Erroneous Transfers

naedanger

Could someone with industry knowledge please answer the following question:

Is the transfer of an electricity supply to someone who is not the customer an "erroneous transfer". In other words a supplier starts billing a customer for an MPAN at a different address (while the customer also continues to be billed for their actual supply).

I know that when a supplier takes over a customer's supply in error then that is called an erroneous transfer but is the example in the previous paragraph also officially called an erroneous transfer. (Obviously it is an error but it is called an "erroneous transfer"?)

A supplier (npower) transferred someone else's supply into my name. They are saying this is an erroneous transfer and that the supply has to stay in my name until they sort it out. They don't dispute that this supply is nothing to do with me. So I am now getting two bills - one for my actual supply and one from npower for someone else's supply. This has been ongoing for ages.

nPower

naedanger wrote: »

Could someone with industry knowledge please answer the following question:

Is the transfer of an electricity supply to someone who is not the customer an "erroneous transfer". In other words a supplier starts billing a customer for an MPAN at a different address (while the customer also continues to be billed for their actual supply).

I know that when a supplier takes over a customer's supply in error then that is called an erroneous transfer but is the example in the previous paragraph also officially called an erroneous transfer. (Obviously it is an error but it is called an "erroneous transfer"?)

A supplier (npower) transferred someone else's supply into my name. They are saying this is an erroneous transfer and that the supply has to stay in my name until they sort it out. They don't dispute that this supply is nothing to do with me. So I am now getting two bills - one for my actual supply and one from npower for someone else's supply. This has been ongoing for ages.

Hi naedanger

Thanks for your post.

In this situation, we'd normally refer to it as crossed metering, as we either have the incorrect meter details or incorrect address details. As it sounds like you're being billed for two different meters/properties, I'd be grateful if you could get in touch using the details on our profile so we can investigate this further. If you could send us a photo of your meter that would help us to distinguish between the two. If you can mark your email as MoneySavingExpert or MSE - so we know where you've contacted us from, that'd be really helpful.

Regards

Jess

SnowMan

nPower_company_representative wrote: »

In this situation, we'd normally refer to it as crossed metering

Cross. I'd be absolutely livid :snow_laug

dogshome

As you have found, n'powers management & billing systems are in chaos.

Problem is that the 'system' has your address logged for someone elses meter, and the 'system' having issued bills for that meter will move on to 'Collect Debt' mode when those bills go unpaid

For your own protection you need to write a letter to n'power headed Complaint, listing the history of this saga and the contacts you have made to get them to rectify the error

naedanger

nPower_company_representative wrote: »

Hi naedanger

Thanks for your post.

In this situation, we'd normally refer to it as crossed metering, as we either have the incorrect meter details or incorrect address details. As it sounds like you're being billed for two different meters/properties, I'd be grateful if you could get in touch using the details on our profile so we can investigate this further. If you could send us a photo of your meter that would help us to distinguish between the two. If you can mark your email as MoneySavingExpert or MSE - so we know where you've contacted us from, that'd be really helpful.

Regards



Jess

Thank you for the post. I am already dealing with npower.

They are not disputing that they are billing me for someone else's supply. However they are refusing to take this account out of my name until they have transferred it back to the correct customer. This transfer back to the original customer may well be regarded as an erroneous transfer. However I see no valid reason why, while npower are sorting this out, they feel justified in billing me for this account.

This is also creating other problems for me, in that it is delaying my switch to npower. It is nearly a year since this was instigated by me and it is still not sorted.

It is now over 90 days since the Ombudsman gave npower 28 days to sort out the problem.

Nevertheless, despite not resolving the problem, npower are counting my complaint as having been resolved in their statistics.

Lastly npower have not set me a subject access request form despite my requesting it almost 4 weeks ago.

Do you care to defend this standard of service?

naedanger

dogshome wrote: »

As you have found, n'powers management & billing systems are in chaos.

Oh yes, it is close to a year ago since I originally made the mistake of asking to switch my energy supply to npower. It is still not sorted despite the Ombudsman upholding my complaint months ago and telling npower to fix the problem in 28 days. Npower seem to treat that as something they will comply with when it suits them, and ignore the Ombudsman's timescales.

Problem is that the 'system' has your address logged for someone elses meter, and the 'system' having issued bills for that meter will move on to 'Collect Debt' mode when those bills go unpaid

What npower did was take someone else's electricity supply and put it in my name and address. (They won't tell me who's supply it is because of the data protection act, but are happy to ignore that act when it suits them, as they are refusing to correct their data error in a reasonable timescale.)

For your own protection you need to write a letter to n'power headed Complaint, listing the history of this saga and the contacts you have made to get them to rectify the error

Thanks for this information and I agree. But I am well, well past that stage. I am now half way through the process of complaining about the Ombudsman (since, in my view, the Ombudsman has not done enough to pressurise npower into complying with his ruling).

As you say, complete chaos. I really would not have believed how bad a regulated company could be. All companies make mistakes but npower's sheer incompetence and utter indifference to fixing their mistakes is so much worse than bad.