npower never notified us that we were underpaying

Torry_Quine

npowerarerubbish wrote: »

My housemate the lead tenant just got back to me - she checked the metre in July 2013, Nov 2013, May 2014 and June 2014, and told npower each time. Does that make any difference? I've just been chatting to my Uncle who's a solicitor who says there's probably nothing we can do, except maybe get them to allow us to pay in instalments.

Did the bills actually show these readings or were they still estimates?

Cornucopia

Nada666 wrote: »

Not just students - graduates. And not one of them bothered to note they were paying a fraction of what they were using. On at least four occasions. But it is not their fault, it is npower's. Who says admission standards are not falling.

It seems like they didn't really understand the way it worked.

But as for not noticing what was on the bills - I don't think we're there, yet.

macman

You are not entitled to any 'compensation'-you have already have extended credit on what you owe, due to your own failure to check the bills properly-. If meter readings were supplied but not used for the actual billing, then why did you not query it at the time of billing?
What has probably happened is that the system rejected the reads because it believed them to be erroneous, and has billed you on estimated readings -which is clearly marked on the bill.
All you can do is negotiate a repayment schedule. And remember that you are all jointly and severally liable for the entire bill-not just a proportion of it.

npowerarerubbish

Just to clarify - we understand that we used that much energy so have to pay for it, it's just frustrating that we weren't informed of underpaying, as then we wouldn't have used anywhere near as much! We didn't receive any bills throughout the year, npower just took £45 each month from her account then we paid her back, then we got this bill for £1k the other day.

As for the lovely and oh so helpful "admissions standards must be falling" comment... For the record, we were three undergrads (we graduated two weeks ago), who lived in halls for the first two years, so this was our first experience paying bills (halls were all inclusive). Yes, we've made a mistake, and are now paying for it (literally) and will learn for the future. I'm not quite sure what admissions standards have to do with it, they must have recently removed the housekeeping and billing segment of our History degree programme...

SeduLOUs

People are possibly being a little harsh, but generally I agree.

I never trust any provider to get my bills 'right' because it is more often than not just asking for trouble. If you're not receiving any bills then you need to get on the phone and ask for them.

Learn the lesson for the future to take responsibility and to check details for yourself. NPower certainly wouldn't have written to let you know if you'd been giving them too much money all these years...

Modgepodge

Hang on a minute. You've paid £45 per month, and n power are now saying you owe an extra £100 per month - all just on electricity?! Or does that include gas? What did your heating run on?

My partner and I paid £105 per month for both from n power, in a 3 bed house. I recognise 3 individuals may use more than a couple, but this still seems like a huge bill. I'd be querying whether it was correct I think.

Torry_Quine

If you never received any bills then why didn't you at least got in touch to check that the amount was covering your useage.

Majestic12

GingerBob wrote: »

They could have come round to read THEIR meter. Why should the customer do THEIR work for nothing?

Oh please, reading meters should be an essential skill to life, just like opening and running a bank account.

The majority of energy suppliers actually encourage for people to take readings, it is in your own interest.

joeblack9

Advise for students ask Mr Google as all the answers are there. ignorance is no defence.if you check a utillity companys contract it will state you must give readings once every six months ,this can also be seen on the companys web sites.
Common sense if only you could teach this.

nPower

npowerarerubbish wrote: »

Three of us lived in a student house from September 2013 - June 2014. Before we moved in, npower estimated that electricity would be £45 a month. We were then charged £45 each month. My housemate who was the lead tenant has just received an npower bill for an additional £1,082.23. Apparently we've been underpaying each month, but they never notified us about it. An npower rep admitted over the phone that this was their mistake due to a system error. Yes, we did use that much electricity, but if we'd been notified we were ever overspending then after the first month we would have been really vigilant about our electricity use, and wouldn't have any where near as much as this to pay! We are three broke recent graduates, I was supposed to be moving out of my parents' next weekend, and will now have to put that off for another month. As npower were supposed to notify us, we were wondering if there's anything we can get from them, some kind of compensation? Any help at all as this has really shaken us!

Hi there,

Thanks for your post. If you'd like to send us an email to the email address showing on our profile page we'll take a closer look and see what's happened.

Thanks

David