NPower Refund - what can I do?

nessiehibs

Bit of a long story, but here goes...


I moved out of my old flat on 8/9/2013 - almost 2 years ago now. At the time, NPower were provided with closing meter readings and I figured all would be hunky-dorey. I phoned a few times (I'd guess about 5/6) in the first 6 months enquiring about what the hold up was and was repeatedly told that we had a complicated system (3 tiers - not rocket science IMHO) and that there were several people facing such delays. At this point, I didn't really know who owed what to who and didn't think too much off it. I eventually just gave up phoning them after several failed attempts/forgot all about it.

Then in May this year I received a letter saying they had finally worked out that they were due me £600+, and all I had to do was phone up and ask for it (why they didn't just give me it, I have no idea). I phoned up and was told that the amount was correct and that I'd receive the cash in the next 28 days...

May and June passed without any cash, so I phoned up again at the start of July. I was told that because the amount was over £500 it had to go through a large refunds department who had decided to reject the claim and no-one had told me. I managed to work my way through to a manager and over the course of an hour in total she agreed the original sum of money was correct, it shouldn't have been rejected and would be passed within 28 days. I sort of chuckled at this, and I think she picked up that I held little hope in their abilities to do so. To give me confidence, she put my details in her diary and said that she would personally check on the progress in 28 days to ensure I'd received my cash and phone me either way.

That didn't happen. So I phoned again today. I got through to a guy who said that there would be an operations manager who could authorise the money to get paid to me and I would receive it in 2-3 days... I was a bit puzzled as to how this guy hadn't been used in the last 2 years but expressed my desire to have this done. I was then informed that the person I needed had actually just popped out on his lunch break...


Any idea if this is a common NPower thing? 2 years seems excessive... Also, do I have any chance of extra compensation? (More for the time I've spent chasing it up rather than a pitiful amounts of interest I could have had..)


Thanks!

modsandmockers

I was with Npower a few years ago and although the ‘problem’ was completely different from yours the call centre nonsense was almost identical and, so far as I can tell from this forum, nothing much has changed. Eventually, I located the details of their complaints procedure, and sent an email to the specified address. Several weeks later, I received a phone call from somebody in the complaints department and the issue was eventually sorted out.

Now, whenever I speak to a call centre operative, I always ask for a name and some kind of identifying number (sometimes it’s a staff/team number, sometimes it’s an extension number, and just occasionally it’s a specific reference number for the individual phone conversation). At the end of the conversation, I always run through a summary of what has been said, and ask the operative to confirm that the details will be properly recorded on my account page.

If I have to phone again, I begin by giving the date and time of the previous conversation, and asking the operative to confirm that there is a note of the conversation on file. I then ask them to read the note before I begin to wade through the story yet again.

It’s called the Call Centre Culture, and the trick is to try to force the operative to put the brain in gear and focus the mind.

Since 2008, the banks seem to have got a whole lot better at Customer Service, but the energy companies are still operating at pre-privatisation standards.

undaunted

Well, you could continue ringing (or probably better writing to ) Npower & demand your entitled refund is paid within ....... (state a reasonable timescale)

or you could contact the energy ombudsman - you will then have to rely on Npower acknowledging the money is due, paying out on the Ombudsmans subsequent ruling etc. If they don't you may be no better off than now but it will have cost Npower to get there (I read somewhere on here about £350 per case)

or you could issue a county court small claim. If successful in obtaining judgement (Npower would have to either defend or admit it at a relatively early stage) and they still didn't pay you would then be entitled to go back to the courts & ask them to enforce judgement, eg send in the baliffs to collect your money (plus their fees)

In any instance I would suggest that you refer them to license condition 27.16 and state that you consider the repeated broken promises / 2 years to be far from timely, no reasonable or credible explanation for with holding payment to have been forthcoming etc

https://epr.ofgem.gov.uk//Content/Documents/Electricity%20Supply%20Standard%20Licence%20Conditions%20Consolidated%20-%20Current%20Version.pdf

The choice is yours

CharlotteBarnes

Speaking from recent experience, if you mention the Ombudsmans, that usually puts the wind up them.

But I know what you mean about call centre culture and accountability. My complaint was passed to a manager who was supposed to call me back the next day. I ended up having to ring them back twice to chase up and the last person I spoke to didn't know if this manager in question was a man or woman, what department they were in or how to contact them.

It boggles the mind...

nPower

nessiehibs wrote: »

Bit of a long story, but here goes...


I moved out of my old flat on 8/9/2013 - almost 2 years ago now. At the time, NPower were provided with closing meter readings and I figured all would be hunky-dorey. I phoned a few times (I'd guess about 5/6) in the first 6 months enquiring about what the hold up was and was repeatedly told that we had a complicated system (3 tiers - not rocket science IMHO) and that there were several people facing such delays. At this point, I didn't really know who owed what to who and didn't think too much off it. I eventually just gave up phoning them after several failed attempts/forgot all about it.

Then in May this year I received a letter saying they had finally worked out that they were due me £600+, and all I had to do was phone up and ask for it (why they didn't just give me it, I have no idea). I phoned up and was told that the amount was correct and that I'd receive the cash in the next 28 days...

May and June passed without any cash, so I phoned up again at the start of July. I was told that because the amount was over £500 it had to go through a large refunds department who had decided to reject the claim and no-one had told me. I managed to work my way through to a manager and over the course of an hour in total she agreed the original sum of money was correct, it shouldn't have been rejected and would be passed within 28 days. I sort of chuckled at this, and I think she picked up that I held little hope in their abilities to do so. To give me confidence, she put my details in her diary and said that she would personally check on the progress in 28 days to ensure I'd received my cash and phone me either way.

That didn't happen. So I phoned again today. I got through to a guy who said that there would be an operations manager who could authorise the money to get paid to me and I would receive it in 2-3 days... I was a bit puzzled as to how this guy hadn't been used in the last 2 years but expressed my desire to have this done. I was then informed that the person I needed had actually just popped out on his lunch break...


Any idea if this is a common NPower thing? 2 years seems excessive... Also, do I have any chance of extra compensation? (More for the time I've spent chasing it up rather than a pitiful amounts of interest I could have had..)


Thanks!

Hi nessiehibs

Thank you for your post.

Would you be able to contact me using the contact information on our page? I will try and sort this refund out for you?

If you mark it for my attention I will pick it up asap.

Kind regards

Neil

nessiehibs

nPower_company_representative wrote: »

Hi nessiehibs

Thank you for your post.

Would you be able to contact me using the contact information on our page? I will try and sort this refund out for you?

If you mark it for my attention I will pick it up asap.

Kind regards

Neil

Hi Neil,


Thanks for getting back to me. I'm not entirely sure what you mean by your "page" though...


Also, I have taken to Twitter and there is someone on there (a Jess if that means anything to you) who is trying to help. I've subsequently received by 9th or 10th assurance that I'll receive what I'm due imminently...


I assume there will be little in the way of extra compensation for the 2 years of waiting, the several phone calls etc?


I'm fortunate that the amount owed is from a student flat and is between 4 of us, none of whom are desperate for cash. The idea that someone in a much worse financial situation to myself could have been left several £100's short is pretty sickening service from NPower.

sivs

Hello,

Sorry to jump on this post but I am trying to sort an issue with a complaint that has been ongoing since Jan 2014, the last letter was sent Jan 15 and none has contact me about this complaint.

In short I moved into a property and it turns out 2 MPAN numbers were registered to one meter meaning, I was paying electricity with one supplier (SE) & NPower were registered with the other one. Npower were sending their bills to an incorrect address so this was only picked up when I moved out.

Despite me trying to resolve this, Npower have applied a default to my credit file and this is causing me serious issues. I have spoken reported this to the Ombudsman but would like to see if Npower can resolve before I take this forward.

naedanger

sivs wrote: »

Hello,

Sorry to jump on this post but I am trying to sort an issue with a complaint that has been ongoing since Jan 2014, the last letter was sent Jan 15 and none has contact me about this complaint.

In short I moved into a property and it turns out 2 MPAN numbers were registered to one meter meaning, I was paying electricity with one supplier (SE) & NPower were registered with the other one. Npower were sending their bills to an incorrect address so this was only picked up when I moved out.

Despite me trying to resolve this, Npower have applied a default to my credit file and this is causing me serious issues. I have spoken reported this to the Ombudsman but would like to see if Npower can resolve before I take this forward.

Be careful how you word any complaint to the Ombudsman service or you will find they will refuse to consider it:

There is a deadline for bringing a complaint to us
You must tell us about your complaint within nine months from the date you first complained to the company.

http://www.ombudsman-services.org/who-can-we-help-energy.html

sivs

Ok, thanks for the tip...

[Deleted User]

one more thing before you start getting too excited about a lovely £600 refund.You say," whats the prob, its got three tiers, not rocket science ".Well in the case of Joe Public ( and the meter readers) and their Eco 7 meters it may as well be rocket science. The suppliers dont really have much idea about the meters in place, they dont quite get that Eco 7 meters come in several varieties with attached timer switches from 1950. If you are sure yourself which rate equals day and night, forensically check your billing then go ahead and make a claim.Sometimes a nice refund will turn around and be a big debt when the supplier looks very carefully at the meter.