Change of supplier problem

jm210640

I applied to change to Npower on 26th November after their wesite said I could save money by changing to them. Having told my present supplier I was changing I was told that they had a fixed rate tariff which would save us more than changing supplier.
On 4th December within the 14 days allowed, I printed off the Npower form from their website and posted it first class mail to them to cancel my application. They now say it was not received until the 15th day and are refusing to cancel. I have contacted the ombudsman but was advised that I must take it up with Npower complaints department first but it seems that although having done so and received no reply from Npower, the change will still be going ahead. Any advice would be greatly appreciated from you guys please.

System

Firstly, I am not sure how you can prove that you sent in a cancellation without some form of proof of posting. Secondly, whether they like it or not, a supplier has to respond to a formal complaint. I assume that you have worded any communication with them with the word COMPLAINT. They have 8 weeks in which to respond. If they don't then you can then go down the Ombudsman route. If they do respond along the lines of 'tough' then ask for your complaint to be 'deadlocked'. If they agree to this, then you do not have to wait the 8 weeks.

All that said, what are you hoping to achieve? If there isn't an exit fee on your NPower tariff then just switch back. You will need to check though that the tariffs haven't changed in the meantime.

jm210640

Thank you for the information. Will do as you say.

nPower

jm210640 wrote: »

I applied to change to Npower on 26th November after their wesite said I could save money by changing to them. Having told my present supplier I was changing I was told that they had a fixed rate tariff which would save us more than changing supplier.
On 4th December within the 14 days allowed, I printed off the Npower form from their website and posted it first class mail to them to cancel my application. They now say it was not received until the 15th day and are refusing to cancel. I have contacted the ombudsman but was advised that I must take it up with Npower complaints department first but it seems that although having done so and received no reply from Npower, the change will still be going ahead. Any advice would be greatly appreciated from you guys please.

Hi jm210640

Thanks for your post.

When a customer requests to switch supply, there's a 14 day cooling off period should you wish to cancel. Once that has ended, the transfer process automatically begins. As we weren't aware that you wished to terminate your contract with us until the 15th day, the process will have already begun for the transfer.

In order to resolve this, there may be two options. The first is to request what is known as an "Erroneous Transfer", which means a supplier has taken over without your consent. I must make you aware that as you will have completed either a verbal or written contract with us, npower may reject this request on that basis.

The second option is to wait until npower has taken over your supply and request to switch back to your original energy company. Most companies will honour the tariff offered provided the customer makes a verbal or written request for a specific tariff from a certain date.

I'm more than happy to look into this for you and ask the relevant departments to help where they can if you can contact us using the details on our profile page. Please include your MSE username and address details in the email, so that we can locate your original post if needed.

Regards

Jess