npower have my money

MJRHodes

Hi

I moved energy firms in February of this year from npower to The Co-Operative. I gave my meter readings to the relevant people at both places and thought that was that. It wasn’t until July that I checked my bank statements and noticed that npower had been taking £49 a month from my account since stopping their services. I spoke to someone at npower and they said it was part of my repayment plan for my gas as I still owed them money but they did inform me that I had a credit on my electricity of around £450 and that they would be sending my money within 10 working days. After 10 working days I hadn’t received this so I phoned again to be told that because it was a ‘high value’ amount it had to go through one of their departments and that it would take up to 28 days. Fast forward over 40 days and still no cheque. I phoned them again and they said there was a query on my meter readings and that I should phone my new supplier (The Co-Operative). I spoke to them and they said somebody had taken my readings incorrectly and that I should give them a reading and then another in 2 weeks’ time (This was in August, by the way) so that they could make a calculation and then open up a dispute with npower and that it would take about 6 weeks.

It is now October and I still have not had my money. I have spoken to npower several times in the last 2 weeks and every single time they have promised to send my cheque out in this order:

18th September – within 10 working days – “sorry for the delay, it has had to go through to our high value refunds team but it’s been cleared now”
2nd October – within 1 – 2 working days (after going through to their complaints department) “sorry for the delay but there was a query from our high value refunds team but you will definitely get it in the next few days”
7th October – by midnight tonight “I’ve contacted our high value returns team and they will send you a bank transfer”
8th October – “sorry, we can’t send you your money as our high value returns team have queried it and we haven’t sent you a final bill yet”

I have been told, by them on many occasions that the actual amount is £528.60 and yet I feel powerless to get my money back.

I have just spoken to the Co-Operative a few moments ago asking about the dispute that they have set up and they said that the person who filled out the dispute form did it incorrectly and that they will have to start again. This process will take, wait for it 21 WEEKS.

Can you help at all because I am absolutely on my knees with this.

Many thanks

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

Formal complaint.


https://www.npower.com/At_home/applications/MyNpower/CustomerComplaint.aspx?workflow=CustomerComplaint


If nothing after 8 weeks, then ombudsman


http://www.ombudsman-services.org/complain-now-energy.html


If nothing then, sue them


https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/web/mcol/welcome

samsmoot

I would send a letter before claim threatening court action if they don't cough up. Assuming they actually do owe you the money, of course. Give them 14 days to pay or else. They should then either pay up or provide legal reasons why not - without checking out the T&Cs I wouldn't know if they have any right to delay the refund, but if so they will tell you.

footyguy

MJRHodes wrote: »

Hi

I moved energy firms in February of this year from npower to The Co-Operative. I gave my meter readings to the relevant people at both places and thought that was that. It wasn’t until July that I checked my bank statements and noticed that npower had been taking £49 a month from my account since stopping their services. I spoke to someone at npower and they said it was part of my repayment plan for my gas as I still owed them money but they did inform me that I had a credit on my electricity of around £450 and that they would be sending my money within 10 working days. After 10 working days I hadn’t received this so I phoned again to be told that because it was a ‘high value’ amount it had to go through one of their departments and that it would take up to 28 days. Fast forward over 40 days and still no cheque. I phoned them again and they said there was a query on my meter readings and that I should phone my new supplier (The Co-Operative). I spoke to them and they said somebody had taken my readings incorrectly and that I should give them a reading and then another in 2 weeks’ time (This was in August, by the way) so that they could make a calculation and then open up a dispute with npower and that it would take about 6 weeks.

It is now October and I still have not had my money. I have spoken to npower several times in the last 2 weeks and every single time they have promised to send my cheque out in this order:

18th September – within 10 working days – “sorry for the delay, it has had to go through to our high value refunds team but it’s been cleared now”
2nd October – within 1 – 2 working days (after going through to their complaints department) “sorry for the delay but there was a query from our high value refunds team but you will definitely get it in the next few days”
7th October – by midnight tonight “I’ve contacted our high value returns team and they will send you a bank transfer”
8th October – “sorry, we can’t send you your money as our high value returns team have queried it and we haven’t sent you a final bill yet”

I have been told, by them on many occasions that the actual amount is £528.60 and yet I feel powerless to get my money back.

I have just spoken to the Co-Operative a few moments ago asking about the dispute that they have set up and they said that the person who filled out the dispute form did it incorrectly and that they will have to start again. This process will take, wait for it 21 WEEKS.

Can you help at all because I am absolutely on my knees with this.

Many thanks

Have you asked them what is preventing them creating a final bill for you?

Is it because you are disputing their final (and the co-ops start) reading?

Unfortunately you will struggle getting your money back until the final bill is produced as they don't know how much money they really do owe you ... or perhaps you owe them.

MJRHodes

Incompetence seems to be the reason they have not given me a final reading. The co-op say that "Due to the mistake made with the opening reads that were estimated by us and your previous supplier, we have had to use the reads you supplied us to estimate what your opening reads should have been. The industry standard deems that if the estimated reads fall within a certain tolerance, then the read cannot be changed. As your Day read falls within this tolerance, the opening read will not be changed. However, your night read falls outside the tolerance, so we have started the process of changing this to the correct read for you. As this is done with your previous supplier and we have to agree with them, this process may take up to 20 weeks to be completed."

samsmoot

The amount has been agreed at £526.80, so you can claim that amount if necessary.


Any failure re the readings sounds like Npower's fault. A bit late in the day to say there's now a problem with the readings after agreeing the amount. You gave them correct readings (it's assumed) - and they put down the wrong ones - they say, and messed up the dispute form.


You supplied correct figures; they used incorrect figures; they now say they can't use their figures, as they are wrong, but also can't use your figures, as they are not acceptable. A process taking 20 weeks in order to establish the correct figure seems disproportionate, especially at this stage.


Nothing to lose by sending a letter before claim, and that's what I'd probably do next. If your figures are correct, and they do owe you, then a threat of recovering it by way of a court claim could get it sorted. Or maybe not - but at least the issues and legal position will probably be made clearer.


You can ask that they do make things clearer in your LBC, and also request evidence from them re the wrong readings and 'industry standards' etc. The Co-Op don't really have anything to do with this, as they came along after the fact, so I would try and stick to corresponding with Npower only over this matter.

spiro

The change of supplier reading is the Co-ops responsibility, if the reading they have to go through an agreed procedure to resolve it. The process currently allows 90 working days (18 weeks) to resolve the dispute during that time the old supplier is unlikely to process any refunds as at the end of the process you could owe them money.

Biscuit_Tin

MJRHodes wrote: »

Incompetence seems to be the reason they have not given me a final reading. The co-op say that "Due to the mistake made with the opening reads that were estimated by us and your previous supplier, we have had to use the reads you supplied us to estimate what your opening reads should have been. The industry standard deems that if the estimated reads fall within a certain tolerance, then the read cannot be changed. As your Day read falls within this tolerance, the opening read will not be changed. However, your night read falls outside the tolerance, so we have started the process of changing this to the correct read for you. As this is done with your previous supplier and we have to agree with them, this process may take up to 20 weeks to be completed."

In your OP you say you provided the Co-Op with the start meter reading (as you are expected to do).

In the Co-Op's reponse they now say they have had to estimate the start reading.

Which is it? :huh:

Whichever it is, for whatever reason, the night reading appears to be wrong. (All readings are checked & validated with a third party Meter Reading Agency against an expected 'window' value as explained)

Maybe, if you provided the reading, you should be looking into why an estimate was used instead, or if they did use the reading you supplied it is outside the expected 'window'.
Is it possible you made an error with the reading submitted?

Anyway, as it is obviously in dispute, then there is an established process to resolve that dispute. As already stated by others, you won't get any refund until that dispute is resolved, because they don't know what amount you are due until an agreed final bill is produced. Similarly they could not demand payment from if that were the case, until the they are able to produce an agreed final bill.

What I don't really understand is, if you switched in February, why this is only now being investigated. It typically takes about 5 working days or less to get a meter reading validated by the Meter Reading Agency (for clarification, this is not the timeframe to get a disputed reading resolved), so the supplier should have been aware of this problem a long, long time ago.

MJRHodes

Thanks for all the replies.

I gave them the correct reading as they have admitted that they made the mistake in taking the readings down. I gave the readings back in February. I, foolishly, assumed that everything was taken care of - lesson to me there. It was only when I checked my bank statement in July that I notice npower were still taking money from my account that I decided to investigate further,

My feeling is that they are quite happy to let this thing roll on so that they don't have to pay me any money. They are the ones who hold the power, scuse the pun, and it seems like I am the one with the burden of proof. I am totally without control.

Biscuit_Tin

MJRHodes wrote: »

Thanks for all the replies.

I gave them the correct reading as they have admitted that they made the mistake in taking the readings down. I....

If you gave them the correct reading, but the Co-op then somehow mistakingly used a completely different reading, get them to try to use the correct reading.

Chances are it will then be validated by the Meter Reading Agency

MJRHodes

The problem is that it was in February and I don't have that reading now. My lesson here is that I didn't take enough notice of what was happening, assumed everything was in hand and am paying for it now.