nPower - phantom metre switched - chaos ensues

heloid

Hi all,

Basically what's happening to me is what happened in this article:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/consumertips/household-bills/10580074/Energy-firms-botch-supplier-switches.html

Back in Jan 2013 I switched gas and electric to npower (started the process in October....). It seems my house previously had a top floor flat separate and in my land lords renovations they must have shifted this metre to the ground floor. The old ground floor metre isn't present anywhere.

Unfortunately for me nPower switched this phantom metre (I obviously didn't select "Top Floor Flat, 100 x Road") and my energy supply stayed with EDF. At the time as there was only 1 metre in the house I really didn't think to check my bills from nPower that closely (the metre serials are only have 2 digits different).

After 1.5 years EDF finally (and kindly) decided to send me a bill for ~£1900 for our 6 bedroom house (share house, and very leaky).

I've started the erroneous transfer process with nPower which apparently takes 90 days and might require a site visit from UK Power Networks who manage the metres I believe (90 days is a joke given this could put people in to financial hardship in just a few months).

My problems:

• I have about £1400 tied up with nPower for electricity
• EDF have been charging me at an awful rate so if my electricity goes back to them I stand to lose £500 and who knows how long it will take for nPower to refund me

Does anyone know if they "fix things forward" so my supply will be correctly transferred to nPower as it should have been and they honour the cheaper fixed rate price from the transfer date?
If things go back to EDF (arguably not their fault) is there any way I can lesson the sting of the new larger bill through nPowers failure to switch me correctly and UK Power Networks poor quality database of metres? Which govt bodies can help?

Thanks for reading and any advice you might be able to give me,
R.

nPower

heloid wrote: »

Hi all,

Basically what's happening to me is what happened in this article:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/consumertips/household-bills/10580074/Energy-firms-botch-supplier-switches.html

Back in Jan 2013 I switched gas and electric to npower (started the process in October....). It seems my house previously had a top floor flat separate and in my land lords renovations they must have shifted this metre to the ground floor. The old ground floor metre isn't present anywhere.

Unfortunately for me nPower switched this phantom metre (I obviously didn't select "Top Floor Flat, 100 x Road") and my energy supply stayed with EDF. At the time as there was only 1 metre in the house I really didn't think to check my bills from nPower that closely (the metre serials are only have 2 digits different).

After 1.5 years EDF finally (and kindly) decided to send me a bill for ~£1900 for our 6 bedroom house (share house, and very leaky).

I've started the erroneous transfer process with nPower which apparently takes 90 days and might require a site visit from UK Power Networks who manage the metres I believe (90 days is a joke given this could put people in to financial hardship in just a few months).

My problems:

• I have about £1400 tied up with nPower for electricity
• EDF have been charging me at an awful rate so if my electricity goes back to them I stand to lose £500 and who knows how long it will take for nPower to refund me

Does anyone know if they "fix things forward" so my supply will be correctly transferred to nPower as it should have been and they honour the cheaper fixed rate price from the transfer date?
If things go back to EDF (arguably not their fault) is there any way I can lesson the sting of the new larger bill through nPowers failure to switch me correctly and UK Power Networks poor quality database of metres? Which govt bodies can help?

Thanks for reading and any advice you might be able to give me,
R.

Hi heloid,

Thanks for your post and I'm sorry to hear of the difficulties you are experiencing.

I can explain that when renovation work is carried out it is the responsibility of the home owner and current supplier to ensure industry records are updated. Unfortunately, this doesn't appear to have happened and as a result we have transferred the incorrect supply.

We will be happy to transfer the correct supply over to us once the incorrect supply has been returned to the former supplier, however industry timescales for this are between 4-6 weeks for completion. In addition we will ensure all monies paid to us in relation to the wrong supply are returned to you.

Once your supply has been transferred we will also be happy to review your tariff to see if we are able to honour the original tariff you requested and look into a possible goodwill gesture.

If you'd like to pop your account details over to me via an email (using the address from my profile) I'll pass this onto the team for further review for you.

Thanks

Leigh

heloid

My complaint number is 99742108.

Perhaps you can hasten the assignment of a case worker, I lodged the complaint on the 8th of April and calling the Executive Complaints team just I'm told I've got another 3 weeks before I can expect any contact....