No bill from nPower for last 15 months

silverwhistle

abc123456 wrote: »

Good luck with that. I followed the advice on this thread and made the switch to another company, thus hopefully forcing nPower into providing a bill and refunding me any credit due.

I've done the same, and I'm wondering whether the fact that I'm on a pay as you go tariff will make any difference.. Mind you, it's less than a month since the final reading so I suspect I'll probably get a bill from the new provider before I get one from nPower!:D

jazzy

Same problem with NPower no bills being sent although meter readings are provided. What could be the reason for this? Doesn't make any business sense.

Perhaps NPower are trying to get you into so much debt, that it would then be difficult to leave the company?

pooch

abc123456 wrote: »

Title is what it says...my fault for joining nPower, simply the worst company I have ever dealt with in my 50+ years on this earth!

I joined nPower in January 2013 for dual fuel. I have religiously phoned in my meter readings every couple of months as well as inputting them online at the same time. The readings are indicated on my online account.

When I joined, I was to pay £80 per month for the dual fuel. After the first month, I noticed nPower had not taken the Direct Debit. I called them and they said that it was in the process of being set up. 6 months later I received a letter to say that the Direct Debit was commencing and due to the delay in them setting up the DD, my monthly payment would be £134.

This amount has been taken every month for the last 11 months, so I have built up a healthy credit of just under £1500, but no bill.

Over the past year and a bit, I have called nPower and emailed them numerous times to complain that I have not received a bill. All they can say is that they have no information as to what is wrong. On one occasion, I asked to speak to a supervisor who told me that she would raise a complaint on my behalf.

This "complaint" has been ongoing the last 6 months. I cannot call nPower about it as there are always queues of 45 minutes or more. I recently received a letter from nPower saying that they are unable to resolve my complaint (ie send me a bill !) and that I can contact the Ombudsman.

My contract with nPower ends on 30th April and naturally, I wish to switch at the earliest opportunity. I am just curious to know if nPower can stop the switching process because I would be due them 15 months of dual fuel costs, despite the fact that they cant/wont give me a bill and help me move on from this absolutely ridiculous, inept..(the list can go on!) company !

Any advice appreciated.

Failing to issue a bill is not a valid reason to disallow you to switch supplier.

Buy why are you trying? I wish my supplier failed to bill me for the energy I use. If you've previously brought to their attention that you are not getting billed, I don't think they will be able to back bill you more than 12 months anyway

Edit: It's a bit more complicated if you are paying monthly direct debits anyway as they can only then not come after any shortfall more than 12 months old.

Did you try the nPower complaints process? I'm sure if you asked for the accrued credit back, they would quickly work out what you owe and deduct that from the credit you say they owe you.

pooch

jazzy wrote: »

Same problem with NPower no bills being sent although meter readings are provided. What could be the reason for this? Doesn't make any business sense.

Perhaps NPower are trying to get you into so much debt, that it would then be difficult to leave the company?

Can't see it myself

It won't affect your ability to switch supplier as I've already stated.

If you have notified the supplier, the most they can back bill you is 12 months usage. Of couse, any customer with any sense will be putting aside the money they would otherwise be giving the supplier, preferably in a nice interest earning savings account, ready for when(if) a bill ever does arrive.

If, like the OP, you are already paying monthly amounts to the supplier, then any accrued debt is likley to be minimal.

Lyradog

Some suppliers tell you that you cannot switch if you owe them money , not sure if it's true , good luck all

pooch

Danosaur wrote: »

I am just about to confront Npower tomorrow with the same problem.
I have over £1000 credit. I pay £135 a month which should now be reduced according to my usage data, but they are hardly likely to do that.
I checked my bill and everything was ok a couple of weeks back, but I noted that my bill was just over £400 which is way less than last year because of a major energy saving drive.
I go back on there this week and my bill has disappeared and my next one is due in October, a full year after my last one.
I have now saved all my data from their website and am going on the warpath.
They shouldn't get away with this kind of mismanagement of customers money. I will get rid of them as soon as I don't have to pay any fees and will never go back with them :mad:

Of course they will. Follow the MSE article if necessary.

If they don't respond favourably to your reasoned complaint, then ask the ombudsman to help ... that'll cost them £500 or more

pooch

Lyradog wrote: »

Some suppliers tell you that you cannot switch if you owe them money , not sure if it's true , good luck all

Yes that is true.

But you cannot be in debt to a supplier if they have never billed you

jdch

This is the first forum I can find about this issue. I'm writing on behalf of my dad on behalf of my dad.

He was upped to an eye watering £481 a month, and has had no bill for at least the past 18 months. He now has a credit of 7500. Our question is can they put the credit against a bill for all energy used or only up to 12 months ago? We are trying to sell the house, so keep calling npower but they are no use whatsoever. We have submitted readings but they just haven't bothered to sort a bill...


Any advice? We really appreciate any help. We are nervous to cancel the DD in case that counts as wilfully stopping payments as per the backbilling guide. I think it's pretty deliberate to set the DD far too high.


Thanks for any help!

Alligg

We are having a similar issue with Npower,we moved to a new build and want to use our own supplier and not Npower who the builders were using, we want to switch but are unable to until we have paid our final bill,we have been requesting the bill since Sept our complaint has just reached the 8 week mark so have logged it with the energy ombudsman so fingers crossed it gets resolved soon as we are putting money away each month not really knowing how much it is going to be as they cannot confirm which tarrif we are on!!

Reacher

I too have been having problems since I switched last November. I have been unable to set up direct debits and have not received any bills. I finally found out at the beginning of March that I had a block on my account. Until this is lifted, I won't get any bills. Despite dozens of phone calls over the months, I had not been told about the block. The explanation I have been given is that there are some customers who have been identfied as having incorrect information on their account which could possibly cause their bills to be incorrect. Therefore, NPower have put a temporary block on their account so they won't get any bills. The only way to get it lifted is by the technical department. My advice to people who have posted on this forum is to ask whether there is a block on their account as this does not seem to be immediately obvious to npower customer service staff. I have phoned since i found out about the block and have had to tell staff about it and they then check and confirm it is still on. My complaint is now with the Ombudsman and my problem is still with npower technical services department (allegedly). I was informed by npower today that it is a 'hiccup' in the computer system and that there are many others affected.