NPower Back Billing After Refunding

Kylevdm

Hi All,

I am posting today after having dealt with NPower over the phone but would like some other advice. I am going to give a bit of back story so please hang in there!

In September 2016 I moved houses, I went through the process online to change my address knowing that I was £390 in credit for my current house. Not overly suspicious as it was a large house over the summer so that was building my credit mound to be chewed through over winter.

After a couple of weeks I called up NPower as the account for my new house was showing £0 as it's starting balance. Surely it should be the £390 that I had from the last house so I called them up.

They said that yes there was the £390 in the old account and asked if I wanted to have it transferred to my bank account instead. Which I agreed with and so they rebated me the £390.

This is where today comes in, I've been back billed for £620 for my old house..! It has become apparent that I was slightly negligent and didn't check my bills even though I had been putting in meter readings and nPower had not been billing me. But I assumed all was well and I had spoken to someone who confirmed my account was closed!

Where do I stand on this? I was under the impression that when I called up and checked for my account to be closed that was it. Why would a representative tell me that all was well, repay me my money only to be billed 6 months later?

If I went into a store and purchased something for £200 and they gave me back £150, they can't turn around and expect me to pay £500 a few months later, so why can npower?

footyguy

Kylevdm wrote: »

Hi All,

I am posting today after having dealt with NPower over the phone but would like some other advice. I am going to give a bit of back story so please hang in there!

In September 2016 I moved houses, I went through the process online to change my address knowing that I was £390 in credit for my current house. Not overly suspicious as it was a large house over the summer so that was building my credit mound to be chewed through over winter.

After a couple of weeks I called up NPower as the account for my new house was showing £0 as it's starting balance. Surely it should be the £390 that I had from the last house so I called them up.

They said that yes there was the £390 in the old account and asked if I wanted to have it transferred to my bank account instead. Which I agreed with and so they rebated me the £390.

This is where today comes in, I've been back billed for £620 for my old house..! It has become apparent that I was slightly negligent and didn't check my bills even though I had been putting in meter readings and nPower had not been billing me. But I assumed all was well and I had spoken to someone who confirmed my account was closed!

Where do I stand on this? I was under the impression that when I called up and checked for my account to be closed that was it. Why would a representative tell me that all was well, repay me my money only to be billed 6 months later?

If I went into a store and purchased something for £200 and they gave me back £150, they can't turn around and expect me to pay £500 a few months later, so why can npower?

You can find the 12 month back billing rule here

https://www.energy-uk.org.uk/files/docs/Factsheets%20and%20guides/back_billing_consumer_guide.pdf

If after considering what it says, you stiull feel you have a vaild complaint, you should file this with the supplier following their complaint procedure. Each complaint is assessed on its own merits so explain exactly how you feel the supplier is at fault for the error in your complaint to them.

You may want to consider in particular the section headed "The back-billing principle may not apply if you:" before you file a complaint.

nPower

Hi Kylevdm,

Please contact us using the contact details on our profile page so we can help with your billing query.

Thanks

Jen