Nightmare with npower

Sea_sprite

Nightmare's putting it mildly, really. I'm out of my mind with this and desperate for any advice.

Last year, my mum and myself moved house. On the day we moved out of the old house, we took the meter readings and phoned them in to npower so they could calculate our final bill. When that final bill arrived, npower had made mistakes on the bill but refused to correct them when we spoke to them about it. During the whole time we lived at that property, npower estimated the gas readings, so when we moved out of the property and submitted the genuine reading, it was much lower than npower's estimates. The house had no gas central heating, its only gas usage was the hob in the kitchen, so the gas usage was very low. We took a reading of 000019 gas units on the day we moved out, but npower refuse to accept this and keep insisting that we pay a final bill based on their estimate of 1989 gas units. In addition to this, on the final bill a second electricity meter has suddenly appeared from nowhere, and the bill incluses a second set of meter readings ffrom this meter which npower have billed us for. The property has never at any point had two electricity meters, this second meter is fictional but again npower refuse to accept this and insist that we pay for the units from this other meter. We've been trying to tell them for five months that the gas reading we gave is genuine, and that the house doesn't have two electricity meters, but they keep ignoring us and and have sent us reminders for this final bill, demanding almost £1300.00 from us for energy we haven't used. I am pretty much out of my mind with it all, how can I prove to npower that what I say is true so that they'll stop harrassing us and demanding payment for energy we never used? Does anybody know how I can prove to them that the gas reading is genuine, and that the second meter doesn't exist at that property? I will be so grateful if anyone can help me.

naedanger

Sea_sprite wrote: »

Nightmare's putting it mildly, really. I'm out of my mind with this and desperate for any advice.

Last year, my mum and myself moved house. On the day we moved out of the old house, we took the meter readings and phoned them in to npower so they could calculate our final bill. When that final bill arrived, npower had made mistakes on the bill but refused to correct them when we spoke to them about it. During the whole time we lived at that property, npower estimated the gas readings, so when we moved out of the property and submitted the genuine reading, it was much lower than npower's estimates. The house had no gas central heating, its only gas usage was the hob in the kitchen, so the gas usage was very low. We took a reading of 000019 gas units on the day we moved out, but npower refuse to accept this and keep insisting that we pay a final bill based on their estimate of 1989 gas units. In addition to this, on the final bill a second electricity meter has suddenly appeared from nowhere, and the bill incluses a second set of meter readings ffrom this meter which npower have billed us for. The property has never at any point had two electricity meters, this second meter is fictional but again npower refuse to accept this and insist that we pay for the units from this other meter. We've been trying to tell them for five months that the gas reading we gave is genuine, and that the house doesn't have two electricity meters, but they keep ignoring us and and have sent us reminders for this final bill, demanding almost £1300.00 from us for energy we haven't used. I am pretty much out of my mind with it all, how can I prove to npower that what I say is true so that they'll stop harrassing us and demanding payment for energy we never used? Does anybody know how I can prove to them that the gas reading is genuine, and that the second meter doesn't exist at that property? I will be so grateful if anyone can help me.

Having you formally complained? If so when did you first complain and have you evidence of this?

When you first complained is important, since you have the right to take your complaint to an independent person (the Ombudsman) if npower have not resolved the complaint to your satisfaction after 8 weeks from when you first complained. But the Ombudsman will not help if you leave it too late. (I think you have about 9 months from when you first complained to take your case to the Ombudsman.)

Once I know the answer to when you first formally complained I can give advice on how you should proceed.

System

Hi. Have a look at this link:

http://www.britishgas.co.uk/help-and-advice/Meters-meter-readings/Meter-readings/How-do-I-read-my-meter.html

What sort of gas meter did you have as the reading cannot be 000019? Even 00019 would be very low. This might be the reason for the dispute over gas. I have a gas meter in cu metres. '19' would give me a usage figure of 213kWhs which equates to cost at my rate of £8.43 (inc VAT) plus the daily standing charge. Might you have mis-read the gas meter?

Just a thought. Presumably, when you moved out, somebody moved in. They would be on a Deemed Contract with the existing supplier and I assume that they would have passed on the meter readings to NPower. Have you checked to see whether their readings agreed with yours? as I say, only a thought.

Sea_sprite

I lodged a complaint on 12th November last year, but npower still won't put the bill right and keep sending me reminders.

I made a typo on here with my gas reading Hengus, sorry. It really is 00019 and we are very low gas users, and there's no possibility of the reading being wrong. Where we live now is identical to our old house in terms of its energy setup and usage, again there's no central heating and the only gas used is the cooker hob. We've lived here for six months and our current gas reading is 00007. The people who moved in when we left the old house would surely have given a starting reading of 00019 when they took over the house, but I have no idea who to contact or how to prove this.

Thankyou both for replying

System

What period of time are we talking about as 19 units is very low? Your old supplier should have your reading and that of the subsequent occupier. If they agree - which they should - then I cannot understand the problem. Have you tried contacting the present occupants?

naedanger

Sea_sprite wrote: »

I lodged a complaint on 12th November last year, but npower still won't put the bill right and keep sending me reminders.

That is ideal timing as it is just over 8 weeks since you first complained. That means you can now take your complaint to the Ombudsman. You need to put your complaint in writing to them. However you may wish to give them a call first to chat things over informally first. Their contact details are here:

http://www.ombudsman-services.org/contact-us-energy.html

The process is still quite slow as they are inundated with complaints. I suggest you read their website to get a bit more information on their process for dealing with complaints.

Sea_sprite

Thankyou, I think the ombudsman is the best thing now, I'll do that.

Sea_sprite

We lived there for 11 months. I'm not sure about contacting the present occupants, I'd rather find a different way of proving my gas reading if possible.

System

I don't doubt you, but I can see why any energy company would question that you could survive on 213 kWhs of gas over an 11 month period, and that assumes that the meter reading was on 00000 when you moved in. I hope that the EO comes through for you.

nPower

Sea_sprite wrote: »

Nightmare's putting it mildly, really. I'm out of my mind with this and desperate for any advice.

Last year, my mum and myself moved house. On the day we moved out of the old house, we took the meter readings and phoned them in to npower so they could calculate our final bill. When that final bill arrived, npower had made mistakes on the bill but refused to correct them when we spoke to them about it. During the whole time we lived at that property, npower estimated the gas readings, so when we moved out of the property and submitted the genuine reading, it was much lower than npower's estimates. The house had no gas central heating, its only gas usage was the hob in the kitchen, so the gas usage was very low. We took a reading of 000019 gas units on the day we moved out, but npower refuse to accept this and keep insisting that we pay a final bill based on their estimate of 1989 gas units. In addition to this, on the final bill a second electricity meter has suddenly appeared from nowhere, and the bill incluses a second set of meter readings ffrom this meter which npower have billed us for. The property has never at any point had two electricity meters, this second meter is fictional but again npower refuse to accept this and insist that we pay for the units from this other meter. We've been trying to tell them for five months that the gas reading we gave is genuine, and that the house doesn't have two electricity meters, but they keep ignoring us and and have sent us reminders for this final bill, demanding almost £1300.00 from us for energy we haven't used. I am pretty much out of my mind with it all, how can I prove to npower that what I say is true so that they'll stop harrassing us and demanding payment for energy we never used? Does anybody know how I can prove to them that the gas reading is genuine, and that the second meter doesn't exist at that property? I will be so grateful if anyone can help me.

Hi Sea sprite

Thanks for your post.

I'm disappointed to learn you've had difficulties in updating your gas read and that we're billing you for an extra electricity meter which isn't in the property.

If you can get in touch with us using the details on our profile page, I'm happy to look into this further for you. As the gas read is so low we may need to send a meter reader out to the property to corroborate the reads, but as long as they fall in line and look correct we should amend these for you. We'll also update the electric details at the same time. If you put MSE in the email header so we know where the contact has come from, that'd be much appreciated.

Regards

Jess