N Power - 16 months and still no actual bill - Updated Finally a real bill (inc)

markprior

Hi

Hopefully you can help, ive already read a couple of your articles on this and Npower really are shocking. So the Story So far

Moved into a flat on July 8th 2013
Called n power August to arrange transfer of Bill to my name.

All dandy
After speaking to the lady on the phone explaining the flat was electric only and that 2 people live there they estimated £55 per month

6 months passed and no bill
Called npower who then informed me I didn’t have an account so they would process it there and then
Problem they couldn’t transfer my name to the bill as they did not support that type of meter
Hang on its your meter and you currently supply the power
Oh ok let me pass you to the complaints team
Wait love I don’t want to complain I would just like to pay the bill
You cant
Why
You don’t have an acct…
Long story short no calls just letters aplologising for inconvienience and my complaint was being dealt with
July 2014, Finally a bill
£1031.22 (£400) more than I would have expected
July 2014 I called to seek why my bill was so high
Lady this is just an estimated bill
Oh, why does it have actual and estimated on the columns then
Its just the way estimated bill are
Ok how do I get an actual bill
We send someone to read the meter, fine can we arrange that please
Yes, as the meters are kept in a locked cupboard underneath the flats theres no need for me to wait in
No problem someone will be out to read the meter in 10 days
August, another bill for the same amount and still estimated
Call back why do I still have an estimated bill?
We need to send someone to read the meter, you were supposed to do this in July
Oh ok let me see why this hasn’t happened,
I see its because you have a complex meter, the standard meter teams wont read those so they will just have cancelled it. Ok we will get somome from the specialist meter team to come and read. They have 28 days you wont receive any reminders as I have put the acct on hold
Ok thanks (a reminder came a couple days after but was dated before I called)
September 13th another reminder lands while I am away on holiday
Called again on the 24th (today)
Hi I still have a reminder now from collections direct about this estimated bill, this is the 3rd time I have called after a meter reading hasn’t happened
Oh yes I can see when we try to book a reading there is a small error that shows in the corner of my screen that wont allow us to book a reading, I will call them and arrange this manually and call you back tomorrow the 25th September
Ok thanks, while your on can I ask about back billing as I see you can only charge for 12 months
This dosnt apply in this case as we have sent you a bill,
Well I wouldn’t call this a bill its just a random figure picked from a hat, it could say £10k or it could say £500, I think this has intentionally been sent to deny me the rights to back billing with the amount shown being totally irrelevant to the amount used.
All I can say is that back billing does not apply as we have provided you with bills.

So that’s the story up to now, any help would be massively appreciated especially with the back billing, as this cant be right. Suddenly the 12 month mark arrives and they can just pick a random number from the sky and call it a bill ? and surely they cant send me debt collection letters for an amount they cant establish I even owe them? I have tried to pay this numerous times but been unable to because I was told I didn’t have an acct or even a bill to pay. the letter tells me there next step is court action and even explains the costs.

Please help

Thanks

jbainbridge

If you have officially registered your complaint with them more than 60 days ago and are still not satisfied take it to the ombudsman.

I spent over 6 months getting npower to bill us for gas. In the 60 days of the complaint _nothing_ happened! The ombudsman ruled in our favour and got us some compensation. It was then sorted out. Their billing system seems to be a complete mess.

markprior

jbainbridge wrote: »

If you have officially registered your complaint with them more than 60 days ago and are still not satisfied take it to the ombudsman.

I spent over 6 months getting npower to bill us for gas. In the 60 days of the complaint _nothing_ happened! The ombudsman ruled in our favour and got us some compensation. It was then sorted out. Their billing system seems to be a complete mess.

Thanks for this how do i initiate ?

never had this before

jbainbridge

Start here - http://www.ombudsman-services.org/energy.html

dogshome

Apart from N'powers current shambles, the heart of this problem seems to be that you do not have direct access to your Meter, and cannot check the veracity of the Estimated bill you have had with your meter's actual readings, nor can you check that meter n'power say is yours, actually is.

By hook or by crook, get access to that meter, photograph it and do an identity test by haveing someone in the flat with a mobile phone switch everything OFF in the flat, then put on kettle in spurts - The meter should register power use in phase with the kettle switching.

For an all electric flat, depending on size, the D/Debit estimate of £55 a month seems a bit light, but to stop any further steps in the debt collection process you should start the Ombudsman process today

lovinituk

I finally got them to issue the final bill which 'wrote off anything owing'. Problem is, they still owe me about £50!! I received a letter from them last week saying that they are still dealing with my complaint but due to the length of time I am now free to contact the ombudsman if I wish.

I reckon they are just hoping many people won't bother. Well I certainly will be bothering!

naedanger

markprior wrote: »

So that’s the story up to now, any help would be massively appreciated especially with the back billing, as this cant be right.

npower's complaint policy:
http://www.npower.com/home/help-and-support/contact-us/complaints/complaints-handling-policy/

Be aware it is a very slow process.

Suddenly the 12 month mark arrives and they can just pick a random number from the sky and call it a bill ? and surely they cant send me debt collection letters for an amount they cant establish I even owe them? I have tried to pay this numerous times but been unable to because I was told I didn’t have an acct or even a bill to pay. the letter tells me there next step is court action and even explains the costs.

Do you have any legal cover protection on your home insurance? If so it may be worth giving them a call to see if they will cover you to take legal action against npower. (If you search on google you will see a few people have successfully sued npower for the trouble they caused. That said the complainants seem to have done it themselves and been self employed, which may make it easier to claim for the time they spent sorting out the mess npower created.)

pinkprincess09

I left Npower in May 2013 after a long battle regarding them under setting my monthly billing amount and I owed them a sum of money . I paid them £500 and moved to EDF and have been with EDF since. Today I received a bill for £1100 gas and £700 electric !!! I haven't heard from npower since may 2013!! I called them and they said the bill is correct, I must pay or be taken to court and that the 12 month back billing doesn't apply when I said I want to complain they refused to put me through to the complaints department !! How can they do that?

markprior

so i got in touch with the press and some movement, well at first my subsequent replies have been ignored

From: Executive.Complaints@npower.com [mailto:Executive.Complaints@npower.com]
Sent: 26 September 2014 11:56
To: Mark Prior
Subject: Your npower query


Dear Mr Prior
Unique reference: 99523138
Account reference: 158122929
We were recently contacted by our Press Office, regarding concerns about your energy account. My name is Paul Hocking; I’m a member of the Executive Complaints Team here at npower, and I’ll be your main point of contact moving forwards.
It is my understanding that since moving into your property that you have experienced issues surrounding setting up a correct account along with estimated billing for which I am sorry.
From looking at your account, I have found that an engineer attended your property on 3 September 2014 and obtained meter readings. Therefore I have reversed the estimated bill on your account and requested that we bill your account to actual meter readings.
Once this has been completed I shall pass your account onto our Back Billing Team to investigate if you qualify for a write off under our Back Billing Process.
This should be completed within the next 10 working days and I shall provide you with an update within this time.
Hopefully what I’ve outlined here and the actions we’ve taken will resolve your concerns, addressing all the points you originally raised. If you have any queries though, you’re still welcome to contact me directly – I’m here from Monday to Friday, between 10:00am and 6:00pm, my contact details are listed below.
Your sincerely,

Paul Hocking
Executive Complaints Team
npower
Cygnet Way, Rainton Bridge Business Park, Houghton le Spring, DH4 5QZ
Tel. (External): 0800 3161492 Landline
Tel. (External): 0330 1008614 Mobile
Extension: 1199 163
Mail to: Executive.Complaints@npower.com

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From: Mark Prior
Sent: 26 September 2014 12:21
To: 'Executive.Complaints@npower.com'
Subject: RE: Your npower query

Hi Paul

This is greatly appreciated, at least now I can get an accurate bill. The only other concern is the back billing, I feel that a random number on a piece of paper should not count as a bill especially as I have been chasing for and trying to pay a bill for over 12 months literally being told on the phone I cannot pay N-power any money. The fact this “Estimated” bill came at the very end of the back billing period seems very coincidental and suggests it was a lack of resource/Urgency in the transfer/setup of the account rather than any other factor?

One more question, is it possible to receive bills on a meter read only basis as I do not want estimated?

I look forward to your update and the findings of the back billing team.

Thanks again for taking the time to look at this.

---

From: Mark Prior
Sent: 02 October 2014 08:49
To: 'Executive.Complaints@npower.com'
Cc: 'Press Contact'
Subject: RE: Your npower query

Hi Paul

Yesterday I received another reminder for an estimated bill? Could you tell me where you are in producing an actual bill, stopping any further estimated / collection correspondence and I really would like the questions about back billing and timing of the first so called “bill” answered (below). Will there also be any good will gesture on N-Powers behalf? As it stands currently 16 months of investigations / process / lack of resource from N-Power have still failed to produce a valid and accurate bill, it has however resulted in collection demands without N-Power having the slightest clue what is owed to them. Do these collection notices / reminders affect my personal credit file at all?

I have cc’d Press contact into this reply, please reply to all upon any response.


Regards

markprior

wow finally a bill, but higher than expected, also some good will. should i try for more discount ?

mail from complaints

Dear Mr Prior

Thank you for your email dated 2 October 2014. Our Back Billing team have completed the investigation into your account and as such a new bill based on actual meter readings has been produced, I have attached a copy of this bill for your attention.

As you will see the balance on your account up until 3 September 2014 is £1,098.59 and the write off applied under the Code of Practice for Accurate Bills is £30.84. An explanation of this is shown below.

We’ve signed up to the Code of Practice for Accurate Bills to help us give you a better standard of service. It’s a requirement of the Code of Practice that we will not send a bill which includes unbilled energy consumed more than 12 months previous to the bill being issued.

What this means to you

I have reviewed the energy that you were not billed for, between the period of 08.07.2013 and 23.07.2013. Your Electricity energy usage for this period is £30.84 and we have written off £30.84 (taking into account any payments you have made and any debt balances). This will show as a credit on your bill.

You may have already received your bill, but if not you will receive this shortly showing your account balance of £1098.59 outstanding.

With regards to your request for actual bills rather than estimated, your account is currently set up for quarterly billing and your next scheduled bill date is around 18 December 2014. Providing we receive actual readings up to 17 days before this date we shall provide an accurate bill.

If we have not received meter readings by your bill date then our system shall produce an estimated bill, in this instance we are able to reverse these readings upon receipt of actual readings and produce a revised bill.

Due to the time it has taken to create your account and produce your bill I would like to offer a reduction of £248.59 as a gesture of goodwill. This would reduce your balance to £850.00. I would also like to offer an extended payment agreement by allowing you to spread this balance over a 24 month period.

This would equate to payments in the region of £36.00 per month alongside your ongoing consumption and can be paid via Direct Debit or payment card should you prefer.

I would therefore appreciate if you could confirm if you would be happy to accept our proposal and close your complaint and of course, should you wish to discuss this further, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Your sincerely,

Paul Hocking

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does this look high usage for during the day ? myself and the wife both are employed full time, when does the day / night cost change? when i originally called they estimated around £55 a month, is this miss selling possibly ? as it stands without back billing and good will it is around £70 pcm,

arrrgh wont let me post links to the pictures of the bill

markprior

copy and paste the below into the address bar of your browser and the pics will appear

Thanks

i33.photobucket.com/albums/d92/markpriorgtst/MrPrior-EnergyBill_Page_1.jpg
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