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

naedanger

downshifted wrote: »

However, the fact that NPower sent REMINDERS for bills never sent out, to a house where they have never supplied power, shows that their computer systems are not fit for purpose - I would advise anyone to avoid using them until this is totally resolved.

I know some old and vulnerable people who have a real fear of being in debt and these REMINDERS could easily result in NPower being paid monies they are not owed.

I completely agree with both of these points.

Lizling

I would have thought NPower had had plenty of time to sort this out by now, but no. I've just received a final bill for nearly £200 even though I closed my account in mid December.

8 months, NPower. Really?

Subzero2003

I have dealt with a lot of poor companies in my time, and for the most part, after a few months, everything has been sorted with an apology and normally some kind of monetary compensation.

But nPower seriously, seriously take the biscuit. I have never. ever. dealt with a company so inept. It actually frightens me that a company this incompetent has the ability to affect my credit score and therefore my life.

My complaint with nPower has been ongoing for 14 months. They haven't been able to generate a bill for me for 15 months. I was originally told "Sorry sir, there is a minor problem with our billing system - it should be fixed within two weeks". Coming up ONE AND A HALF YEARS later, i'm still waiting. The system keeps generating random bills and then instantly reversing them. I have a meter reading on my account whereby the believe that i used 215 units in the space of ONE DAY.

I left them when i moved house in May and still haven't had a bill. Everytime i have phoned up, i'm met with the most insincere apology ever and "we're working hard on it". I've been told that probably in the region of 100 times over the past 15 months or so and nothing has ever happened. After months of chasing a refund, one guy i spoke to did manage to issue a refund by way of a cheque (all electronic payments fail because of a block on my account), but now trying to get the remainder refunded is impossible because everyone i've spoke to since then has made up some unintelligible reason as to why this can't happen.

And the compensation nPower gave me for perhaps the 100-150hours i've spent on the phone to them, the stress, the worry about if i can afford the bill when/if they send it through?

£30. Yes - that's right £30.

£30 isn't even enough for half a tank of fuel these days. £30 doesn't even cover half of a weekly shop. £30 will just about buy me a pair of crappy own brand trainers from somewhere.

And that's the amount they think is appropriate for compensating me for all of the trouble they've put me through.

To make it clear - as long as i still draw breath, i will not, ever, ever be going near nPower for love nor money. I genuinely hope that many people read this post and decide to take their business elsewhere. For those that don't, you were warned. Prepare to be financially bent over by a company who have absolutely no idea what they are billing customers for and as you can see from just this one tiny thread on one forum, they pluck figures out of the air. And if you think they are incorrect figures - they will destroy your credit score until you pay up.

Consumerist

When is the utterly useless "regulator" :rotfl: going to DO SOMETHING about this cowboy company?

I think it's time for mistreated customers to have a chat with their MP.

Box_of_Frogs_2

Update: I contacted nPower two weeks ago and asked them if I qualified to have my bill wiped out because of their previous failings and they said that they would look into it.

I had set up a payment plan about 3 weeks ago to pay them about £50 a month to settle the bill of c£480 they had sent me as they were threatening to send it to the debt collectors. When I called, they said I was ok not to make any more payments while they looked into my request.

Yesterday I received a reminder that my payment was overdue. The letter was dated 7 August, telling me to make a payment by 13 August and it arrived on, yes 13 August!

So I called them this morning to tell them I was waiting for them to come back to me about wiping the bill, the lady I spoke to (Jane) checked the notes on my case and told me that my request had been denied. Should someone have told me that I asked? Yes, you should have received a letter, she said. Well I haven't I replied. Yet another case of the total lack of communication from nPower!

I reminded her that my original complaint was that I did not receive any bill from nPower until 11 months into my contract with them and that the bill they had send was incorrect due to their computer system being unable to cope with my meter going round the clock (9999 back to 0000). I had pursued my complaint with them to the Ombudsman because they had not been able to produce a correct bill at any time for me until over 6 months after I left. I had then asked them to set up a payment plan for me which they did not. They then wrote to me over a year later with a reminder to settle my bill. How is this not total mis-management of my account?!?!

I am now waiting for a call back from a Charles Chastney who is apparently the handler dealing with my Ombudsman complaint and have been promised a call back within 24 hours.

Box_of_Frogs_2

Consumerist wrote: »

When is the utterly useless "regulator" :rotfl: going to DO SOMETHING about this cowboy company?

I think it's time for mistreated customers to have a chat with their MP.

Its not just the regulator that is useless, when I complained to the Ombudsman they were hopeless. Took them 4 weeks to look into my complaint and they then came back to me saying they had sorted it out by agreeing that nPower would send me an up to date bill. That was what I had been waiting for from nPower, had not got and had complained to the Ombudsman to try and get!! :mad:

splatofsurrey

After 8 months of waiting for my final bill from npower I received 6 in 7 days! Thankfully whilst trying to make sense of them I then received a letter telling me that my balance was being wiped so, relieved, I thought everything was fine. Today I receive a reminder for one of the final bills. I called up just to double-check it was a system issue and I could just ignore it and then was told that whilst there is a team working through the backlog of bills to wipe in the meantime the claims process will still continue! I had to ask to get my account put on stop for one month and then was told - and this really took the biscuit - that I would need to call then back after the month to check that everything had been resolved. If it hasn't I'll need to request that my account is put on hold again.




So, warning to anyone else who has received the same letter, don't assume everything is ok. You might still receive reminder letters and if you do, don't put them to one side call them and keep calling until you have final confirmation that the account has been cleared.

Medway_Gal

I switched my gas and electricity away from npower in April of last year (that's 16 months ago) and NEVER received any final bills despite phoning them asking for one.


Today I received a chasing letter saying I still owe a gas bill for over £200. I don't know what to do, will I get another final electric bill for a similar amount? or should I pay it only to find the electricity was in credit and spend a similar amount of time trying to get it back?


Ofgem's code of practice, says suppliers can't bill customers for energy used more than a year ago, as long the reason for not paying in the first place is the supplier's fault - so I think as I asked for a final bill over a year ago and they didn't send me one, I have a right to complain.


So, do I have to pay before I complain? If so, do I complain to npower first, then when no joy contact Ofgem, or can I go to Ofgem direct now?


Any advice would be welcomed.

Blueye_2

I can't sleep with stress. For over a year npower have given my mum nothing but grief. Messing up direct debit payments, not taking the money, taking more out than agreed, etc the list is endless. We finished with them when we moved in May and told them of our new address so they could send a final bill. We received a letter in July apologising for all the problems caused and as a way of apology they were not going to send us a final bill. 19/08/14 we received a final bill for over £400 (over period 01/05/14-29/06/14 I think) to be paid by 20/08/14. Sent apparently on 06/08/14 if their date on the letter is anything to go by. I can only presume they're backdating these letters. Rang them up no record of a letter writing off a bill I even read it to them. They would need to look into it. Meanwhile they now tell my mum they will write off £129 but can not send that information to her in writing. It's not what they do. They tell mum she will need set up payment plan of £x over x months as you guessed it totals for the full amount. Mum refused so while they try sort it their end it will automatically be sent to debt collectors now before they are able to sort anything more out. We are bricking it. Mum's going to pay it soon as well, I can tell Any help with contact numbers would be fab. Thank you.

Neagle

Below is the new Back Billing Policy that we started enforcing as of 17th June 2014, Prior to that the only rule was ‘customers who have not received their final bill or bill within 12 months will be eligible for a write off’ everyone else receives their final bill or bill within 12 months are liable to pay. I believe that Mr Eagle left our supply in June 2013 and received hes final bill on 13.02.14 hense before 17th June 2014 when the policy was put in place so no write or refund would be giving, I am very sorry Nina that this does sound unfair

Following on from our previous decision to amend the Aged Final Bill cut off from 12 months to 6 months, we have now decided to amend this further by bringing the cut off date down to 4 months.
You will remember this change in Policy followed media coverage and Money Saving Expert highlighting issues around complaints from customers that had left npower or closed their accounts via Home Move, only to receive bills months later.
As a result of our billing issues and system issues, we’ve reviewed this policy again to ensure we do not disadvantage our customers because of our failings. So again to be completely fair, we are again going slightly further than the industry billing code in relation to certain customers affected by our billing issues.
We have also looked at and made some changes to customer accounts where the Final balance is £75.00 or less and the closure date is over 42 days old.
We will now apply the following rules:

The affected customers are those who left us before 13 March 2014 (i.e. up to and including 12 March).


If we haven’t sent a final bill dated before 11 July 2014, they will have any unbilled debt cleared. If the customer owes us money from a previously sent bill, that part of the balance won’t be reduced.


If we have sent a final bill dated before 11 July 2014, they must still pay it. These customers have used a commodity and have been billed correctly; therefore no failing on our behalf. It is only right and fair that they pay for what they have used.


Where the balance on an account is £75.00 or less, and is 42 days or older, we will now write off any unbilled consumption. These will effect customers without an account up to and including 4 June 2014


If a customer has paid money towards their final bill by debit card OR continued to make direct debit payments towards their final bill, but has yet to receive it, these amounts will have been applied to their account and



Ive also been informed that for a breakdown of the account you will need to fill in some forms (I have sent these out and they will be with you shortly), once you receive these forms if you can fill them in and be very specific on the information you would like us to send you then send the forms back to us within 30 days that would be great, the address will be included in the forms where to send them, it will also ask for a £10 cheque to be included as an administration fee.