npower missed appointments

liggy0

in October i noticed my electric prepayment meter was not showing any readings and was not lighting up, so i could not see what i had credit left out of 40.00 i had put in just days before, i contacted N power straight away and i was told it sounds like the battery has gone and the meter now needs replacing, but no appointments are available for a month, i was concerned about this and i told them so, as i thought my credit would run out before the appointment date, but they said if the electricity does go off phone the emergency number and an engineer would be out with in 4 hours, anyway the electricity did not run out, but on the day of the appointment the N power engineer who had been given a mobile number to phone on arrival at the property so a member of the family who worked 100 yards away could attend the property, instead he decided to just post a card through the letterbox that no one was at the property,i contacted N power immediately after getting in from work who apologised to me and gave me a 30.00 credit,and arranged for another engineers appointment a week later this time me having to take afternoon off work, this time he never arrived at all again i contacted N power to be told it was there mistake as engineer needs 2 weeks notice to set up another appointment again i was given a 30.00 credit, still electricity has not gone off, and i was 50.00 out of pocket loss of earnings,another appointment made number 3 in 2 weeks time, again i have to take afternoon off work loss of 50.00 wages, again he never turned up,i am on phone again to N power,sorry do not really know why they have not turned up we will give you 30.00 credit, i was fuming the electricity had still not ran out i demanded to know why then i was told by a manager the meter has probably gone into free fall so you are now using our electricity but as no meter readings can be taken or read you will just get an estimated bill, i nearly smashed the phone, we are only on prepayment meters because we recieved a massive bill in 2013 out of the blue from N power which i had complained about and told them i did not possibly owe only to be told i did and that is what i had used and what i had to pay, and i told him that they are not doing this to us again, we only use what we put in the meters and do not want a bill we can not pay.and i was now 100 out of pocket, nothing he could do about that he said, but i can set up another appointment in 2 weeks time appointment number 4 this time again promising it would definately not happen again,afternoon off work now 150.00 out of pocket engineer did not turn up again, my wife was in tears we could not believe it, again i am on the phone to N power we are awful sorry we do not know whats going on and why they have not arrived we give you another 30.00 credit, my blood was boiling i could have killed somebody i am not joking, we will make you another appointment, i just could not believe what was happening after calming down i agreed after manager again promised this time there would be no mistake, appointment number 5, afternoon off work again 200 loss of earning boss in work warned me i can not take anymore time off work, yes you guessed it engineer did not arrive again, contacted N power again for the last time they could not give me any explanation at all they said until they speak to contractors, but we will give you a 30.00 credit can we make another appointment, i nearly fainted with shock the cheek of these people, and i told them so not a chance, i am contacting the energy ombudsman and taking legal advice, which i have now done but again i will not hold my breath after reading the comments and customer reviews about the ombudsman, i have also spoken to my local CAB and if i do not get any positive feed back from the ombudsman i will be taking legal action against these clowns. has anybody been in this position if so can you help and advise.

System

The usual payment from the suppliers for a failed appointment is around £25 to £30
I m a meter reader for British Gas, Scot Power and EDF. Last week I had to visit a prepay electric meter which has had a blank screen for over 4 years ! .The occupier loves the meter, he has nt paid a penny in all this time, not even standing charges.A blank screen on an electric prepay meter is something which is desirable. They cannot measure the usage and whilst it remains blank it will pass electricity as if it was a credit meter.The people I have met with this fault do not want the meter repaired, they re quite happy with it forever.
I don t think these meters have a battery like the prepay gas meters do, they take their power direct from the mains like a normal digital electric credit meter. The £30 credit for the failed appointment is probably the industry standard price so contacting the Ombudsman is a waste of time.
Best of luck with your legal action.

nPower

liggy0 wrote: »

in October i noticed my electric prepayment meter was not showing any readings and was not lighting up, so i could not see what i had credit left out of 40.00 i had put in just days before, i contacted N power straight away and i was told it sounds like the battery has gone and the meter now needs replacing, but no appointments are available for a month, i was concerned about this and i told them so, as i thought my credit would run out before the appointment date, but they said if the electricity does go off phone the emergency number and an engineer would be out with in 4 hours, anyway the electricity did not run out, but on the day of the appointment the N power engineer who had been given a mobile number to phone on arrival at the property so a member of the family who worked 100 yards away could attend the property, instead he decided to just post a card through the letterbox that no one was at the property,i contacted N power immediately after getting in from work who apologised to me and gave me a 30.00 credit,and arranged for another engineers appointment a week later this time me having to take afternoon off work, this time he never arrived at all again i contacted N power to be told it was there mistake as engineer needs 2 weeks notice to set up another appointment again i was given a 30.00 credit, still electricity has not gone off, and i was 50.00 out of pocket loss of earnings,another appointment made number 3 in 2 weeks time, again i have to take afternoon off work loss of 50.00 wages, again he never turned up,i am on phone again to N power,sorry do not really know why they have not turned up we will give you 30.00 credit, i was fuming the electricity had still not ran out i demanded to know why then i was told by a manager the meter has probably gone into free fall so you are now using our electricity but as no meter readings can be taken or read you will just get an estimated bill, i nearly smashed the phone, we are only on prepayment meters because we recieved a massive bill in 2013 out of the blue from N power which i had complained about and told them i did not possibly owe only to be told i did and that is what i had used and what i had to pay, and i told him that they are not doing this to us again, we only use what we put in the meters and do not want a bill we can not pay.and i was now 100 out of pocket, nothing he could do about that he said, but i can set up another appointment in 2 weeks time appointment number 4 this time again promising it would definately not happen again,afternoon off work now 150.00 out of pocket engineer did not turn up again, my wife was in tears we could not believe it, again i am on the phone to N power we are awful sorry we do not know whats going on and why they have not arrived we give you another 30.00 credit, my blood was boiling i could have killed somebody i am not joking, we will make you another appointment, i just could not believe what was happening after calming down i agreed after manager again promised this time there would be no mistake, appointment number 5, afternoon off work again 200 loss of earning boss in work warned me i can not take anymore time off work, yes you guessed it engineer did not arrive again, contacted N power again for the last time they could not give me any explanation at all they said until they speak to contractors, but we will give you a 30.00 credit can we make another appointment, i nearly fainted with shock the cheek of these people, and i told them so not a chance, i am contacting the energy ombudsman and taking legal advice, which i have now done but again i will not hold my breath after reading the comments and customer reviews about the ombudsman, i have also spoken to my local CAB and if i do not get any positive feed back from the ombudsman i will be taking legal action against these clowns. has anybody been in this position if so can you help and advise.

Hi liggy0

Thank you for posting and I'm sorry to hear of your experience. 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

liggy0

thanks Vicky for the reply but i am not really sure now how you can help after the way we have been treated by n power since October when the first complaint went in about the meter being broke we have had 5 appointments made which your engineers have never turned upto i have been credited 30.00 each time yes, but thats not the issue, the issue is that the meter has still not been replaced, we have been informed we will be billed for using the electricity by n power but no readings can be taken or there is no proof of what we have used so we are just getting a bill which n power say we owe once again and we are not happy at all with this, also i myself have taken 4 afternoons off work for these 4 hour slot appointments at a loss of 200.00 to myself and family and we have been on the phone constantly over the last 5 months to n power ,my wife has been worried sick, depressed and upset by all of this she has very bad nerves at the best of times and this has not helped at all and to be fair i have come close to breaking point myself on many occasions, because of constant lies and broken promises, so the matter is in the hands now of the ombudsman and we are quite happy to let them deal with this matter, obviuosly if we are not happy with the outcome they did advise we could take the matter further, i forgot to mention we did try to leave n power a couple of months ago but the other provider stated because we had a debt on the meters we could not, but we actually do not have a debt on either meter we are in credit and this has also been provided as proof to the ombudsman, along with the credit payments for all missed appointments, i wonder were the provider got the information from about our meters being in debit.

liggy0

House_Martin wrote: »

The usual payment from the suppliers for a failed appointment is around £25 to £30
I m a meter reader for British Gas, Scot Power and EDF. Last week I had to visit a prepay electric meter which has had a blank screen for over 4 years ! .The occupier loves the meter, he has nt paid a penny in all this time, not even standing charges.A blank screen on an electric prepay meter is something which is desirable. They cannot measure the usage and whilst it remains blank it will pass electricity as if it was a credit meter.The people I have met with this fault do not want the meter repaired, they re quite happy with it forever.
I don t think these meters have a battery like the prepay gas meters do, they take their power direct from the mains like a normal digital electric credit meter. The £30 credit for the failed appointment is probably the industry standard price so contacting the Ombudsman is a waste of time.
Best of luck with your legal action.

not sure you understand, eventually you will get a bill they are not going to let you have free electric for the rest of your life and it will be a bill made up by them which you will have to pay, so good luck to the people who have been getting electricity for the last 4 years and i do mean that.i just wanted the meter fixing as i did not want a huge bill off n power which they had made up, i know they have given me 30.00 each time for the missed appointments but does that mean its ok, what about the inconvenience to me and my wife, loss of earnings from work and a warning from management about my time off for these appointments, constant phone calls over the last 5 months to n power, the lies and broken promises and most of all the stress and worry which my wife does not need right now or me. oh and thanks for the sarcastic comment good luck with your legal action,

zaax

£30 is no way near enough. It means I have to take a days leave and not do the things I want to do.

System

liggy0 wrote: »

thanks Vicky for the reply but i am not really sure now how you can help after the way we have been treated by n power since October when the first complaint went in about the meter being broke we have had 5 appointments made which your engineers have never turned upto i have been credited 30.00 each time yes, but thats not the issue, the issue is that the meter has still not been replaced, we have been informed we will be billed for using the electricity by n power but no readings can be taken or there is no proof of what we have used so we are just getting a bill which n power say we owe once again and we are not happy at all with this, also i myself have taken 4 afternoons off work for these 4 hour slot appointments at a loss of 200.00 to myself and family and we have been on the phone constantly over the last 5 months to n power ,my wife has been worried sick, depressed and upset by all of this she has very bad nerves at the best of times and this has not helped at all and to be fair i have come close to breaking point myself on many occasions, because of constant lies and broken promises, so the matter is in the hands now of the ombudsman and we are quite happy to let them deal with this matter, obviuosly if we are not happy with the outcome they did advise we could take the matter further, i forgot to mention we did try to leave n power a couple of months ago but the other provider stated because we had a debt on the meters we could not, but we actually do not have a debt on either meter we are in credit and this has also been provided as proof to the ombudsman, along with the credit payments for all missed appointments, i wonder were the provider got the information from about our meters being in debit.

As you have agreed to take the matter to The Energy Ombudsman, its decision is final. The EO is not known for large settlements particularly where there is an industry compensation scheme in place. If you reject The EO's offer then neither The EO nor the supplier will talk to you again about your complaint. All offers of compensation are also withdrawn.

The only option left is a claim against the supplier in The Small Claims Court.

liggy0

yes when we agreed to go to the energy ombudsman they did tell us this but as we had done nothing wrong at all and n power were completely at fault and had told us so, we were only to delighted to let the ombudsman deal with the matter, because we just could not take anymore,n power had already mentioned to us many times, that eventually when they did fix the meter or replace it, we could receive some sort of compensation, but not for loss of earnings or anything like that, we just thought it was lies again. and also we had a screen print out of all credits given to us as proof of the 5 missed appointments and details of emails and plenty of proof over the 5 months period trying to get this resolved,and we also asked n power for a S A R i think its called but they demanded a charge for this which we thought was out of order as well, are main concern at first was to rid ourselves from this horrible company,and try and switch supplier which we tried to do but O V O energy contacted me to say they could not take anybody with a debt on there meter which we actually did not have so who told them this i can only imagine n power did when they contacted them, i also gave the ombudsman proof of this, so yes the matter of compensation we have no idea what sort of compensation we might be offered, but lets put it this way if the ombudsman does its job properly n power should be made to pay for the way they have treated us, a valued customer since moving into this property in 2008 yet treated like !!!!.