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

rob_s0

I have had problems with Npower too. Moved out of a property in November, finalised the bills through their call centre and thought that was that. In January, they then send me a bill for electricity used after I moved out of the property, so I got in touch and told them it was wrong and that I didn't live there. Eventually they admitted they'd fouled up. For my trouble I got a couple of bottles of wine through the post which was nice!

What would have been nicer, though, would have been if they hadn't sent me another bill two months later for the same address, for gas for the same period. I was furious! I believe - touch wood - it's now sorted, but not before I had to spend hours of my own time chasing them so that they wouldn't pursue me for money I didn't owe.

Jean_Newton

I joined Npower in July 2014 for Dual Fuel. Although they deducted my electricity payment they never took my gas payment. I telephoned and emailed several times requesting they organised this but all I received was a complaints number. I decided to return to British Gas in March this year but over 10 weeks after I left I still have no final bill.

Ted55

I would love to switch from Npower, but since I joined them in December 2012 (for both gas and electricity), I have not received a gas bill, nor have they taken a DD payment from my bank. Despite several phone calls to them throughout this period, and promises from them that they will sort it out, I am still waiting for a bill some year and a half from when I joined them. It's now in the hands of the Ombudsman. The Ombudsman have warned me that a large proportion of their complaints relate to Npower and although my complaint is not too complicated, they have given it an estimated time of completion fitting for a complicated case because of Npower's complaint caseload! Never known a company like it. I cannot wait to settle up and leave!

bryan.steiner

I moved to ScottishPower in April 2013 and Npower ceased supplying my energy in mid April 2013. Yesterday, 28 May, I received reminders that final bills were outstanding. These bills have NEVER been received neither did I receive any emails informing me that bills were available on the website. Following the change of supplier I regularly visited the Npower website for several months but no bill was available and indeed on the last occasion in 2013 I was unable to access any information - the website showed that the account was closed. I have not received any postal communications from Npower since closing the account until 27 May 2014. Miraculously my website account appears to have reopened and a bill is now available. This bill is incorrect - shows the wrong tariff and the split meter readings are incorrect. I purposely rang Npower in early April when the tariff came to an end to provide meter readings before they moved me to the standard tariff prior to switching. I also phoned them following the tariff closure to confirm that they would be using these readings. They have not and some 14 months later are demanding payment that should have been made following the closure of the account. Their operating systems are inefficient and they are all too quick to blame the customer for Npower's failings.

Atidi

It looks like someone in charge demanded a change to the wording of this article before people were allowed to comment on it.

I'm sure when it was first published yesterday afternoon it said:

MoneySavingExpert is calling on Npower to wipe or reduce bills for people who had switched away and received them after six weeks.

I thought this morning, maybe I had dreamt it, but another source wrote their article at 4.30pm yesterday presumably shortly after seeing the original version and used the same wording, almost.
http://www.expressandstar.com/business/uk-money/2014/05/27/ex-npower-customers-hit-by-bills/

That has now been softened in the MSE article to:

MoneySavingExpert.com creator Martin Lewis says:....
"It must do the decent thing – wipe or at least reduce bills to a manageable amount, set up an easy repayment plan, and ensure it puts no one into fuel poverty

Anyway, what I was going to say, and it still applies to the article as revised, is

MoneySavingExpert.com creator Martin Lewis says: "Npower is punishing people for its own mistakes

Perhaps multi-millionaire, Dr Martin Lewis would consider paying the bills of affected customers himself?

After all, I don't understand why he would expect to punish remaining nPower customers with the burden of paying the cost of energy used by previous nPower customers.

If you've been affected, please let us know either via our forum, or by tweeting us. We want to build a case to push the regulator or Npower into action.

Perhaps MSE could supply us with a template response that users could post in support of this vendetta? :cool:

Kippaxlady

I moved from Npower last September to M&S as recommended by Martin Lewis on BBC Radio 2. I gave final meter readings and was told there was a balance outstanding which I arranged to pay back over the course of 5 monthly instalments of £24 which I duly did. Now some 8 months later, an email appears in my inbox from npower telling me a further final bill has been generated and that I actually now owe them another £160. I rang their customers services team, was told by one employee that the person I'd spoke to back in September had failed to look at another screen and therefore had miscalculated what I owed, then when I escalated this I was told it was due to a system error at their end. The very reason I considered moving was because npower had failed to be able to give me an accurate view of my consumption due to their system failings.

The npower complaints expert that I spoke to was rude, arrogant and unhelpful.

They are an utter disgrace.

suzylew10

We were with Npower until November last year. After the switch had been made they took an extra £100 out of our account, the following month. Then I had to telephone several times, and wait in a queue to find out why my account had not been closed and they said they had never received a final meter reading. This was a total lie, as I had given it to them twice, over the phone and my new provider had also sent it twice. We then established that they owed us over £300 and it took 3 months to retrieve it...think we should have received interest on this and compensation for the hassle. Also, once you have been given a complaint case number, I found that their telephone answering service does not give the option to be telephoned back by them, so you are stuck in their queue behind all the other poor devils, who are dissatisfied with their appalling service.

MABLE

Nada666 wrote: »

What rubbish. People know what their balance is when they switch - they have to know that to see whether or not they can switch at that time. Customers have that money in their banks earning interest - absolutely no reason why they can't hand it over to npower when they receive the bill.

Another silly campaign to try to put up the prices of fuel for customers who pay their way and to let shady customers steal money. Ridiculous story.

Nanny state springs to mind!

scotslass33

I left Npower in July last year. Got a final bill and paid straight away. Over the last year I have had Moorcroft chasing me for an unpaid bill for over £300. I've contacted Npower more than a dozen times and they can't provide any paperwork or bills to say where the £300 has come from. Still getting letters from Moorcroft who say account is on hold for the third time so they can ask Npower about the bill.

royston_vasey

I was a dual fuel customer who switched from npower in June 2013, they didn't issue a final gas bill for the period from January 2013.
In January 2014 they correctly calculated & provided a refund to clear the account, though that arrived without a final bill or calculation. That should have been the end of the story. Because they hadn't stated the account was closed I continued to view my online account and saw that npower raised & cancelled a series of further "internal" bills.
On 12 March I received an email telling me that I owed £113, this was mainly due to npower having failed to provide £100+VAT credit for a direct debit discount earned in April 2013. I immediately called npower but the call centre person would not admit that the account was cleared, but did accept that half the discount had been missed. He undertook to get the bill re-examined, but by 5 April nothing had happened so I wrote to their Complaints people.
Yesterday I received a call apologising for the delay in considering my complaint, but there was no indication of how long it would take them to reach a decision.