Frustrated (to put it mildly) with NPower

mrgrumpus

Seems like this is a fairly common thread on here but just wanted to contribute our two cents to the wider forum to gain comments and/or advice from anyone else in a similar situation.

My housemate has just got off the phone with NPower about our account that was closed 3 MONTHS AGO which we are still dealing with.

The problems first started when we were told back in April/May time that we were approx £1200 in credit. With our meter reading we gave this came down to £1000, so they gave us the option of reducing our DD down to £5 p/m with a £700 refund.

The refund itself was painful enough having been told as it was a 'high value payment' that it would take 4 weeks to go through. 4 weeks later, we received £360 of the owed monies. Phoning them up to ask them why it wasn’t the full amount, no one could explain what had happened. They promised they would refund the rest and 4 weeks later, nothing. It hadn't even been processed. By this point we were moving out in a couple of months so decided to wait and settle it at the end.

Fast forward to 1st September, we call them with a meter reading to determine the final bill before closing the account. A week later, a random amount of £252 appears in our account but they couldn’t explain why it was this amount was triggered. Meanwhile, this amount still doesn’t add up to the £700 owed.

Over a month later, we’re having to chase them for our final bill which came through and we now OWED £158. We called them and found it hard to believe that we’d used up the remaining credit (inclusive of the refunded monies) AND are now owing an extra £158…because 1. it's summer when the heating has been off (especially when it’s just three of us in a small flat) and 2. our yearly estimated usage is £900. They were adamant that this was the amount of extra gas used. We reluctantly settled the amount (to get rid) and assumed the account was closed.

Last Friday (19th) we then receive a final amended bill (generated on 11th September????!?!!) saying that we are now in credit by £615. Having called to query why we had received this, we were then told that the final meter reading back in September was not used for that bill (£158) they would be re-issuing us with our final amended bill. Even the guy on the phone mentioned that our final meter reading seemed extremely high. They said ‘a specialist’ was looking into the problems we had faced and that they would call this evening (Monday 22nd) at 6pm. Monday arrives and surprise surprise no call received.

We called them this evening to get some clarity on the issue and we were told that there were no notes on our account about the call on Friday. The woman looked into the account details and a final bill had been issued on Friday and that we now owe £500, which is just unbelievable. They’ve now agreed to send us that bill and all of our transactions and they’ve promised that someone on their end will look into it. If we’re not happy, WE are apparently the ones that have to call THEM.

The website typically is now down so we’re unable to view our bills to look back at previous usage/readings.

The whole debacle has been VERY frustrating and we’re finding it very difficult to believe anything that NPower says. We now don’t know where we stand because the meter reading they’re using for the £500 is correct, but it seems unbelievable that we can use that amount of gas in a period spanning the summer months.

Has anyone been through this? We’re going to write a letter of complaint once we get all the correspondence through and then take it to the Ombudsman if we have no luck, but any other advice?

:mad:

naedanger

mrgrumpus wrote: »

Has anyone been through this? We’re going to write a letter of complaint once we get all the correspondence through and then take it to the Ombudsman if we have no luck, but any other advice?

:mad:

I agree with your proposed action. Other advice: keep your thread on here prominent by posting regular updates. The only thing that npower seem to act on is publicity. (But keep your official complaint running in parallel until your case is fully resolved to your satisfaction. Only by following npower's official complaint process do you retain the option of taking your complaint to the Ombudsman.)

You could also check your house insurance to see if you have legal cover. If so you could give their helpline a call but I suspect they will try to fob you off taking action as they would need to fund it. Alternatively take legal action yourself but I can't recommend that as I have no personal experience of what it involves. However I wish more people were as capable of getting justice as the man in the following article:

http://www.northants-chamber.co.uk/news/article/northampton-man-takes-npower-to-court-and-wins

nPower

mrgrumpus wrote: »

Seems like this is a fairly common thread on here but just wanted to contribute our two cents to the wider forum to gain comments and/or advice from anyone else in a similar situation.

My housemate has just got off the phone with NPower about our account that was closed 3 MONTHS AGO which we are still dealing with.

The problems first started when we were told back in April/May time that we were approx £1200 in credit. With our meter reading we gave this came down to £1000, so they gave us the option of reducing our DD down to £5 p/m with a £700 refund.

The refund itself was painful enough having been told as it was a 'high value payment' that it would take 4 weeks to go through. 4 weeks later, we received £360 of the owed monies. Phoning them up to ask them why it wasn’t the full amount, no one could explain what had happened. They promised they would refund the rest and 4 weeks later, nothing. It hadn't even been processed. By this point we were moving out in a couple of months so decided to wait and settle it at the end.

Fast forward to 1st September, we call them with a meter reading to determine the final bill before closing the account. A week later, a random amount of £252 appears in our account but they couldn’t explain why it was this amount was triggered. Meanwhile, this amount still doesn’t add up to the £700 owed.

Over a month later, we’re having to chase them for our final bill which came through and we now OWED £158. We called them and found it hard to believe that we’d used up the remaining credit (inclusive of the refunded monies) AND are now owing an extra £158…because 1. it's summer when the heating has been off (especially when it’s just three of us in a small flat) and 2. our yearly estimated usage is £900. They were adamant that this was the amount of extra gas used. We reluctantly settled the amount (to get rid) and assumed the account was closed.

Last Friday (19th) we then receive a final amended bill (generated on 11th September????!?!!) saying that we are now in credit by £615. Having called to query why we had received this, we were then told that the final meter reading back in September was not used for that bill (£158) they would be re-issuing us with our final amended bill. Even the guy on the phone mentioned that our final meter reading seemed extremely high. They said ‘a specialist’ was looking into the problems we had faced and that they would call this evening (Monday 22nd) at 6pm. Monday arrives and surprise surprise no call received.

We called them this evening to get some clarity on the issue and we were told that there were no notes on our account about the call on Friday. The woman looked into the account details and a final bill had been issued on Friday and that we now owe £500, which is just unbelievable. They’ve now agreed to send us that bill and all of our transactions and they’ve promised that someone on their end will look into it. If we’re not happy, WE are apparently the ones that have to call THEM.

The website typically is now down so we’re unable to view our bills to look back at previous usage/readings.

The whole debacle has been VERY frustrating and we’re finding it very difficult to believe anything that NPower says. We now don’t know where we stand because the meter reading they’re using for the £500 is correct, but it seems unbelievable that we can use that amount of gas in a period spanning the summer months.

Has anyone been through this? We’re going to write a letter of complaint once we get all the correspondence through and then take it to the Ombudsman if we have no luck, but any other advice?

:mad:

Hi mrgrumpus,

Thank you for your post.

Have you contacted us yet to have this looked into? Feel free to use the contact details on our profile page and we'll be happy to review your account and find exactly what the issue is and issue a correct final bill where necessary.

Regards
Steve

mrgrumpus

Hi Steve,

As my message indicates, my housemate (the account holder) has been in touch numerous times to sort this. We're currently waiting on all transactions/bills to be sent to us - which I hope will arrive very soon...I hope...