Incorrect final bill arrives

bittershandy

Hi all - first post in the forum, although have been reading them for years!

I switched gas and electricity supplier in November (final switch date in December) and nPower told me at the time that I would get a final bill within 28 days. I thought that I might owe a bit of money so I logged into my account a few times in the first two months but there was no bill and it said that my balance was £0.00 and my account was closed.

In the middle of March, they generated my final bill - three months after I had moved. They had used estimated meter readings (with wildly inaccurate estimates too) and are claiming the money.

I went back to them via their online contact form and asked them to rebill me based upon the actual readings given at the time (and gave the December readings to them again) and got an email back saying that they would respond within 7-10 days.

It's now been longer than that period and I haven't had anything back. Their customer service is truly terrible, but I don't want to get any credit marks on my file by not paying. Does anyone have any experience with nPower and any advice:

a) If they tell me that I'll get a final bill within 28 days and it takes 3 times that, am I legally bound to pay?

b) How long do I have before they are likely to mark my credit file?

c) Do they ever answer their emails?

Thanks in advance everyone.

Steve

Nada666

bittershandy wrote: »

a) If they tell me that I'll get a final bill within 28 days and it takes 3 times that, am I legally bound to pay?

b) How long do I have before they are likely to mark my credit file?

c) Do they ever answer their emails?

a) Yes, they can take six years to generate the bill and you are bound. Of course, that is only if it is valid - if you have informed them of the actual reads and you have informed them of the starting reads used by your new supplier they should revise the bill. They may, however, ask the new supplier to revise their starting reads.

b) Days or weeks or months. Impossible to predict.

c) Yes.

Cardew

Welcome to the forum.


You are legally required to pay a valid bill.


Hopefully the Npower rep on this forum will read your post and respond soon. If not write a letter headed 'COMPLAINT' to NPower.

MarcoM

I am in the same situation. Account closed end of February and told by npower that they would generate a bill 4 to 6 weeks after closure.
Guess what, after three days a final bill appears on my online account, with estimated readings. I rang the call c and they told me that the new supplier had been at fault for not giving opening reads. Bear in mind that the bill was generated only after three days the old account had ceased to exist and in no way could have npower expected the new supplier to provide readings as the third party validation takes three to four weeks. Excuses as usual from npower.
This company is a big joke, their promise to improve on recent disasters has not been kept.

philmacca

I am going through the same thing at the moment with npower, closed account at end of November and the final bill, only billed me to 14th Nov (missing final two week). I've told them the bill is wrong time and again and time and again they have credited my account and reinvoiced with exactly the same details!!!!! Account is £121 in credit waiting for the "correct" final bill to close the account properly. I got a Complaint number in Jan and last week got a letter from Npower to say that as its over 8 weeks I now have the right to complain to the Ombudsmen. Called npower and asked them for an update and they couldn't tell me when will be sorted not even a guess.I recon something is seriously wrong with their billing system I asked them for the £121 back until they final bill correctly and they refused!!! From what staff I've spoken to, they seem to imply is that it effects 1000's of customers. I've now registered my complaint with the ombudsmen, they advise that most energy companies respond to them within 6 weeks, however npower take the full 10 weeks to reply, again indication that this is a major issue of theirs.

DigForVictory

Call them up and talk to them.

Have every meter reading you've got in the last few months to hand (so they can use recent figures to calculate eatimated usage).

I switched to them & my old supplier billed me. No explanation, just a bill. With the figures to hand, we got it sorted without me wanting the hurl petrol bombs down the phone.

(If it doesn't work out, then I'll go to the ombudsman, but so far, the phone has helped.)

nPower

bittershandy wrote: »

Hi all - first post in the forum, although have been reading them for years!

I switched gas and electricity supplier in November (final switch date in December) and nPower told me at the time that I would get a final bill within 28 days. I thought that I might owe a bit of money so I logged into my account a few times in the first two months but there was no bill and it said that my balance was £0.00 and my account was closed.

In the middle of March, they generated my final bill - three months after I had moved. They had used estimated meter readings (with wildly inaccurate estimates too) and are claiming the money.

I went back to them via their online contact form and asked them to rebill me based upon the actual readings given at the time (and gave the December readings to them again) and got an email back saying that they would respond within 7-10 days.

It's now been longer than that period and I haven't had anything back. Their customer service is truly terrible, but I don't want to get any credit marks on my file by not paying. Does anyone have any experience with nPower and any advice:

a) If they tell me that I'll get a final bill within 28 days and it takes 3 times that, am I legally bound to pay?

b) How long do I have before they are likely to mark my credit file?

c) Do they ever answer their emails?

Thanks in advance everyone.

Steve

Hi bittershandy,

We do aim to provide a final bill within 28 days and I'm sorry to hear this hasn't been your experience. When a change of supply takes a place it is the new supplier that provides the old supplier with the transfer reads and it is then down to the old supplier to determine if the reads are inline.

If you haven't managed to resolve your query please feel free to drop me an email (using the address from my profile) with your account details and correct meter reads and I'll see what I can do to correct these for you.

Thanks

Leigh