Npower took £3135.32 to pay previous owners bill!!!

Robturner

MarkyMarkD wrote: »

I don't think it's very likely that they HAVE given the bank details to your property's ex owner.

All they've done is recorded your new DD details against the ex owner's NPower account.

This means if he rings Npower he has access to my details!!!

BTW still haven’t had a call back from Npower I also received a £30 bank charge for going over my agreed overdraft.

elite_2

Robturner wrote: »

This means if he rings Npower he has access to my details!!!

BTW still haven’t had a call back from Npower I also received a £30 bank charge for going over my agreed overdraft.

Owing that much, I doubt he'll be calling them! - however this is very bad practice by npower (who are incompetant I might add)

Npower should pay the bank charge, however I would be surprised if you can't sweet talk the bank into cancelling it as they will be able to see that the rediculous DD was cancelled

anniecave

I would ask the bank to refund the charge. As it is obviously connected with the DD.

Once the DD has been cancelled off then should the previous occupier phone in (which I would doubt) then the direct debit details probably will be hidden away somewhere that can't be easily found on Npower's system. The previous occupier wouldn't be able to do much with them without being easily traced anyway.

The girlfriend/taxi issue I agree is unfortunate but I'd suggest in future having a spare credit card or spare cash in the house or a savings account with card attached that can be raided in an emergency. That's what I've had to do in the past when my card has been stopped for some reason that I didn't know about.

I would complain to energywatch. Npower might offer you £50 or £100 in this case. That would be my guess.

I would also consider switching suppliers (and tell them you are thinking about doing this).

KILL_BILL

dont accept there first offer !!!!!!!!! - never

scheming_gypsy

MarkyMarkD wrote: »

All they've done is recorded your new DD details against the ex owner's NPower account.

I think it's even simpler than that. They haven't added the DD details to the ex-owners account as the account will be held in the house address. All they've done is received a direct debit mandate from the owner of x street, y town, z county etc and added that to the account for x street. As that account was in arrears and the previous owner may have been sent letters requesting payment the amount was deducted when the bank details were received.

Account for house x.
home 'owner' changes name on account.
home 'owner' supplies bank details for direct debit mandate.
Npower takes outstanding payment from bank.

As there's only 1 gas / electricty meter for the house there's only 1 bill and that is associated with the address rather than the persons name.

Robturner

scheming_gypsy wrote: »

Account for house x.
home 'owner' changes name on account.
home 'owner' supplies bank details for direct debit mandate.
Npower takes outstanding payment from bank.

As there's only 1 gas / electricty meter for the house there's only 1 bill and that is associated with the address rather than the persons name.

So how come they setup 3 DD's ?

BTW nobody from Npower will deal with me they just say a manager wil call soon.

redux

Was the meter read when the sale went through?

If you don't have a witness or agreement about the reading, I'm wondering if you may also find yourself in dispute with the previous owner about this.

scheming_gypsy

Robturner wrote: »

So how come they setup 3 DD's ?

cos they're bl**dy stupid. I do know somebody who works for Npower. I'd ask her to look into it for you but she doesn't seem to like me lately.

Lomion

Cardew wrote: »

You obviously were attempting to use a debit card for Asda and your girlfriend's petrol?

A couple of questions:

Do neither you or girlfriend have a credit card? That would not be affected by being overdrawn.

I would say as well that a credit card would have saved you having to leave the shopping behind and running out of Petrol. ASDA do a card that saves 2p/liter off Petrol. Just make sure to pay it off in full at the end of the month.

On the compensation side, I would say ask for everything you can. Worst they can say is no. But after a mistake this big, I can't see them getting too funny about things.

magyar

anniecave wrote: »

I would complain to energywatch. Npower might offer you £50 or £100 in this case. That would be my guess.

I would also consider switching suppliers (and tell them you are thinking about doing this).

As a note, npower will not offer anything, you will have to ask for it specifically. I would be asking for approx. £100 compensation. This will need a manager (not just a supervisor) level of approval, so push for that.

Don't go to Energywatch until you've spoken to npower; you'll get more from them by threatening to go to them rather than actually having done so. They will happily pay you not to switch or escalate - if you've already done so then it's out of their hands.