NPower problems

medjj

I am having problems with npower (who doesn't!)
I moved to a new supplier in July and provided them with the meter reading, as well as providing it to npower to close out that account.
Npower have told me that I am lying as the reading is way below what they expect (my reading is 23651, they estimate 24910) based on a reading obtained by their meterman. Unfortunatley for them no-one has ever read my meter on their behalf as they always come when I am at work, so any reading they have is ficticious.
I think they owe me around £100 and my new supplier have sent them the real readings twice now, which they deny all knowledge of, and are sending them again today.

I read the meter last night and it is still well below this alleged "closing" reading despite having had drying equipment running in the house for 6 weeks!

I rang npower again today to find out what is going on and they verbally accused me of lying to them (thank you Norman...excellent customer service) to try and get money from them, but when I invited them to send a meter reader around to prove my point they declined, saying they can only send someone on routine readings, not for special requests!

anyway, after all that, my question is seeing as they obviously owe me a refund, which should've been put into my bank account on 11th July, can I start any official processes against them to claim the money as they seem determined to not pay up?

nicolajane1

Ring back and ask to speak to the manager, tell them you are taking legal advise if they do not accept your reading or send someone to take a reading for you!! I phoned them last week as they had not sent my quarterly bill which i should have recieved in august they sent it, i got it thursday on saturday i got a demand letter from the collections dept asking for the full payment, phoned them saying it was their fault they hadnt sent the bill in the first place, they did apologize!! thought you got 14 days to pay your npower bill, it did say on the original bill i got on thursday to be payed by 28th september, so they can wait till then!!

cheerfulness4

We had massive problems with npower after receiving final notices and debt collection notices, despite having paid our bill through their alliance and leciester online payment method the day it came online. We called endlessly, always asking to speak to a manager who was never 'available.' My husband was insulted too, as the OP had been, by a lady in the call centre. All the apologies prior, with assurances that 'a note had been added to our account' were obviously fiction as the next person we dealt with always said there was nothing on our records.
After 3 months of wrangling with them, my OH paid up again as he was upset by the stress it was causing me. (Others in debt will know how it hammers your nerves.) Eventually it was established that our money had been given to powergen who we have no account with. They tried to transfer the money to npower with no joy. Npower heard what powergen said but refused to wait for a cheque to be sent to us and then passed on to them once cleared. They just kept threatening us with massive charges. My lovely mum and dad lent us the money.
After that bitter experience I trust nothing that they say. The obvious thing to do is change supplier but what do you do when everyone seems to have a similar horror story about all the others available?

medjj

sorry to hear you have also had problems, but I am kind of glad to know I am not on my own suffering at their hands!
I am not going to back down about my refund...I am stubborn like that, and will also be launching a seperate complaint about the attitude of the call centre member of staff who was so vile to me. It may amount to nothing but hopefully will make his life a little bit unpleasant for a while!
npower have definitely been the worst company I have ever dealt with. I am lucky in that I haven't had a problem with other suppliers in the past and have only switched to get a better deal (perhaps not always the best thing to do despite the money saving opportunities!)

Cardew

I assume your new company have started charging you from a meter reading of 23561?

Do you know what the meter reading(presumably estimated?) was on the last 'regular' quarterly bill you had from NPower? It is probable that reading was higher than the hanover reading.

It also could be that the meter reader simply 'invented' a reading and it is recorded as a meter reading. Not your fault of course.

Obviously your closing meter reading with NPower must be the same as the opening reading with the new company. If they wouldn't check your reading on handover, or accept your figure, I would contact Energywatch.

rosysparkle

Could you take a photo of the meter with a newspaper in the frame to show today's date, to show that your actual reading is still below their "reading"? I would think that is quite compelling evidence, especially if you have to go to energywatch about this.

sexki11en

A bit of advice that was given to me when needing to speak to a manager only to be told 'sorry, I can't put you through'......

Just say to the CSA 'Look, put me through to a manager because trust me, your not paid enough to take the $h1t i'm about to dish out!' Works every time - trust me.

Mind you, in my experience, even getting a manager often doesnt help!

D4WNO

Take a photo of the meter with a newspaper (showing todays date) clearly next to it. They sound like a bunch of muppets

Terrylw1

Hi,

If you have left Npower, they can't legally arrange a reading anymore as your new supplier is the only one that can.

Also, complete rubbish about them only sending out readers on routine visits. routine visits are negoiated at contractual level by higher management with the agent.

At any point a supplier including them can request a Special visit. Only whilst they are your supplier though.

Speak to a manager. However, the old supplier can dispute the reading then you will have to wait at least 6 weeks which is how long it takes.

The same issue remains with your new supplier. You have to amend it with them also and they will pass the amended reading through to your current Agent who will in turn pass it onto the old Agent, who will send it to Npower to amend the reading and rebill you.

So, why don't get your new supplier to sort this out for you and get Npower to put your account on hold due to the redaing being wrong.

If you don't get anywhere, go to Energywatch and then they will have a period of time to resolve your issue.

Your issue is very simple in my opinion and you have spoken to a numpty, speak to a manager and threaten the Energywatch issue. It's a standard procedure they follow to resolve this for you!

On the meter reading they say they have taken but you say they can't get in - if the readers can't get in they have to Deem (estimate) a reading after 768 days to get a reading into your energy history. It's an estimate based on previous history, but if they can't get in, it may be inaccurate.

In your case, this seems likely.

Also, your suppliers have greatly ability to amend these readers thesedays since changes made by Ofgem in 2006.