Massive electricity bill for 1 person from NPower - help!

Aitch7

HI,

I live alone in a 2 bed flat. I have the usual stuff - a computer, printer, TV, set top box, VCR, mobile phone all of which are used every day, washing machine which is used twice a week - nothing that most people don't have.

I have just received a bill for £267.93 for the period 20 April - 18 July 2007!
they say I have used 2246KWh of electricity! I can't imagine how anyone could have done that.

It states that from 20 April - 29 April
18 KWh at 15.350p
244 KWh at 11.140p

30 April - 18 July
161 KWh at 15.350p
1823 KWh at 11.000p

Can anyone make any sense of this or tell me if the charges are similar to your own?

My previous bills were:-
July - Sept 06 £54.84 (NOT estimated) using 425 units
Oct - Jan 07 £65.79 estimated reading - 493 units
Jan - Apr 07 £68.84 estimated reading - 518 units

I won't go into great details about my ongoing problems with NPower who are the most incompetent, inefficient company I have ever dealt with and seem to have a complete absence of any customer service, - but I will summarize...

I have had 13 months of hassle with NPower since I first moved here.

I have sent 2 recorded delivery letters which have not even been acknowledged to the address that I was given to make a complaint following months of hassle and supposedly having discovered someone who could sort it out.

I sent 5 emails all of which they deny receiving.

I have been billed for previous tenants, I have been told my address does not exist, I have been told that I cannot have the address that I live at as their system won't accept it(!!!!) I have been threatened with credit agencies and courts based on previous tenants bills despite the fact that every time they tell me they have cancelled them all. They have said they can't find the meter, they have said that they have no previous notes as to where it might be despite sending bills for the previous tenants.

I am right at this moment trying to speak with someone about this bill and have so far made 4 pages of notes as I have been passed around a variety of people none of whom have called back - one of whom hung up the phone on me when I calmly asked for her name and who I now have a complaint reference number about - but now the manager has failed to call back again!

Can anyone offer any advice (other than leave NPOwer which I intend to do as soon as I have sorted this mess out) about why my electricity bill is so high?

Also has anyone found a company that saves money and provides a customer service - or am I just being silly asking that!:-)

best wishes
Aitch7

btr30

Sorry to hear of your troubles with NPower. It is not a company I have had dealings with, but I think I can help you understand the bills a little.
From your summary of accounts your last actual read was in September 06. If the current bill is also based on an actual read that would give a total consumption between Sept 06 and 18 July 07 of 3257 kWh (493+518+2246).
The first thing is to check your actual meter reading against that on the bill, and if this is wrong ask for an amended bill. It is not unknown for meter reading agents to make up a reading to meet their targets and pass this off as an actual read without ever seeing the meter.
I have a three bedroom house with a family of four in it and have an annual consumption of around 4,000 kWh, so I would say that by comparison your consumption does appear on the high side.
Obviously I would also look for suppliers who offer cheaper rates.

Good luck.

Cardew

It seems to be a simple case of your bills in Jan 07 and April 07 being based on underestimated readings and your July bill is 'catching up'.

The period 20-29 Apr is at the old price and the 30 April to 18 July at the new price.

In fact you would appear to have gained a little as they have charged you for the majority at the new lower price.

You don't say where you live(prices vary across the country) but you seem to be pay far more than lots of available tariffs. 15.35/11p kWh is very high.

Aitch7

Hi,

I have just spent 6 hours on the phone to NPower since 11am this morning on and off just trying to get the answer to 2 questions. No one knows whey they all have the wrong info or why messages haven't been passed, why no one has called me back or anything else for that matter - so no change there with their customer service!

I have now discovered that I owe the £267.93 for electricity and based on my own reading of the gas meter as they had only done estimated ones I now owe almost the same for gas as they had grossly overestimated again! so I now owe NPower £500.

Various bizarre things have emerged like the meter reader apparently leaving notes saying 'no access' to property on one occassion which is odd as the meter is outside and better still 'unsafe premises' on another occassion. They have no idea why these notes were made!

It now seems that my annual gas is £656 and my electricity is £536 both of which seem very high to me - I will be changing provider asap. but I still can't understand why my usage is so high. The only suggestion made by NPower is that boilers have electric pumps therefore when you use more gas central heating people forget that they are also using electricity.

I am very far from happy and now arranging to borrow £500!

best wishes
Aitch7

Cardew

I assume you mean 'underestimated' for gas?

Your electric consumption from July 2006 to July 2007 is approx 3,700kWh. about 10% higher than average - so not particularly high.

Even at the high electricity prices you are paying that should be around £440.

£656 for gas is high for a 2 bed flat - but if it is badly insulated that could account for the consumption.

Aitch7

Cardew wrote: »

I assume you mean 'underestimated' for gas?

Your electric consumption from July 2006 to July 2007 is approx 3,700kWh. about 10% higher than average - so not particularly high.

Even at the high electricity prices you are paying that should be around £440.

£656 for gas is high for a 2 bed flat - but if it is badly insulated that could account for the consumption.

yes I did mean underestimated I'm just confused and bewildered after 6 hours on the phone to NPower lol

A manager just called me back to tell me she had listened to the call where the staff member hung up on me and couldn't believe how polite I was throughout the call whilst she was rude to me - so I guess that's something at least...

Thanks for the reply - yes my flat is badly insulated - landlady not willing to spend her millions lol

best wishes
Aitch7

daveyjp

Best advice is NEVER pay an estimated bill. Our bill seems to be ready every quarter, but even then I always check it.

BTW as a property manager I have to deal with five or six different utility companies and they are all as bad as each other.

anniecave

If they haven't been able to get a meter reading, and you haven't given them one, then they will estimate. They can't do anything else. It sounds to me like the bills were underestimated, but are now OK. If I received a Winter quarter bill for only £60 I'd know on my flat that would be too low! I wouldn't immediately take out a loan, why not offer to pay it back over say the next few months? Or it might be worth paying it back asap, in order to be able to switch to a cheaper supplier. Now you know how much you use in a year, you can use a comparison website to find your cheapest supplier!

Aitch7

anniecave wrote: »

If they haven't been able to get a meter reading, and you haven't given them one, then they will estimate. They can't do anything else. It sounds to me like the bills were underestimated, but are now OK. If I received a Winter quarter bill for only £60 I'd know on my flat that would be too low! I wouldn't immediately take out a loan, why not offer to pay it back over say the next few months? Or it might be worth paying it back asap, in order to be able to switch to a cheaper supplier. Now you know how much you use in a year, you can use a comparison website to find your cheapest supplier!

thanks for the advice - yes I will be switching supplier and have already used the price comparison sites which are very useful.

I have to confess that I hadn't spotted that they were estimated bills - I missed the 'E' completely that appears on the bill. Also as the meter is accessible and no one knows why they made all the inaccurate and strange comments about not being able to gain access - I assumed that they were reading the meter each time.

One of those mistakes that I will never make again I guess...

Re the loan - I will have to borrow the money as I now have to pay off Npower and get away from them asap. At least I can borrow it from my mum who doesn't charge interest:-)

thanks again for your advice,
best wishes
Aitch7

Terrylw1

Listen to Daveyjp, Energywatch see the same complaints about them all. On the complaints tables they tne dot perform about the same as many other suppliers.

Take your reads. If the reading on your bill matches your meter, see Cardews response. You have been underestimatd & catching up.

Never pay estimates, these estimates are used to further estimate your future consumption so you can see how easily things go wrong.

If your read does not match, contact them, there is an error and get your bill replaced. If you do that quick enough, they can do it while you're on the phone. If yo leave it months, it will take longer to re-issue.