npower - payment issues with changing to normal meter from prepay.

iFluffi

We moved into an apartment in August last year. The building itself has no gas supply, everything is electric and on prepayment meters.

After speaking to the Landlord, we decided to change from prepayment to a normal meter.
We contacted npower after seeing the advice on this site about their price-fix 2015 and after several confused phone-calls (should've seen the warning light here in hindsight), were able to get the meter swapped out for free.

The apartment prepayment meter was originally with British Gas, so we were supposed to have been moved from BG to npower as a prepayment customer, then npower would replace the meter and move us over to a normal metered tariff.

Since replacing the meter in October however, npower has seemingly forgotten we're actually their customers. Every-time I've contacted to update our meter reading I'm told either we don't exist on their system or we haven't actually been changed over from our old prepayment tariff. Each time we've supposed to have been sent a letter within the next 5-10 days and then we would be asked to provide a meter reading. I've been over these exact same steps with npowers customer service dept. four times now and still they wont ask us for some money.

If it wasn't for the thought of a potentially very large one-off payment for the electricity bill when it does inevitably does come through or the possibility of non-payment mark hitting my credit record because of npowers own inability to take basic instruction, then it could all be quite hilarious. It also makes budgeting a real pain in the a** when we don't know if a chunk of money we have set aside to pay npower is either too much or too little.

So, aside from driving down to Swindon and forcing my money into the hands of the first npower employee I can find, is there a way I can get them to start charging me for my electricity?

TIA

chanz4

I wonder if they have recieved the meter exchange flows as I believe on their system it sets up new contracts

SwanJon

iFluffi wrote: »

If it wasn't for the thought of a potentially very large one-off payment for the electricity bill when it does inevitably does come through

This is a very real risk - they will definately be able to charge you for the previous 12 months (whenever they fix it) - so put something aside in savings.
Did the meter go in at 00000? If so it is easy to work out how much the bill will be -
days since meter install times standing charge + units used times cost per unit.

Knowing this will mean that you are more in control and the bill won't be a surprise when it finally comes in. Keep reading the bill each month and pay the appropriate amount into your savings.

As you have made an effort to get this resolved, npower should only be able to 'back-bill' you for 12 months - they should proactively offer this, but if they don't bring it to their attention.

nPower

iFluffi wrote: »

We moved into an apartment in August last year. The building itself has no gas supply, everything is electric and on prepayment meters.

After speaking to the Landlord, we decided to change from prepayment to a normal meter.
We contacted npower after seeing the advice on this site about their price-fix 2015 and after several confused phone-calls (should've seen the warning light here in hindsight), were able to get the meter swapped out for free.

The apartment prepayment meter was originally with British Gas, so we were supposed to have been moved from BG to npower as a prepayment customer, then npower would replace the meter and move us over to a normal metered tariff.

Since replacing the meter in October however, npower has seemingly forgotten we're actually their customers. Every-time I've contacted to update our meter reading I'm told either we don't exist on their system or we haven't actually been changed over from our old prepayment tariff. Each time we've supposed to have been sent a letter within the next 5-10 days and then we would be asked to provide a meter reading. I've been over these exact same steps with npowers customer service dept. four times now and still they wont ask us for some money.

If it wasn't for the thought of a potentially very large one-off payment for the electricity bill when it does inevitably does come through or the possibility of non-payment mark hitting my credit record because of npowers own inability to take basic instruction, then it could all be quite hilarious. It also makes budgeting a real pain in the a** when we don't know if a chunk of money we have set aside to pay npower is either too much or too little.

So, aside from driving down to Swindon and forcing my money into the hands of the first npower employee I can find, is there a way I can get them to start charging me for my electricity?

TIA

Hello iFluffi,

Thank you for your post.

I am more than happy to look into your account and see what is going on with the meter exchange update.

If you can email me your account details/address details to the address on my profile page I will look into this.

Thanks

Carmel