Npower Huge Bill

JonoftheEast

Hi,


Please, I need help due to being slapped with a huge bill from Npower.
I was told their billing had been wrong for quite a while, that they had billed day and night rates the wrong way round. They wanted over £5k at the start of 2018 - this has risen to £11k recently. There is no way I have been using all this electric. I average £120pm.


I asked on many occassions for bills to show this - they didnt send for over six months. Whilst waiting for these bills we approached Ofgem who deliberated that all we would be due back would be a nominal credit (£100 approx !!!).


Only just recently Npower have just sent out bills from Oct 2011 to Aug 18 - I cannot make head nor tail of these bills. So, can you please advise me of these points:


1) As Ofgem have made their decision (the £100 credit) can I go beyond them (to a further body ie appeal, legal, voluntary service) to seek help in dealing with Npower despite the Ofgem ruling?


2) If the answer to 1) is Yes, is there any professional body that CAN make sense of the bills i have in my possession?


Thanks in anticipation

System

JonoftheEast wrote: »

Hi,
I need help due to being slapped with a huge bill from Npower.
I was told their billing had been wrong for quite a while, that they had billed day and night rates the wrong way round. Thew wanted over £5k at that start of 2018 - this has risen to £11k recently. There is no way I have been using all this electric. I average £120pm.


I asked on many occassions for bills to show this - they didnt send or over six months. Whils waiting for these bills we approached Ofgem who deliberated that all we would be due back would be a nominal credit (£100 approx !!!).


Only just recently Npower have just sent out bills from Oct 2011 to Aug 18 - I cannot make head nor tail of these bills. So, can you please advise me of these points:


1) Is there any professional body that CAN make sense of the bills, and


2) As Ofgem have made their decision (the £100 credit) can I go beyond them to seek help in dealing with Npower despiite Ofgem ruling (if the first question shows Npower and Ofgem is wrong in their conclsions.


Thanks in anticipation

Hi - welcome to the forum. I can understand why you are annoyed; however, you appear to have followed the supplier's complaints process and escaped the complaint to The Energy Ombudsman (not Ofgem). The latter has adjudicated on your case and you have two options: one, accept the outcome or, two, reject it. If you do the latter, then neither the supplier nor The Energy Ombudsman is required to discuss the matter any further.

When The Energy Ombudsman first advised you of its decision, why didn't you offer further evidence in support of your case if you believe that the conclusions were wrong? The timescale to offer further information is limited.

If you are still struggling to understand your bills then I suggest that you contact Citizens Advice for help.

Finally, how do you actually know that your energy bill averages £120 per month. What are you basing this judgement on?

Robin9

Trying to make some sense of this.

Have you the readings from 2011, when was the mistake corrected by nPower and what are the readings today. ???

Has the meter been changed along the way and have you been paying DD throughout ?

wakeupalarm

Have you paid any money to Npower for the last 7 years?

£11000 seems a rather large amount for residential usage.
Is this regarding your own home energy usage or a business?

Robin9

Just doing a few back of a fag package calcs.

Assuming 3000 day units and 7000 night correctly billed at 7p night and 17p day then since 2011 you would have paid about £9000 and if wrongly billed then about £14000 ie they would owe you money. I appreciate rates will have changed and I have no ide what tariff you were actually on.

matelodave

I know it's the same old mantra but had you been sending in regular meter readings. Even more importantly, had you checed that those reading had been used or did you just let it get on with it oblivious to what the bills were telling you or even worse not checking them at all.

I'd guess that 90% or more of the problems that people are getting are because they don't check their bills or on-line statements and get them corrected if they dont reflect the actual meter readings.

There's also the mindset, that if the bill is under-estimated then that's all you've got to pay not realising that when the meter does finally get read then a ginormous bill bill appear.

I'm guessing that as Ofgem have made their judgement then you'd need very clear additional evidence to challenge it even in a court of law.

As in all things it helps greatly if you've kept your own records, meter readings, bills, phone calls, letters, e-mails etc so you can collate the evidence. Trying to rely on guesstimated bills from the suppliers is going to make life very difficult.

Did you start reading and recording your meter readings regularly when the problems first surfaced or have you sort of let it drift. Even six months worth of either weekly or monthly readings would give a basis to argue.

JonoftheEast

Hi, thanks for your prompt response.


At the time it was escalated to Ombudsman I believed I would be covered under the "Back Billing" oath where anything over 12 months "should" be scrapped. Initial requests to Npower for proof as to why the bill had been so high ie statemets showing this did not materialise further strengthening my belief it woud come under back billing (this being before Ombud involvement).



The bills forwarded by Npower to me only arrived AFTER Ombudsman decision. Due to Ombud decision of a paltry £100 credit I ignored Ombud follow-up letters asking me to see if I wanted to accept £100 and eventually they just came back to me to say this was there decision in final.


Now, I have the bills provided from Npower a few months on from this so I hope this explains further. The bills are really confusing to understand and I need assistance from somebody. John.

Robin9

What is the earliest bill you have - what are the readings - are they estimated (E) or actual (A); what are the readings on the latest bill.

ignore the others for the time being but we need to know when the error was corrected and what the readings were at that time.

And some answers to the various questions we have asked you please - in particular what monies have you been paying along the way.

JonoftheEast

The payment method from the start was DDM. This is a residential property. The bills only came through 2 weeks ago.


Bill 1 - Oct 11 to April 2015 - Actual Reading 91760 Day, Actual Reading 85069 Night. £2102 credit.


Bill 2 - April 2015 to Feb 2017 - Estimate Day 22920, Estimate Night 95027. £4600 Debit. Tariff Standard SC Electricity DD Economy 7 (18.2 Day, 31160kw/h £5,671, Night 6.37p 9958 kWh £634). Payments stopped to Npower at this stage in dispute to sudden huge bill to current date.



10 month period here where all we got from Npower was they were having a problem with billing system - blamed on day and night readings billed wrong way round by them).



Bill 3 - Feb 17 to Oct 17 - Actual Reading 38160 Day, 163 Night - Bill jumps up to £8414 (also 13th Feb 17 new tariff Standard SC Electricity ROB Economy 7).


Bill 4 - Oct 17 to Feb 18 - Actual 44218 Day, Actual 1616 Night, Bill jumps to £9893.


Bill 5 - Feb 18 to April 18 - THIS is when bills finally are sent to us after a year requesting them. Their reading (says "Our Reading" on bill) Day 49237, Night 3037. Bill now £10,799.


I hope this helps. Please help me find out what is going on as Ombud was no use whatsoever. I am trying to find Ombud letter to assist and will update when I find it.


John.

JonoftheEast

P.S. Last actual reading a week ago on the meter was Day 54889 and Night 04587. New tariff as of Feb 18 was safeguard Elec ROB Economy 7 due to having special needs daughter and carer (family member).

JonoftheEast

I say £120pm average spend because tis was how it was set up back at the start and it covered all the electricity at the time and not much has changed to present day - perhaps allow £160pm for a true reflection of the last few years.