NPower wrote off final bill now 8 months on they've sent me a final bill

Rosielaura

I got an email today from the woman dealing with my case in theexecutive complaints department:

'Further to the e-mail below, I'm pleased to confirm that after thoroughly reviewing your account, the final balance of £504.43 has been withdrawn. This leaves a zero balance on your account and I can reassure you that you will not receive anymore Collections letters.
In recognition of the overall shortfalls in customer service received, I have arranged to send you a small wine & cheese hamper.
Once again, I am sorry that you have had to escalate your case to your local MP's office to resolve the complaint.
If you have any additional questions please contact me directly on the details below. If I do not receive a response within the next 5 working days, I will presume that you are satisfied the complaint can be closed.'

I'm not clear as to why the bill was wiped. I'm curious to know but can probably guess its due to the fact there was / is no actual final bill, amongst other reasons, including the write off letter.

I will reply to her to say thanks, but would also like to double check my account is well and truly closed. But am so grateful that my account has been looked into properly, and not just at a quick glance by several different people.

I didn't expect a wine and cheese hamper! To be honest, I wasn't really sure what to expect.
But I suspect they have realised I have a good case: a copy of the write off letter, repeated requests for a final bill on record and no copy themselves of a final bill, amongst others.

I think this has all proved to me that you need to fight for what you know is right. I could have so easily accepted the offer of £75 or £100 when they offered them. The advice from everyone on this forum has been invaluable to me.
Thank you :-)

naedanger

Rosielaura wrote: »

I got an email today from the woman dealing with my case in theexecutive complaints department:

'Further to the e-mail below, I'm pleased to confirm that after thoroughly reviewing your account, the final balance of £504.43 has been withdrawn. This leaves a zero balance on your account and I can reassure you that you will not receive anymore Collections letters.
In recognition of the overall shortfalls in customer service received, I have arranged to send you a small wine & cheese hamper.
Once again, I am sorry that you have had to escalate your case to your local MP's office to resolve the complaint.
If you have any additional questions please contact me directly on the details below. If I do not receive a response within the next 5 working days, I will presume that you are satisfied the complaint can be closed.'

I'm not clear as to why the bill was wiped. I'm curious to know but can probably guess its due to the fact there was / is no actual final bill, amongst other reasons, including the write off letter.

I will reply to her to say thanks, but would also like to double check my account is well and truly closed. But am so grateful that my account has been looked into properly, and not just at a quick glance by several different people.

I didn't expect a wine and cheese hamper! To be honest, I wasn't really sure what to expect.
But I suspect they have realised I have a good case: a copy of the write off letter, repeated requests for a final bill on record and no copy themselves of a final bill, amongst others.

I think this has all proved to me that you need to fight for what you know is right. I could have so easily accepted the offer of £75 or £100 when they offered them. The advice from everyone on this forum has been invaluable to me.
Thank you :-)

Well done. If more people fought their case then npower wouldn't get away with speculative billing.

I suspect that npower know their bill was not justified. However I wonder how many people would pay without question or settle for some small reduction and still pay more than the correct amount.

By giving you some wine and a hamper npower will hope you remember them as a generous company rather than one that tried to rip you off.

atolaas

Just found your thread. Excellent news!! Well done for sticking to your guns.

They need to know that they can't get away with treating people like this.

zaax

speculative billing it really sounds like another scam on this website - speculative car parking fines.

ld59

So pleased this as finally been sorted for you. I received an email from npower today saying my final bill for gas £347. I switched suppliers in march 2014. I will be doing the same as you. I do not owe them anything. Iv had no bill, just the email!!!

Rosielaura

Definitely fight against that. :-)

I've never escalated a complaint or fought like this before, but this forum gave me the confidence to do it and I knew the bill just wasn't right.

I think it was the lack of a final bill that really stumped them in the end. My account seemed to be in a total mess, when the woman from executive complaints first spoke to me on the phone.

I think the fact they're not telling me why they're writing off the bill, suggests there is fault at their end which they have finally acknowledged and unearthed. I think that was helped along by having just one person properly examining the account. (My local MP's team enabled that. It could have been longer had I've gone to an energy ombudsman - I'm unsure).
I'm just so grateful to my local MP and her team.

I think many random bills are being produced to fit inside the 12 month Backbilling code of practice rules, or they are being produced in a rush and with errors.

Good luck. Stick to your guns. Don't let them win! :-)

AliceBanned

Npower are a nightmare. At the moment I am being wrongly billed by them. I phoned First Utility, who I switched to at the end of November - they said they have provided my final gas meter reading to Npower - Npower insist FU haven't. Basically Npower trying to overcharge me, as I had already switched at a lower reading by 60 units.


I sympathise as I also left Npower due to poor billing, mistakes and high fuel costs. FU have been much better (so far).


I am a bit worried as Npower sent to the bill to their collections dept but obviously I'm not paying it as they haven't picked up the official meter reading given to them by FU on the date of the switch.


Turns out the onus is on me to get NPower to contact FU to ask for it again!!:mad:

AliceBanned

Congratulations on getting it sorted btw. Sorry I didn't read to the end of your thread before posting! It is worth checking especially with the mess Npower get into..awful!

AliceBanned

Quick update - I phoned Npower this morning. They managed to view the meter reading and I had been overcharged by £30. They said they will send me a new final bill.

I asked how to apply for some compensation due to all the phone calls and their mistakes, (which they have admitted to) and she is going to take £25 off my final bill. So it is almost half what it was originally. I'm pleased that I checked. How they can send a final bill without a final meter reading and just make it up, I don't know.

CathA

Speaking of NPower, they were the suppliers at our house when we moved in. We changed to EDF (our previous suppliers)and I thought, great, job done. How wrong could I be?
Moving on from the the changeover in March/April last year, I didn't get a bill from them for ages, then one popped up in September, apologising for the long delay in sending the final bill, although with no explanation as to why. The meter figures were right, however there was a difference on the dates of when the account started. The previous occupants moved out and gave final readings on 31st Jan, but the house sale didn't complete until late on 3rd February and we didn't take the house over until the 4th. NPower calculated our standing charges for gas and electricity from the 31st, meaning we were paying for 4 days that weren't our responsibility!!! Yes, I appreciate that it was only about £2 overall but not the point.

Anyway, I rang them, explained the date discrepancy, asked for it to be sorted out then I'm happy to pay the correct bill. OMG, it's like speaking to an idiot!! I've had 3 bills (all incorrect) several phone calls inviting me to pay the (wrong) bill, and several calls from me to try and get it sorted. Eventually (last week) I spoke to someone with a glimmer of intelligence, bill has been reduced, (though I think they reduced it wrongly in my favour, yay!) and I'm all paid up.
My parting comment to NPower was 'If you gave away electricity free with petrol I wouldn't want it.Your customer service is rubbish.' Keep away from them .