NPower debt cancelled then backtracked!

queserasera_2

NPower debt from 2012 (@£1000) Approached C.A.B 2 years ago regarding this and other debts, and have been assisted by them into reconciling most of my debts. However no response received from NPower, over past 2 years a total of 3 debt collection agencies have contacted me and added charges on top. But NPower still didn't respond to my complaints about debt totals/ which debt collection agency I was supposed to be dealing with/offer of nominal monthly repayments/partial offer of settlement...the list goes on - despite myself and C.A.B writing to them on numerous occasions.
Then in September I got hold of the email address of the head of NPower and emailed him about my complaints and lack of response when I was trying so hard to reconcile the debt. I got a response apologising for the problems that I'd had and basically telling me that the accounts (electricity and gas) had been zeroed and that they would contact the debt collectors so that I wasn't bothered by them again either. I replied full of thanks as it was an enormous weight lifted off my shoulders - this is the gist of the email conversation (which to me confirmed the debt was written off):


NPower:
I would like to reassure you that this final balance has been cleared from your account in full on 24 July 2014 and that this final account balance is now zero to pay. As a result you will receive no further letters from in in relation to any final account balance now that this has been removed in full and I am sorry that you were not informed of this at the time..


Me:

Thank you so much, this is really excellent news and it’s a massive help to me in my present financial situation. Over and above the money issue it is just so nice to finally get a proper response instead of being fobbed off or completely ignored.

Can I just enquire what will happen to the portion of the total £998.36 debt that was passed on to the Moorcroft debt collectors? (I believe this was in the region 0f £265). Will the correspondence with Moorcroft now stop also?

Once again many thanks for sorting this out for me so speedily.




NPower:
Thank you for your email, yes I can advise that we will be contacting Moorcroft to advise them that the full balance has been cleared and this will also stop any further communication from them too.


Only to receive an email today from the same person (5 weeks later) informing me that the debts had been zeroed as they had in fact been passed on to debt collection agencies!

I've just emailed him back stating that I was totally shocked to get this email which completely backtracked on what had been implied previously.


I feel I have been grossly misled - any suggestions what to do next?

naedanger

queserasera wrote: »

NPower debt from 2012 (@£1000) Approached C.A.B 2 years ago regarding this and other debts, and have been assisted by them into reconciling most of my debts. However no response received from NPower, over past 2 years a total of 3 debt collection agencies have contacted me and added charges on top. But NPower still didn't respond to my complaints about debt totals/ which debt collection agency I was supposed to be dealing with/offer of nominal monthly repayments/partial offer of settlement...the list goes on - despite myself and C.A.B writing to them on numerous occasions.
Then in September I got hold of the email address of the head of NPower and emailed him about my complaints and lack of response when I was trying so hard to reconcile the debt. I got a response apologising for the problems that I'd had and basically telling me that the accounts (electricity and gas) had been zeroed and that they would contact the debt collectors so that I wasn't bothered by them again either. I replied full of thanks as it was an enormous weight lifted off my shoulders - this is the gist of the email conversation (which to me confirmed the debt was written off):


NPower:
I would like to reassure you that this final balance has been cleared from your account in full on 24 July 2014 and that this final account balance is now zero to pay. As a result you will receive no further letters from in in relation to any final account balance now that this has been removed in full and I am sorry that you were not informed of this at the time..


Me:

Thank you so much, this is really excellent news and it’s a massive help to me in my present financial situation. Over and above the money issue it is just so nice to finally get a proper response instead of being fobbed off or completely ignored.

Can I just enquire what will happen to the portion of the total £998.36 debt that was passed on to the Moorcroft debt collectors? (I believe this was in the region 0f £265). Will the correspondence with Moorcroft now stop also?

Once again many thanks for sorting this out for me so speedily.




NPower:
Thank you for your email, yes I can advise that we will be contacting Moorcroft to advise them that the full balance has been cleared and this will also stop any further communication from them too.


Only to receive an email today from the same person (5 weeks later) informing me that the debts had been zeroed as they had in fact been passed on to debt collection agencies!

I've just emailed him back stating that I was totally shocked to get this email which completely backtracked on what had been implied previously.


I feel I have been grossly misled - any suggestions what to do next?

Firstly complain, in writing, following npower's official complaint process. The process, with relevant email addresses, is here:
http://www.npower.com/home/help-and-support/contact-us/complaints/complaints-handling-policy/

This is a slow process but keep it running in parallel to any other actions because it enables you to take your complaint to the Ombudsman after 8 weeks if npower don't resolve it to your satisfaction.

Secondly keep this thread active with a public update of npower's response. If they treat you badly then it will serve as a warning to others. More likely they will give you a good service because they won't want bad publicity.

queserasera_2

Hi Naedanger,
I did make a complaint back in July (so over 8 weeks) but got a stock reply back that neither answered my questions nor related to my circumstances even. It was this poor response that I firstly forwarded on to Paul Massara at executive complaints (as well as copies of earlier correspondence with NPower to which I had got no response whatsoever). You can imagine how delighted I was to receive this response from someone who said he had been specifically delegated to answering my complaint.
So there is already a trail of correspondence from myself/CAB as well as the emails in question.
This backtracking will be just the latest example of a long line of inefficiency. I finally thought it was sorted, I feel they have a lot to answer for. But I will do as you suggest and send an updated complaint to NPower. Then get on to the Ombudsman. Many thanks

queserasera_2

As well as responding similarly to Mr Douglass earlier, I have just sent this email to the complaints email address. I will be very interested to see their reply.

Dear Sir,

Please see the email trail below which starts at the bottom of the page with my initial complaint to Npower in July 2014 (following 2 years of poor service and a total lack of communication).

You will then see that in September I was assured by Mr Douglass that my debt had been cancelled and that I would not be contacted again either by yourselves or the debt collection agency.

I was therefore appalled to receive an email from Mr Douglass today (5 weeks later) which totally backtracked on everything I had been promised and reassured about. He was fully aware from my earlier responses that I was thanking him for cancelling my debt and he quite clearly assured me that would be the end of it.

So on top of my initial complaint I now feel I have been totally and unfairly misled and my expectations of having had my debt cancelled have now been dashed, I am now left exceedingly distraught over the whole issue.

In line with policy (and because there has obviously now been further correspondence/evidence to forward to the energy ombudsman) I am forwarding my complaint to you first.

I await your speedy response to this very distressing situation.

naedanger

queserasera wrote: »

Hi Naedanger,
I did make a complaint back in July (so over 8 weeks) but got a stock reply back that neither answered my questions nor related to my circumstances even. It was this poor response that I firstly forwarded on to Paul Massara at executive complaints (as well as copies of earlier correspondence with NPower to which I had got no response whatsoever). You can imagine how delighted I was to receive this response from someone who said he had been specifically delegated to answering my complaint.
So there is already a trail of correspondence from myself/CAB as well as the emails in question.
This backtracking will be just the latest example of a long line of inefficiency. I finally thought it was sorted, I feel they have a lot to answer for. But I will do as you suggest and send an updated complaint to NPower. Then get on to the Ombudsman. Many thanks

I think you should consider this the start of a new complaint. Your complaint being that npower have gone back on their previous word. (That complaint could only start today since it is only now they have gone back on their word.)

[Your previous complaint was resolved to your satisfaction when they agreed you had nothing further to pay.]

Part of the reason for needing to be clear on the start date of your complaint is that the Ombudsman will time bar complaints not made to them within quite a short period from when they are first made to the supplier (from memory 9 months).

Unless npower resolve your complaint to what you believe it is a reasonable outcome then you should pursue it to the Ombudsman. What they decide may depend on the precise wording of the earlier correspondence e.g. your case will be stronger if it is clear that npower were going to set the amounts to zero (e.g. because of previous problems) rather than npower saying the amounts were zero (which npower may try arguing was a mistake that should have been clear to you).

queserasera_2

Thanks Naedanger, I will wait to see what NPower come back with first. I'm sure they'll try and wriggle out of it but it's pretty clear to me what I was told (and I did read the emails over and over again at the time to ensure I wasn't misreading the content!).
Then I'll take it to the Ombudsman straight away. CAB have been pushing me to do it for some time, but obviously I didn't bother as I thought it was all resolved. I now have a further grievance which will hopefully add to my chances of getting a favourable decision

nPower

queserasera wrote: »

NPower debt from 2012 (@£1000) Approached C.A.B 2 years ago regarding this and other debts, and have been assisted by them into reconciling most of my debts. However no response received from NPower, over past 2 years a total of 3 debt collection agencies have contacted me and added charges on top. But NPower still didn't respond to my complaints about debt totals/ which debt collection agency I was supposed to be dealing with/offer of nominal monthly repayments/partial offer of settlement...the list goes on - despite myself and C.A.B writing to them on numerous occasions.
Then in September I got hold of the email address of the head of NPower and emailed him about my complaints and lack of response when I was trying so hard to reconcile the debt. I got a response apologising for the problems that I'd had and basically telling me that the accounts (electricity and gas) had been zeroed and that they would contact the debt collectors so that I wasn't bothered by them again either. I replied full of thanks as it was an enormous weight lifted off my shoulders - this is the gist of the email conversation (which to me confirmed the debt was written off):


NPower:
I would like to reassure you that this final balance has been cleared from your account in full on 24 July 2014 and that this final account balance is now zero to pay. As a result you will receive no further letters from in in relation to any final account balance now that this has been removed in full and I am sorry that you were not informed of this at the time..


Me:

Thank you so much, this is really excellent news and it’s a massive help to me in my present financial situation. Over and above the money issue it is just so nice to finally get a proper response instead of being fobbed off or completely ignored.

Can I just enquire what will happen to the portion of the total £998.36 debt that was passed on to the Moorcroft debt collectors? (I believe this was in the region 0f £265). Will the correspondence with Moorcroft now stop also?

Once again many thanks for sorting this out for me so speedily.




NPower:
Thank you for your email, yes I can advise that we will be contacting Moorcroft to advise them that the full balance has been cleared and this will also stop any further communication from them too.


Only to receive an email today from the same person (5 weeks later) informing me that the debts had been zeroed as they had in fact been passed on to debt collection agencies!

I've just emailed him back stating that I was totally shocked to get this email which completely backtracked on what had been implied previously.


I feel I have been grossly misled - any suggestions what to do next?

Hi queserasera

Thanks for your post.

I'm disappointed to learn of the confusion experienced in relation to this matter. I'm happy to look into this and feed this back to our Executive Complaints Team to ensure a suitable resolution is found for this matter and the correct information is provided to you. I'd be grateful if you could get in touch with me using the details on our profile page - please note the email with your MSE username so I can relate to the original post and mark it for my attention, so I know to pick this up for you.

Regards

Jess

chanz4

send them a cheque for £5, attach it with a letter that says by cashing this cheque you agree to write off the full balance. also put on the back of the check terms and condtions are accepted by cashing the check.

they will have no choice but to write off

naedanger

chanz4 wrote: »

send them a cheque for £5, attach it with a letter that says by cashing this cheque you agree to write off the full balance. also put on the back of the check terms and condtions are accepted by cashing the check.

they will have no choice but to write off

This will just create extra legal complications. See:

http://www.dwf.co.uk/news-events/legal-updates/2011/02/cheques-tendered-in-full-and-final-settlement/

I suggest the OP sticks to their plan of going to the Ombudsman. In parallel they may wish to give the npower rep a chance to sort things out quickly to the OP's complete satisfaction. (However what npower considers a "suitable solution" may be well be less than what the Ombudsman thinks.)

ukdya

I have got a point with npower where we could close without the ombudsman but can they be trusted.
Have just got an 114 page document commissioned by ofgem to GFK.com entitled " report from ofgem exploring why FEW consumers refer their complaint to ombudsman service: energy"
You should get this, it's so great eye opener.
Basically, get yourself to the ombudsman service : Energy.
Then get off your !!!! and complain if the claim is fair and genuine.
All you want iss 60 day letter from say elizabet gibson says off you go.
The more that do the more npower will stick to its word.
In my case they say we will use 3800 kWh per year which is twaddle
Their computer is mad but will not change our meter as the 3800 should be 20,000 kWh due to a mad setup
True figure should be about 10,000 kWh
Get on and hit the road to the ombudsman
The we can see how impartial he is?