Naughty npower AGAIN!

moneymattersnatter

Evening all, I've never posted to a forum before but can see there is a world of information out there - please help!

I've just found out that npower carried on taking Direct Debit payments from the account after I switched to OVO.

Ovo made out this is a massive taboo, I will get the "illegally" taken payments back from my bank via an indemnity claim (done) and then should press for compensation.

They took six payments over five months totalling £416.44.

They are offering me £25 compensation.

I don't think that seems a lot to own up to their mistake and I've said I need to get some further advice before accepting any sum.

Is £25 enough compensation to cover £416.44 taken "illegally"?

I often think that companies will have one sum for people like me (who don't really like confrontation) and another for those who push hard. I'd like to get what I think is reasonable - £25 would cover the cost of me spending an hour between Ovo, my bank and them to get to this point - not the compensation itself.

I'd want more from them if they stole it from my purse...

Any advice or previous experience would be lovely.

Thanks in advance for any help that can be offered!

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

They should pay you the money back (done) and interest at 8 percent. The £25 covers this. If you feel you're owed more by way of damages you can raise a civil claim at the county court.

It was a mistake which they've corrected. Not even npower will sit there thinking "let's see if we can steal money from ex customers". Thankfully we don't live in an American style compensation culture yet, they will be expected to make good their error, which it looks like they've done

moneymattersnatter

Thank you so much Bluebirdman! I've never experienced anything like this before so just wanted to check. It was so funny - OVO seemed quite excited and even a little pleased that it had happened (As though they were snitching on a sibling) and made out it was really, really bad. I just thought £25 isn't that much if it was such a colossal mistake.

On that note though - I switched to OVO knowing they had really poor customer service reviews, but they've been really helpful tonight!

renaholmes

Hi I came home from work today to find NPower letter stating that as they had not issued me with a bill when I left them they were going to write off the balance. Me being me called them to find out I was nearly £110 in credit. Call handler was willing to send balance in chq form which would take 10 working days. I said ok girl started doing the refund I asked her to put me through to the complaints department. After at least a 15 mins wait she came back to say that as I wanted to complain they would be holding on to my cash as I may owe them money for gas. I informed her that all balances were to be written off according to letter but she would not do refund nor would complaints take my call or call me back. I asked that her supervisor call me back. Supervisor called back some 10 mins later I explained why I was angry and that they had held onto my money for 26 months yes 26 months and if I hadn't called would I ever have seen the money. He then did a BACS transfer and gave me £25.00 goodwill gesture. So if you have ever had any services from NPower and you never know like me you to could be nearly £135.00 better of this week.

bengal-stripe

moneymattersnatter wrote: »

They took six payments over five months totalling £416.44.

How come you didn't spot it after the first payment was taken?

moneymattersnatter

I didn't spot the mistake as I am a fully time working mum with two kids under three, with no local family or friends to help, a 91 yo dependent grandfather and a life to boot!

Before the kids I used to check my statements religiously and have never had any reason to complain. I've also switched energy providers every couple of years and never had to cancel any direct debits. In fact, it is all part of the service that once you've signed to switch you don't need to do anything else.

moneymattersnatter

Might be changing my mind about the helpfulness of this site... ;^)

Thanks for all your advice though. But I'm definitely going to go with some other advice I got from mumsnet: Take to Twitter and scream the place down.

If i was to accept £25 that is nearly £10 short of the 8% advised. There is no indication that their process will have improved, and I have had to spend an hour of my time to resolve it. So I will push harder for what I think is fair (and yes, their profit margins are also part of my reasoning.)

I suppose we will all have different measures of what we will accept as fair and I know £25 for illegally taking my money seems like an insult.

Wish me well!!!

MothballsWallet

Mumsnet isn't always the greatest for reliable information, David Cameron listens to it for crying out loud! (I'm surprised he hasn't passed a Bill for making having kids compulsory by now.)

However, their advice about Twitter is good: tweeting can get a faster response because of it being open.

nPower

moneymattersnatter wrote: »

Evening all, I've never posted to a forum before but can see there is a world of information out there - please help!

I've just found out that npower carried on taking Direct Debit payments from the account after I switched to OVO.

Ovo made out this is a massive taboo, I will get the "illegally" taken payments back from my bank via an indemnity claim (done) and then should press for compensation.

They took six payments over five months totalling £416.44.

They are offering me £25 compensation.

I don't think that seems a lot to own up to their mistake and I've said I need to get some further advice before accepting any sum.

Is £25 enough compensation to cover £416.44 taken "illegally"?

I often think that companies will have one sum for people like me (who don't really like confrontation) and another for those who push hard. I'd like to get what I think is reasonable - £25 would cover the cost of me spending an hour between Ovo, my bank and them to get to this point - not the compensation itself.

I'd want more from them if they stole it from my purse...

Any advice or previous experience would be lovely.

Thanks in advance for any help that can be offered!

Hi moneymattersnatter,

Thanks for your post.

In terms of the overpayments, I'm sorry for the error and I'm glad you've managed to get these back using an indemnity claim. This won't have been an intentional, and likely to have been a system error following the closure of your account. We would always recommend to customers to cancel their Direct Debit once their final bill has been issued and the last payment taken, to ensure no payments are taken erroneously.

In terms of compensation, as we don't currently receive any interest from your payments, we would not look to repay and transactions with interest. As we appreciate that customers will lose out a small amount of interest had this money in your bank, if requested we would cover the interest for this at current interest rates, unless evidence was shown to support you would have obtained a higher amount. As such, and based on the interest rate of 0.05%, this would be 21p (rounded up). Without looking into your specific query further, the £25.00 sounds like a normal offer in this situation.

If you have any further questions, please feel free to email us using the details on our profile.

Thanks,

Jess

TickersPlaysPop

Dear Mr NPower rep

Question.... Is there an NPower document that states exactly what to do to when switching away from NPower to avoid all the known errors with your system? It would be in NPower's interest to publish it to decrease the incoming calls and burden on the call centre, reduce official complaints and the compensation NPower has to pay out?

Question...... What is the justification for not giving her an interest rate that is available at the time of the error? Over the past year there have been regular saver accounts offering at least 4%.... or instant access savings with no need to put money in every mth at 3%.

Also.... to the person quoting Oscar Wilde.... get a life matey, you seriously need to look again at what you posted and at apologise for the spitefulness. I will not be surprised if you reincarnate after that post.