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

Rosielaura

Hahaha CathA - brilliant closing comment! :-)

I've never felt so let down by a company before. I don't why I didn't switch sooner.
I phoned the woman who dealt with my case from the executive complaints team yesterday. It still felt as though I was being blamed. She still had some of the wrong dates for things - from the time between the write off letter and the final bill reminder letters.
She said they'd had to pull up the person who'd closed my account and then wrongly issued a write off letter! Tbh, that write off letter served me well in the end.

No consistency in the company, no communication and no understanding of their own policies, as someone said in a previous comment.

I still don't feel shot of them. I felt I needed to ask her again, is my account really closed?!
I feel so let down by this whole experience. The stress and worry they cause people is horrific!
I feel like they'll come back at me in a month or two and demand something else. They seem to like doing that.
I'm worried about the effect this has all had on my new energy provider which isstill having issues with my account after NPowers rubbish handover back in May. Completely made up meter reads for one which only just seem to be getting rectified.
I'm waiting to find out what damage NPower have caused my new account with the Co-op!

P.S. The hamper of wine and cheese never actually turned up! No surprises there!

Rosielaura

AliceBanned - can't believe they sent you a bill without meter reads. I reckon they do just make them up, just to get a bill out. So many people would have paid without question. There are so many vulnerable people out there.
Never did get a copy of my final bill sent to me. No surprises. It never actually existed!

Good for you for asking for some compensation, I didn't even think to ask.
I'm glad it's worked out better for you. :-)

brewerdave

CathA wrote: »

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 .

@CathA -the fault was with the previous owners -they were responsible for the bills right up to completion - they should have paid for the extra days til the 3rd EVEN IF they had moved out! Wonder if NP will set the debt collectors on them at some future date for the £2 ?? Probably in 2016 or 2017 :rotfl:

CathA

brewerdave wrote: »

@CathA -the fault was with the previous owners -they were responsible for the bills right up to completion - they should have paid for the extra days til the 3rd EVEN IF they had moved out! Wonder if NP will set the debt collectors on them at some future date for the £2 ?? Probably in 2016 or 2017 :rotfl:

I appreciate that the date the previous occupants gave them the final readings for was the one that they used, but even so surely it doesn't take the wisdom of Solomon to realise what they had done and correct it? When NPower sent me a letter asking for my current reading and all readings over the last 12 months, I thought my head would explode. When I rang them and told them again that I hadn't been with them for nearly a year and I wasn't giving them ANY readings as there was no point, it seemed like I was being unreasonable. Told the girl who answered the phone it was unacceptable, told her that their customer service was !!!!! and wanted to speak to someone with a bit more idea. In the end £10 was knocked off, fair result methinks, as the bill was only £40.
And yes, my hubby thought my final comment about electric free with petrol was funny, although he said he would never have checked the bill and just paid it!! Good job I look after the finances?

AliceBanned

Rosielaura wrote: »

AliceBanned - can't believe they sent you a bill without meter reads. I reckon they do just make them up, just to get a bill out. So many people would have paid without question. There are so many vulnerable people out there.
Never did get a copy of my final bill sent to me. No surprises. It never actually existed!

Good for you for asking for some compensation, I didn't even think to ask.
I'm glad it's worked out better for you. :-)

Thanks. I nearly didn't ask, but thought I may as well try. I'm doing very frugal living at the moment so my mind is on finding anywhere I can save, and as they messed up badly I thought I deserved an apology. :DThey are being quite contrite once they are caught out as they can't really argue that it's disgusting making up their bills and being so shoddy. Yes its shocking - I could have overpaid by two months' winter gas costs.


I still have that bill to pay and then I'm done with them forever. I don't have the money this month but I'm very protective of my credit rating as it has been damaged in the past through my own fault and it is not brilliant now due to my debts, so I won't let a company's mistake make it worse (they had sent bill to collections dept).

markprior

good to hear you got this sorted, s

Arizonalinda

For 19 months I have had no gas bill or account open with Npower eventhough they supply my gas. I have called many times and complained too. My current tarrif ends and set up a new one, but it won't work because of the problem with my gas and say they are putting me on a standard tarrif. I don't want that. My electric account has a massive credit of over £1,000. I asked for it back and they won't give it back because they haven't billed me for gas. I'm at my wits end as what to do. Ombudsman won't do anything because my complaint is over 9 months old. What the hell can I do. They told me I can't switch suppliers either because of this problem they can't fix.

Rosielaura

I think you should do the MP thing. It really worked for me. Write to your local MP and explain your case. It's worth a try. If they're anything like the MP here where I live, it'll do the trick.
Good luck! I understand your stress.

Patrickuk

Hello,

I moved from the property nPower provided electricity to in November 2013. Npower weren't capable of billing me even though I called them and wrote to them several times asking them to provide a bill based on actual readings and not ridiculous estimates, they failed to provide a bill. I provided them readings several times and they came to take readings on several occasions and always said that I would receive a bill, but I didn't.

A few months after moving, I decided to complain and demand a bill so I could pay and be rid of them, after a few months I received a letter stating,

"I am sorry that we have no far been unable to resolve your complaint. We are doing everything we can to resolve it as quickly as possible. This 'eight week' letter explains what the Ombudsman"

and they proceeded to tell me that I have the right to complain to the Ombudsman Services - Energy and that they will 'continue' to liaise with me until the issue is resolved.

I didn't hear anything from them until July 2014 when they sent a letter apologizing for their !!!!-up and the following:

"Good news on your final statement", they stated that, "We know it's time to put things right, so here's what we've decided to do. Any outstanding balance, specifically related to your final billing period with npower, has been written off. Please accept this letter as confirmation of that, there;'s now no need to send you a final statement".

I thought that it was decent of them to write it off as they hadn't billed me for well over a year and I had had enough waiting and begging them to send a bill... As far as I was concerned, that was the end of npower, forever.

Last week (May 2015), out of the blue, I received a letter from them with large bold text asking, "Is there anything we can do to help". Though tempting, I decided not to respond with the first dozen things that came to mind. The letter says that they recently sent me a final electricity bill showing the outstanding balance and payment date and that my current balance is £320.41. This letter did not include a bill at all, it doesn't say what period this was for or provide any usage details. I tried calling them but it was already after 8pm so they were closed. I forgot about it until today. When I arrived home from work I found another letter from them with large, bold text stating "Your outstanding final bill - please act quickly. We've written to you recently about your unpaid electricity bill and offered to help if you can't pay, but we haven't received your payment or heard from you ... We understand that your bill was delayed which may have caused you problems with paying, and so we have waited longer than normal before writing to you about your bill".

I decided to call them and ask for an explanation, whilst on the phone, I reset my password for the online account and logged in. I had plenty of time to do this as the npower representative put me on hold for about 30 minutes. On my account, there is a bill which states it is the Final bill of £576 dated the 25th February 2014, which covers everything up to the date the account was closed - the 2nd November 2013.

The npower representative explained that they had wiped off part of my bill and not all of it and that they have decided that I owe them £320. I asked what period this was for, why it had not been sent to me, why it was not visible on the online account and how they reached that figure. He said that "there are a few errors and glitches with the online account". I stated that I found a Final Bill (which had never been sent to me) for £576, on the online account) dated 25th Feb 2014 and that I also have a letter from them which specifically refers to the Final Bill that clearly states that it had been written off and that I don't owe them a thing.

He put me on hold again for a while then got back to me saying that their system is messed up, that it says that I owe them £320. He wasn't able to answer whether it was legal for them to attempt to bill me for usage which they had told me had been written off. He couldn't say whether they can bill people well over 12 months after the account had been closed or whether the back billing code of practice allowed them to do so. I advised that I will not be paying anything until I am sure that I actually owe this money and asked that he send me the bill which he said he had which had not been posted to me nor attached to the online account. I cannot help but wonder if this bill will also state 'Final bill' as the one currently on the account does. I find it terribly amusing how they now have two final bills when in the letter they sent me stating that everything has been written off, they clearly said that there is no need to send me a final statement.

I did my best to be nice to him and said that I understand that he is not avoiding answering questions because he is trying to be awkward and that I appreciate that has a job to do, but nevertheless I need an explanation of what was going on. He was a nice chap, despite his English being a little difficult to comprehend. He said that he would put a note on my account about our conversation and provided me the complaints team number and asked that I call them back tomorrow as they are available until 18:00.

Tomorrow, if I have time, I will call their complaints department and ask for explanations. This company is probably the worst I have ever had the displeasure of dealing with.

My questions are; Do I owe them anything? Can they bill me in May 2015 for alleged usage from Aug-Nov 2013? How about after them writing to me stating that I no longer owe them anything?

Thank you.
Patrick

JudithBurton64

I am also experiencing this problem, however I have misplaced the letter writing off my final bill. Does anyone have a photo or copy of this letter that anyone could make avaliable to me?