Meters installed the wrong way round

Leigh_H

Hello folks,

I moved out of a house in July 2013 and after a little while, it seems that an issue has been found my NPower who was the energy supplier between November 2009 and July 2013. Essentially, some new meters were installed at the house in 2009 and they got the day/night meters the wrong way round.

After a bit of back and forth with NPower, they've gone through all of the bills and meter readings, some of which were estimates, some of which were their readings and have sent me a bill for £927.54 to cover off he difference of the cost over the 32 months that the meters were not known to be the wrong way around.

I fully appreciate that I'm liable for paying the £927.54, but am I well within my rights to ask for this to be spread over 32 months? I don't have a casual £927.54 knocking about and on the letter I've been sent, NPower are looking to take payment on the 3rd November.

Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Leigh H

zaax

What evidence have they provided that this was the case? Unless they can provide evidence that will stand up in court...

naedanger

Leigh_H wrote: »

Hello folks,

I moved out of a house in July 2013 and after a little while, it seems that an issue has been found my NPower who was the energy supplier between November 2009 and July 2013. Essentially, some new meters were installed at the house in 2009 and they got the day/night meters the wrong way round.

After a bit of back and forth with NPower, they've gone through all of the bills and meter readings, some of which were estimates, some of which were their readings and have sent me a bill for £927.54 to cover off he difference of the cost over the 32 months that the meters were not known to be the wrong way around.

I fully appreciate that I'm liable for paying the £927.54, but am I well within my rights to ask for this to be spread over 32 months? I don't have a casual £927.54 knocking about and on the letter I've been sent, NPower are looking to take payment on the 3rd November.

Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Leigh H

I am sure npower will be willing to accept the payment spread over 32 months.

I am surprised you are not asking for a much bigger reduction. You could argue (the point is probably debatable) that they should not charge for any of the fuel that was used over 12 months ago, under the back billing code.

Another poster took a harder line and won:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4881018

I would take action now to stop npower just taking the money. That is cancel any direct debit mandates otherwise there is a real risk they will take the money anyway, even if they agree to do otherwise.

ukdya

Yes it's just happened to me
They say that since 2010 the error has been wrong way round and I owe £700
How can I check

markprior wrote: »

Dear Mr Prior

Thank you for your email dated 10 October 2014. Should you consider your meter to be faulty, I am able to arrange for a meter accuracy test to be completed. Our usual charge for this is £90.00 should your meter prove to be accurate, however I will be more than happy to cover this cost for you.

Therefore please can you kindly confirm that should we arrange for your meter to be tested for accuracy and we determine this is correct, then you will accept the results that your balance is correct.

The calculation into the back billing applied on your account is shown in my prior email dated 4 October 2014 and these calculations are in line with the Code of Practice for accurate bills outlined by Energy UK.

The estimated bill was not coincidental and was due to the required actions being completed against your account and I apologise if you feel this is the case.

As there have only been two reminders issued against your account, these should not affect your credit rating, we do have a specialist team who can investigate these matters should you remain concerned regarding this.

It is not our standard procedure to place a hold on a customers account when we have determined that the balance is correct, however as you have raised concern regarding the accuracy of your meter, I shall be happy to apply a hold on your balance providing you agree to create a payment plan for your ongoing usage.

With regards to your request that I copy in Ian Robson into my emails, I must advise that we have an agreement with our Press Office that we do not email third parties directly as they provide updates when contacted.

I have placed a hold on for the next 10 working days whilst I await for further instructions.
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

ukdya

Yes npower have just come up with this BUT they also say I use 24,000 KWH per year three use night stores immersion heater and cooking
Does that sound correct for a two up two down semi?:A

[Deleted User]

Leigh_H wrote: »

Hello folks,

I moved out of a house in July 2013 and after a little while, it seems that an issue has been found my NPower who was the energy supplier between November 2009 and July 2013. Essentially, some new meters were installed at the house in 2009 and they got the day/night meters the wrong way round.

After a bit of back and forth with NPower, they've gone through all of the bills and meter readings, some of which were estimates, some of which were their readings and have sent me a bill for £927.54 to cover off he difference of the cost over the 32 months that the meters were not known to be the wrong way around.

I fully appreciate that I'm liable for paying the £927.54, but am I well within my rights to ask for this to be spread over 32 months? I don't have a casual £927.54 knocking about and on the letter I've been sent, NPower are looking to take payment on the 3rd November.

Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Leigh H

Are you saying there are actually two meters, or two readings on one meter ? Its very common for any supplier to bill transposed readings on digital meters which use rates 1 and 2 for day/night reads. Npower did nt install your meter, suppliers dont install meters thats the local distributor ( Northern Power in my area ) job.
Nowadays with online reading, meter readers are being phased out and its really up to the householder to at least get a little familiar with the meter in their own house. You should know yourself by looking at your bill and thinking " thats a bit cheap " instead of sitting back. Npower will try and extract what you owe but many times they will cave in and accept the mis reads and pass your energy bill on into the big melting pot of Freeenergy.co uk which is rife throughout the UK, so maybe try sending your complaint to OFGEM and they may back down

zaax

There is a requirement for all UK electricity meters to undergo a health, safety and security inspection and meter reading every 2 years.

nPower

Leigh_H wrote: »

Hello folks,

I moved out of a house in July 2013 and after a little while, it seems that an issue has been found my NPower who was the energy supplier between November 2009 and July 2013. Essentially, some new meters were installed at the house in 2009 and they got the day/night meters the wrong way round.

After a bit of back and forth with NPower, they've gone through all of the bills and meter readings, some of which were estimates, some of which were their readings and have sent me a bill for £927.54 to cover off he difference of the cost over the 32 months that the meters were not known to be the wrong way around.

I fully appreciate that I'm liable for paying the £927.54, but am I well within my rights to ask for this to be spread over 32 months? I don't have a casual £927.54 knocking about and on the letter I've been sent, NPower are looking to take payment on the 3rd November.

Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Leigh H

Hi Leigh H

Thanks for your post.

In order to check the account has been billed correctly, we normally ask customers to complete a "load test". This involves taking two sets of meter readings twice during one day (8am to 8pm). The presumption being that as you have a day read and a night read, only the day read should advance.

As the build up of balance is not your fault, we're more than happy to spread this out over 32 months for you. I'd also recommend cancelling your Direct Debit to ensure the full payment amount is not taken.

If you can get in touch with me using the information on our profile page, I'm more than happy to organise this for you. Please mark any emails for my attention and include your username so that I can refer to this post.

Regards

Jess

[Deleted User]

nPower_company_representative wrote: »

Hi Leigh H

Thanks for your post.

In order to check the account has been billed correctly, we normally ask customers to complete a "load test". This involves taking two sets of meter readings twice during one day (8am to 8pm). The presumption being that as you have a day read and a night read, only the day read should advance.

As the build up of balance is not your fault, we're more than happy to spread this out over 32 months for you. I'd also recommend cancelling your Direct Debit to ensure the full payment amount is not taken.

If you can get in touch with me using the information on our profile page, I'm more than happy to organise this for you. Please mark any emails for my attention and include your username so that I can refer to this post.

Regards

Jess

A little advice to the Npower rep re "the day read should advance in the day"..wrong.and you need a little training in your organisation, and all the other suppliers too for that matter.
Analogue timer switches in their hundreds of thousands in the UK control the switch over times of eco 7 meters. A good proportion of these are switching from day to night at any time within the 24 hr period, so the cheap 7 hours could just as well be slap bang in the middle of the day. I ve been out today reading for Scottish Power who are the only supplier I know who have latched onto this and now ask us to check the time on the timerswitch. I saw a few today and not one was correct or anywhere near. One was on midnight at 10 am, another was on the low rate in the afternoon. None of the occupiers are aware of this, and none of them now have night storage heaters."Which " magazine this year printed an expose saying millions are paying too much for inaccurate timerswitches . Not quite right as they would pay less if they were aware of the cheap rate being skewed into a more usable position.