NPower took money, but aren't my energy supplier

BUTTSY

HI Hengus. If you read my first post of this thread, I stated that I did indeed cancel my DD. But Npower opened it again without my consent. The money that was taken was disturbing enough, but the fact that they can dip into your account at any time is the most disturbing aspect of this whole thing. I queried this with my bank, who said that the only way to make sure it doesnt happen again is to write to NPower asking them to close the DD from their end. But telling a person reading a letter and it being implemented is another thing. When I used Uswitch I believed that they handled everything and as they did say in their instructions ' Cancel Your DD'. And I did! When on the phone to NPower complaints this afternoon I did tell the lady dealing with my complaint that they had reopened my DD without my permission. But she just said that the final bill had not been finalised. I am not sure of the whole truth here and have yet to get this refund before I am truly happy. But it brings a few disturbing facts to mind. If money is taken out of your account by error and you are on the breadline, it could mean the difference to some people of eating that week or not. Or you are elederly and frail, possibly with dimentia. There could be some orginisation, be it a utility company or not that the DD has supposed cancelled taking money out of your account without you knowing...maybe for years! I am not saying it is fraud committed by any particular individual. More to the point that the Computer systems running the automated tasks of these orginistions are just to complicated and develop errors leading to gross negilance.

BUTTSY

Quick update. I had an email this morning from NPower saying that my bank has been in touch to say that my Direct Debit had been cancelled. The rest said basically can I get in touch with Npower to sort things out. No way! The computer system still thinks I am a customer. This seems to be in conflict with my conversation with the complaints advisor who says it took since March to sort out my final bill. I am to receive £61 paid into my account. I just hope once ( if ) I get my £61 the account is closed and thats the end of it. Due to my experience so far, I have low confidence in a decent settlement. If my Direct Debit gets reopened again. It will be without my consent!

System

BUTTSY wrote: »

HI Hengus. If you read my first post of this thread, I stated that I did indeed cancel my DD. But Npower opened it again without my consent. The money that was taken was disturbing enough, but the fact that they can dip into your account at any time is the most disturbing aspect of this whole thing. I queried this with my bank, who said that the only way to make sure it doesnt happen again is to write to NPower asking them to close the DD from their end. But telling a person reading a letter and it being implemented is another thing. When I used Uswitch I believed that they handled everything and as they did say in their instructions ' Cancel Your DD'. And I did! When on the phone to NPower complaints this afternoon I did tell the lady dealing with my complaint that they had reopened my DD without my permission. But she just said that the final bill had not been finalised. I am not sure of the whole truth here and have yet to get this refund before I am truly happy. But it brings a few disturbing facts to mind. If money is taken out of your account by error and you are on the breadline, it could mean the difference to some people of eating that week or not. Or you are elederly and frail, possibly with dimentia. There could be some orginisation, be it a utility company or not that the DD has supposed cancelled taking money out of your account without you knowing...maybe for years! I am not saying it is fraud committed by any particular individual. More to the point that the Computer systems running the automated tasks of these orginistions are just to complicated and develop errors leading to gross negilance.

Your post states 'online account' which I took to mean the online account with the supplier. The advice given on the GoCardless website is that mandates should be cancelled with the Bank and the supplier should be informed ( in truth, the bank does this anyway via BACS).If you have cancelled the MANDATE with your Bank then there is no way a third party can legally resurrect it. It that was the case, we would all be worried about fraud. If I were you, I would ask my Bank for a copy of the Mandate used to make the payment. If it is dated BEFORE the cancellation, then your Bank has made a mistake and has questions that need to be answered. If a supplier has re-dated at the original mandate to give the impression to your Bank that you have signed another mandate then, in my opinion, this is a criminal act and I would be reporting the supplier to the Police.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2006/may/16/consumernews.consumeraffairs

BUTTSY

Thanks Hengus. I will take heed of your advice. But if you search through these threads, there is another case of someone who wasn't even a customer and never was in the past, of a certain energy supplier and this person claimed they had their account debited. I will ask my bank for a copy.

BUTTSY

Just an update. I did finally get a cheque for £61.34 through the post last week from Npower and haven't heard anything since. I have not checked recently whether I still have web access to my old account. Please note, I said 'old account', as I have stated I am not an Npower customer. I will check again. But if I can still gain online access, then it would mean their system still thinks I am their customer. Which might mean they will try and bill me again and I will have to go through the hole process again. I am just hoping this is the end to it all. If I do have any more trouble then it's of to Ofgem I suppose. Fingers crossed.

BUTTSY

Well good old Npower don't give up. I had a feeling this wasn't the end to it. This morning Npower rang me by a very polite young man who firstly asked for my details so he could confirm my account. I did this, but told him that I didn't have an account with Npower since I hadn't been their customer since March. He said he understood this, but that they had contacted my new energy supplier and worked out that my final bill was in fact in debit to £95.54. At this, my blood pressure began to rise. But he said, for the inconvenience they would refund me £10 and the bill would be £85.54. I then began my rant ( the details of which are in this thread). How after refunding me £61.34 last month and then saying it was my final bill and nothing more owed. They now come back and ask for £95.54!! What??? The short of it was, he had a conversation with his supervisor and my bill was reduced to zero. I had a confirmation email to this effect and again hope this is an end to it. I have also asked them to send confirmation that they have erased all my details. Especially banking details. See the beginning of this thread about that. I am still seething. But how many people out there who maybe are unaware due to some kind of mental disability or old and cannot cope, that this kind of thing is happening and they just may have rolled over and paid up. It truly is disturbing.

tenchy

BUTTSY wrote: »

Well good old Npower don't give up. I had a feeling this wasn't the end to it. This morning Npower rang me by a very polite young man who firstly asked for my details so he could confirm my account. I did this, but told him that I didn't have an account with Npower since I hadn't been their customer since March. He said he understood this, but that they had contacted my new energy supplier and worked out that my final bill was in fact in debit to £95.54. At this, my blood pressure began to rise. But he said, for the inconvenience they would refund me £10 and the bill would be £85.54. I then began my rant ( the details of which are in this thread). How after refunding me £61.34 last month and then saying it was my final bill and nothing more owed. They now come back and ask for £95.54!! What??? The short of it was, he had a conversation with his supervisor and my bill was reduced to zero. I had a confirmation email to this effect and again hope this is an end to it. I have also asked them to send confirmation that they have erased all my details. Especially banking details. See the beginning of this thread about that. I am still seething. But how many people out there who maybe are unaware due to some kind of mental disability or old and cannot cope, that this kind of thing is happening and they just may have rolled over and paid up. It truly is disturbing.

Npower need a good dose of regulation. Unfortunately there isn't a regulator in the UK, well, not a proper one, anyway.

Raxiel

BUTTSY wrote: »

Well good old Npower don't give up. I had a feeling this wasn't the end to it. This morning Npower rang me by a very polite young man who firstly asked for my details so he could confirm my account. I did this, but told him that I didn't have an account with Npower since I hadn't been their customer since March. He said he understood this, but that they had contacted my new energy supplier and worked out that my final bill was in fact in debit to £95.54. At this, my blood pressure began to rise. But he said, for the inconvenience they would refund me £10 and the bill would be £85.54. I then began my rant ( the details of which are in this thread). How after refunding me £61.34 last month and then saying it was my final bill and nothing more owed. They now come back and ask for £95.54!! What??? The short of it was, he had a conversation with his supervisor and my bill was reduced to zero. I had a confirmation email to this effect and again hope this is an end to it. I have also asked them to send confirmation that they have erased all my details. Especially banking details. See the beginning of this thread about that. I am still seething. But how many people out there who maybe are unaware due to some kind of mental disability or old and cannot cope, that this kind of thing is happening and they just may have rolled over and paid up. It truly is disturbing.

I wonder what their reaction would be, to a request to remove details in the form of a written notice to their data controller under section 10 of the data protection act.

Something to consider if it were to happen again, especially if you can get them to confirm in writing that your balance is zero - even if they claim they still need to retain your contact details they'd have a hard time justifying keeping account info.

BUTTSY

Thanks Raxiel. I will look into that section 10 of the data protection act. Well they did say that they would send me the final bill for information purposes only, but by post in the next 7 to 10 days, as from the 22nd of Sept. Meantime I got an email from their accounts department saying my latest bill was ready online. This seems to suggest yet again, that their computer system treats me as their customer! I am not even going to bother logging in at the moment and am purely waiting on the final bill through the post...as promised! As stated, I have a confirmation email saying the balance is reduced to zero and had a further reply for my request of my details to be erased from their system. This came from the Customer Services Director, that the matter would be handled by one of his team and they would be in touch. It will be interesting to see if my online account is still open in a few weeks time?