N-Power. Please help

squibbs25

My step daughter moved into a 2 bed house with economy 7 heating (no gas supply at all) , the electricity is supplied by Npower.
It took 4 months for them to acknowledge she had moved in and to generate a bill.
The first statement came in at £186 and as she was on maternity leave just before baby was born money was tight they agreed a payment plan of £50 pm.
This covers £40 pm useage and £10 pm arrears.
She has a letter from Npower confirming the above .
N power have been in touch with her this week to say dd is not enough and they are putting payment up to £235 per month to cover her usage .

Although she has a baby, she is out mostly during the day, her partner is also out as he is at work.
She does 2 -3 washing machine loads a week, uses the tumble dryer for baby's clothes only (other clothing and bedding get put on airer)

She has spoken with an Npower rep who said there is nothing she can do, as they have no record of any previous conversations.

She's sitting here in tears as there is no way she has either used or will use that amount of electricity a month.

Where does she go from here?
Other than cancelling the dd what else can she do?
She spent ages on the phone trying to get it sorted but no one is listening to her.
The house is very small in a 4 square design.
She is going to speak with her neighbours later today to see what their bills are like.

Any ideas please?

RichPyke

They can do something as I pretty much had to beg nPower to start taking money off of me for my Gas and Electric due to the current problem I have with the electric.

I spoke to them and got them to take £127 per month to cover the gas and electric and to pay off some of what I would eventually be billed for.

However, since then I still haven't been able to pay for the electric and they wont acknowledge my electric meter. This meant I had credit over £500 which they sent back to me and lowered my DD. They have just lowered my DD again because I was still over paying. So keep on top of it.

But, speak to them, explain that you don't think it should be that high and give them a proposal. I worked mine out from previous readings however you don't have that luxury. Think logically and about what you will use, work out what you think the monthly usage will be, add on a bit and propose that.

When I was with EDF I did that as they went insanely high. I worked it out and said "No, you are wrong, I worked it out and it should be £127 per month to cover what I use on average throughout the year". They agreed to try it but if in 6 months time I owed anything that they would take the lot. I owed them nothing, I was almost spot on (they owed me a little). I can't say for sure nPower will do this but try it, and keep trying. Keep calm, keep cool and talk to them like they are people and you get pretty far

Hope that helps.

squibbs25

Forgot to add that with monthly meter readings the total cost is £40pm
Not sure where or how Npower have come up with £235 :eek:
That's not much less that her rent!

RichPyke

Since it's cold and chances are she is using around the highest amount of electric for the year at the moment the simplest way would be to take the last months reading and base the costs on that. Explain to nPower that December/January readings were x amount, in the summer they will be less so if they base it on the December/January readings it will be higher and cover the costs.

Nada666

Are you sure the £40 per month covers both day and night readings and not just day usage? Are you taking both into consideration?

(Sorry if that sounds like a dumb point - but some E7 meters have just one display and not everyone notices this.)

nPower

squibbs25 wrote: »

My step daughter moved into a 2 bed house with economy 7 heating (no gas supply at all) , the electricity is supplied by Npower.
It took 4 months for them to acknowledge she had moved in and to generate a bill.
The first statement came in at £186 and as she was on maternity leave just before baby was born money was tight they agreed a payment plan of £50 pm.
This covers £40 pm useage and £10 pm arrears.
She has a letter from Npower confirming the above .
N power have been in touch with her this week to say dd is not enough and they are putting payment up to £235 per month to cover her usage .

Although she has a baby, she is out mostly during the day, her partner is also out as he is at work.
She does 2 -3 washing machine loads a week, uses the tumble dryer for baby's clothes only (other clothing and bedding get put on airer)

She has spoken with an Npower rep who said there is nothing she can do, as they have no record of any previous conversations.

She's sitting here in tears as there is no way she has either used or will use that amount of electricity a month.

Where does she go from here?
Other than cancelling the dd what else can she do?
She spent ages on the phone trying to get it sorted but no one is listening to her.
The house is very small in a 4 square design.
She is going to speak with her neighbours later today to see what their bills are like.

Any ideas please?

Hello squibbs25,

Thank you for your post.

If you can get your step daughter to email me at the address on my profile page I will have a look into her account and payments.

Thanks

Carmel