Can I switch energy supplier if I owe them money after they messed up bills?

catterall42

Hi,
I have had issues with Npower for a while now after they have really messed up my billing over the last 3 years. To cut a long story short, I now apparently owe them nearly £900. They have sent me various letters stating they are having billing issues and kept adjusting my direct debit up and down several times and now the latest letter is an apology saying they had an issue setting up my gas account and I haven't been paying my gas account since starting my account with them.
I really want to switch to British Gas deal, but can I still switch if I owe Npower money? It is Npowers fault I am in so much debt to them so I am hoping this means I can still switch?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated please.

Many thanks,

Vannessa.

molerat

With that amount of debt they are entitled to block a transfer. The blame for the debt does not really come in to it as by the time any negotiations are sorted out it will be too late for the offer.

dogshome

Not been billed for Gas for 3 years ?

Rather than worrying about moving supplier at the moment, you would be better off making a claim to NP under the 'Back Billing Agreement', whereby they can only bill you for gas consumed in the previous 12 months, and that 12 months runs back from the date they do manage to produce a Gas bill

nPower

catterall42 wrote: »

Hi,
I have had issues with Npower for a while now after they have really messed up my billing over the last 3 years. To cut a long story short, I now apparently owe them nearly £900. They have sent me various letters stating they are having billing issues and kept adjusting my direct debit up and down several times and now the latest letter is an apology saying they had an issue setting up my gas account and I haven't been paying my gas account since starting my account with them.
I really want to switch to British Gas deal, but can I still switch if I owe Npower money? It is Npowers fault I am in so much debt to them so I am hoping this means I can still switch?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated please.

Many thanks,

Vannessa.

Hi catterall42

[FONT=&quot]Thank you for posting, I'm sorry to hear you are experiencing problems with your npower account. I will be happy to take a look at this if you would like to send me an email (using the address from my profile) with your account details.

Thanks

Vicky [/FONT]

mickeymouse303

Can't say tor Npower but Scottish Power said we could if we signed up to a direct debit payment plan. THis was a complete disaster though as it never worked properly and in the end they swiped the full amount from my bank account in one fell swoop. I would just be aware that things may get complicated.

jcontest

dogshome wrote: »

Not been billed for Gas for 3 years ?

Rather than worrying about moving supplier at the moment, you would be better off making a claim to NP under the 'Back Billing Agreement', whereby they can only bill you for gas consumed in the previous 12 months, and that 12 months runs back from the date they do manage to produce a Gas bill

https://www.energy-uk.org.uk/publication.html?task=file.download&id=5220

I would pursue this like dogshome says. I had so much trouble out of Npower over the years, their billing was the worst of any I had ever had. It was like when there was a tariff change mid readings, every time they would assign 75-80% of the "cycle" usage to the high side of the split, even if it had less days overall.

I ended up getting refunds from them several times. Then in about 2009 or 2010 (not sure) they issued refunds to basically everyone in the country because their billing was so messed up...
I still have the handwritten letter in a drawer around here where some staff member tried to write down how he thinks it was split!... My complaints on this was validated when they had to stump up all those millions (I think they should have been fined for it too)..

Before you agree anything with them then see about the 12 month thing that was mentioned. If you did use the gas then you should have to pay for it, so don't look at it as a freebie, but they shouldn't cause you any hardship either. You could try putting in a transfer request, the worse that could happen is they say it was stopped.

Horrible company in my eyes.

And perhaps the bills are not that wrong anyhow?... They billed me roughly twice a year (should have been 4), and each time I was billed it would generate about 6, yes 6!, bills all having slightly different information. Working it back took a lot of work, but in the end the numbers did work out.