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

AndyFa_2

Trying to get a final bill from Npower for past 5 months. Paid by monthly direct debit - on 10 March had credit of £870.52. In April that became debit of £277.14, despite Npower cutting monthly direct debit because of low energy use. I now discover, through wasting hours of my life chasing, that is only an estimate. Despite sending the final gas reading three times, Npower cannot find any of them Arrgghh.

triathleterob

I switched from npower in July 2013 to M&S Energy as suggested by the cheap energy club.

I supplied meter readings to both companies as requested.
I received a refund of £66 from npower and my accounts were closed. I've heard nothing from them since until today when they sent me a bill for £190!

I remember ringing them when I got my refund as I was expecting more. They checked it and reassured me it was correct so I left it at that.

Confused!!

Update Feb 15

After many phone calls and emails, all of which made no progress, I resorted to writing to Npower. Twice. They didn't answer my questions in the first letter. By this time I'm getting letters from their debt collecting agency threatening to take me to court. Still no progress so I go to Citizens Advice. To cut a long story short it seems Npower didn't bill me for gas for a quarter - Dec 12 to March 13. As it was over 12 months after that date that they billed me for it, they couldn't enforce the bill. So why did they bill me in the first place? Why did I have to get Citizens Advice involved to finally get to the truth? They gave £100 compensation for all my time and inconvenience. The end x

puglet14

Mike114 wrote: »

Left npower over 18 months ago, gave me a refund. Now I've recieved a bill for £250 for electricity. When I phoned to complain, they told me I also owed £250 for my gas! I've lodged a complaint!!!

And have you got an answer from your complaint? I made one 23/04/2014 no reply as yet they are totally hopeless and what happens if none of us pay their 'EXTRA CHARGES' we got a refund after 'FINAL BILL' paid then 6 months after moving out got another bill joke, they aint getting a penny however many letters from debt collectors I get as I have a bill that says final bill paid.

whydoudoit

Pay your bills

Consumerist

whydoudoit wrote: »

You can get all of your money back from npower but i doubt i can share here, many customers will just pay and move on and this is exactly what they want. Those who fight back are pointed towards the complaints dept and from there its just a waiting game for months/years. I would like to see one of these letters if someone can upload to the forum hiding your personal details of course.

So you would like someone to post their complaint letter but you don't feel you can share anything with us.

Try another forum. I doubt we'll miss you.

ms60

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.

You're wrong. I had npower and never once received a statement for electricity, despite many many many calls. They just couldn't add it to my computerized account. Nor could they add my direct debit. Nor did they properly bill me for gas. I did switch after 5 months and have now left npower - still having not a knowing how much my energy with npower cost.

SoniaJM

The cynic in me wonders if this is an rather underhand tactic to stop people switching away from them?

I'm a current npower customer (to be fair I haven't had any problems with them so far, and the MSE energy club still rates them as my best deal apart from one where I could save £4 per year) - but I've caught myself thinking that unless it's for significant savings I'm not going to bother switching due to the potential hassle I could get.

Just a thought...

Consumerist

SoniaJM wrote: »

. . . I'm a current npower customer (to be fair I haven't had any problems with them so far, . . .

When you say you haven't had any problems so far, how long have you been with them and are you receiving regular statements based on your meter readings? Many are not receiving bills and those who do get them find they are based on estimated readings, even though actual readings have been provided.

You may be one of the lucky ones.

whydoudoit

Consumerist wrote: »

So you would like someone to post their complaint letter but you don't feel you can share anything with us.

Try another forum. I doubt we'll miss you.

Stop assuming I do not want to share anything, that is simply brainwashing members to dislike me or ignore.

Look at your last sentence, again brainwashing members. What are you afraid of consumerist? I can help these members hence why It would be good to upload one of these letters so I can explain.

Stop being a troll consumerist

Consumerist

whydoudoit wrote: »

You can get all of your money back from npower but i doubt i can share here, . . . .

Sorry, it must have been the phrase "but I doubt I can share here" that misled me.

If you feel you can help then why not share your wisdom with us? Why do you need to see other people's complaint letters?

If there is a technique to solve the problems customers have with npower then we would all be pleased to hear about it; there are plenty of postings of these problems. You have indicated that there are solutions but you haven't yet offered any.