NPOWER won't give me my credit back

jazz100

I received a letter stating I am over £400 in credit. I asked to be refunded but I was told the computer won't let them due to the fact that I have a separate debt repayment plan with them. My seperate repayment plan was agreed by all parties through the Ombudsman that I could pay £30 a month till it was clear due to the fact that the reason I owed was because of an Npower computer glitch that went on for over a year.
I haven't chosen to overpay on my account and I certainly haven't chosen to pay £400 to the repayment plan which as I've said is totally separate.
It seems that the computer says no because it doesn't allow for this unique situation.
I have completed a complaints form but received a very negative reply stating that they have more queries to deal with than usual and it will take longer than usual to look at my complaint. I was just wondering if anyone knows the length of time Energy companies have to respond and how long others have been waiting to hear from Npower complaints team? Thank you.

undaunted

They purport to answer fairly quickly - 10 days I think but I wouldn't hold your breath on that being honoured. Npower are a law unto themselves really - or they think so.

If unresolved after 8 weeks you could contact the energy ombudsman.

That said I think you're wasting your time here. They are required to refund you upon request unless they can show you a good reason for not doing so. I would suggest this will be considered a good reason by anyone who looks at it I'm afraid.

Your only possible argument might be if you can show that paying £30 p/m plus whatever sum has led to this credit is leaving you in severe & unreasonable financial difficulties.

You may lose any discounts so consider carefully whether this is wise but another way of "recovering" your £400 might possibly be to stop the direct debits for a period

sgun

Just got off the phone from Npower with exactly same complaint.
A year ago they failed to set up a DD correctly meaning that despite me phoning every month they didn't take payments for 6 months.


Recently they have upped my monthly payments with no notice and no reason - I am well within my usage. They failed to set it back to the correct amount.


I phoned this morning to be told they cannot lower it with an outstanding payment plan. The woman was really rude.


I PHONED complaints. Don't write, it doesn't work. My DD is now set back to what it was through the complaints team.


If you get through initially to someone in billing they probably won't know what they are talking about (and may also tell you that complaints have to be in writing - not true)


It took about 10 minutes to sort over the phone. But I'll only really know next month when the payment comes out if it has really been sorted.

Shrimply

So to sum up... You owe them money, but think the money they have is different to the money you owe them, so want it back.

Given you've managed to build up £400 presumably without missing it, why not just let them use it to pay off some of what you owe?

sgun

... and I also got the "computer won't let me" line, maybe the same person or just really poor training across the board. Or someone who likes Little Britain a bit too much.

poppellerant

Sounds a bit like how banks work. If you have a bank account with XYZ and later on take out a credit card with them and fall into arrears, they can dip into your bank account to repay the credit card.

Although I don't agree entirely with it, I suspect this is what is happening with you, jazz100. But I don't see any good reason why the £400 can't be allocated to your debt - you could then use this to your advantage to lower your monthly payments.

I realise £400 is a lot of money to see being paid, especially at this time of year when Christmas is quickly approaching. But, personally, I'd sooner see a debt reduced with that £400.

sgun

Some of you missing the point. If Npower could just carry on making mistakes with other people's money without anyone complaining then they would. The £400 is being repaid, under an agreed payment plan. Maybe the OP doesn't actually have £400 to repay right now. The original error made by Npower has been dealt with by the ombudsman - it HAS to be treated as separate.

Shrimply

sgun wrote: »

Some of you missing the point. If Npower could just carry on making mistakes with other people's money without anyone complaining then they would.

NPower didn't make a mistake with anyone's money, they maybe made a mistake with billing. The person that made the mistake with the money was the customer who used energy without provisioning to pay for it.

A bill from an energy company should never be a shock, you know you are using energy and you have meters to tell you exactly how much. If you don't get a bill all year, and then get one for £1000 it should be a case of paying with the money you've put aside to pay for the energy you know you are using.

The £400 is being repaid, under an agreed payment plan. Maybe the OP doesn't actually have £400 to repay right now.

The OP has already paid the £400, they only found out they are in credit because of a letter from NPower. They clearly weren't missing it so why not use it to pay for the debt.

footyguy

jazz100 wrote: »

I received a letter stating I am over £400 in credit. I asked to be refunded but I was told the computer won't let them due to the fact that I have a separate debt repayment plan with them. My seperate repayment plan was agreed by all parties through the Ombudsman that I could pay £30 a month till it was clear due to the fact that the reason I owed was because of an Npower computer glitch that went on for over a year.
I haven't chosen to overpay on my account and I certainly haven't chosen to pay £400 to the repayment plan which as I've said is totally separate.
It seems that the computer says no because it doesn't allow for this unique situation.
I have completed a complaints form but received a very negative reply stating that they have more queries to deal with than usual and it will take longer than usual to look at my complaint. I was just wondering if anyone knows the length of time Energy companies have to respond and how long others have been waiting to hear from Npower complaints team? Thank you.

Well you seem to know all about the suppliers complaint procedure, and your rights to go to the ombudsman if you don't get a satisfactory resolution ... because you've done it before.

I suggest you follow the same path again if you wish to pursue this further.

Goog luck!

Christina_H.

It should "only" take 8 weeks for Npower to respond to your complaint. And they should send you a letter if your complaint has not been resolved in that timeframe. However, as I have been in the exact same dilemma as you, the best unfortunately,is to keep ringing them.

kingstreet

There's a repayment plan dealing with what went before and the £400 credit is there to get you through the two heaviest quarters of the year from November to May.

If you are given back the £400 credit, what happens when they tell you your payments have to increase to £200 a month as there is nothing in the pot to cover the hard times?