NPower - Experiences in moving away

philnet

I'm writing this to see if my experiences are the 'norm' when moving away from npower (although from the posts on this forum, I think I already know the answer!)
I moved to First utility in the middle of August and provided opening readings, which they've provided to npower and they can see, npower have acknowledged.
A week after the move, I contacted npower to get a final bill raised so that I can pay what I owe (it has been 3 months since my last bill) and get back what I've overpayed (we've over payed in the summer months to cover higher usage in winter).
I know it's only been 5 weeks since then but I've made, probably 8 or so phone calls where I've been told:

On 3 seperate occasions, I can have all the account balance refunded (currently just over £480) and then pay the final bill when (

if!) it ever gets generated.

This has been overruled by a 'supervisor' who instead says that the balance can only be refunded after a final bill has been raised.

A call back from the supervisor in question (Craig Vickers) was promised to explain why 3 call handlers believed a process was in place that the supervisors overrule. The call never materialised.

NPower now cannot (or at least the call handler on the last call) couldn't find any record of the final readings, despite me having the dates (from my new provider) that NPower had accepted them.

During each contact with NPower, their front line call handlers have been extremely apologetic, as if they hear this all the time but there appears to be nothing that they can do to raise a final bill and actually allow me to pay what I owe and retrieve tha balance from the account.
As I understand it, to progress this, I have to lodge a written complaint with NPower and then 8 weeks after the issue started, I can escalate this to OFGEM if it still isn't resolved. Whilst I can't believe that in this day and age it can be this hard to get a company to, basically, charge me for what I owe, it seems that this is the only route left to take.
Is everyone else's experience similar/worse/the same as this?

naedanger

philnet wrote: »

As I understand it, to progress this, I have to lodge a written complaint with NPower and then 8 weeks after the issue started, I can escalate this to OFGEM if it still isn't resolved.

Yes, although I am not sure the complaint must be in writing. But I would email my complaint so that I had evidence of it and their response. Please note that according to another poster npower seem to be sending an email reply saying phone or we will close the complaint! However I would simply respond by email telling them to keep the complaint open and to reply in writing. (If they did not reply in writing I would add this as a further failing when escalating the complaint to the Ombudsman.)

Their email address for complaints complaintsteam@npower.com

Their complaints policy is here:
http://www.npower.com/home/help-and-support/contact-us/complaints/complaints-handling-policy/

Whilst I can't believe that in this day and age it can be this hard to get a company to, basically, charge me for what I owe, it seems that this is the only route left to take.
Is everyone else's experience similar/worse/the same as this?

Your experience is perhaps not surprising as npower were voted the worst company in the UK for customer service:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/household-bills/11100390/Npower-worst-company-in-the-UK-for-customer-service.html

GingerBob_3

So, do you owe them, or do they owe you?

sam.4000

I am a little behind you and am currently in the process of leaving npower. I am going to wish you luck.

You need to make sure you are speaking to the complaints team when you phone. Even if you have selected complaints when you call you are not always put through to them and staff who work in the others sections do not have as much authority to deal with issues. Trust me they do eventually sort it out ( says me who has phoned this year about 25 times). You have to be very persistent.

philnet

GingerBob wrote: »

So, do you owe them, or do they owe you?

I'm £480 in credit and probably owe them about £150 so ultimately, they owe me!

nPower

philnet wrote: »

I'm writing this to see if my experiences are the 'norm' when moving away from npower (although from the posts on this forum, I think I already know the answer!)
I moved to First utility in the middle of August and provided opening readings, which they've provided to npower and they can see, npower have acknowledged.
A week after the move, I contacted npower to get a final bill raised so that I can pay what I owe (it has been 3 months since my last bill) and get back what I've overpayed (we've over payed in the summer months to cover higher usage in winter).
I know it's only been 5 weeks since then but I've made, probably 8 or so phone calls where I've been told:

On 3 seperate occasions, I can have all the account balance refunded (currently just over £480) and then pay the final bill when (

if!) it ever gets generated.

This has been overruled by a 'supervisor' who instead says that the balance can only be refunded after a final bill has been raised.

A call back from the supervisor in question (Craig Vickers) was promised to explain why 3 call handlers believed a process was in place that the supervisors overrule. The call never materialised.

NPower now cannot (or at least the call handler on the last call) couldn't find any record of the final readings, despite me having the dates (from my new provider) that NPower had accepted them.

During each contact with NPower, their front line call handlers have been extremely apologetic, as if they hear this all the time but there appears to be nothing that they can do to raise a final bill and actually allow me to pay what I owe and retrieve tha balance from the account.
As I understand it, to progress this, I have to lodge a written complaint with NPower and then 8 weeks after the issue started, I can escalate this to OFGEM if it still isn't resolved. Whilst I can't believe that in this day and age it can be this hard to get a company to, basically, charge me for what I owe, it seems that this is the only route left to take.
Is everyone else's experience similar/worse/the same as this?

Hi philnet

Thanks for your post.

I'm sure the delay in getting your final bill must be frustrating. The Manager (Craig) you spoke to is correct in saying we won't refund a credit until we've got an up to date bill. I'm aware you've requested the refund and will pay any final balance once the bill arrives: however, as an extension to our Back Billing Policy, if an account has left us more than 6 months ago without a final bill, we're calculating the balance and if there's a credit we're refunding this to the customer; if there's a debit balance on the account we're clearing the debt accrued from energy used during the final billing period as a gesture of goodwill for the delays. Please note, this doesn't include any previously billed charges prior to the final bill being produced, so if you have a debit balance brought forward, this will still stand.

I'm happy to look into this further for you if you can email me the details using the information our profile. Please mark it for my attention and advise that you contacted via MoneySavingExpert. I'll see if I can expedite this matter for you.

Regards

Jess

philnet

A quick follow up, as mentioned by another poster, I rang (again) but contacted the complaints department directly instead of going through the normal helpdesk. The complaints handler (Tim) was again very pleasant but this time seemed to be in a position to help. He could see all the previous notes on my account and could see that, despite being six weeks in to the process, NOTHING had been actioned above the level of the front line call staff.
Long story short, within 15 mins, he had raised a final bill and arranged a refund of the remaining account balance.
Whilst this is the outcome I was looking for, it seems a shame that, 6 weeks ago, the staff in the main call centre cannot operate in a similar, effective, manner, or at least have a solid way of escalating issues.

SnowMan

philnet wrote: »

Whilst this is the outcome I was looking for, it seems a shame that, 6 weeks ago, the staff in the main call centre cannot operate in a similar, effective, manner, or at least have a solid way of escalating issues.

Absolutely. I had the same issue a while back and after significant effort happened to get through one day to possibly the only person at npower who realised that all that needed to happen was for the final bill to be produced there and then and the credit refunded. Perhaps it is the same person you spoke to today.

I thought the reply from the Npower rep, Jess, was very disappointing when I read it. Rather than recognise that what needed to happen was for the final bill to be produced and credit refunded ASAP, the post contains some ridiculous and comical defence of the superviser who failed to call you back or finalise your account, and some irrelevant twaddle about what happens when no bill is provided within 6 months of leaving, even though 6 months would have taken you into 2015 :rotfl: