NPOWER - Day & Night Metre Readings incorrect

pmjackson84

I have just received a bill from Npower for £348.13 in relation to an amended Final Bill covering the period 19th December 2011 to 22 February 2013.


During this period we had dual supply from them Electric Go Save S Economy 7 and Gas Go Save S. However it transpires that for many years they have been incorrectly reading the Electric day/night rates and their meter readers have been continually putting them in the wrong way, ie. recording the day rate as night and the night rate as day. I have never had issue with the Gas metre as it only has one reading.


All bills were being paid by DDR.


Back in February 2013 I informed Npower that I would be leaving the property and my ex wife would be taking over the responsibility of the bill, which she duly done. They calculated my final bill and according to them I was actually owed a credit. It now appears that this was in fact incorrect and their error in issuing me a check for the credit.


Now over 3 years later they are chasing me to pay £348.13 in relation to under payment of the electricity and Gas.


My Ex has been having issues with them on the same matter which have been running for over 6 weeks. She was told by Npower that they can only charge you for the last 12 months and that anything prior to that is written off - IS THIS CORRECT??


If so as I believe that this is totally their error and it is dating back to Dec 2011 - Feb 2013 (4 1/2 years - 3 1/4 years) should I be worried about paying this or should they be writing it off?


HELP ME PLEASE AS NPOWER ARE NOT FORTHCOMING WITH ANSWERS.

nPower

pmjackson84 wrote: »

I have just received a bill from Npower for £348.13 in relation to an amended Final Bill covering the period 19th December 2011 to 22 February 2013.


During this period we had dual supply from them Electric Go Save S Economy 7 and Gas Go Save S. However it transpires that for many years they have been incorrectly reading the Electric day/night rates and their meter readers have been continually putting them in the wrong way, ie. recording the day rate as night and the night rate as day. I have never had issue with the Gas metre as it only has one reading.


All bills were being paid by DDR.


Back in February 2013 I informed Npower that I would be leaving the property and my ex wife would be taking over the responsibility of the bill, which she duly done. They calculated my final bill and according to them I was actually owed a credit. It now appears that this was in fact incorrect and their error in issuing me a check for the credit.


Now over 3 years later they are chasing me to pay £348.13 in relation to under payment of the electricity and Gas.


My Ex has been having issues with them on the same matter which have been running for over 6 weeks. She was told by Npower that they can only charge you for the last 12 months and that anything prior to that is written off - IS THIS CORRECT??


If so as I believe that this is totally their error and it is dating back to Dec 2011 - Feb 2013 (4 1/2 years - 3 1/4 years) should I be worried about paying this or should they be writing it off?


HELP ME PLEASE AS NPOWER ARE NOT FORTHCOMING WITH ANSWERS.

Hello pmjackson84

Thank you for your post.

Please can you email the address shown on our profile page with some more information? I'd like to look into this for you.

Thanks

Beth

[Deleted User]

Did you not see the transposed readings yourself in all those years ?.They were there on your bill with the night/day mixed up for you to clearly see.It is certainly not TOTALLY their error as you say, its yours as well.I take it that you too have been submitting readings seeing as how Npower only come round twice a year to see the meters. Did you not even submit one reading yourself in all the years ? and did you not understand how an eco 7 meter works ?
If you think Npower will scrap all the money you owe I think you will be lucky.You have used the energy so you should be paying for it regardless of any metering errors which you should have seen and rectified in the three years.

naedanger

pmjackson84 wrote: »

I have just received a bill from Npower for £348.13 in relation to an amended Final Bill covering the period 19th December 2011 to 22 February 2013.


During this period we had dual supply from them Electric Go Save S Economy 7 and Gas Go Save S. However it transpires that for many years they have been incorrectly reading the Electric day/night rates and their meter readers have been continually putting them in the wrong way, ie. recording the day rate as night and the night rate as day. I have never had issue with the Gas metre as it only has one reading.


All bills were being paid by DDR.


Back in February 2013 I informed Npower that I would be leaving the property and my ex wife would be taking over the responsibility of the bill, which she duly done. They calculated my final bill and according to them I was actually owed a credit. It now appears that this was in fact incorrect and their error in issuing me a check for the credit.


Now over 3 years later they are chasing me to pay £348.13 in relation to under payment of the electricity and Gas.


My Ex has been having issues with them on the same matter which have been running for over 6 weeks. She was told by Npower that they can only charge you for the last 12 months and that anything prior to that is written off - IS THIS CORRECT??


If so as I believe that this is totally their error and it is dating back to Dec 2011 - Feb 2013 (4 1/2 years - 3 1/4 years) should I be worried about paying this or should they be writing it off?


HELP ME PLEASE AS NPOWER ARE NOT FORTHCOMING WITH ANSWERS.

First complain in writing (ideally by email) that you believe they are billing you for payments that are not due under the back billing code.

Ask for a copy of their complaints procedure and an explanation of how they have applied the back billing code to your case. (If they have been inefficient in dealing with your case up to this point then you should add that to your complaint.)

You may also wish to refer them to the document I have linked to at the end of this post. In particular, from page 5, you could quote to them the following:

"Depending on the exclusions below [which do not apply in my particular case], these are scenarios where back billing may apply.
...
• Meter readings or meter details are swapped round on the billing system, for example, night readings recorded as day readings and vice versa, and the supplier had the opportunity to spot this but did not investigate further."

Please note I have added text in square brackets that I think is appropriate to your case.

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