficient joke of a company I have ever come across - I certainly won't be paying the bill when it does arrive, they cannot even spell my name correctly so they won't have the details to commence legal action anyway so they can whistle for it.

I feel your pain, I really do - I think your refund will be a long way off if our experiences so far are anything to go by.

silverwhistle

Simon7685 wrote: »

Just to clarify with the meter set up, it is a super tariff meter that has 4 readings on it.
Day Units - 7am to Midnight
Heat Units - 12am to 7am (Storage Heaters)
Night Units - 12am to 7am (All usage except Storage Heaters)
Heat other Units 2pm to 4pm (Storage Heaters only afternoon boost)

I'm not sure what hours other companies consider as night rates, but surely you could go to a 2-rate tariff and just aggregate Day Units+ Heat Other Units and for the night rate aggregate Night Units + Heat Units? Have you investigated that possibility?

Simon7685

scaredofdebt wrote: »

To be fair they've not lied, they probably have tried to do the refund but the system has failed to put it through - it's a common problem with nPower.

It is not the refund that they have lied about primarily, it is the rest of what has gone on. 3 times they advised me they had opened a complaint, it details it on the account notes and 3 times they did not do it.

Having checked again this morning the account is still showing £631.49 in credit. If they think they will be taking the DD on 02 Feb, they can think again as it will be cancelled once the refund they promised is not in her bank by close of business tomorrow.

N Power are a complete joke:mad:

Simon7685

silverwhistle wrote: »

I'm not sure what hours other companies consider as night rates, but surely you could go to a 2-rate tariff and just aggregate Day Units+ Heat Other Units and for the night rate aggregate Night Units + Heat Units? Have you investigated that possibility?

You would think that would be an easy enough thing to do but apparently it requires a new meter fitting before the account can be switched. Other companies will not pay for it being done. Once her account is sorted out we will pay for it ourselves if needs be and then switch.

According to the complaints team, they will not process a request to change the meter until the account is sorted out and brought up to date:rotfl:. I guess that is one way of making sure you can't leave and have to stay with them.