NPower - no gas account for one year

Jojo55

We moved into this house in March 2013 and officially got transferred over to Npower in April 2013. For some reason the electricity account was set up fine but the gas account never happened "due to a problem with registration" on their part. Its now March 2014 and i still don't have a gas account.

I believe this is part of the system error that has been heavily publicised in the media lately, however I'm dreading receiving a bill for a years worth of gas, maybe more. All the advisors tell me is I'll be given a much longer period of time to pay the outstanding balance. I'm sorry but that doesn't make me any happier, its going to be a huge debt that I would be up to date with if it wasn't for their errors.

I've asked about leaving them altogether but they've said it may not be that simple due to the registration problem and they may well demand the outstanding amount in full.

I'm absolutely at the end of my tether.

scaredofdebt

As you mentioned, the "gas account getting stuck in transfer process" is a well known nPower problem.

Don't forget that nPower has signed up to the "Back billing policy" so they cannot force you to pay for anything they've not billed you for after a year, so depending on when in March you moved in you have in effect had "free" gas.

If they do try to bill you for this, which they will eventually, report them to the ombudsman and they will force them to waive anything more than a year old.

Personally I'd keep quiet and that will ensure you get "free gas" for longer.

chanz4

scaredofdebt wrote: »

As you mentioned, the "gas account getting stuck in transfer process" is a well known nPower problem.

Don't forget that nPower has signed up to the "Back billing policy" so they cannot force you to pay for anything they've not billed you for after a year, so depending on when in March you moved in you have in effect had "free" gas.

If they do try to bill you for this, which they will eventually, report them to the ombudsman and they will force them to waive anything more than a year old.

Personally I'd keep quiet and that will ensure you get "free gas" for longer.

This is not correct, they can bill you 1 year back, so you wont of got a years free. Have you put anything aside for the bill?

scaredofdebt

chanz4 wrote: »

This is not correct, they can bill you 1 year back, so you wont of got a years free. Have you put anything aside for the bill?

You've misunderstood what I posted, where did I say they'd get a year free?

They cannot bill you for usage from more than a year before the date of the bill.

ie if they billed you today on 17th March, they cannot bill for usage from before 17th March 2013.

Well, to be precise the CAN bill you and they probably WILL but you can get the Ombudsman to overturn it.

Jojo55

Scaredofdebt, thanks i have just read up about their Back Billing policy on their website i had no idea it even existed.

Chanz, not questioning whether you're right or wrong about the back billing but just out of curiosity why do you disagree?

Thanks all for your advice. I've got no choice but to sit tight anyway because NPower keep telling me to go away.

spamdrew

I'm in an almost identical state, except I have since december 2013 a Gas account but still no Electricity account! I joined in may 2013 and it has been a disaster since! They have threatened court action to get in to inspect the gas meter, having already been in twice with me taking unpaid leave off work (I filmed the last one as proof). I managed to get Npower to take DD payments from about October 2013 (even though I had no attached devices, i.e. my meters don't exist on their system), so I'm not going to get too big a shock billwise when they ever fix it. Npower have taken money off the payments I've made but cannot explain or expand on what these are for! Today I got a letter telling me my most "recent" bill was delayed, on calling the complaints dept again, they said I should contact the ombardsman.....
I'd take the fine (I'm meant to be on one of those fixed deals) to leave, but can as I'm not really with Npower and having read lots of stuff online, Npower are not good at releasing customers on a technical level and as I'm not really a customer at the mo, i think it will be a difficult task!
My heart goes out to you Jojo55, Npower seem to be ok with minor issues, but once they snowball they cannot seem to do anything about it.

silverwhistle

spamdrew wrote: »

I managed to get Npower to take DD payments from about October 2013 (even though I had no attached devices, i.e. my meters don't exist on their system), so I'm not going to get too big a shock billwise when they ever fix it.

Blow that! Chanz4 is right about putting money aside, but I'd rather improve my cash flow than theirs.. I haven't had a gas bill since moving in and changing to a credit meter in August last year. The fact that I'm now moving to another supplier should stimulate them into action, but I'd never risk them with a DD. I simply record my meter readings weekly and keep tabs on what my bill will eventually be: reading X multiplier X kwh unit rate + standing charge is pretty easy to work out even if I don't know the exact figure for the multiplier.

chanz4

For backbilling you have to of also made an effort to contact the supplier about it, gas isnt free and somewhere along the line everyone will be billed for revenue leakage.

"they've not billed you for after a year" isnt fully true and other things are taken into account.

nPower

Jojo55 wrote: »

We moved into this house in March 2013 and officially got transferred over to Npower in April 2013. For some reason the electricity account was set up fine but the gas account never happened "due to a problem with registration" on their part. Its now March 2014 and i still don't have a gas account.

I believe this is part of the system error that has been heavily publicised in the media lately, however I'm dreading receiving a bill for a years worth of gas, maybe more. All the advisors tell me is I'll be given a much longer period of time to pay the outstanding balance. I'm sorry but that doesn't make me any happier, its going to be a huge debt that I would be up to date with if it wasn't for their errors.

I've asked about leaving them altogether but they've said it may not be that simple due to the registration problem and they may well demand the outstanding amount in full.

I'm absolutely at the end of my tether.

Hi Jojo55 and Spamdrew,

Thanks for your post on the forum.

Sorry to hear you've been having some issues with our service. If you can send us an email to the email address showing on our profile page we'll be happy to look into the issues raised.

Thanks,

David