MSE News: Warning: Npower's slapping ex-customers with huge bills

General_query

This thread gets me soooooooooooo angry :mad:

Switch from E-ON to npower last April, and was accepted as an npower customer on 8th June 2013.

I indicated I wanted to pay £20 a month by Direct Debit, and gave E-ON my last meter reading and also the same figure to npower.

Never had a correct bill to date. I asked for a copy of their terms and conditions upon switching so I knew what tariff I was on, never got it.

For the first two months, they only took £5 a month D/D which of course lead to me owing them money, they finally put it up to the £20 pm I wanted.

Then they insisted I have a NEW electric meter installed, and someone came to fit it, they left me a card with the old meter reading on and the new one, so npower could start billing me using the new meter's reading.

They are still billing me for the OLD meter which they insisted I have replaced :mad: :mad: :mad:

Complained loads of times, got a £20 High Street voucher for the delay in looking at my complaint, but still not resolved.

Now they are badgering me for a new meter reading as my new bill is due in the next 10 days, try online and get a warning about an abnormally high meter reading and unusual usage.

Thats because of the old meter being removed and the new one with a higher starting read being put in installed.

Totally clueless and so frustrating. I just want to leave.

SnowMan

SnowMan wrote: »

Npower are a complete mess.

My gas and electricity switched from Npower to Scottish Power on 27th May with a current credit on the account that just about covers the usage up to the switch date (actually about £2 owing when they come to sort the final bill which they say will take 7 weeks even though there is nothing to stop the final bill being produced now).

Despite this Npower have just tried to take a £60 direct debit payment from me, even though I am no longer an Npower customer. When I rang up to ask why they said that sorting out direct debits wasn't part of the account closing process. The customer services representative seemed quite proud to tell me that. She did not seem to understand either that without the correct record of payments the final bill would not be correct. I eventually managed to get my call transferred to another customer services representative who told me my gas account was still with them, even though that is not the case. Eventually they realised their mistake in not closing down the gas account on 27th May and that was why they had tried to take the direct debit after my account had transferred to Scottish Power.

Fortunately I had cancelled the direct debit on 28th May or else I would have had the £60 wrongly taken from Npower and it would have taken a couple of months to get the money back.

Shambolic doesn't describe the service I have received from Npower in the 6 months I have been with them. It took a huge effort to get then to record my opening reads when I switched to them (numerous phone calls and emails ending up in a formal complaint), and that in turn caused problems with the previous supplier not being able to finalise my old account.

Then Npower fabricated meter readings when it turned out that no meter reader had been round to my house. It turned out that fabricating meter readings was the only way they could get their billing system to work, and that was why they had done it. From other threads here this fabrication of meter readings is not a one off. Obviously in the event of a subsequent query then it is hard to know if any Npower own reading on their system is genuine or fabricated.

It is very easy to see how all these issues are occuring, because unless you watch Npower like a hawk and keep at them to sort things, their approach is to mess up accounts several times over.

I still can't get Npower to close down my gas account despite my switch taking place 2 weeks ago on 27th May and despite two phone attempts to Npower. Npower still claim my gas is with them, which it isn't. Npower still haven't recorded my final reads on their system that Scottish Power seem to have sent them. So I am expecting a final bill based on estimated readings, perhaps in a year's time, which I will be forced to query.

Npower have sent me an email today telling me to supply them with a meter reading, even though I am no longer with them and had promptly submitted closing/opening reads to Scottish Power on switching. Npower claim they are allowed to send nonsense emails like this for 40 days after my account has switched.

Npower also said they would be sending me a letter to say not to cancel my direct debit, which they said was a nonsense letter that should also be ignored.

I asked how I could differentiate between letters and emails from Npower that were nonsense and which needed to be acted on. They said I couldn't. Npower seem to think they are acting reasonably.

It really is time for Ofgem to take Npower's license off them.

BungleBungle

I left Npower in Sept 2013 and received a final bill for dual fuel. After being with my new supplier for 6-7 months, in April 2014 like many others in the forum I had a bill for £60.

I called Npower and raised a formal complaint and got a complaint reference from them. The call centre representative said that categorically they would not take any money whatsoever from me until the complaint was made and that they would undertake an investigation.

Not a surpass here as to what happened next. Without getting any feedback on the complaint the money was taken from my account at the end of May with absolutely no agreement or warning. So it seems that NPower neither Treats its Customers Fairly, has an accurate billing system, has a robust complaints system, gives accurate advice on its call centre and worst of all does not respect its customers.:mad:

Personally the £60 is no issue, I owe it and I am happy to pay it in the end, but this appalling experience means I have no respect for NPower, or the companies it sponsors, and I will not ever return as a customer.

The whole sector is in turmoil and has been for months.:(

I believe the way forward is to leave the big 6 and do business with a new upstart company.

Consumerist

The emerging lesson here for customers leaving npower is to cancel their direct debit as soon as the new supplier(s) have confirmed they have taken over your supplies.

joncombe

Consumerist wrote: »

The emerging lesson here for customers leaving npower is to cancel their direct debit as soon as the new supplier(s) have confirmed they have taken over your supplies.

If only that were enough...

I did that but Npower re-instated it without my permission and debited the money.

scaredofdebt

joncombe wrote: »

If only that were enough...

I did that but Npower re-instated it without my permission and debited the money.

Get the bank to return the payment.

Complain and get the complaint escalated to Offgem, setting up a DD without permission from the account holder is fraud.

Consumerist

Under the Direct Debit guarantee, you should have asked your bank to reclaim the money taken.

joncombe

Consumerist wrote: »

Under the Direct Debit guarantee, you should have asked your bank to reclaim the money taken.

I did and I got the money back, thankfully. I was just making the point that even cancelling the Direct Debit is not enough to stop Npower.

Consumerist

joncombe wrote: »

I did and I got the money back, thankfully. I was just making the point that even cancelling the Direct Debit is not enough to stop Npower.

By getting your money back, you did stop npower. Well done! :T

Let's hope others are inspired to do the same when it becomes necessary.

reapwhatyousow

I have just received a bill for over £400 for gas from NPower addressed to 'The Occupier'. The bill is from the date I moved into my property in November 2013 until May this year when I know for a fact that I successfully switched suppliers to EDF and began paying direct debit with them on December 18th 2013. NPower would have been the supplier for that first month when I moved in, but can't believe that this is the first I'm hearing from them, 7 months later! Judging by my bills over the last 6 months from EDF I am spending about £40 a month on gas and electric combined so even if NPower had been my supplier for all that time there's no way I could owe them anywhere near £400!! Since they were only supplying for a little less than a month I would say the absolute maximum I could owe them for gas alone would be about £20! At the moment though I don't have an account with them, they don't have my name, telephone number or any of my bank details (but of course they do have my address), I'm rather reluctant to phone them up and get into a big debate over this since as far as I'm concerned I've never had an account with them and they are not my supplier - unfortunately though, there is no way to get in touch with them via their website unless you have a registered account number with them, which I don't. Has anyone else had this kind of situation? How did you resolve it? What would be the best course of action for me to take from here? What are my rights? Thanks in advance