Npower – Complaint Spiralling out of Control

uk1

Rob7000 wrote: »

More disgraceful treatment by npower.

Changing to a new tariff caused my quarterly variable DD to be cancelled because npower were unable to set it up on the new tariff. Numerous calls have been made since 09/02/2015 trying to resolve this. The uncollected bill of £331.81 was paid by telephone. I have been told the current bill for £205.75 will be collected on 07/04/2015.

Then the REALLY SERIOUS problems started. On 23/03/2015 an additional Eleven items appeared on the account each one reversing an earlier bill. A new debit of £272.74 was also posted and reversed. This left the account £2,616.65 in CREDIT.

I then received an email from the “Home Moves Centre of Excellence” (I have neither moved home nor switched suppliers). It stated the complaint “has now been resolved and closed” without stating what had been resolved and without consultation with me. It also stated that the account was £553.46 in debit and required immediate payment. There was no explanation, nor did the amount appear on the account and a bill had not been produced. The account was still £2,616.65 in credit.

I called the “Specialist Complaints Team”. But the complaint had been closed and I was told the demand must be correct, implying I had no option but to pay it. I explained that I submit meter readings every month, I calculate the expected bill, that all bills had been correct and paid in full and that the account was correct and up to date. All of this was dismissed and no explanation was given for what had happened. As far as she was concerned the complaint (which had only been about setting up the DD) has been closed. I spent a long time trying to get this recognised as a valid complaint before she finally said “Well, what do you want to do?” and she reluctantly agreed to have it looked at.

I have not heard from npower since. But today eleven new bills appeared on the account and the balance is now £553.46 in DEBIT. In the space of 4 days the account went from being correct and up to date to being £553.46 in debit with 25 new financial transactions and no explanation whatsoever.

The eleven new bills are a recalculation of bills spanning more than 2 years. An initial inspection shows that they have used some tariffs that were never applicable to my account and some have included a daily rate charge at times when my electricity tariff had a zero daily rate. The mistakes produced an excess charge of £347.71. This being the demanded £553.46 minus the £205.75 not yet collected from most recent correct bill.

There is no justifiable reason to recalculate 2 years of bills and no excuse whatsoever for changing the tariffs and rates that were applicable during that time.

Npower have closed a complaint without any communication with me. They have demanded the immediate payment of £553.46 by email without explanation. They tried to refuse to accept any further complaint. They have recalculated two years of bills and increased the charges by almost £350. This will not be tolerated and this amount will not be paid.

Npower customer service is an absolute disgrace. My account went from being correct and up to date to being an almost undecipherable mess in just two days. This resulted in the erroneous demand for the equivalent of 6 months of energy costs without any explanation. In 60 years I have never been more disgusted with any company than I am with the treatment I have received from npower.

I am now faced with having to force this complaint through all the steps of their complaints procedure before I can get the account returned to its original correct status.

Has anyone else had two years of bills recalculated?

Rob

Rob,

You have my total sympathy.

There is no word in the language about how my wife and I feel about this company. disgraceful seems such an inadequate word.

Our issue started as a simple one - or should have been - a faulty meter. We are now more than two years down the track and they not only did everything not to help sort it out they actively did everything to prevent a resolution.

In the end I was getting nowhere. They were taking cash from our bank and I had to eventually go to court which we won. Over 100 documents, the constant reexplaining at the start f each discussion with them. They lost records of conversations. Made promises they never kept. They had to calculate usage but over estimated by 1400%. We recalculated and they accepted our calculation but only after a summons had been issued. At one stage we were called liars. I had no choice - we had to go to court. They employed barristers. I went to court for other parts of the claim that wasn't settled, with my wife. In the end the judge told npowers barrister to "shut up" and said it was the worst he had seen and found in our favour. The first time I saw their "deadlock" letter was in the court papers. And that basically called us "liars". No amount of money will ever be enough to compensate for the years of stress.

In trying to tie up leaving them, then they started retro-charging at full rates when we'd been on a contract. They said they would remedy it by a credit. When I explained very courteously that the credit wouldn't cover it they took the credit away. Just spiteful.

Just very nasty people in a company the like of which I have never seen. No sensible person would ever agree to buy from this company. I feel sorry for anyone who has anything they need to sort out with them.

Today we moved to ebico.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4773328=

NICHOLAS_2

I was on payment meters with npower, moved to ebico because the electric is miles cheaper.

I was on pre payment meters with npower, they are now sending me a bill for £52 lol. That's a !!!! take.

I wont be paying.

If they think i owe them money they can send me all of my usage and payments for the whole time i was with them so i can get someone to look over it! and i don't care if that costs me £100 i hate energy companies.

Rob7000

nPower_company_representative wrote: »

Hi Rob7000

Thanks for your post.

I'm really disappointed to hear you're having problems with your bills and getting this sorted. If you can please get in touch with us using the details on our profile page, I'll chase this for you and see if I can get this sorted. Can you include your username and MSE in the subject header please?

Kind Regards

Jen

Email sent to the address in your profile.
Received an automated out of office reply.
"We'll endeavour to respond within 3 days" etc

Rob7000

uk1 wrote: »

Rob,

You have my total sympathy.
...

I think you deserve some sympathy. I managed to copy your full post before the huge section was taken out of the middle.

We also know the stresses involved in taking legal action. Since 2006 we have taken 2 main dealers to court and VW Finance to the Financial Ombudsman. We won in all cases. Judges are not stupid, they know when they are being sold a crock.

Shortly after we moved in a neighbour 2 doors away queried why he was being billed for water usage when his house was empty. The readings from 2 of the 5 water meters had been mixed up. He had been billed for our usage. The problem was sorted immediately and without any drama. If only the energy companies could do the same.

Rob

uk1

Rob7000 wrote: »

I think you deserve some sympathy. I managed to copy your full post before the huge section was taken out of the middle.

We also know the stresses involved in taking legal action. Since 2006 we have taken 2 main dealers to court and VW Finance to the Financial Ombudsman. We won in all cases. Judges are not stupid, they know when they are being sold a crock.

Shortly after we moved in a neighbour 2 doors away queried why he was being billed for water usage when his houses was empty. The readings from 2 of the 5 water meters had been mixed up. He had been billed for our usage. The problem was sorted immediately and without any drama. If only the energy companies could do the same.

Rob

Hi Rob,

I'm disappointed that my post was edited and would be interested to hear in general terms what was deleted as I can't remember!

In my situation as you might have seen from the other thread I linked it was a simple case of a faulty meter in a second home where the bills were and should have been a total of around £120 a year for both gas and electric. We were in considerable credit. They ended up trying to take several thousand catchup and nearly £300 monthly on DD. i could go on but they refused to do anything. This was all through the so-called Executive Complaints department. We became so utterly desperate we tried several times to contact the ceo and begged him to intercede and stop the nightmare. It just went back to the same person and so the torture simply continued unabated. Over two years week in week out. The only plus is that it has cost them thousands in settlement,admin and legal fees.

There is also a long-term general over-charge issue with respect to all second-home owners who need recalculations following the discovery of a faulty meter. They make the calculations in a way that considerably overcharges but it wouldn't occur to most customers. I tried to alert ofgen but they couldn't be bothered less. Customers are being routinely cheated.

Having moved from npower I've now got to try and get my credit balance out of them. That will be fun.

Anyway, the best of luck.

Rob7000

uk1 wrote: »

Hi Rob,

I'm disappointed that my post was edited and would be interested to hear in general terms what was deleted as I can't remember!

I've posted the original contents in a PM.

Rob

Rob7000

Update - On the Lack of Progress

The situation is just getting worse.
- 30/03/2015 Complaint in writing to Executive Complaints Team. Still no response not even an acknowledgement.
- 15/04/2015 their own social media representative escalated the complaint to the Executive Complaints Team. Said I would be assigned a case handler. That didn't happen. Still no response not even an acknowledgement.
- 23/04/2015 2nd complaint in writing to Executive Complaints Team. Still no response not even an acknowledgement.
- The amended bills totaling £3,170.11 were reversed and replaced with a single bill for £3,170.39 covering the same 2 year period. This is now £372.99 more than the original bills which were correct and paid in full.
- To date it has not been confirmed that the amount by which we are being overcharged will be reversed. No explanation has been given as to why 2 years of bills were reversed and re-billed on higher tariffs.
- 2 years of gas meter readings have been deleted from the account.
- For 23 consecutive days npower have been stating the meters will be read by npower. It hasn't happened.
- 30/04/2015 I submitted the usual end of the month meter readings. But the online system is still asking me to submit meter readings.
- 03/05/2015 the online system now states that I am on the standard tariff for both gas and electricity. This is not correct I have been on Fixed Energy Online April 2016 since 16/01/2015.
- It is 12 weeks since the complaint began and the cancelled direct debit still has not been set up. Despite several emails saying that it has.
- The npower executive complaints team have been contacted 3 times (twice in writing by me and once by their own social media team) but I have not had a single response from them. They continue to send emails and produce leaflets describing how they are standing up for us and putting us first and telling us that all complaints will be resolved quickly.
- The account is now a total disaster. Every aspect of the account has been messed up - bills, meter readings, tariffs, financial transactions, direct debits. Everything about the account is now an undecipherable mess and as far as I can tell no-one is even attempting to put it right.
- Not responding to 3 executive level complaints is beyond belief and totally unacceptable. I have never known such disgraceful treatment from any business.

Joyful

Time to take it to the Ombudsman.

Rob7000

Some people who have taken their complaint to the Ombudsman say they were ineffectual and gave the company as much time as they wanted to sort the problem.

Will there be a long delay before the Ombudsman responds to a complaint? A previous complaint to the Financial Ombudsman took more than three months just to be looked at.

Thanks

dianadoors

Hi,
I am going to court soon against Npower who claim I had used more electricity under my previous supplier and put my DD up by 120%.
I went through all the necessary channels and found the ombudsman quite useless.If the energy was used under a previous supplier why is Npoer claiming the repayment?I think mistakes were made under the D32?
Would like any input from anyone having the same problems.My answer to anyone using Npower is to ditch them entirely:j