NPower complaints phoning back? Let's see

Lizling

When NPower closed my account 8 months ago, they provided my new suppier (Ovo) with a gas meter reading of 2800 instead of 1400. Understandably, this has meant that none of the readings I've provided to Ovo this year have been valid, because they indicate I've used negative amounts of gas, so I've been billed based on an estimated rate instead of actual usage. For a single adult in a small London flat, that's a big difference.

When I finally got a final bill with the correct reading through last week (so 8 months late), I thought 'great! Now I can finally get this sorted out and get back the £500 or so I'll have overpaid by now'.

Ooooh no.

2 hours on the phone this morning, mostly on hold to NPower, and Ovo say they raised a dispute back in February about the opening balance, but heard nothing at all back from NPower and eventually had to re-raise the dispute a couple of days ago. NPower say the dispute was resolved back on 29th July. Ovo say it definitely wasn't because there are certain industry-standard procedures that have to be followed when a dispute is resolved, but nothing has been done.


NPower's complaints team are 'phoning me back...' but not willing to say if it's going to be minutes, hours, days, weeks, months... never?

I have specifically asked that even if they can't promise when they can phone to say it's been resolved, they at least phone with an update. The answer's no.

I'm going to update this regularly until they phone. I hope you're listening, NPower rep!

naedanger

Lizling wrote: »

When NPower closed my account 8 months ago, they provided my new suppier (Ovo) with a gas meter reading of 2800 instead of 1400. Understandably, this has meant that none of the readings I've provided to Ovo this year have been valid, because they indicate I've used negative amounts of gas, so I've been billed based on an estimated rate instead of actual usage. For a single adult in a small London flat, that's a big difference.

When I finally got a final bill with the correct reading through last week (so 8 months late), I thought 'great! Now I can finally get this sorted out and get back the £500 or so I'll have overpaid by now'.

Ooooh no.

2 hours on the phone this morning, mostly on hold to NPower, and Ovo say they raised a dispute back in February about the opening balance, but heard nothing at all back from NPower and eventually had to re-raise the dispute a couple of days ago. NPower say the dispute was resolved back on 29th July. Ovo say it definitely wasn't because there are certain industry-standard procedures that have to be followed when a dispute is resolved, but nothing has been done.


NPower's complaints team are 'phoning me back...' but not willing to say if it's going to be minutes, hours, days, weeks, months... never?

I have specifically asked that even if they can't promise when they can phone to say it's been resolved, they at least phone with an update. The answer's no.

I'm going to update this regularly until they phone. I hope you're listening, NPower rep!

If you don't mind my asking was the reading npower gave your new supplier completely inconsistent with the reading npower used in the final bill they sent you?

Also I was interested to see npower closed your complaint without resolving it. I had the same experience with npower (and my complaint is still unresolved after many months). It makes me a bit suspicious that they are massaging their complaint statistics.

Good luck getting a sensible answer from npower.

Lizling

The reading they gave the new supplier was consistent with the first, completely made up final bill they sent me in December (2855) and cancelled without argument, but inconsistent with the one on my replacement final bill (1407). Tbh, I'm not still completely sure that it will be the final bill because it doesn't include a breakdown of what payments they've received.

Oh, and forgot to mention, I got off the phone with them at 11am today, so that's when the clock started for getting back to me.

undaunted

Perhaps you could try the Energy Ombudsman & see if they can nudge the pair of them into resolving it?

Lizling

After 5pm now, so doesn't look like they've just picked up the phone to Ovo and sorted it. No surprise there.

I don't think I can involve the Ombudsman until I've exhausted NPower's complaints procedure. Happy to be corrected if that's not the case. I wonder if it would be overly cynical of me to wonder if that's why they're not able to give me a timeline for even getting an update - they'll carry on 'looking into it' indefinitely.

Lizling

Into the 2nd day now and I've heard nada, Nichts, rien and zilch from NPower.

But look what I found from June:

'Npower said it would no longer send bills to customers who left it more than six months ago if the company itself was to blame for the delay.'
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-2662412/Npower-sort-billing-problems-stop-telephone-sales-says-Ofgem.html

It's repeated on the bbc and several other news sites too. Worth knowing if you've had late bills from NPower.

I left them 8 months ago so I suppose that either they're so incompetent that they don't even know their own policies or their PR people have been making things up.

Lizling

Day 3. Still nothing.

I see this thread has had well over 200 views. If this is enough to nudge even 1% of those people into not moving to NPower or moving away from them, I bet it'll have cost NPower more than employing someone for a couple of days to do nothing but fix this. They make a profit of more than a couple of hundred pounds on the average customer in total, right?

Actually I'm pretty sure this should only take a few minutes. Both companies agree on what the meter reading should be. All that needs to happen is for NPower to tell Ovo that, then phone me. I'm glad I'm not a shareholder.

naedanger

Submit a complaint using the form on the following link.

http://www.npower.com/home/help-and-support/contact-us/complaints/

Demand that npower either reopen your complaint and resolve it within a reasonable time (which you should state) or if they are not willing to do this confirm that you can take your complaint to the Energy Ombudsman. If they then fail to meet the deadline you impose then go ahead and take your complaint to the Energy Ombudsman.

Npower are required to report the number of complaints they get on their website. See here:

http://www.npower.com/home/customer/#tab-3

By complaining formally your complaint will be included in the statistics and you will help the regulator get a better idea of the appalling customer service that npower are providing.

Lizling

Thank you for taking the time to write that, but this is already an open formal complaint, which I suppose they have recorded because I've got a reference number for it. The problem is that I don't believe that they have any intention of dealing with my complaint in a reasonable time and have shown outright unwillingness to give me an update on what, if anything, they are doing.

I can't go to Ofgem with this until I've exhausted NPower's complaints procedure or waited another 8 weeks. Even then a quick google or forum search will show you that NPower will simply ignore Ofgem's decision. I thought that in the meantime, maybe a little social media pressure might help things along, or failing that, help put people off switching to them.

naedanger

Lizling wrote: »

Thank you for taking the time to write that, but this is already an open formal complaint, which I suppose they have recorded because I've got a reference number for it.

Are you sure you have an open complaint with npower as they have said (albeit very wrongly) that they have resolved it? Why do you think they said they resolved it, if not to close it in their statistics?

The problem is that I don't believe that they have any intention of dealing with my complaint in a reasonable time and have shown outright unwillingness to give me an update on what, if anything, they are doing.

I suspect you are correct.

I am in the same position. I know for a fact that npower have closed my complaint and are not recording it correctly in their statistics despite the fact they have not resolved it. And they know they have not resolved it. By not recording it as still outstanding (more that eight weeks after the Ombudsman's ruling) in their statistics they do not have the same incentive to resolve it.

I can't go to Ofgem with this until I've exhausted NPower's complaints procedure or waited another 8 weeks. Even then a quick google or forum search will show you that NPower will simply ignore Ofgem's decision. I thought that in the meantime, maybe a little social media pressure might help things along, or failing that, help put people off switching to them.

I agree with this as well. However in the hopefully unlikely event you do need to go to the Ombudsman have you a clear date when the 8 week clock started ticking? Personally I would send npower a further email to try to get them to answer quickly. If they have closed your complaint they may well prefer to resolve it quickly rather than having to reopen it.

Lizling

naedanger wrote: »

Are you sure you have an open complaint with npower as they have said (albeit very wrongly) that they have resolved it?

It's not my complaint that they claim to have resolved - it's the dispute between them and Ovo, raised by Ovo.

naedanger wrote: »

I agree with this as well. However in the hopefully unlikely event you do need to go to the Ombudsman have you a clear date when the 8 week clock started ticking?

Yes, I wrote it down at the time along with the name of the person I was speaking to and the reference number.