Npower putting up direct debit for no reason -advise please

MrsJConsumer

Hi there, I am new to this site and just looking for a little bit of advise and maybe some buzz words to use in my complaint. I've already emailed Npower complaints on Monday however they have not responded, I haven't even received an automated response. We switched to Npower around 6 months ago after receiving terrible customer services for years from British Gas, I always keep my meter reads and yearly statements so when I put these into the compare the market site I was pretty certain that the prices quoted would be accurate, we where quoted £87 a month from Npower on a price fix tariff which we joined and have been paying by direct debit ever since. On Monday however I received my 6 monthly bill which stated that as from the 1st March they would be putting our direct debit up to £110 a month!! A ridiculous hike of £23 a month. Now here's what I don't understand, the figures they are projecting I will use for the next 12 months just don't add up with this. Last year we used 14,156.10 kwh of gas with British Gas, Npower are projecting we will use 14,174.4, yes this is more but not much!! Electricity we used 3523.53 with British Gas and Npower are projecting we'll use 3,021 which is obviously less so how on earth can they justify putting up our direct debit!!!


As a matter of interest I logged on to the Npower website and put in the figures they are projecting we'll use to their 'get a quote' section and this states that this usage would cost us £90.73 a month on the same tariff!! I am stunned that they are trying to do this given all of the facts above and annoyed that I now have to start constantly complaining again when this is the main reason I left British Gas!!!


I am not prepared to pay them more then I know our gas and electricity is costing and will switch if I have to but this is just more hassle.


Any advise on how to deal with them when and if they eventually decide to reply to me would be appreciated.

jd87

What is your account balance at the moment? On your last bill does it say that the bill leaves you in debit or credit, by how much?

Mat_Lock

Ours went up to £119 DD 2 months ago after giving them readings every month since August. It's one thing to be in credit to pay for winter fuel but what happens come April/May when heating goes off, we'll still be paying £119 when we probably will only use £50 a month. We'll end up hundreds of £ in credit by winter next year.

I just don't understand why companies can't just bill every month after giving readings and I pay for what I owe so I am never in credit or debit with them.

MrsJConsumer

We're currentlly £119 in debit which allowing for seasonality sounds about right to me as obviously during the summer months we will be using substantiallly less.

MK55

Mrs J, each month you've been with Npower has a direct debit payment been made? It wasn't set up/taken late?

scaredofdebt

nPower's system cannot calculate Direct Debit payments correctly.

If you look on your statement it will say somewhere how much they are projecting you to use over the next 12 months in pounds and pence.

It will also show if you are in credit or debit and if so by how much.

Simply add/deduct the credit/debit from the 12 month projection and divide that by 12 to work out what your DD should be.

This may well differ by quite a bit from what the statement actually says!

You may also find their projected figures are out anyway as they've over or underestimated your consumption, if you ring them they can usually see your historic meter readings so they can check if those figures are correct or not.

At the end of the day the DD figure is rather arbitrary anyway as the weather and your own personal circumstances can mean your consumption varies by quite a bit. Ultimately YOU can TELL nPower how much the DD needs to be set at and they should do this for you. If they feel it is too low then they will tell you but they are OBLIGED to set it at the level you feel is correct as you will have a better idea than they do more often than not.

It's YOUR MONEY and YOU ARE DOING THEM A FAVOUR BY PAYING BY DIRECT DEBIT.

MrsJConsumer

MK55 wrote: »

Mrs J, each month you've been with Npower has a direct debit payment been made? It wasn't set up/taken late?

All of our direct debit payments are up to date, it was set up on time and all the payments have been made, they all appear on the statement provided by Npower.

MrsJConsumer

Scaredofdebt - I've already done that and it comes out to more or less what we're already paying them, hence my query, they're figures just don't add up at all. I've been keeping notes of meter reads and costs for that long now due to numerous problems with british gas that I know what I'm paying now is more then enough to cover our usage over the next 12 months.

I've been hearing about some companies trying to take 18 months worth of payments in 12 months, does anyone have any experience of this? I'm wondering if that's what's happening here.

scaredofdebt

It's simple - their systems don't work and can't do simple calculations.

I suspect sometimes it works out the total correctly and sets that for just the gas or electric and then adds on the payment for the other fuel twice, so it tries to take double for either gas or electric sometimes but there's no real pattern to the idiocy.

Ring them and tell them how much the DD needs to be. If they don't set it to that level for you ask for a manager.

I think you can set the DD amount online as well but I'm not familiar with their online system.

Nada666

The quote will include the direct debit discounts - so it will be off by £8.

So £91 quote plus £8 is £99. On the grand scale of things, a £110 debit with a month of winter to go is not crazy.

DurhamGuy

What I'm most concerned about is that Jordan Reed at Npower has advised me not to contact OFGEM or Npower customer complaints as there is nothing they can do.

Please could someone advise me on how I can take this further, your time reading this and replying would be very much appreciated.

I have just received my statement sent on 20 March for my billing period to Oct 2013. 6 months late. They had mis-estimated my usage despite me being accurate when I moved to them in March 2013. They read the meter on 7 Aug 2013 but did not adjust my payments.

My bill would have gone from £187.91 per month to over £600 (they didn''t disclosed the figure but are spreading my payment out over 6 more months to lower the monthly bills to £409)

This rapid increase is because they undercharged me last year, failed to take the 7 Aug reading into account and do to technical difficulties have only just sent the statement out . Total and utter incompetence.

Jordan Stated that Npower accepted liability for this and offered compensation of £30. I said that it is laughable. She said that's all they could do , I said it was totally inadequate , she then offered £40. I said still laughable and she asked what amount I would want. I said I hadn't considered it 'are you asking me to just pick a number ?' so I said £2000 (start high I thought). She said the most they could got to was £40.

I asked to speak to customer complaints. She didn't put me though but said she spoke to their Carol Carroll at Npower customer complaints, who apparently said there was nothing they could do and reiterated that there is no point contacting OFGEM as they wouldn't do anything

(My conversation With Jordan was at 17:00 on 27 March 2014)

Please HELP!