Haven't had electric bill for 14 months!

Gloomendoom

For the last ten years, at least, the usual method for me to submit meter readings has been online.

I'm in the same situation as the OP. 14 months with nPower and no bill. I can't submit an online reading as it says there was no start reading. Calls to customer services achieved nothing, although a meter reader did turn up last week, possibly a coincidence, to take a manual reading so maybe that will shake things up.

He wasn't interested in the gas meter though.

zaax

Item in Telegraph over the weekend
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/consumertips/household-bills/10610676/Energy-firms-continue-to-flaunt-billing-rules.html

[Deleted User]

Gloomendoom wrote: »

For the last ten years, at least, the usual method for me to submit meter readings has been online.

I'm in the same situation as the OP. 14 months with nPower and no bill. I can't submit an online reading as it says there was no start reading. Calls to customer services achieved nothing, although a meter reader did turn up last week, possibly a coincidence, to take a manual reading so maybe that will shake things up.

He wasn't interested in the gas meter though.

I am still at a loss why a call to customers services cant rectify the problem. They are by far the best people to get to the bottom of a correct start reading. Often its the customers fault for submitting incorrect readings online, incorrect meter numbers, incorrect type of gas meter, omitting leading zeros, reading dial meters wrongly. word is getting round now if people can bamboozle the systems for long enough they are on a winner with free energy after the 12 months has passed. Enough people now know of this rule to know that a deliberate delay is to their advantage, hence the OP regarding a hard working and lowly paid call centre staff as "not a human ". . There is never anything "free " the rest of us will pick up the bill with yet another avenue in the free energy bonanza many people are now on. The bypassers, the credit meter bill runners and now the 12 month back billers.

Cornucopia

Seriously?

In my experience, the call centre staff that you first speak to about these kind of issues, don't have the necessary access to systems to fix them. (And in some cases, don't have the necessary knowledge to place the problem with the correct people to fix it).

If you are lucky, the staff member is clued up enough to realise that there is a serious problem with the account and puts you on to someone who has a realistic chance of fixing it.

If they simply flag the account, there's every chance of it not getting fixed. (Presumably because it goes to the end of a long, long queue of corrupt accounts, that nobody wants to work on).

If a company supplies something for free for 12 months, then I think they should suffer a regulator-inspired penalty. I appreciate that all the energy comes out of the same pipes & cables, but is it really that hard to make sure that all your customers are being accurately metered and billed? And more importantly, to spot the ones that aren't.

I'm going to try to get my Gas account sorted out tomorrow. Any guesses as to how it will go?

Cornucopia

I spoke to Scottish Power, who eventually determined that I was actually being supplied by nPower.

After a short delay whilst I found the shortest queue at nPower (the longest was over an hour), it seems that they have my account, with all the correct details and a "system problem" means that they haven't billed it.

They couldn't tell me how much the bill is going to be because it needs manually unsticking. They are going to write to me.

nPower

sacsquacco wrote: »

You seem to rely on electronic systems to log your readings with Npower but the usual and most reliable methods have always been to call customer services and speak to someone. There are a many people who dont possess a broadband connection or mobile and their only recourse is to ring cust services. You seem to have had only one attempt to call customer services and you, for some reason, decided the person at the other end as " not convincing you they are human " . . As you say, you like having the " free electric " so sitting back relying on Npowers well publicised problems with their computer system to get out of paying is the soft option. I joined Npower 4 months ago and have had no problems submitting readings ( by text ) and have been billed and direct debited correctly.

Hello sacsquacco,

thank you for your post.

From what you have stated in your post it sounds like the electric meter details are missing from your account.

If you can send me your account details to the email address on my profile page I will look into this for you..

Thanks

Carmel

newbutold

nPower_company_representative wrote: »

Hello sacsquacco,

thank you for your post.

From what you have stated in your post it sounds like the electric meter details are missing from your account.

If you can send me your account details to the email address on my profile page I will look into this for you..

Thanks

Carmel

I think you have the wrong poster, Sacsquacco doesn't appear to be having problems!

undercover_peon

"I am still at a loss why a call to customers services cant rectify the problem. They are by far the best people to get to the bottom of a correct start reading."

Npower are having massive system problems. Staff told them the system was hopeless but they carried on anyway.

I would suggest complaint then going to Ombudsmen, but as you have made reasonable endeavours I'd maybe just leave it to them and keep the records.

I don't believe the customer is obliged to give 2 readings a year. Npower's policy is simply to bill monthly direct debit customers twice per year. On a good day. With a following wind.