No Gas Bill

thompson.rebeccamay

I moved in my property in October 2012. The property was registered with Swalec originally and we transfered over to NPower without any problems. All changed after 2 weeks and we set up direct debit based on how much the estimated we would use.

Well then summer last year I contacted them as I hadnt had a bill through and wanted to check that our DD was covering our energy usage.

They said there was a problem on their system and they could not enter any meter readings for our account and that she would send it over to some specialist team somewhere who would be back in touch within 12 weeks or something like that.

So I waited and no calls. October came and I phoned them again. Yes it was sent off but it hadnt been fixed. She did a quick calculation by hand and said we had been underpaying, would have a debt of £50 per month up to that point (so totalling £600) she then increased our DD by £50 a month to cover our usage and emailed them again so we could get a bill to pay back what we owe them.

Still no bill arrives. Phoned at Christmas and logged an official complaint.

Had a letter saying complaint would be dealt with.

No response.

Had a second letter a few weeks after ( I didnt ring to prompt them) to say that as they had not dealt with my complaint in time I could go to the ombudsman.


So... Here are my questions!

1. If I dont go to the ombudsman now, can I still go later?

2. We are thinking about moving house within the next 12 months, how will that work if we can't close our energy account?

3. I read that they cant back bill us for more than 12 months. So as I have been paying them for more than 12 months will that mean that technically if its not sorted out soon enough but I carry on paying them that they will actually owe me money at some point?

phill79

Log a claim with the ombudsman, they don't seem to do anything anyway, not even a progress report, but it might prompt npower to sort it out. That seems to have worked for us in exactly the same situation. But it all depends on who you speak to at npower, you have to keep trying as most of the people on the helpdesk don't give 2 monkeys about your situation.

spiro

Remember as you have chased them and they have failed to issue a bill they can only back bill you for 12 months from the date they issue a bill. On that basis every month it drags on is another month of free fuel.

thompson.rebeccamay

Spiro, yes I felt the same. Thats why I was wondering if I could wait to contact ombudsman.
Also, do I have to carry on chasing them or can I just wait? x

nPower

thompson.rebeccamay wrote: »

I moved in my property in October 2012. The property was registered with Swalec originally and we transfered over to NPower without any problems. All changed after 2 weeks and we set up direct debit based on how much the estimated we would use.

Well then summer last year I contacted them as I hadnt had a bill through and wanted to check that our DD was covering our energy usage.

They said there was a problem on their system and they could not enter any meter readings for our account and that she would send it over to some specialist team somewhere who would be back in touch within 12 weeks or something like that.

So I waited and no calls. October came and I phoned them again. Yes it was sent off but it hadnt been fixed. She did a quick calculation by hand and said we had been underpaying, would have a debt of £50 per month up to that point (so totalling £600) she then increased our DD by £50 a month to cover our usage and emailed them again so we could get a bill to pay back what we owe them.

Still no bill arrives. Phoned at Christmas and logged an official complaint.

Had a letter saying complaint would be dealt with.

No response.

Had a second letter a few weeks after ( I didnt ring to prompt them) to say that as they had not dealt with my complaint in time I could go to the ombudsman.


So... Here are my questions!

1. If I dont go to the ombudsman now, can I still go later?

2. We are thinking about moving house within the next 12 months, how will that work if we can't close our energy account?

3. I read that they cant back bill us for more than 12 months. So as I have been paying them for more than 12 months will that mean that technically if its not sorted out soon enough but I carry on paying them that they will actually owe me money at some point?

Hello thompson.rebeccamay,

Thank you for your post.

I would like to look into your account and get your billing problem sorted. If you can send me your details to the email address on my profile page I will look into this for you.

Thanks

Carmel