Energy supplier rubbish inaccurate billing - how to avoid overpaying?

Lone_Northern_Lass

Apologies in advance for length.

After a long saga of being billed incorrectly and getting rubbish customer service from NPower, I've finally got sufficiently fed up to request a switch of supplier. However, I have some questions about this, which are probably easiest to explain / ask by giving a quick timeline of what's happened in the last 18months:

Pre-April 2014 - Not aware of any major problems with how NPower was billing me.

April 2014 - Bought new house.

April - June 2014 - Owned new house but was also still renting old flat. New house had pre-payment metres which I topped up as needed (not very much). Direct debit still paying for energy in old flat.

June / July-ish 2014 - NPower came out at my request and took out the pre-payment metres in new house and put in metres which would let me pay by direct debit. I was staying in new house much more and old flat much less.

August - December 2014 - I no longer rented old flat. NPower were still taking Direct Debits from my account, so I assumed these were going to pay for my energy. (NPower didn't take a Direct Debit every month - I think they skipped September, but they definitely took £120 in each of October, November and December i.e. £360 in total.) Towards the end of this period, I noticed that there were significant problems with what was going on with my billing. Went to my online accounts where NPower showed three accounts - Old Flat, account was ended in July 2014; New House Gas, no money credited to account between August and December 2014; New House Electricity, no money credited to account between August and December 2014.

January 2015 - I cancelled my Direct Debit to NPower given that they weren't crediting the money to any of my accounts. I began a long series of frustrating phone calls and emails to them.

February 2015 - After I sent NPower copies of my bank statements to prove that I really had paid £360 by Direct Debit over recent months, NPower reversed my gas bill from about £270 down to £0 (NB this leaves £90 Direct Debit I'd paid and they'd never acknowledged).

May - June 2015 - My previous estimated and actual gas metre readings having gone up gradually like 71500, 71550, 71700, 71775, etc, NPower entered an estimated reading of 89000 (or similar - i.e. a ridiculous and unprecedented leap in usage) and tried to bill me £390 at once. I immediately entered an actual reading on my online account. The £390 bill got reversed and a £40 bill got put on.

This weekend - I opened another letter from NPower which has been sitting around in my post for a couple of weeks because I assumed it was more garbage from them. It actually contained a cheque for about £430 from them "as promised" even though they've never promised it.

Currently - I've asked to switch supplier. My electricity will be switched on 6th July. (I have told NPower multiple times since January that they took out my pre-payment electricity metre last summer. Despite this, every NPower representative I speak to still thinks I have a pre-payment metre. My online account for electricity shows as being about £10 in credit.) I took the £430 cheque to the bank today and it is now showing on my online banking as having been deposited. My NPower gas account is showing online as being about £140 in debit. (There is about £90 I paid by Direct Debit in Oct-Dec 2014 which still hasn't been credited to any of my accounts.)


I would be quite happy to get the £430 from the cheque NPower sent me, pay the £140 they think I owe to make them go away for ever and call it quits at that. I would strongly consider paying the £140 to make them go away even if the £430 weren't on the table (at which point I think I'd be at least £90 out of pocket given the Direct Debits I paid last year). I think NPower don't have the foggiest idea at all how much I actually owe them for what energy.

So:

* What are the chances the £430 cheque from NPower will bounce?

* Once my electricity supplier has changed and I'm paying regular Direct Debits to my new supplier, how likely is that NPower will notice I've not paid them any money for electricity for the past year? And, given that the reason I haven't paid them any money for electricity is that they still think I have a pre-payment metre, despite me having told them that this isn't the case multiple times since January (including in emails - so I have documented evidence of telling them this), what powers would they have to chase me for any money I might owe them in respect of my electricity use once I've changed supplier?


(My overall approach is that I want to pay a supplier fairly for my energy without having to worry about the details too much. Hence why I'm trying to switch to a supplier who will hopefully take my Direct Debits from my bank each month and credit them to my gas and electricity supply accounts. Rather than NPower who took at least £360 in Direct Debits without crediting this money to any of my accounts with them and in whom I no longer have any faith whatsoever to know the first thing about their billing of me or what money I might or might not owe them.)

modsandmockers

It is extremely unlikely that the cheque will bounce!

And you only have to pay for the energy which you have used - if you have the starting date and meter readings for the replacement meter in the house, then you can work out the cost of the energy which you have consumed. If you have your bank statements for the last couple of years, then you can find out how much money you have paid in total to Npower. Some of those payments would have been reclaimable under the direct debit guarantee, and it might be worth phoning your bank and asking whether it is still possible to recall the incorrect DD payments.

If Npower’s computer thinks that you still owe money, then it might block a switch to another supplier.

About a year ago, I took over the organisation of my daughter’s finances, and one of the biggest headaches was Npower.

In order to challenge an energy supplier’s demands, you need an accurate record of your energy consumption over the period in question. When you buy petrol, do you look at the meter before going to the till and handing over your money? It should be the same with gas and electricity...

nPower

Lone_Northern_Lass wrote: »

Apologies in advance for length.

After a long saga of being billed incorrectly and getting rubbish customer service from NPower, I've finally got sufficiently fed up to request a switch of supplier. However, I have some questions about this, which are probably easiest to explain / ask by giving a quick timeline of what's happened in the last 18months:

Pre-April 2014 - Not aware of any major problems with how NPower was billing me.

April 2014 - Bought new house.

April - June 2014 - Owned new house but was also still renting old flat. New house had pre-payment metres which I topped up as needed (not very much). Direct debit still paying for energy in old flat.

June / July-ish 2014 - NPower came out at my request and took out the pre-payment metres in new house and put in metres which would let me pay by direct debit. I was staying in new house much more and old flat much less.

August - December 2014 - I no longer rented old flat. NPower were still taking Direct Debits from my account, so I assumed these were going to pay for my energy. (NPower didn't take a Direct Debit every month - I think they skipped September, but they definitely took £120 in each of October, November and December i.e. £360 in total.) Towards the end of this period, I noticed that there were significant problems with what was going on with my billing. Went to my online accounts where NPower showed three accounts - Old Flat, account was ended in July 2014; New House Gas, no money credited to account between August and December 2014; New House Electricity, no money credited to account between August and December 2014.

January 2015 - I cancelled my Direct Debit to NPower given that they weren't crediting the money to any of my accounts. I began a long series of frustrating phone calls and emails to them.

February 2015 - After I sent NPower copies of my bank statements to prove that I really had paid £360 by Direct Debit over recent months, NPower reversed my gas bill from about £270 down to £0 (NB this leaves £90 Direct Debit I'd paid and they'd never acknowledged).

May - June 2015 - My previous estimated and actual gas metre readings having gone up gradually like 71500, 71550, 71700, 71775, etc, NPower entered an estimated reading of 89000 (or similar - i.e. a ridiculous and unprecedented leap in usage) and tried to bill me £390 at once. I immediately entered an actual reading on my online account. The £390 bill got reversed and a £40 bill got put on.

This weekend - I opened another letter from NPower which has been sitting around in my post for a couple of weeks because I assumed it was more garbage from them. It actually contained a cheque for about £430 from them "as promised" even though they've never promised it.

Currently - I've asked to switch supplier. My electricity will be switched on 6th July. (I have told NPower multiple times since January that they took out my pre-payment electricity metre last summer. Despite this, every NPower representative I speak to still thinks I have a pre-payment metre. My online account for electricity shows as being about £10 in credit.) I took the £430 cheque to the bank today and it is now showing on my online banking as having been deposited. My NPower gas account is showing online as being about £140 in debit. (There is about £90 I paid by Direct Debit in Oct-Dec 2014 which still hasn't been credited to any of my accounts.)


I would be quite happy to get the £430 from the cheque NPower sent me, pay the £140 they think I owe to make them go away for ever and call it quits at that. I would strongly consider paying the £140 to make them go away even if the £430 weren't on the table (at which point I think I'd be at least £90 out of pocket given the Direct Debits I paid last year). I think NPower don't have the foggiest idea at all how much I actually owe them for what energy.

So:

* What are the chances the £430 cheque from NPower will bounce?

* Once my electricity supplier has changed and I'm paying regular Direct Debits to my new supplier, how likely is that NPower will notice I've not paid them any money for electricity for the past year? And, given that the reason I haven't paid them any money for electricity is that they still think I have a pre-payment metre, despite me having told them that this isn't the case multiple times since January (including in emails - so I have documented evidence of telling them this), what powers would they have to chase me for any money I might owe them in respect of my electricity use once I've changed supplier?


(My overall approach is that I want to pay a supplier fairly for my energy without having to worry about the details too much. Hence why I'm trying to switch to a supplier who will hopefully take my Direct Debits from my bank each month and credit them to my gas and electricity supply accounts. Rather than NPower who took at least £360 in Direct Debits without crediting this money to any of my accounts with them and in whom I no longer have any faith whatsoever to know the first thing about their billing of me or what money I might or might not owe them.)

Hello Lone Northern Lass

Thank you for your post.

Have you managed to get any further forward with this? If you can email the address shown on our profile page (and mark it for my attention) I'm more than happy to look into your bills and Direct Debits to find out what's happened.

Thank you

Beth

Consumerist

modsandmockers wrote: »

It is extremely unlikely that the cheque will bounce! . .

It is extremely unlikely that the cheque will arrive.