Npower billing errors

brynglas

Hi i apologise for the length of this! but I do all my meter reading correspondence etc via npowers web site. I have been providing meter readings quite regularly because they just don't seem to issue any bills, recently it said my bill would due on 16 th june 2014, last one produced was June 2012, on checking on 17th June I find they have change my bill date to December 2014. Got fed up on 3 July so rang them an asked for a bill, advisor thought this strange until I said I was £3200 in credit according to their site as they have not produced a bill for over 2 years for me. She said she would update the meter readings an pass me through to billings, as this would need to be calculated manually. I spoke to a guy in billing ( I have his first name as I write everything down). Who apologised and said it was npower error and thanked me for bringing it to their attention. He then proceeded to tell me that as I had not been billed for over 2 years they could only bill me to the gas and electric that I had used over the last 12 months, this I was pleasantly surprised by and repeated this back to him, the words he used were we can only bill you for the last 12 months usage ( again I've wrote this down), i was now getting excited as we talked about he fact that I had paid monthly so realistically I should get approx 1/2 back taking into consideration costs have gone up this may alter slightly. He explained it would be anything up to 28 days to resolve but the refund would be on about page 7ish of the final bill which would be fore the dates 4/7/13 - 3/7/14. I would not be paying for the previous 12 months as it was their error., guess what today I have received a bill asking me for £122.56, rung up and I've basically been told that everything I was told was incorrect and that I owe them???? Even though according to the web site my usage based on readings over the last 12 months is down 19%, I have asked for them to recall the telephone conversation that I had which they said they would charge me £10 for , which would prove everything that I have said was true. Any suggestions on how I log a complaint about this? Not going to get anywhere over the phone, the advisor said she was right so I said your other colleague also told me he was right! Apparently there is a 'back billing clause'. Any further info on this?

dogshome

The Customer Service desk staffer gave you a correct explanation of the "12 month back-billing" limitation, but typically of Service Desk staff, wasn't trained well enough to realise it would not be applied to your account,

The " 12 month Back-billing Agreement" was brought in to save customers from BILL SHOCK when suppliers had failed to send a bill for over a year.

However, as you've been paying N'power D/Debits over the unbilled period, you have built up a large credit that will largely cancel out the bill when it does arrive, and so probably won't suffer BILL SHOCK

If the bill soaks up all your credit and still leaves a big amount outstanding, then it's worth making a claim under "12 month back-billing"

brynglas

Found this on 'this is money.co.uk,

Energy UK says: 'Under the Code, where the suppliers are at fault in not billing a domestic customer, they will not send a bill which includes unbilled energy consumed more than one year previous to the bill being issued.
'This clause confirms the suppliers’ commitment to bill customers regularly and accurately, and imposes limitations on the circumstances where customers can be billed for previously unbilled energy that is more than 12 months old.

'Where suppliers issue a bill which has these principles applied, they will credit the account with the value of the unbilled energy consumed over 12 months ago, taking into consideration any payments already made by the customer or credits applied to the account, so that the customer is not required to pay any additional sums towards this previously unbilled energy consumption.
'This would include circumstances where a supplier has failed to set up or maintain accurate metering data, or where a supplier has ignored factual readings and has continued to bill based on estimated or inaccurate readings without investigation .

This seems to suggest that even though I have paid direct debit they can only back bill me 12 months?

insanegloss

If you're thinking all your payments will only count towards your bill from the last 12 months and you get the rest back, you're misunderstanding it.

Essentially all the payments you made before that last 12 months will go towards the bill for that period. It's only if you owed any more at this point that your account should be credited with that difference. All your payments in the last 12 months will go against the bill you've ran up in that time and the remainder is your balance be that in credit or debit.

jdch

We are in exactly the same situation, having not been billed for 2 years and a credit of around 8500.

Some people say this is not bill shock so the 12 month rule does not apply, however when npower had the threat from ofgem that action would be taken if they did not correct the billing issues, the following was published by ofgem:


2. Backbilling
(i) npower to state clearly that it is a signatory to the Backbilling Code and give a commitment that it will not bill any customer, or former customer, for consumption that occurred more than 12 months ago where npower is/was at fault for the delay or dispute.

(ii) npower to state that if a current or former customer has already received such an invoice (as at 2(i)) then the customer is not required to pay, and npower will give an assurance that it will issue refunds to any customers that have already paid their bill in these circumstances.

(iii) npower to restate its recent promise to go beyond the Backbilling code by not asking for payment for the energy used by anyone who left npower before December 2013 and still hasn’t received a final bill, as long as there wasn’t any previous debt that a customer had been told about.


This clearly states payment will be returned, I would say. I hope this is helpful. It is also on npower's website somewhere.

I must have rung a dozen times, with people saying they will call to issue the refund, a bill will be produced etc etc..... They really should give credits back as they are not a bank and it is not the customers fault.

I don't know what to do next either.

brynglas

jdch

Thanks for that bit of information, I have now logged a complaint with npower and am awaiting their reply. The mixed messages I have got are unbelievable. basically what they have now said is:- If I hadnt been paying by direct debit they would have only charged me for the last 12months under the back billing policy, but as I have struggled and paid them every month then the back billing policy doesnt apply??? so thats more conflicting information from npower staff. I wull update when they eventually reply but couldnt give me a time scale other than ofgem allows them 66 days to reply. I'm counting !!!

jdch

Yes please tell me how you get on, we received our bill today (after 2 years waiting) which surprise surprise used all but 100 of our credit. They said on the phone that the usage over a year would be credited back to our account, so I will wait and see!!

Good luck!

Cardew

brynglas wrote: »

jdch

Thanks for that bit of information, I have now logged a complaint with npower and am awaiting their reply. The mixed messages I have got are unbelievable. basically what they have now said is:- If I hadnt been paying by direct debit they would have only charged me for the last 12months under the back billing policy, but as I have struggled and paid them every month then the back billing policy doesnt apply???

The first part is certainly correct. i.e. had you not paid anything at all over the last 2 years, they could have only back-billed you for the last 12 months consumption.


This is the voluntary code of practice on back-billing.


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

The relevant part that will be unwelcome to you is:

If suppliers are found to be at fault, an adjustment will be made to reflect any deficit of payments over 12 months old.

My understanding is that if you paid, say, £1200(12 x £100) in the first year and the bill was, say, £1250 you would be refunded £50.




There have been a number of cases reported on MSE where those customers who have paid by DD have not had the back-billing code applied to period before the last 12 months.

The second post in this thread sums up the situation.

Cardew

jdch wrote: »

We are in exactly the same situation, having not been billed for 2 years and a credit of around 8500.

Some people say this is not bill shock so the 12 month rule does not apply, however when npower had the threat from ofgem that action would be taken if they did not correct the billing issues, the following was published by ofgem:


2. Backbilling
(i) npower to state clearly that it is a signatory to the Backbilling Code and give a commitment that it will not bill any customer, or former customer, for consumption that occurred more than 12 months ago where npower is/was at fault for the delay or dispute.

(ii) npower to state that if a current or former customer has already received such an invoice (as at 2(i)) then the customer is not required to pay, and npower will give an assurance that it will issue refunds to any customers that have already paid their bill in these circumstances.

(iii) npower to restate its recent promise to go beyond the Backbilling code by not asking for payment for the energy used by anyone who left npower before December 2013 and still hasn’t received a final bill, as long as there wasn’t any previous debt that a customer had been told about.


This clearly states payment will be returned, I would say. I hope this is helpful. It is also on npower's website somewhere.

I must have rung a dozen times, with people saying they will call to issue the refund, a bill will be produced etc etc..... They really should give credits back as they are not a bank and it is not the customers fault.

I don't know what to do next either.

I don't think it clearly states payment in the OP's circumstances above(i.e. payment by DD) will be returned.


My reading is that should the customer have paid nothing in the 2 year period, and subsequently paid a bill for the whole 2 years supply, he would be entitled to a refund for the first 12 months.

joeblack9

Its only if you have not paid anything while waiting to be billed that they can only bill you for the last 12 months if you didnt recieve a bill due to their new billing system not being able to calculate and send out a bill.so if you have been paying then dont bank on a refund

insanegloss

Cardew wrote: »

I don't think it clearly states payment in the OP's circumstances above(i.e. payment by DD) will be returned.


My reading is that should the customer have paid nothing in the 2 year period, and subsequently paid a bill for the whole 2 years supply, he would be entitled to a refund for the first 12 months.

Its all to do with the timing of the payments. If they were unbilled for two years and then paid the 2 years only upon receipt of the bill, they would get 1 years worth back as a refund.

If however as seems to be in this case, they've been paying continuously, all the payments made over 12 months ago from the bill being produced would be counted towards the bill and would not be refunded and any credit would go towards the following 12 months.