NPower - 400% increase of monthly bill!

[Deleted User]

It sounds like a meter fitter error. He s probably run out of new meters and fitted one hes changed that day because its very rare to use an old electric meter on a meter exchange. Its common to use metric gas meters in good nick but not electric meters. the fitter completed his exchange card for the benefit of customer and meter readers and then did his electronic exchange himself and sent the reading in as he usually does and 99% of the time it would be a brand new digital meter set at zero or near. Simple error, even Npower can accept that. The new meter fitted to the OPs house can be traced back to its former address by its serial number and the end reading could be seen to be 13132.

nPower

Sheffield_Scott wrote: »

I'm a first time user of this forum, but signed up in the hope that someone might be able to advise me before I call nPower. I live with my wife in a one-bedroom terrace and pay a monthly DD of £123 for gas and electricity. I thought this was high, but never challenged it. This month, however, we have received a bill recalculating our monthly payment to £505! I've checked our monthly usage on their site, and it shows our electricity usage rocketing in October to 378% more than the previous October, 357% more than in the previous November and 244% more in December. I can only attribute this to a meter reading of 16062 submitted on 20 October, since there has been no changes to our usage, either from previous year or between September and October this year. Looking back through the estimated readings, I see that when we had a new electricity meter fitted on 19 March 2015, a reading of 0 was submitted to nPower. However, there is a card dated March 2015 attached to the new meter on which the electrician has completed readings for both the old meter and the newly fitted meter (of 13132). I assume this was the correct reading rather than 0. I cannot believe, as nPower's own website states, that we are using 619% more electricity than other similar properties. Can anybody give me any advice before I call them? Many thanks,

Hi Sheffield Scott

Thank you for posting. I am sorry to hear you are experiencing problems with your Direct Debit amount and installed meter reading. Please send me your account details (using the email address on our profile) and I will be happy to look into this further.

Thanks Vicky

Sheffield_Scott

Thank you everyone. The issue is now resolved, with nPower accepting the correct reading when the meter was installed and crediting my account with a £75 goodwill gesture. I really appreciate everyone's advice on this.