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Issue with forced pre-payment meter
Hi, I am looking for a little advice and guidance as to my current situation with my energy company.
Today I received notice of “Warrant of entry to enter your home”. I immediately called the number as directed to organise some form of payment plan to stop proceedings of a forced prepayment meter. The first person I spoke to was of little help. He basically suggested to call 'Energy wise' for ways of helping to lower my consumption; and call 'Energy Trust' to get help in writing off the debt.
The issue is that it takes up to 4 weeks to process any claims with Energy Trust which means the account will still go to court and they will force entry in to my home. I was given no further advice on how I can resolve the situation.
After doing a little research via citizen's advice, I found that not only had they not taken in to account my change in circumstances (the fact that my husband has gone from part time to full time work), my vulnerability (I am currently almost 8 months pregnant with SPD which means I am unable to walk without the aid of crutches and as neither myself or my husband drive, topping up on a prepayment meter would be very difficult with the hours he works) Not to mention that if we were put on a prepayment meter that they would set to pay off the debt at an amount of their choosing, we would not be able to financially afford the hike in price. This means that myself and my two children, both under the age of 6, would be without gas or electric. Throw in a newborn in the mix soon enough and there becomes a real problem. I was also offered no advice on different tariffs nor was I asked about any benefits I am receiving. All of these are, as I understand, a legal requirement of my energy supplier.
I called the company back and explained all of this, leaving the person on the end of the phone speechless on more than one occasion as to why these things were not being taken in to account. He claimed that he could not set up a payment plan without a large sum payment. He said usually they would ask for 50% of the total but with my circumstances they would be willing to negotiate. There was no negotiation. He simply repeated that textbook line over and over but offered me no payment plan. He then said if I paid £500 by the end of the month, I would be in a position to set up a payment plan and stop proceedings. I said, so is that an agreement? He said no. If I call with that amount then I can have an agreement. I pointed out that I had no guarantees that if I call at that point with the agreed amount, that the company won't turn around and say no we want it all. He agreed. So I asked what AGREEMENT we could come to, where I had some reassurance that proceedings would be stopped. He repeated the rehearsed line about normally wanting 50% but will negotiate. Again, wouldn't negotiate. He put me on hold a handful of times when I asked questions which were clearly too difficult for him to be able to answer, the main one being what help are they actually offering me other than a court order. He then claims he has just spoken to the warrant department and they now want over £2000 in full and that's it. This number was a brand new number that came from nowhere and the 3rd one I had been given so far! Now suddenly all offers of £500 or any payment plan at all were gone and it was my fault because I asked him to speak to the warrant department.
When asking how this whole mess began I was told that there hasn't been a full payment made in over a year. I asked why? I had a direct debit set up, my bank had no informed me of any cancellation and I hadn't done it. So I asked what had gone wrong, my answer was “I can't look back that far to find out.”
I am incredibly frustrated and after a rather rude ending to the conversation, including accusations of faking a disability, I am looking for some advice of where I stand with regards to how the situation has been handled and if anyone has any ideas as to what course of action to take next.
Thank you
Today I received notice of “Warrant of entry to enter your home”. I immediately called the number as directed to organise some form of payment plan to stop proceedings of a forced prepayment meter. The first person I spoke to was of little help. He basically suggested to call 'Energy wise' for ways of helping to lower my consumption; and call 'Energy Trust' to get help in writing off the debt.
The issue is that it takes up to 4 weeks to process any claims with Energy Trust which means the account will still go to court and they will force entry in to my home. I was given no further advice on how I can resolve the situation.
After doing a little research via citizen's advice, I found that not only had they not taken in to account my change in circumstances (the fact that my husband has gone from part time to full time work), my vulnerability (I am currently almost 8 months pregnant with SPD which means I am unable to walk without the aid of crutches and as neither myself or my husband drive, topping up on a prepayment meter would be very difficult with the hours he works) Not to mention that if we were put on a prepayment meter that they would set to pay off the debt at an amount of their choosing, we would not be able to financially afford the hike in price. This means that myself and my two children, both under the age of 6, would be without gas or electric. Throw in a newborn in the mix soon enough and there becomes a real problem. I was also offered no advice on different tariffs nor was I asked about any benefits I am receiving. All of these are, as I understand, a legal requirement of my energy supplier.
I called the company back and explained all of this, leaving the person on the end of the phone speechless on more than one occasion as to why these things were not being taken in to account. He claimed that he could not set up a payment plan without a large sum payment. He said usually they would ask for 50% of the total but with my circumstances they would be willing to negotiate. There was no negotiation. He simply repeated that textbook line over and over but offered me no payment plan. He then said if I paid £500 by the end of the month, I would be in a position to set up a payment plan and stop proceedings. I said, so is that an agreement? He said no. If I call with that amount then I can have an agreement. I pointed out that I had no guarantees that if I call at that point with the agreed amount, that the company won't turn around and say no we want it all. He agreed. So I asked what AGREEMENT we could come to, where I had some reassurance that proceedings would be stopped. He repeated the rehearsed line about normally wanting 50% but will negotiate. Again, wouldn't negotiate. He put me on hold a handful of times when I asked questions which were clearly too difficult for him to be able to answer, the main one being what help are they actually offering me other than a court order. He then claims he has just spoken to the warrant department and they now want over £2000 in full and that's it. This number was a brand new number that came from nowhere and the 3rd one I had been given so far! Now suddenly all offers of £500 or any payment plan at all were gone and it was my fault because I asked him to speak to the warrant department.
When asking how this whole mess began I was told that there hasn't been a full payment made in over a year. I asked why? I had a direct debit set up, my bank had no informed me of any cancellation and I hadn't done it. So I asked what had gone wrong, my answer was “I can't look back that far to find out.”
I am incredibly frustrated and after a rather rude ending to the conversation, including accusations of faking a disability, I am looking for some advice of where I stand with regards to how the situation has been handled and if anyone has any ideas as to what course of action to take next.
Thank you
0
Comments
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If it's nPower then it's possible the DD wasn't taken due to "systems issues" - which company is it?Make £2018 in 2018 Challenge - Total to date £2,1080
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Good guess. Npower0
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nPower has said the following in such situations:npower said that customers will not be losing out financially as a result of the billing issues that have been brought to light. It also added that moving forward it will be looking to bring in an increase of £1 million to its Health Through Warmth Scheme Crisis Fund.
It's a bit ambiguous but one interpretation could be that they should give you a longer period of time to repay the debt, ie make the payments lower. This assumes they've not taken the DD due to their own error or lack of ability!
They should be able to see this on their systems, do you know when the DD was set up? If there is a DD on your bank account from nPower, your bank can help with this.Make £2018 in 2018 Challenge - Total to date £2,1080 -
I can find out from my bank, I'm sure. Npower, however, claim that they cannot look back far enough to find out what went wrong with the DD. They cannot access it.0
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Hi,
they don't just send out a Warrant of Entry letter, it takes some time to get to that stage, so you must've had previous letters and should've contacted them sooner to come to some arrangement.
Do you not check your bank statements, you should've noticed that the DD was not being paid.0 -
I suppose the million dollar question is (and forgive me if you don't like it), if the money to pay the bills wasn't leaving your account, where is it now?0
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They should certainly be able to refer to notes on the account going back several years, even if they are on their old archive/legacy system. Generally speaking if the DD is set up over the phone then this would be noted.
They can also see your account history which would show direct debit payments going back over about 2 years, of course if the DD was NEVER taken it won't show, but it sounds like it was being taken and then stopped for some reason.
It is possible that the DD was stopped due to it being returned or for some other reason, it isn't automatically nPower's fault but I wouldn't be surprised if it is their issue knowing the system problems they have had and continue to have.
How much is the debt and how did they work out how much your consumption is?Make £2018 in 2018 Challenge - Total to date £2,1080 -
[Deleted User] wrote:Hi,
they don't just send out a Warrant of Entry letter, it takes some time to get to that stage, so you must've had previous letters and should've contacted them sooner to some to come to some arrangement.
Do you not check your bank statements, you should've noticed that the DD was not being paid.
Actually wrong, their systems are such a mess that I can believe that nothing prior might have been sent out.
I received a reminder from nPower (no bill) and then rang them to set up a DD (again, I'd already done this previously when I first joined them) and then got their "red letter" without a second reminder in between.
It's a shambles.Make £2018 in 2018 Challenge - Total to date £2,1080 -
Yes, I admit that it was my own downfall for not keeping better track of my DDs coming out. I should have noticed sooner. I am not disputing that fact at all, nor the fact I owe the money. My problem is that I am trying to set up some form of payment plan and I am getting cut off at every turn. I am not sure what to do or where to turn next to try and resolve the issue. The installation of a pre-payment meter will make my life next to impossible. I will not be able to afford the hike in price and getting the top ups will be yet another journey I have to negotiate while barely able to walk and with two children. It is a nightmare situation for us as a family and I am willing to do what it takes to prevent it happening, but there doesn't seem to be any form of assistance.0
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Yes, I admit that it was my own downfall for not keeping better track of my DDs coming out. I should have noticed sooner. I am not disputing that fact at all, nor the fact I owe the money. My problem is that I am trying to set up some form of payment plan and I am getting cut off at every turn. I am not sure what to do or where to turn next to try and resolve the issue. The installation of a pre-payment meter will make my life next to impossible. I will not be able to afford the hike in price and getting the top ups will be yet another journey I have to negotiate while barely able to walk and with two children. It is a nightmare situation for us as a family and I am willing to do what it takes to prevent it happening, but there doesn't seem to be any form of assistance.
I'm afraid the onus is on you to satisfy your creditor that you can pay your debt.
npower are a hopeless joke, but they should allow you to pay off the debt over the period it accrued. That said, it appears you've built up a £2k debt in about a year. That would mean you'd have to pay £4k over the next year (for the debt and your ongoing usage), well over £300 a month. If you want to keep a credit meter (credit is a privilege, not a right), a £500 up front payment does not appear unreasonable.
A PPM is not the end of the world, it allows the debt to be paid off over a far far longer period than npower would ever allow normally. They are no more expensive than paying when the bill arrives. You can also top up in large batches, so you don't need to worry about going out when otherwise disposed.
Normally the done thing would be to go down the complaints procedure (write a letter, don't call, headed complaint), but I fear this situation has gone beyond this.
Good luck.0
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