NPower - Feeling lost...?

danhan30

Hi everyone...
First time using Forums so please be gentle... I wanted to put a short but very frustrating situation out there and see if anyone can offer any further advise to me or if I'm just stuck in a catch 22.


The very very long story short, NPower had issues with our bills about a year ago and messed up the statements. Eventually like 5-6 months later we got 8 pages of garbage and thought nothing of it, kept paying the same amount, nothing changed.. until one day a random D/D for £300+. We called and spoke to 100 different people however it looked like we owed £300 in arreas so we asked for a final statement and again very long story short...


We now owe £1100 over a further 3 month period and literally every month the amount goes even higher, even though they say our usage isn't that high and that £125/month will cover it. I put in a complaint early January and said essentially this is insane, how are we expected to catch up etc and 14 weeks later we still haven't heard a thing.


I'm on letter 5 to NPower with not a single response from them, when I call it takes over an hour to get through then the customer services are unavailable or just hang up. We then contacted the Ombudsman and after 6 weeks still nothing and they say they are investigating.


The position we are in now:
They have cancelled our D/D and will not accept a new D/D until we agree to pay over double a month to settle the back amount


Its been 14 weeks with no reply from NPower at any point, including letters to their Exec team


The ombudsman:energy said the amount will be frozen until the case is resolved however every 3-4 weeks we get letter advising they will send to debt collection (normally with a 'were very sorry for the bill delays' cover letter) although nothings happened in 6 weeks


Last letter to NPower stated if they carry on threatening me and not freezing the amount until a resolve is made then I will hhave to take the matter to court as they are completely ignoring even the Ombudsman advise.


That's the rough of it... so what do I do? Feel really lost and don't feel I have anywhere to go... just know any minute the letter from debt collection could come and yet at same time Ombudsmans word doesn't mean a thing?!? Any help would be appreciated guys...


Thanks... D

wavelets

danhan30 wrote: »

Hi everyone...
First time using Forums so please be gentle... I wanted to put a short but very frustrating situation out there and see if anyone can offer any further advise to me or if I'm just stuck in a catch 22.


The very very long story short, NPower had issues with our bills about a year ago and messed up the statements. Eventually like 5-6 months later we got 8 pages of garbage and thought nothing of it, kept paying the same amount, nothing changed.. until one day a random D/D for £300+. We called and spoke to 100 different people however it looked like we owed £300 in arreas so we asked for a final statement and again very long story short...


We now owe £1100 over a further 3 month period and literally every month the amount goes even higher, even though they say our usage isn't that high and that £125/month will cover it. I put in a complaint early January and said essentially this is insane, how are we expected to catch up etc and 14 weeks later we still haven't heard a thing.


I'm on letter 5 to NPower with not a single response from them, when I call it takes over an hour to get through then the customer services are unavailable or just hang up. We then contacted the Ombudsman and after 6 weeks still nothing and they say they are investigating.


The position we are in now:
They have cancelled our D/D and will not accept a new D/D until we agree to pay over double a month to settle the back amount


Its been 14 weeks with no reply from NPower at any point, including letters to their Exec team


The ombudsman:energy said the amount will be frozen until the case is resolved however every 3-4 weeks we get letter advising they will send to debt collection (normally with a 'were very sorry for the bill delays' cover letter) although nothings happened in 6 weeks


Last letter to NPower stated if they carry on threatening me and not freezing the amount until a resolve is made then I will hhave to take the matter to court as they are completely ignoring even the Ombudsman advise.


That's the rough of it... so what do I do? Feel really lost and don't feel I have anywhere to go... just know any minute the letter from debt collection could come and yet at same time Ombudsmans word doesn't mean a thing?!? Any help would be appreciated guys...


Thanks... D

So you owe £1100 built up over a year

How much have you paid to date? Anything?

What was the start meter reading. What is the current meter reading.
How much do you think that costs using the nPower tariff?

I'm sorry, but the ombudsman cannot force any supplier to do anything unless you have agreed to a resolution, so you better get back to them and clarify that detail too.

If you commence legal action, then the ombudsman will wash their hands of your complaint entirely ... and the supplier knows that.

Withe the threat of leagl action on the table, I guess their lawyers are awaiting a summons from you.

Good luck! you'll need it.

Probably better to get youself off to the CAB and hope they can retrieve something from the mess you've got yourself in. But you need to be honest with them.

Nada666

You first noticed the issue about a year ago. Between then and now you have ended up with arrears of £1100 - accumulated over twelve months or even longer. When you noticed the rubbish from npower you really ought to have sat down, read your meter and worked out how much you were using. That's gone but you have relied on just keeping the same payments. This means you do have £1100 to pay back. Say you pay it back over twelve months but it accumulated over eigthteen months - that's still £92 arrears and £61 underestimate usage to pay back.

If your payments were £125 then an additional £153 per month has to be paid to pay it back over twelve months. Even extending the repayment period to two years will still result in £46 plus £61 on top of previous instalment size.

There is little option but to double the instalments. At least it is interest free.

GingerBob_3

Why should the customer have to do anything? Is it too much to expect that one of the biggest energy suppliers in the UK can handle their business better than this? Namely, send out regular bills that don't need an accountant to understand them, and that reasonably reflect the customer's energy usage over a given period? And - take payments when they should.

chanz4

They should place a hold on your account, you should contact the person at the supplier dealing with the complaint. Also seems that you are paying for less than your using, hence them refussing to set a dd up?

danhan30

Thanks everyone for your replies...

Wavelets: In short the reason the cancelled the D/D was because they requested that we process an imdemnity against the payment and then call them back, they then said it's not £300 but actually £630 and so I put in the complaints as at the time I kind of understood £300 but that amount just kept rising and after 3 further months they got to £900 then £1100. I just dont understand where they get these random figures from?

We've haven't paid anything for about 2 months as I physically cannot pay anything towards the total without agreeing to pay the full amount back. I've been told absolutely by customer services that I cannot just pay the £125 to pay what we owe. Thanks for the legal advice, I'll word that very carefully in my reply to them, thanks for that.

NADA666: The issue with billing started about a year ago however after about 5 phone calls and putting in a complaint back then in around October they suddenly created these statements. The reason we left in is because is states very clearly on the back on the bills (old style bills that is) that they review the payment automatically every 6 months, they hadn't done that once by the seems of things over 18 months. They have offered to pay back over 2 years however still works out about another £50 a month on top of the corrected current use... so from around £80/month to £175.

GingerBob (nice rference to Jumping Jack Flash btw): This is a little of my stance, we believed (maybe niavely) that when they said they would automatically change the payments if they needed to every 6 months then it would be, but even when phoning then a good 5-10 times over the year it was never mentioned that we where so far behind, they had the opertunity to at any point! It is a little interesting that the old statement came in the old format and since then we have the newer easy to understand format, makes you wonder why they changed it? :mad:

chanz4: I have written to them so far 3 times, in which I have asked them as per the Ombudsman recommendation that they should freeze the account... since then theyve still not replied after 14 weeks since the complaint and the ombudsman is still investigating, leaving me in limbo... NPower just dont pay attention to my letters or the Ombudsman's recommendations... so what can I do?!? I have explained very clearly to customer services that I have no issues in paying the new level for what we use, around £125/month, however they will not accept any amount UNLESS it also contains the back amount which will then end the despute... :-/

Nada666

I don't understand - if you use £125 per month then you should be able to budget to adjust to £175 per month. If you cannot do this then pay off the arrears in a lump sum to clear the balance - that may be easier for you.

All payments to fuel suppliers can range a full 100% or more. If this is likely to be a problem then it is your job as a householder, not just the supplier's, to monitor your meters and spend.

Of course npower should have a saner systems process. That doesn't change much - the variation is in line with a 'working' supplier's set-up.

wavelets

danhan30 wrote: »

Thanks everyone for your replies...

Wavelets: In short the reason the cancelled the D/D was because they requested that we process an imdemnity against the payment and then call them back, they then said it's not £300 but actually £630 and so I put in the complaints as at the time I kind of understood £300 but that amount just kept rising and after 3 further months they got to £900 then £1100. I just dont understand where they get these random figures from?

I don't really understand this.

Why was it necessary to make an indemnity claim under the terms of the Direct Debit Guarantee?
Making such a claim, does not cancel a Direct Debit Mandate.

You should have a bill breaking down exactly how the charge is arrived at.

Either post the bill in it's entirety here, or take it along to the local CAB who will talk you through it

danhan30 wrote: »

We've haven't paid anything for about 2 months as I physically cannot pay anything towards the total without agreeing to pay the full amount back. I've been told absolutely by customer services that I cannot just pay the £125 to pay what we owe. Thanks for the legal advice, I'll word that very carefully in my reply to them, thanks for that.

All this I struggle to understand too.

It was a simple question. How much in total, if anything, have you paid the supplier (and not reclaimed) since you joined them about a year ago.

What was the start readings then?
What are the meter readings today?
How much do you think that consumption costs using the tariff you agreed to?