NPower not acknowledging my complaint

PeachyK

It took them 8 months to issue my final bill after i moved out and it was for £1720. After several phonecalls it was reduced to about £172 and then finally to £117.
I was told that my meter reading had not been applied and that i should expect my final bill to actually be about £50. several weeks passed and i received a bill for £80. I wrote to them in mid september and haven't heard anything back but i continue to receive threatening letters stating i will be taken to court etc.
I wrote another letter on the 24th october which hasn't been acknowledged either and today i received a letter from wescot informing me my account has been transferred to them.

i filled in the online complaints form today and emailed npower including attachments of the two complaints letters.

is it too soon to contact the ombudsman? I don't think i even have to pay the bill because it took them so long to send it to me- is that right? I am also disputing the amount because i was told it would be less than it actually is.

naedanger

PeachyK wrote: »

It took them 8 months to issue my final bill after i moved out and it was for £1720. After several phonecalls it was reduced to about £172 and then finally to £117.
I was told that my meter reading had not been applied and that i should expect my final bill to actually be about £50. several weeks passed and i received a bill for £80. I wrote to them in mid september and haven't heard anything back but i continue to receive threatening letters stating i will be taken to court etc.
I wrote another letter on the 24th october which hasn't been acknowledged either and today i received a letter from wescot informing me my account has been transferred to them.

i filled in the online complaints form today and emailed npower including attachments of the two complaints letters.

is it too soon to contact the ombudsman? I don't think i even have to pay the bill because it took them so long to send it to me- is that right? I am also disputing the amount because i was told it would be less than it actually is.

The earliest you can go to the Ombudsman is 8 weeks after your first complained to npower about the matter in question provided you have followed their complaint process or (in my view) if they did not tell you about their formal complaint process when you first complained.

If npower did not give you details of their complaint procedure when you first complained then you should add that point to your complaint i.e. complain you were not told about their complaint process when you first complained.

For you information it is here:

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

You should complain about any deficiencies in their service and npower should do what is appropriate to resolve your complaint. However you are still liable to pay any final bill provided of course that it is accurate.

nPower

PeachyK wrote: »

It took them 8 months to issue my final bill after i moved out and it was for £1720. After several phonecalls it was reduced to about £172 and then finally to £117.
I was told that my meter reading had not been applied and that i should expect my final bill to actually be about £50. several weeks passed and i received a bill for £80. I wrote to them in mid september and haven't heard anything back but i continue to receive threatening letters stating i will be taken to court etc.
I wrote another letter on the 24th october which hasn't been acknowledged either and today i received a letter from wescot informing me my account has been transferred to them.

i filled in the online complaints form today and emailed npower including attachments of the two complaints letters.

is it too soon to contact the ombudsman? I don't think i even have to pay the bill because it took them so long to send it to me- is that right? I am also disputing the amount because i was told it would be less than it actually is.

Hi PeachyK

Thanks for your post.

With regards to the bills, under the UK Code of Practice for Accurate Bills, we'll not charge you any extra for the energy used more than 12 months ago, once your payments have been taken into consideration. To acknowledge the billing issues we've encountered, we've voluntarily reduced this timescale to 6 months where a customer has left supply. This does not include charges which we've already billed you for which appear on previous bills.

In terms of being told the incorrect amount, this would be an advisor error and not legally binding in terms of what you would have to pay - the payment amount would be that which is showing on your final bill, provided the information on it is correct.

I'm more than happy to look into this for you if you can send us an email using the details on our page - please include your MSE user name so we can refer to your initial post above. Please note, that if an account has been forwarded to an external agency, we would normally ask customers to contact them directly to discuss this, although given the circumstances we can certainly review this for you.

Regards

Jess

MiddleEarth

I have been an Npower customer for a number of years. Due to letting and subsequently selling my property I have moved home a number of times; each time I have transferred to Npower on the understanding that any outstanding balances could be paid via Direct Debit to aid my cashflow. This worked well until I moved to my current address. On moving in last October, I transferred to Npower from another provider on the understanding that the balance from my previous property could be added to my Direct Debit. The transfer to Npower occurred in January 2014 and it was agreed that the balance of £426 could be paid over 12 months. Sometime after this and for no apparent reason Npower started debiting £5 a month; this is when my problems began. It is almost impossible to get through to Npower on the ‘phone. I have calculated that I have spent approximately 4 hours on hold, often being cut-off after waiting for 45 minutes only to have to start the process again! In terms of my professional time this is a significant cost (£400). When I did finally get through, and I am uncertain what month this was, they apologised for their error and agreed to set-up a Direct Debit to collect the outstanding amount and resolve the issue of only £5 being debited. Again the Direct Debit was not instructed and then Npower started sending threatening letters. When I returned from my holiday at the end of August I ‘phoned again, when I finally got through they apologised for their error and again agreed to set up the Direct Debit. They told me to ignore all the various threatening letters, including strange Telemessages. As time went on it was clear that again the DD was not instructed. In my frustration I set up an automated payment from my bank for the agreed monthly sum hoping this would solve the issue.

Unfortunately, even though the agreed monthly sum was being paid (and continues to be paid) the threatening letters continued. I decided it was time to complain and on the 23rd October I submitted a complaint via their online system and got an automated response that it would be dealt with in 5 days. I heard no more, I complained again and suggested I pay 50% of the outstanding bill and the rest was written off to reflect the time and stress involved. Again I have heard nothing.

Yesterday I received a letter from Buchanan Clark and Wells asking me to phone a premium rate number to verify my address. This company have searched my credit file numerous times. The website on their official paper does not work; I am not going to be ‘phoning them. I understand that Npower sells this company debts at a fraction of their value and then they pursue the customer for the full value of them making a significant profit.

Following the letter I again tried to ‘phone Npower yesterday. I waited for 42 minutes for the ‘phone to be answered. When it was, an operative said that their system was ‘down’ and hung-up. The cynic in me says that when I put my account number into the phone they know it’s call they don’t want to deal with, especially as they’ve given my debt to Buchanan Clark and Wells. In many ways I would happily to go to court to expose this awful company and their appalling practices.

Now the only redress acceptable to me would be a complete clearing of the debt plus compensation for the time and stress this has caused.

MiddleEarth

1) I did try and to 'phone the number given to Npower customers on their automated email reply to online complaints. It says they work from 8am - 8pm. I called tonight at 6pm and got a recorded message saying that they were closed. There was an option (OPTION 1) to get their opening times, however every time I pressed this it just went back to the original message options. I suspect they are overwhelmed with complaints.

2) Tonight I have tried to log into my Npower account online and using the app on my phone. I have been doing this for years and logged in last night. Now I cannot log into my account. I suspect they have blocked my access because it shows my payments, the ones I have been making as agreed, and my other accounts are all managed well. I find this very disturbing.

3) When I can log into my account I can view three accounts. There is an old account from a previous property; all closed and no payment problems. There is the previous account showing my payments against the outstanding balance and the current account which is 'live' and again shows no payment issues. I am not a problem customer!

naedanger

nPower_company_representative wrote: »

Hi PeachyK

...

In terms of being told the incorrect amount, this would be an advisor error and not legally binding in terms of what you would have to pay - the payment amount would be that which is showing on your final bill, provided the information on it is correct.

...

When you say it was an advisor error you do mean an npower advisor error, don't you? And if so does npower not take any responsibility at all for what their advisors say? I can see why you would not wish to honor manifest errors but all errors. (One reason not to deal with npower by telephone, it appears.)

Then you say what they have to pay is what is on the bill, except you qualify this by saying "provided the information on it is correct". In other words a customer cannot even rely on the payment amount shown on their final bill. So if a customer wants to know the correct information what can they rely on?

Also why do you never seem to apologise for any of the problems npower have caused? Is this part of the npower house style?