NPower Woes

Nicedreams

Can anybody offer me any advice on the following situation?

This is what has happened in brief:

8 February 2013 - Last correct bill from N-Power received
1 September 2013 - N-Power replaced our meter (obligatory) - meter readings seemingly lost
30 May 2014 - Moved home (providing final meter readings to N-Power)
October 2014 - Reported situation to Ombudsman and received £75 compensation for problems and delays. They did nothing to help at all.

Currently N-Power have £2,325 of our money (payments made since last correct bill, plus previous credit from last correct bill). We are positive we are significantly overpaid and owed a refund. They haven't provided us with a correct bill since February 2013. We haven't lived at the old address for over 1 year and have been with E-On at our new home.

Every month or two we get apology letters and often, frighting bills telling us we owe them thousands (or once, the other way round). It has cost me a fortune in time and energy dealing with them. We have almost given up on ever getting it resolved. There seems no end to it.

What can we do? Do we have any options? Can I go to the Small Claims Court and demand a refund? I'm at my wits end about this and it seems they can just get away with it. Our family struggles to survive financially from month to month and this seems so unfair. The Ombudsman was no help at all.

Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you in advance.

naedanger

Nicedreams wrote: »

Can anybody offer me any advice on the following situation?

This is what has happened in brief:

8 February 2013 - Last correct bill from N-Power received
1 September 2013 - N-Power replaced our meter (obligatory) - meter readings seemingly lost
30 May 2014 - Moved home (providing final meter readings to N-Power)
October 2014 - Reported situation to Ombudsman and received £75 compensation for problems and delays. They did nothing to help at all.

Currently N-Power have £2,325 of our money (payments made since last correct bill, plus previous credit from last correct bill). We are positive we are significantly overpaid and owed a refund. They haven't provided us with a correct bill since February 2013. We haven't lived at the old address for over 1 year and have been with E-On at our new home.

Every month or two we get apology letters and often, frighting bills telling us we owe them thousands (or once, the other way round). It has cost me a fortune in time and energy dealing with them. We have almost given up on ever getting it resolved. There seems no end to it.

What can we do? Do we have any options? Can I go to the Small Claims Court and demand a refund? I'm at my wits end about this and it seems they can just get away with it. Our family struggles to survive financially from month to month and this seems so unfair. The Ombudsman was no help at all.

Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you in advance.

Yes you can go to the small claims court. See the following link for the steps to follow:

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/taking-action-about-consumer-problems/legal-action/going-to-court/taking-court-action/

You have to pay a court fee for doing so, but you can add this cost to your claim, which means if you win you should be refunded this cost by npower provided you followed the steps outlined in the above link.

I have not used this process myself, but would probably do so in future rather than use the Ombudsman service. I think you need to claim for a specified amount of money, so estimate what you are due and claim for that amount.

If you follow the link you will see you should send a "letter before action" before starting court action. (Otherwise you may not be refunded your court costs even if you win.)

If npower respond to your letter before action you need to consider what they say. The court will expect you (and npower) to try and reach an agreement before going to court.

Also be careful to get the name of the company correct. Unlike the Ombudsman service I believe you will not get any help if you make a procedural mistake.

modsandmockers

naedanger - your advice is good, but I have also heard stories about defendants failing to comply with the instructions of the small claims court. It would be interesting to know the final outcome of any successful small claims court actions against serial offenders like N-Power etc

Nicedreams

Thanks for your replies. That's encouraging. I'm thinking of visiting my local Citizens Advice first to see what they say also. I wondered if a solicitor might help but I'm fearful of the costs.

The problem is that N-Power hold £2,325 in payments and have never reconciled this with an accurate bill. I wonder if they ever will to be honest. Perhaps they don't have the ability to do so and are just pushing the whole thing 'under the carpet'. So it's difficult to know what would be a reasonable amount would be to ask back. I suppose I could work out an approximate amount based on the previous year?

Otherwise, I feel NPower have no intention of dealing with this whatsoever. I'm just hitting a brick wall every time I communicate with them. I just get told repeatedly that they're "dealing with it" and hope to be able to resolve it soon. They've had 15 months to resolve it! They're just empty words now.

If anyone has any other advice or words of wisdom I'd be grateful to hear them. I see that NPower reps have accounts on this forum and might intervene and assist me. Maybe this might happen, if I'm lucky.

It's a dreadful state of affairs. It just seems so wrong that a giant company like NPower can treat a person like this, as if I don't matter. I feel so angry about it and yet powerless to do anything. I was so disappointed with the Ombudsman. I really thought they would be there for me to put some weight behind my case for me. But they seemed powerless to do anything and could only offer their sympathy!

I'm getting in the mood for taking NPower on though. I'm determined not to let them walk away with all my payments like that. It's daylight robbery.

modsandmockers

8 February 2013 - Last correct bill from N-Power received
1 September 2013 - N-Power replaced our meter (obligatory) - meter readings seemingly lost
30 May 2014 - Moved home (providing final meter readings to N-Power)

On the one hand, you seem to know about meter readings and how to check the accuracy of your bills but, on the other hand, you seem to accept the ‘loss’ of the meter readings connected with the meter replacement. I have never had an energy meter replaced but when my water meter was replaced it was set to start from zero.

Currently N-Power have £2,325 of our money (payments made since last correct bill, plus previous credit from last correct bill)

Did you receive no correct bill between February 2013 and May 2014? If so, why did you not ask for one? Did you continue to use energy between February 2013 and May 2014? If so, then why would you expect a refund of the payments which you made during the same period?

naedanger

modsandmockers wrote: »

... but I have also heard stories about defendants failing to comply with the instructions of the small claims court.

If npower lost and refused to pay then it would be easy enforcing payment because npower is too large to hide its assets.

The following is a link to the enforcement process:

https://www.gov.uk/make-court-claim-for-money/enforce-a-judgment

Also a link to an article where someone did enforce a judgement against npower:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/money/personal-finance/man-wins-3000-npower-after-3936566

However you are right to say enforcement can sometimes be a bigger issue than winning the actual case, for example if the defendant is a small limited company which may have no assets. In such cases there is often no point going to court. However npower is not in this category.

modsandmockers

"You may have to ask the court to take steps to collect the payment if you win your case. You will have to pay extra court fees - ordering someone to attend court costs £50, and the other steps cost £100 each"

"What is disgraceful is that they are quite happy not to turn up to these hearings and pay the compensation because they know that money will just come by increasing bills for other customers"

It's definitely not slanted towards the god-fearing good guys like you and me!

naedanger

modsandmockers wrote: »

"You may have to ask the court to take steps to collect the payment if you win your case. You will have to pay extra court fees - ordering someone to attend court costs £50, and the other steps cost £100 each"

But the costs of collection are passed on to the other party provided you can get payment off them, which in the case of npower should be easy.

"What is disgraceful is that they are quite happy not to turn up to these hearings and pay the compensation because they know that money will just come by increasing bills for other customers"

Not sure. They will lose custom if they try increasing their prices too much.

Nicedreams

We were advised by NPower that our meter had to be changed in September 2013. A sub-contractor, Lowry fitted the new meter and the fitter advised me not to worry about meter readings as these would be passed on electronically to my supplier. I took the meter readings when I left the property in May 2014 and yes, as you say, hopefully the new meter would have began at zero.

However, despite numerous requests, over one year later, NPower have failed to supply me with a bill correctly itemising my usage between Feb 2013 and May 2014 (when we left). I wouldn't expect a full refund but I would expect to have my account reconciled as I strongly suspect we are due a refund (for over payment). But at the moment I've just been abandoned and NPower are holding onto my money.

So I hope this clarifies things, modsandmockers.

Nicedreams

modsandmockers - Of course I have asked for the itemised bill between Feb 2013 and May 2014! The fact that they cannot supply this is at the heart of the issue. If they were to supply this, the matter could be resolved.

Nicedreams

The point is: how long should I be prepared to wait and what other course of action can I take?

I get the feeling that I'm going to be stuck in limbo like this for the foreseeable future.