NPOWER fined £26 million

25.6_Pre-contract_oblig

fermi wrote: »

Fine detail: https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/sites/default/files/docs/npower_penalty_notice.pdf

I have now read Ofgem's official Penalty Notice, the 22 page "npower_penalty_notice.pdf" linked above.
It is damming. It documents 9 breaches from July 2011 onwards.

My response includes:

1. It is very sad that this entirely preventable mess was not halted sooner.

In the thread
Warning: npower accept new customers without sending them a Contract
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4273611

we have plenty of evidence that npower knew they had issues with their new SAP system (in September 2012) and
Ofgem were aware on 15 November 2012.

Ofgem's reply to me is documented here
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/58041333#Comment_58041333
in post #134 of that thread.

See also para 5.19 of the Penalty Notice:
"5.19. npower reported issues with the SAP billing platform to Ofgem in December 2012. The possibility of contravention was highlighted by Ofgem and was re-enforced through evidence gathered during the investigative phase. npower did not report any possible breaches of the SLCs or CHRs however. This factor therefore does not apply."

I have quoted this paragraph in full. I wonder WHEN npower would have 'officially acknowledged to Ofgem' that they had an issue had it not been for the thread at MSE and the evidence provided by myself and other posters?

2. I am grateful that the MSE Forums helped bring this to light. There many posts and links in that thread that illustrate that in 2012 and 2013 it was abundantly clear that npower had major issues with their 'new SAP system'.

Ironically, npowers 'old system' actually handled [some aspects of] the complaints better than the new system.

(see para 3.19).
"... As of July 2015 npower’s in-house complaints services reverted fully to use of a legacy complaints system (ONCE) which is able to change the status of complaints. ..."

3. My personal issues (not been sent a Contract) and my Complaint being handled very badly were slight compared to the hundreds of thousands of Customers who had late and inaccurate bills.

4. I hope all Energy Supply companies learn from this. I hope that no company ever contemplate continuing to use an inadequate Billing or Complaints system.

5. I hope Ofgem can respond more rapidly when similar issues arise: prevention is MUCH better than the cure.


25.6_Pre-contract_oblig

matelodave

Does anyone really believe that it will "cost" nPower £26 million.


They might pay it out and try to sound magnanimous about it (like Scottish Power) but it will ultimately be recovered from their customers either by delaying price reductions or making them less than they might have been.


By far the best way of punishing them is for people to walk away and go somewhere else.

Hern

25.6_Pre-contract_oblig wrote: »

4. I hope all Energy Supply companies learn from this. I hope that no company ever contemplate continuing to use an inadequate Billing or Complaints system.

5. I hope Ofgem can respond more rapidly when similar issues arise: prevention is MUCH better than the cure.

Wishing that an energy company would learn from its own past mistakes or the mistakes of others is like wishing elephants would learn to ballet dance.

Energy companies are in the business of collectively hoarding £millions of interest-free cash garnered from deliberately over-inflated Direct Debit payments or of collectively securing similar £millions from mis-billing which is then conveniently blamed on IT problems. Apologies are cosmetic and so-called "fines" no more than little slaps on the Rolex-banded wrists of directors and senior managers.

It has been obvious for years -- not months, but years -- that the UK energy sector is dysfunctional and that the regulator should have stepped in to strip operating licenses from those unfit to have them (and, too, to actually vet new start-ups like ExtraEnergy before they could add their own brand of consumer nightmare to the mix.)

As to the Ombudsman Service. . . come to think of it, expecting it to act as it should be doing on behalf of the consumer is like expecting elephants not only to ballet dance but to sing at the same time.

Cardew

Hern wrote: »

As to the Ombudsman Service. . . come to think of it, expecting it to act as it should be doing on behalf of the consumer is like expecting elephants not only to ballet dance but to sing at the same time.

Dancing is great, I have heard better singing!

undaunted

You see, there really is a Santa Claus! Somebody has to get a grip on Npower - and other suppliers for that matter.

Richie-from-the-Boro

None of the #12 applies to """the second one equally expensive and not yet disclosed""" I mentioned in #10. nPower are and have been unprofitable for over a year already, and they've been in the 'quiet sale' area since the beginning of this financial year, no takers as far as I'm aware. Lets see if they pull on socks before the second tranche in April / May 2016.

Hern

Cardew wrote: »

Dancing is great, I have heard better singing!

Brilliant. . .. ab-so-lute-ly brilliant -- and thanks for making my day. :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Under the various clauses and sub-clauses of the United Kingdom Energy regulations to which few if any of the energy companies actually adhere and no-one working in the regulator's or Ombudsman's office has a solitary clue about, I hereby appoint you Controller of Retail Energy Suppliers, effective forthwith, at a salary of not less than £1 million per day of which you can give some to a charity if you feel like it.

Anyone who can get elephants to dance can certainly make the Boards of energy companies spin at the thought of imminent, and deserved, extinction.

davidgmmafan

Don't worry though because outsourcing jobs to India WILL improve the service. Everybody knows this ALWAYS works.


The worrying thing for me is we have seen other suppliers have also moved billing systems and had the same sort of chaos.


It must be really scary for them to know that Ofgem will be all over them in just under half a decade.

Hern

davidgmmafan wrote: »

Don't worry though because outsourcing jobs to India WILL improve the service. Everybody knows this ALWAYS works.
The worrying thing for me is we have seen other suppliers have also moved billing systems and had the same sort of chaos.
It must be really scary for them to know that Ofgem will be all over them in just under half a decade.

As quickly as that? Shurely sir, you jest. On the subject of out-sourcing to India, it is true that travel broadens the mind and that the energy providers are doing a great job in the way of broadening the horizons of we parochial British peasants.

In response to an email complaint of mine to ScottishPower, I received from its Customer Service department a reply so unintelligibly awful that the auithor's encounter with the English language must've been as brief as it was accidental.

The signatory declined to tell me if it was a she, a he, or a Ms, obviously deciding that the multi-syllabic forename and surname provided were more than enough for me to identify her / his gender. But at least the writer wasn't Chinese. Or so it seemed to me.

Responding to that email, I said I very much regretted that ScottishPower was gracing my inbox with correspondence less articulate, and less coherent, than that which I'd expect from the average eight-year-old.

ScottishPower was very good in replying almost immediately.

The email from Customer Services was entirely in Spanish.

skyt

I'm pleased to see Npower receiving some sort of regulatory attention, sadly I wonder if the penalty is enough to make them think again.
A couple of years ago they refused to repay the credit in my account when I moved house.
I eventually took them to the small claims court and they resisted the claim to the end with every possible fatuous argument to avoid their responsibilities (such as claiming the data protection act meant they couldn't pay me??!) I formed the view that they would stonewall every case on the basis that they would save enough money on all the people they deterred from pursuing justice to pay for the stroppy or well-informed ones.
I eventually got paid when I sent the bailiffs round to their head office and I kind of felt it was my duty to see the case through on behalf of all those who were deterred by their disingenuous and bullying tactics.
I encourage anyone else to pursue them with some vigour and not to be intimidated by their 'legal team' who bluster but do not appear to have the glimmerings of any legal training.
The only way they will change their deplorable behaviour is for it to become economically embarrassing - especially if that is personally costly for the directors who take the rewards but seem to shirk the responsibilities.