N-Power - AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE

user051105

Well, where do I start when we moved into our property in May 2006 we had a key meter and this was transferred to N-Power. In June of this year we requested our key meter changed over to a normal meter this was fitted for us free of charge on 27th June 2006.

On the 20th July we recieve a bill for key meter usage of £38.44, strange I always thought that with a key meter if you don't put money on it you don't have any power.

Today we recieve a new bill with a new account number with the following

03-02-07 to 02-05-07 - £68.44 - This was a key meter
03-05-07 to 27-06-07 - £35.26 - This was the last period for key meter

27-06-07 to 02-08-07 - £32.18 - I agree with this as this is new meter

Payment Recieved - £30.00

I have spent hours over the last couple of months trying to get answers out of them on how I can have a debt of £103.70 on a key meter, so far the excuses I have had are

" You have found a way for free electricity through us "

" You have used emergency credit all the time, thus not pay a daily charge of 19 pence " I laughed at this one 19 pence a day works out longer than we been with them

" Pay it, we will look into it, you may get a refund in 6 months time "

They were meant to investigate it on the 20th July 2007, giving a time scale of 28 days, this has since passed and nothing has been done except demanding more money and threatening to disconnect if payment is not made by the 4th September 2007.

Any help appreciated.

howardtog

we had a disastrous experience with Npower.After many months the Ombudsman resolved.My advice would be pay under protest and then pursue recovery by the complaints procedure. If you do not pay by the imposed deadline Npower will automatically employ a debt coll;ection agency who will pursue you for debt plus charges and get very nasty.The complaint process is tortuous but if you are right you will win eventually.Do not bother telephoning,write recorded delivery with reasonable deadlines for reply. That way if you do not resolve there is a well documented file for the Ombudsman.We moved from Npower to EDF/Sainsburys who were a little less anyway. On our first account EDF used a wrong figure---they ransposed two figures which meant we paid a little more to Npower before the transfer but only a couple of pounds. When I queried EDF immediately apologised and gave us £20 for their error.Compare that to Npowers aggressive attitude.Res ipsa loquitur the facts speak for themselves

Terrylw1

Hi,

I've got some advice for you. I've been in the electricity industry for years and have seen billing issues like this all the time.

You can't understand why you have this bill that your payments don't cover. Some things for you to consider:

1 - Have they billed you the correct reading when they took the meter out? If not, they would have to estimate it (i.e. the collector lost the readings so Npower have never received them)

2 - You are right, with pre-payment meters you put them money in yourself but your bill can differ if they bill you to an estimate. This should always be resolved by applying a reading from the meter hence my point in (1) about estimates.

3 - The excuses are simply that. They are there to help you and they are just fobbing you off. Ask them to prove your meter removal readings and to talk you through where this debt has come from.

4 - Speak to a manager or a complaints dept, they exist. Be assertive managers cannot refuse to speak to those complaining, but they will try.

5 - You do not under any circumstances have to overpay a bill that the suplier cannot prove you owe. They can put a hault on your account until thye resolve it. Although it is best to pay what you ex[ect you would use or you could get stung with a larger bill later which they won't wait on.

6 - If you changed suppliers, it could be the the Change Of Supply (CoS) readings are incorrect e.g. they are lower than what they should be which could create a debt if part of the usage is a previous homeowners before you moved in.

7 - Did Npower supply you with a payment number of some kind. If you continued to use the one fomr the previous supplier, you've paid them in error which Npower won't know about. They should have checked this with you, but they can request the payment direct on your behalf. it takes a while though.

To comment on howardtog's point, if you just can't get anywhere contact Energywatch. Their contact details are on the back on your bill which ALL suppliers have to do. They will log your case and then they will take it up with your supplier. It can take a while but there are strict timescales for suppliers to resolve issues from them. I would also add that Npower is made up of several old regional companies as mant suppliers are and no matter where you go, you get this. Howardtog must have got to someone who was helpful at EDF which is good because I can tell you now that you here these type of complaints all the time about all electricity companies. It's all a matter of getting to a helpful person with some experience.

Is it any different with call centres in any industry???

Good luck

babsiebooo

Can anyone help???

I had a salesman call to my door in October 2006 and persuaded me to move my electricity and gas to n power after telling me i could halve my fuel bills and would garantee no price increases untill at least 2008. I told him i would be moving house in around 6 months, and knew i would not be on a gas supply in my new house. He said not to worry i would still receive a prorata discount for the time i was with them. The sales rep took a meter reading in my home the day i signed up with them and recommended i paid £15 per month for gas and £15 per month for electricity so i signed over to them.

In January 2006 i had meter readings taken by their own meter reader, my monthly electricity payments went up to £30 per month (doubled) but i guessed i'd just used more eletricity than normal. N power did not increase my gas payments.

I moved house on june 8th 2007 so i was with n power for 7 months i rang them with final readings and was told that on top of what i was paying by direct debit i now owe them an additional £880. Their reason for this they said was the many price increases they'd had. I reminded them i was garanteed no price increases untill 2008 at the earliest. I have put in a complaint but getting nowhere. I am disabled and feel they have put me in debt, i dont know what i'm going to do.

Cardew

babsiebooo wrote: »

Can anyone help???

I had a salesman call to my door in October 2006 and persuaded me to move my electricity and gas to n power after telling me i could halve my fuel bills and would garantee no price increases untill at least 2008. I told him i would be moving house in around 6 months, and knew i would not be on a gas supply in my new house. He said not to worry i would still receive a prorata discount for the time i was with them. The sales rep took a meter reading in my home the day i signed up with them and recommended i paid £15 per month for gas and £15 per month for electricity so i signed over to them.

In January 2006 i had meter readings taken by their own meter reader, my monthly electricity payments went up to £30 per month (doubled) but i guessed i'd just used more eletricity than normal. N power did not increase my gas payments.

I moved house on june 8th 2007 so i was with n power for 7 months i rang them with final readings and was told that on top of what i was paying by direct debit i now owe them an additional £880. Their reason for this they said was the many price increases they'd had. I reminded them i was garanteed no price increases untill 2008 at the earliest. I have put in a complaint but getting nowhere. I am disabled and feel they have put me in debt, i dont know what i'm going to do.

I am afraid that your experience is very common.

The salesman has only one objective - to get his commission; and he achieves that by getting you to change supplier. To do this they all quote a totally unrealistic monthly Direct Debit.

Unfortunately you have to pay for the gas/electricity you consume at the price for the tariff you agreed. The DD amount you pay is irrelevant.

It will not be price rises that have caused your debt, but simply that your DD was insufficient to cover your consumption.(particularly as the period you were with them was over a full winter.) This happens time and time again.

If you write to NPower they might give you a small reduction and/or they might give you some months to pay off your debt.

The bottom line I am afraid is that if you have used the gas/electricity you are liable for the debt.

Terrylw1

Hey Babsieboo,

A couple of things to think about.

- have they even set you up on the price freeze deal -doesn't sound like it so that will reduce your debt.

- your DD is a bit low at £15, the recognised basic tends to be £25 on electricity so they may have made you worse off there but tht should have been monitored by them

- are your readers correct? If your electricity bill is far more than you expect, are your readings correct when you changed to Npower & left them? A sizeable amount of complaints in this market come from opening/closing readings being way off which can dramitically distort your bill

Good luck...