Npower billing errors - £4000 bill for a 2 bed flat?! Ombudsman not helped!

quaybab

When transferring supply, its the losing company who will dispute if a debt exists as per debt in http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/you-switch-gas-electricity

jamesaitken42 wrote: »

And there were no issues at all... I think utilita were so sure that the bill was ridiculous that they didn't do any disputing.

footyguy

jamesaitken42 wrote: »

...
What can I do without the Ombudsman to help me?? ...

As you failed to agree with the ombudmsman's proposed resolution, your only realistic option of pursuing this matter further (if that is what you wish to do) would be through court.

The court will be made aware of the proposed resolution offered up by the ombudsman service, and the fact you failed to agree with it.

Seek independent legal advice if you are not sure of what your legal position is. An internet forum, especially one where any anonymous user can post, is not the place to seek such legal advice which you may later come to rely upon.

jamesaitken42

Cheers footyguy. Good point and good advice. Basically I put it on here to see if the majority agreed with the ombudsman. I feel as though because I'm so certain I'm right, I could be failing to see why I'm actually wrong.

I already have a 4 grand bill looming over my head. So realistically, if I went to court and lost, would the added costs make much of a difference to an average guy like me? That's a genuine question, I don't know what court costs are.

Even if I was to go to court. I have everything to lose and npower have nothing to lose. What's 4 grand to them? Win or lose it will only be a blip in their bank balance. 4 grand will cripple me!

System

footyguy wrote: »

As you failed to agree with the ombudmsman's proposed resolution, your only realistic option of pursuing this matter further (if that is what you wish to do) would be through court.

The court will be made aware of the proposed resolution offered up by the ombudsman service, and the fact you failed to agree with it.

Seek independent legal advice if you are not sure of what your legal position is. An internet forum, especially one where any anonymous user can post, is not the place to seek such legal advice which you may later come to rely upon.

I agree 100%. By going to The Ombudsman you have agreed to aribitration. The Ombudsman has sat in judgement and arrived at a Final Decision which you have rejected. The consequence of this is that neither DD The Ombudsman nor the supplier will engage in any further discussion about your complaint. The supplier is now free to take action to secure what it believes it is owed. You, of course, have the right to counter any claim but given the amount I would be seeking advice from a professional. Only you can judge whether the additional cost is worth it.

cranford

If you do go to court you will need to set out exactly what you are claiming for. You appear to have had a supply for about two years. So you will need to set out year by year how much you have been charged and how much you think you should have been charged. Since you have meter readings you should be able to do this. If I understand this correctly you are claiming because if you had of know that the tariff you were on was expensive you could have switched sooner and you could have paid less. But I would question whether your current £50 a month is enough. If you check on this forum you will find that heating by electricity can be very expensive and could cost a lot more than the payment you are making.
Having said that if you think you have a case you can fill in a few forms for the Small Claims court and represent yourself. All it will cost will be the court fee which will be no more than £209 depending on your claim size.

jamesaitken42

Cheers for the info. £209 extra on top of 4k is worth it in my opinion, win or lose. As for the 50 quid we're using monthly with Utilita, this is prepayment so we are 100% only using what we pay for (it is actually closer to 80 per month now we're in winter, but still a huge amount less than what npower are charging).

I have now sought legal advice anyway, to see if an expert really thinks it's worth it or if they think it would just be suicide.

Anyone know the story of David and Goliath..?

System

jamesaitken42 wrote: »

Cheers for the info. £209 extra on top of 4k is worth it in my opinion, win or lose. As for the 50 quid we're using monthly with Utilita, this is prepayment so we are 100% only using what we pay for (it is actually closer to 80 per month now we're in winter, but still a huge amount less than what npower are charging).

I have now sought legal advice anyway, to see if an expert really thinks it's worth it or if they think it would just be suicide.

Anyone know the story of David and Goliath..?

Don't forget that the supplier has the right to draw the Court's attention to The Ombudsman's Final Decision. You also have the right to ask the supplier to provide copies of all that it has on file under a Subject Access Report.

jamesaitken42

Cheers Hengus, good advice! Noted!

dlmcr

I must admit it is a struggle to read the whole of the OP but what I picked up was that there was such a large bill due to estimates being provided over a long period of time and then a catch up bill was produced due to an actual meter reading eventually being provided.
If you decide to take this to court ask yourself this:
Presumably you now have opening and closing actual meter readings and you know the tariff (s) that you were on for the period 2014 to 2016. Have you actually been overbilled or were you just (eventually) billed the correct amount based on your (actual) usage and tariff. If the latter then what are you actually taking npower to court for? What are you trying to achieve? What actual loss have you suffered other than an inconveniently large bill? The size of the bill is large but not impossibly so. Forget about problems with their billing system, logins etc etc , the court will not be interested in that. In your position I would take their offer and chalk it up to a very large learning experience.

jamesaitken42

You're right, you clearly didn't read it. You missed the point completely. BUT that is exactly what I fear would happen in court anyway, so it is nonetheless a valid point.

The only lesson I've learnt here is to steer clear from npower. I'll spread the word of the kind of predicament you can land in with them, totally unintentionally.