npower won`t listen

ironstomach

hi everone ,new to this forum, npower making me ill ,just want to get it of my chest switched at the end of april from eon ,we agreed to pay direct debit, usaully paid quarterly and agreed on £53 month, in june £300 taken out of bank account ,looked at my npower page on the internet they said they were making my direct debit £291 a month ,rung them up said they would sort it out ,then another £291 went from my account ,with being on a tiny pension ,i got the bank to retrieve the money, while looking at my bill ,i noticed the meter readings took by npower in june were way to high ,after talking to them again i said to sort it out sent a meter reader which they did in august i read the meter with the chap ,but waiting for the bill and check internet again the total cost owe was now£814 phoned again you guess it it was going to get sorted out still no joy but said they would put a new meter in next week ,i am just scare if the old meter goes so will all my proof, anyone any advice please,pete ps from my final bill of eon till today i don`t owe more than £350.

Farway

Take a photo of the meter reading?

[Deleted User]

Yes, photo the meter and simply dont allow any meter exchanges until its sorted. Is it an electric dial meter ?. We have just had a case on here a couple of weeks ago when they read the first 10,000kwh too high. Reading the 1000kwhr pointer wrong is enough to add quite a lot also

ironstomach

hi, thanks for the advice ,the meter as no dials but 2 numbers ,one normal, and one for what was for storage heaters which were removed 5 years ago , that number as been the same since then, but npower got it well above that , even though its been read twice in the last 2 months by npowers meter man,pete.

barnabee

I feel so sorry for you. NPower are disgraceful as my family found to their cost when we switched to them this year. Our problems were similar to yours and we have now almost got them sorted after 5 months of hell. I agree that it makes you feel ill with worry and the feeling that nobody cares.

I firmly believe that the MSE website should take some share of the blame. They were fully aware of the bad situation NPower were in but continued to promote them in their MSE Energy Club.

Once my account is finally sorted I am switching again and will never return to NPower.

dancingfairy

I can only suggest you put in a formal complaint, in writing. There should be details of how to do this on their website or your bills. If this doesn't work you can then go to the ombudsman I believe.
I hope you get it sorted, it sounds very stressful.
df

dogshome

Hmmm - You have just one ECO7 meter that records Day use & Night use, but the circuitry for the Night use has been disconnected and the meter display doesn't move ?

No love for n'power, but the billing problems may not be their fault.
When an alternative heating system,( usually Gas), is installed in what was an all elecric house, the Elec supplier should be informed.

Depending on who it is, they will either, A) change the meter for a 'Standard' meter, or Add the Night & Day readings together and charge at Standard meter prices.

Option B has problems - The Standard chargeing for that meter is just a note on the customers account with that supplier - Nobody has informed the Regional Registry of Elec meters, which means that when the Elec supplier is changed, the new supplier must set the account up on the basis of the meter type on the Regional Registry database

When you were with Eon, did you get bills that charged the total of the Day/Night readings at one price, or even bills that did not distinguish between Day & Night use?
If you did it's highly likely that Eon were doing Option B with just a note on the account
With n'power makeing up figures for the Night use, it's likely that your ECO7 meter is still registered on the database, and you are paying a premium for your Daytime power with no cheap Night power to offset the cost. Get onto n'power to get the meter changed for a 'Standard' model a.s.a.p

[Deleted User]

So you have got rid of the storage heaters and are now using much less night use. The suppliers are nt mind readers and your domestic arrangements are none of their concern. A couple of quarterly reads is nt enough to get a yearly night usage. You now need to get billed single rate only. either your supplier can do that, some can t, or you need a new single rate meter which may cost you approx £60. British Gas can total the two but not sure about Npower. Another option is to use as much at possible in the night rate to make it pay, 30% of total has been suggested on here in the past

naedanger

sacsquacco wrote: »

So you have got rid of the storage heaters and are now using much less night use. The suppliers are nt mind readers and your domestic arrangements are none of their concern. A couple of quarterly reads is nt enough to get a yearly night usage. You now need to get billed single rate only. either your supplier can do that, some can t, or you need a new single rate meter which may cost you approx £60. British Gas can total the two but not sure about Npower. Another option is to use as much at possible in the night rate to make it pay, 30% of total has been suggested on here in the past

Are you trying to justify what npower have done? I don't see how not telling them he not got night storage heaters can possibly excuse their actions e.g. taking £300 rather than the agreed amount without warning or justification, saying they will sort it out and then not doing so, increasing his direct debit to £291 without any explanation of why, not using the meter readings that they themselves took etc.

Unless I have misunderstood all these points then npower should be going out of their way to help their customer. Instead it seems they couldn't care less. And for those on a tight budget their behaviour could cause real difficulties.

However I agree that the suggestion of taking a photo of the meter was a good one.

matelodave

When we moved we had to change from pre pay to credit and, as we also dispensed with our storage heaters, we wanted to go to a single rate as well. Npower was our supplier at the time.
We had the meter changed from a pre-pay to credit but it had to remain as E7 for the change, we then got the Npower to reprogram it to single rate working - they also did notify the database so we've had no problems switching since.
We made sure that we got all the changes sorted out before switching suppliers (which we've done three times since the change four years ago, Eon, Scottish Power and now First Utility)

[Deleted User]

There is a very strong possibility that the OP has had an economy 7 meter billed incorrectly for maybe years. Transposing eco7 meters is extremely common amongst all suppliers. I know British Gas routinely do this, EDF are much better at spotting this, e.g. I ve seen BG wade in to a poor girls credit meter with transposed reads and put in a prepay meter with 2k debt on it without even a word of explanation. . So could these huge direct debits be just a means of the supplier backbilling by the back door . I have been ordered out of many properties over the years when I have uncovered these transposed readings, and have been used in a BBC Watchdog program in the past about meter readers( and customers ) not knowing night from day. Customers love the super low bills resulting from this and many keep quiet about it. I am just suggesting a reason why any supplier would suddenly want to take such a large amount of money with no explanation