NPOWER have taken £1603 no bill

BP82

Hello

I'm having problems regarding my final bill with NPOWER. The account was closed on 27/3/14 and I still haven't received a final bill although they have taken £1603.10 that I was credit from my account. The date of the last bill I got was 19/8/13 (over a year ago). I received a letter on 16/8/14 saying that they recently sent my final bill and that I owed them £77.94.

I phoned NPOWER as I hadn't received a bill and was told that a bill hadn't been sent out as it hadn't been converted to a PDF file and they weren't able to send one. The issue would have to be sent to a different department where they would be able to create and send me the bill.
Two days later (30/8/14) I got a letter that was dated 1/8/14! apologising because the account was closed over 6 months ago (it won't be 6 months until 27/9/14) and that due to a computer system problem they were unable to send a final bill. To put things right they were going to write off the £77.94 outstanding on the account and because of this there was no need to send me a final statement!!

I find it unbelievable that they think I would accept this. I have no idea if they have charged me for the correct energy usage or even the correct tariff. My understanding of the ofgem guidelines say's if I haven't received a bill in over a year then I do not have to pay is this correct and NPOWER themselves stated in November that if the customer hasn't been back billed in over 6 months that npower would wipe this bill.

Where do I stand as Npower has cleared out £1603.10 in credit from my account without providing a bill. They have said that they will write off the £77 outstanding from my bill but this is only a small part of my bill should they not have to write off the whole amount and refund me the £1603.10.

Your wisdom and advise will be most appreciated

BP

Quentin

You need to now send in a formal complaint about this in line with their complaints procedure, and escalate it if unhappy with their reply.


https://customerservices.npower.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/694

naedanger

BP82 wrote: »

Hello

I'm having problems regarding my final bill with NPOWER. The account was closed on 27/3/14 and I still haven't received a final bill although they have taken £1603.10 that I was credit from my account. The date of the last bill I got was 19/8/13 (over a year ago). I received a letter on 16/8/14 saying that they recently sent my final bill and that I owed them £77.94.

I phoned NPOWER as I hadn't received a bill and was told that a bill hadn't been sent out as it hadn't been converted to a PDF file and they weren't able to send one. The issue would have to be sent to a different department where they would be able to create and send me the bill.
Two days later (30/8/14) I got a letter that was dated 1/8/14! apologising because the account was closed over 6 months ago (it won't be 6 months until 27/9/14) and that due to a computer system problem they were unable to send a final bill. To put things right they were going to write off the £77.94 outstanding on the account and because of this there was no need to send me a final statement!!

I find it unbelievable that they think I would accept this. I have no idea if they have charged me for the correct energy usage or even the correct tariff. My understanding of the ofgem guidelines say's if I haven't received a bill in over a year then I do not have to pay is this correct and NPOWER themselves stated in November that if the customer hasn't been back billed in over 6 months that npower would wipe this bill.

Where do I stand as Npower has cleared out £1603.10 in credit from my account without providing a bill. They have said that they will write off the £77 outstanding from my bill but this is only a small part of my bill should they not have to write off the whole amount and refund me the £1603.10.

Your wisdom and advise will be most appreciated

BP

Npower's service is terrible so I understand the difficulties they are causing you.

I would certainly insist on a final bill so you can, as you say, check their calculations.

I am guessing npower believe you used £1681.04 in energy, which is £77.94 more than you had in credit, and they are going to waive the £77.94 that you owe. IF (a big if) this is correct then this goes beyond the Ofgem guidelines on back billing and their own further promise.

However you should certainly insist on seeing the final bill so that you can check they have calculated everything correctly. As Quentin advised send a formal complaint over the matter.

I would make the complaint by email so I had a permanent record of it. If they ask you to phone insist (in a further email) that they write. If they don't give a response that satisfies you within 8 weeks take your complaint to the Ombudsman. The problem with dealing with npower over the phone is they deny what they previously said, or don't do what they say they will.

Cardew

BP82 wrote: »

My understanding of the ofgem guidelines say's if I haven't received a bill in over a year then I do not have to pay is this correct and NPOWER themselves stated in November that if the customer hasn't been back billed in over 6 months that npower would wipe this bill.
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should they not have to write off the whole amount and refund me the £1603.10.




BP

No, your understanding is not correct.


If you haven't received a bill for over 12 months - and it is the supplier's fault - they can only back-bill you for the last 12 months.*


e.g. if you received a bill on 01/09/2014 for the period 01/07/2013 to 01/09/2014(exactly 14 months) you should only be charged from 01/09/2013 and the two months before that would be written off.


*This is a voluntary code.

dogshome

N'power are in such a mess they are a danger to themselves, let alone the customers.

I don't think just sitting back and repeating demands for a Final Bill or even escalating a Complaint to Ombudsman will bring a quick answer, as it's not the lack of a bill that's the problem - The real problem is the accuracy of the charges n'power have already made.

You have the End meter reading/s of n'powers supply, the readings on the August 2013 bill and the tariff details. - From these you should be able to calculate what the billing amount should be on the Final Bill.

(Keep in mind that n'power are well within their rights to demand full payment of any correctly issued Final Bill, so when doing your figures you might find that your best action is to keep quiete).

If it's the case that n'power have overcharged, then that's the time to write a letter of Complaint with your calculations, and go to the Ombudsman after 56 days if n'power have not sorted it out

BP82

Thanks for your replies.

I found this on the moneysavingexpert site and it was NPOWER's response to :money:campaign.

So what's Npower going to do?

• Ex-customers who left six months ago or more (since 1 December 2013)

What happens here depends on which of three categories you're in. All three of these solutions apply where the back bill relates to debt you didn't know about from an account you thought was done and dusted. You'll still have to pay any debt you knew about, and that you'd been billed for already.
1. If you haven't received a back bill, but it was going to send you one.
Quite simply, Npower will now wipe this bill, so you don't have to pay it.
It plans to write to affected ex-customers to tell them about this. But you should still ring Npower now to check you're definitely not going to be asked for this cash back.

I think point 1 applies to my case but what would be the situation as NPOWER have taken the credit from my account without billing. As stated above if no bill is produced after 6 months npower will wipe the bill. Would they have to refund the £1600 they have taken?

naedanger

BP82 wrote: »

Thanks for your replies.

I found this on the moneysavingexpert site and it was NPOWER's response to :money:campaign.

So what's Npower going to do?

• Ex-customers who left six months ago or more (since 1 December 2013)

What happens here depends on which of three categories you're in. All three of these solutions apply where the back bill relates to debt you didn't know about from an account you thought was done and dusted. You'll still have to pay any debt you knew about, and that you'd been billed for already.
1. If you haven't received a back bill, but it was going to send you one.
Quite simply, Npower will now wipe this bill, so you don't have to pay it.
It plans to write to affected ex-customers to tell them about this. But you should still ring Npower now to check you're definitely not going to be asked for this cash back.

I think point 1 applies to my case but what would be the situation as NPOWER have taken the credit from my account without billing. As stated above if no bill is produced after 6 months npower will wipe the bill. Would they have to refund the £1600 they have taken?

No.

I have attached a link to the back billing code at the end of this post. The code does not work the way you think. For example note the following:

"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" [my emphasis]

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications-and-updates/investigation-npower%E2%80%99s-compliance-standards-conduct-standard-licence-condition-25c-and-gas-and-electricity-consumer-complaints-handling-standards-regulations-2008

dogshome

I can understand your frustration, but n'power handing you back a £1,600+ credit, which in effect is the cost of an entire years supply of Elec/Gas, just will not happen.

At the same time n'powers stance that they cannot produce a detailed bill, whilst giving you figures that they say are accurate down to 94pence, is clearly a nonsense.

There is no 'Rule' that you can quote to instantly resolve this situation, I'm afraid that you will have to do the homework to Prove/Disprove n'powers figures

undercover_peon

If they dont already customers should have a right to a bill in particular a final bill.

You could try a subject access request to get the final bill but they really should provide this even when they are writing a balance off. If you were back billing the customer needs to see the true usage and balance in order to understand the amount written off.

nPower

BP82 wrote: »

Hello

I'm having problems regarding my final bill with NPOWER. The account was closed on 27/3/14 and I still haven't received a final bill although they have taken £1603.10 that I was credit from my account. The date of the last bill I got was 19/8/13 (over a year ago). I received a letter on 16/8/14 saying that they recently sent my final bill and that I owed them £77.94.

I phoned NPOWER as I hadn't received a bill and was told that a bill hadn't been sent out as it hadn't been converted to a PDF file and they weren't able to send one. The issue would have to be sent to a different department where they would be able to create and send me the bill.
Two days later (30/8/14) I got a letter that was dated 1/8/14! apologising because the account was closed over 6 months ago (it won't be 6 months until 27/9/14) and that due to a computer system problem they were unable to send a final bill. To put things right they were going to write off the £77.94 outstanding on the account and because of this there was no need to send me a final statement!!

I find it unbelievable that they think I would accept this. I have no idea if they have charged me for the correct energy usage or even the correct tariff. My understanding of the ofgem guidelines say's if I haven't received a bill in over a year then I do not have to pay is this correct and NPOWER themselves stated in November that if the customer hasn't been back billed in over 6 months that npower would wipe this bill.

Where do I stand as Npower has cleared out £1603.10 in credit from my account without providing a bill. They have said that they will write off the £77 outstanding from my bill but this is only a small part of my bill should they not have to write off the whole amount and refund me the £1603.10.

Your wisdom and advise will be most appreciated

BP

Hi BP82

Thanks for your post.

We would need to look into your query on an individual basis to see what issues are on your account. Whilst the Back Billing Policy means we won't charge you for any energy used more than 12 months ago that we haven't already billed you for, in recognition of the billing issues our customers have experienced, if a customer left our supply before 13 March 2014 and the account hadn't been billed before 11 July 2014, any debit balance would be written off after the charges had been applied and credit taken into consideration. As a further gesture, we are now applying this on a 6 monthly rolling basis for customers who have left npower. Where an account is in credit, we are calculating the charges (which is the bit you refer to where the account was billed but you didn't receive a bill) and writing off the remainder, along with a letter to advise of the outcome. Where an account is in credit after the charges have been applied, we're refunding this to the customer.

If you could please get in touch using the details on our profile page and mark it for my attention, I'll ask our Billing Team to review this and issue you with a copy of the bill for your records.

Regards

Jess