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

tbones1957

I joined npower on 16th October 2013. I have posted about npower on here before. From day one npower were utterly useless. I had an official complaint in within 2 months, after which, I contacted executive complaints. They lie to you (to me on at least 3 occasions) and give out false information. I asked a member of the executive complaints team when the "new" computer system was introduced, as this was clearly the problem, as npower could not set up a gas account from the beginning. I quote "July 2011". So npower had known since July 2011, that they were unable to give the service claimed to many, particularly online customers, or indeed honour the contract they agreed to! This would appear to be the case for ALL gas customers on online direct debit, though as npower will say "not all customers were affected?!" Having gone through the correct channels at 8 weeks from the complaint, I wrote a 5 page letter to the ombudsman, with 92 pages of evidence copied from my npower account. A short while later, I informed npower that I had contacted my solicitor & would be suing them for all the trouble they had caused. Within days npower offered to remove my outstanding balance of £156+ and allow me to switch to another supplier. Thus I had free energy from February to April!
I would advise all "online" customers of npower, to copy online pages, give monthly readings (even though these may not be registered or later removed by npower) and immediately go through the complaints system. You have to do this to get to the ombudsman. I could have taken it to court & would have won hands down, but I was exhausted with the stress & just wanted it all to end. Still I'm financially better off and rid of the worst energy supplier ever!! If in doubt don't let them get away with it!

mrbobsy

Nice to see it's not just us with NPower problems (plus Scottish Power, just to add to the mix).

We switched supplier from NPower to Scottish Power in April last year, but only received a final bill for £270 in September. It's only within the last 3 months that I thought about how excessive it was, so I checked the bill and discovered that we were £300 in credit for the electricity BUT the gas charges were £570 (this was during summer!!!).

Further investigation has shown that both NPower and Scottish Power have recorded different meter readings at switchover. NPower have used a figure that is too high and Scottish Power have used a figure that is too low. I'm still trying to get Scottish Power to pull their fingers out of orrifice and actually do something about it. My problem is that I must have provided a meter reading last April, but I don't know what it was. Even so, they should have both used the same figure. I reckon that between them they owe us something like £600-£700.

Up until the final bill problems we never had any issue with NPower, my current energy gripes are all aimed at Scottish Power - 3 months of explaining the same problem over and over again without any progress :mad:

sazi-666

I am disgusted with npower! I have had problems with them ever since I was automatically put onto one of their contracts when I moved into my property in 2011. They first just put me onto a contract they wanted to and never asked my previous usage etc. (Would like to say this was the first time I had to sort a energy bill as this was my first property as my husband's ex gf had always sorted his in past so I was new to all this) I thought this was normal practice. After about 4 months I was shocked to have received a £500 bill even though I had been paying via direct debit. Agreed to a debt payment plan to pay this off. My direct debit was increased to £156 from £84. To cut a long drawn out story short, I decided to leave them as soon as I could in March. I have now only just received my final bill which is now for £700!!!! I dont believe I owe all this money! Currently waiting on their reply to my complaint! I've found many errors on this bill which when I spoke to them, got told it must be right! Now my credit report is saying I have gone from being excellent to poor because npower are now saying I'm still with them and have not paid my gas for 6 months even though I left them in March and when i was with them, I paid both gas and electricity through one direct debit! Yet another issue I have to sort when I am 34 weeks pregnant and dont need this stress!

samthecanary

Hi, I wonder if anyone can help me? I have been with N-power for at least 3 years and I have been trying to get a bill off them for about 15 months now. I noticed back in Feb 2013 that I hadn't had a bill in quite a while so I contacted them and they said they would send me one. Another few months pass and still no bill so I call again in June 2013 and repeat my request. Again they apologise and say they've been having problems with their system and would send me one asap.
It has now been well over a year since I received my last bill and despite now 6 calls to them to request one and to make complaints about not getting one for so long, I still have no bill. They said that they would give me a £40 reduction as a goodwill gesture but that was in my 4th chasing call and there have been 2 more since then and still no bill!!
I am worried now as we are meant to be moving house soon and I would like to tie things up - if I don't get a bill, will I be black listed later? and the other concern is the huge amount that I will be present with.
I cannot bear to waste anymore time chasing N power to give me a bill - each call takes 30+ mins to call, get through, explain the situation again and try and get them to rectify it. What should I do now???

ziderman

I thought I'd share this corker I've had ongoing with NPower. It's incompetency at the highest level that I wouldn't know whether to laugh or cry! Here's a brief overview of the debacle:

* I tried to sign up for an account with NPower in July 2013. This all seemed to go well until I tried to give my initial readings. It turns out they had transferred 2 random electricity and gas supplies within the street that wasn't mine and put them under my name.

* I asked for these to be closed down and sent back, as I didn't want to pay for something that isn't mine and to try and transfer my actual supplies across. It turns out I couldn't switch my actual supplies across until these were removed from the account.

* They attempted to transfer back these supplies and the old supplier refused it apparently as someone had moved out around the same period and assumed this was me as new occupant. This was around October 2013 and at this point I gave up trying to move my existing supplies and went with a new supplier who could actually transfer my utilities correctly.

* I raised a complaint with NPower complaints department just before Christmas 2013, as nothing was going right through the standard call centre methods.

* Chased this in Feb 2014 when a hefty bill for £1,030.24 came through for energy use that wasn't mine. I was told my original complaint I had made was open and closed on the same day. A new complaint was open at this time on 3rd Feb 2014.

* The straw that broke the camels back with this one is that I have had another bill through in April 2014 demanding £1,192.16 AND NPower had set up an unauthorised direct debit on my bank account. This is over 6 months since I cancelled the original one. Luckily i cancelled that before it was due. This is all whilst they never actually had any of my supplies!

Safe to say I'll NEVER attempt to use them again

Diamonds2010

I wish I could move from Npower too. I did all my billing online and it was up to date only to suddenly be hit with 5 bills in one go now owe them £1183.00. Not happy about it but what can I do I could complain but don't think that will get me anywhere with them. I now have a monthly payment plan in-line to pay it off but that was only after several calls later they got that up and running. I'm trying to get Debt Free and getting there as well as I can and then they go and do this and record it on my Credit File.

Nick44

Hi,
I switched from N-Power to First Utility in March.
I had a hefty credit balance with N-Power.
The meter readings were all done correctly and both First Utility and N-Power confirm this.
I waited the statuary time for N-Power to produce a closing account, they didn't, but e-mailed me to apologise that they hadn't.
I called them several times ( hours spent waiting in call centre queue ) and then they told me there was a technical issue and I would have to raise a complaint.
I raised a complaint, and then suddenly N-Power have another 60 days to fix it/refund me until the complaint clock runs out.


They have written to me noting the complaint.


I never had a problem with N-Power before, but I do find this staggering. They tell me that they have all the figures, that they can work out the closing account manually, but they can't issue a bill/credit coz the computer says no.


In the meantime I have also received another letter from them telling me I may be entitled to compensation because the first time I tried to switch they misrepresented the difference between their tariffs and those of First utility.


It has left a nasty taste, I did think N-Power were Ok as a company, but not anymore. I would like my money back, as they managed to bill me way over my usage before I switched.

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

samthecanary wrote: »

Hi, I wonder if anyone can help me? I have been with N-power for at least 3 years and I have been trying to get a bill off them for about 15 months now. I noticed back in Feb 2013 that I hadn't had a bill in quite a while so I contacted them and they said they would send me one. Another few months pass and still no bill so I call again in June 2013 and repeat my request. Again they apologise and say they've been having problems with their system and would send me one asap.
It has now been well over a year since I received my last bill and despite now 6 calls to them to request one and to make complaints about not getting one for so long, I still have no bill. They said that they would give me a £40 reduction as a goodwill gesture but that was in my 4th chasing call and there have been 2 more since then and still no bill!!
I am worried now as we are meant to be moving house soon and I would like to tie things up - if I don't get a bill, will I be black listed later? and the other concern is the huge amount that I will be present with.
I cannot bear to waste anymore time chasing N power to give me a bill - each call takes 30+ mins to call, get through, explain the situation again and try and get them to rectify it. What should I do now???

Stop contacting them. The back billing code would almost certainly apply in your case (sub-clause 9). You are therefore only liable for energy for the previous 12 months - every day you are effectively getting free energy.

http://www.energy-uk.org.uk/publication/finish/43-code-of-practice-for-accurate-bills/412-the-code-of-practice-for-accurate-bills-back-billing-for-domestic-customers.html

Kaybay

When we stitched from npower we received our final bill quite promptly - showing we were in CREDIT
Rang to get refund processed and told it would be sent
Next month rang again - told it would be sent
Next month rang again - its under investigation and they would contact me
Next month rang again - it was being investigated as meter readings did not match (but new supplier was quite happy with the readings even though we were told npower were waiting for Scottish powder to contact them)
Phoned Scottish power- they'd had no such request from npower
Rang npower- this time told they were waiting finalise final bill before processing refund
Explained we'd had final bill and they said this was electric bill and not the gas one (the paperwork we'd received said "gas and electric")

They were adamant that they were still producing gas bill
So after about 6 months we receive a bill for over £400 with NO REFUND
I'm still paying this by irect debit to pay off the bill at the same time as paying my news suppliers for energy and wee a on a very tight maternity pay budget at the moment

It seems they just don't care - all they want is more money

bryan.steiner

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays wrote: »

Stop contacting them. The back billing code would almost certainly apply in your case (sub-clause 9). You are therefore only liable for energy for the previous 12 months - every day you are effectively getting free energy.

http://www.energy-uk.org.uk/publication/finish/43-code-of-practice-for-accurate-bills/412-the-code-of-practice-for-accurate-bills-back-billing-for-domestic-customers.html

Thanks -that link to the Code of Practice could come in very useful in my claim against nPower who have not provided me with a final closure bill or any information since April 2013.