Rant - Npower

Procrastinator333

Moved house on 2nd April. Called npower on 3rd April. Told them we moved. Gave closing meter readings. Asked if anything else I needed to do to close account. Told nope, all sorted will get final bill in 28 days

Here we are 10th May and no bill. Call them up to be told as the new people were changing supplier they couldn't close the account at the time in April. But nobody told me that and nobody contacted me. So they would have just left my account sitting there not closed.

Oh - and having done the calc myself it is perhaps not too surprising if I tell you my account is in credit by about £300. Funny how they were in no rush to close it. I'm skeptical tht if it had been me owing cash it would have been allowed to sit there for this long unpaid.

Rant over.

nPower

Procrastinator333 wrote: »

Moved house on 2nd April. Called npower on 3rd April. Told them we moved. Gave closing meter readings. Asked if anything else I needed to do to close account. Told nope, all sorted will get final bill in 28 days

Here we are 10th May and no bill. Call them up to be told as the new people were changing supplier they couldn't close the account at the time in April. But nobody told me that and nobody contacted me. So they would have just left my account sitting there not closed.

Oh - and having done the calc myself it is perhaps not too surprising if I tell you my account is in credit by about £300. Funny how they were in no rush to close it. I'm skeptical tht if it had been me owing cash it would have been allowed to sit there for this long unpaid.

Rant over.

Hi Procrastinator333

Thanks for your post. We're sorry for the delay in sending you a final bill.

Can you email us your account number please so we can see what's happened and rectify? Our email address is showing on our profile page.

Thanks

David

Baggieboy_2

Sorry for hijacking this thread, but if David would be kind enough to sort out my account it would be much appreciated. We left NPower in November, and finally at the end of April they calculated that they owed me just over £60. despite 2 promises to refund me the money nothing has happened. If it was me that owed me them the money I doubt they'd have shown as much patience.

Procrastinator333

So another 12 days have passed and still no final bill.

I have just seen the Npower rep's message so have emailed them today. Lets see how they do now. My guess is it will be at least several more weeks and need more chasing. I think it is probably about time to start having a look to see how I make a complaint to Ofgem. Or does anyone know the best way to go about that?

Baggieboy_2

Yep - same problem with me too. I did call them on Wednesday and politely advised them that I'd be pursuing the matter through the small claims court if they continued to withhold payment, and a very helpful advisor took my number and promised to ring me tomorrow (Friday) to let me know if payment had finally been arranged. Seems the previous two promises to process payment were not carried out. I will await her call.

jm2926

My account was showing £770 in credit, they have now apparently issued 4 bills (only 1 is visible to me on my account page) and it is £79 in debit (online account still showing £660 credit).

So now they have billed from Feb 2013 to now, and I'm £79 in debit, so why do they want to increase my monthly payments from £59 a month to £219?

I'm moving house on 6th June and had hoped to get the account somewhat accurate before closing it.

Any idea what will happen if I cancel my direct debit? It's due to be taken on the 1st June, and I've no intention of paying them £219 then fighting for it back for months. Equally I can't afford to end up with a problem getting the mortgage when I move into my new place in July.

youdaftbat

I switched to Npower in November 2013, not realising they were the most complained about utility company in the country.

In December I changed bank account and contacted Npower to change my direct debit details. I received an email to say all was set up. I was told the first payment would be taken in January. It wasn't.

I rang in January to find out why a payment hadn't been taken. Was told they didn't have my bank details. I gave them to them again. It took the staff member 3 attempts to get the system to accept them, but it had obviously worked as I checked my bank account a few days later and the direct debit was there on my account. Again I received a confirmatory email. I was told a payment would be taken in February. It wasn't.

I rang in February to ask why a payment hadn't been taken. I was told they didn't have my bank details. Upon explaining that they did and that the direct debit was set up at my bank I was fobbed off as expected. I gave the details again. Again I received email confirmation. I was told that a payment would be taken in March. It wasn't. I received another email in February telling me my tariff had changed. I rang to find out why, was fobbed off again but it was put right.

While all this was going on I realised I'd be better off switching supplier. This was done efficiently by the new company who forwarded my meter readings to Npower. I received my final bill, checked the figures thoroughly and was shocked to find what I owed was correct. They actually did something right. I paid and thought that would be the last dealings I would have with them. The bill was paid 14th April.

29th April I receive another email telling me my bill was ready. I assumed it would be showing my final payment being received by them and a nil balance. But no. It showed that I was in credit because even though they weren't supplying me anymore, they'd finally managed to take a direct debit from me. I rang and complained. They said that even though they shouldn't have taken the payment it would take up to 40 days for them to return it. What a disgrace. My bank sorted it immediately. They also said that there had been a problem closing down my gas account but they were happy that I owed them nothing.

Yesterday (21st May), I receive another email telling me my bill is ready. I take a look and find that I owe them money because as far as they're concerned they are still supplying me gas. I rang, spoke to a right miserable old bag who tried to blame my new supplier for not telling them that I'd switched. I explained that Npower had already confirmed to me in an earlier call that they didn't supply me, but she wasn't having any of it. I messaged the new supplier and asked them to sort it.

So as it stands I have two companies claiming to be supplying me with gas. Who knows how long it will take to get fixed.

Please please please avoid Npower. I do pity the staff who have to deal with complaints, they must get thousands a week, but they're best avoided. They are awful.

Procrastinator333

jm2926 wrote: »

My account was showing £770 in credit, they have now apparently issued 4 bills (only 1 is visible to me on my account page) and it is £79 in debit (online account still showing £660 credit).

So now they have billed from Feb 2013 to now, and I'm £79 in debit, so why do they want to increase my monthly payments from £59 a month to £219?

I'm moving house on 6th June and had hoped to get the account somewhat accurate before closing it.

Any idea what will happen if I cancel my direct debit? It's due to be taken on the 1st June, and I've no intention of paying them £219 then fighting for it back for months. Equally I can't afford to end up with a problem getting the mortgage when I move into my new place in July.

Be careful if u cancel the dd. you may find that u get hit with extra charges. E.g. Some tariffs have a dd discount.

Procrastinator333

Baggieboy wrote: »

Yep - same problem with me too. I did call them on Wednesday and politely advised them that I'd be pursuing the matter through the small claims court if they continued to withhold payment, and a very helpful advisor took my number and promised to ring me tomorrow (Friday) to let me know if payment had finally been arranged. Seems the previous two promises to process payment were not carried out. I will await her call.

I like the idea of the small claims court. Think I might set out the calculation and send an email over the weekend. I also still need to sort out comPlaining to ofgem about them.

Baggieboy_2

I've already logged a complaint with the ombudsman, and they have replied with a very detailed recommendation of how to proceed. Their email address is:enquiries@os-energy.org. They'll basically take it up if the complaint has gone on for 8 weeks or more. Give them as much detail as you can including your account number. Good luck.

Baggieboy_2

So Friday comes and goes. No phone call from Npower, and still no payment. I'll be starting proceedings against them on Monday.