Please Help - Problem With Powergen

kazzaj

About two years ago, Powergen contacted me to say that as my bills had been estimated for a long period I had accrued a debit balance of £2900. I was apalled, and since then have struggled to pay them £111 per month. Whilst payments have not always been made on the due date, they have been maintained.
Last year Powergen wrote to me and asked me to increase the monthly payments. As the balance was reducing, I asked whether they would reconsider keeping payments at £111 as long as this continued to be the case. They agreed.
This week Powergen have contacted me to tell me that because I have cancelled my direct debit they will not set up another one and they will now refer my account to debt recovery and I will have to have a pre-pay meter installed.
I have not cancelled my direct debit (have checked online today and its still active) and payments have been made to them for the last 3 months (I only have the last 3 months of statements to hand). However, they say they will not reconsider resetting up the direct debit and the options above are the only ones open to me.
I have contacted them again to ask them to reconsider.
Does anyone have any advise or can help me with this. I really dont want a pre-pay meter and was managing to reduce the balance at the extortionate rate of £111 per month.
Many thanks,

firesidemaid

hi there

thought i'd try and send you some support. i posted a few months ago and found a lot of others in the same situation - powergen seem to continuously not ask for enough money and then put people in a situation where they have a massive bill to pay off and no chance of leaving them.

are they saying that you have exhausted their complaints procedure? check what this is either on-line or on the phone - as they have to follow it. it does not sound like they have, and it sounds like they are in the wrong.

you could then try ?energywatch or the energy regulator - find out who they are before you contact powergen and say that you will go through them to complain (they don't like it).

good luck x

ps. also search on here for powergen - you will find similar stories and also hopefully some help and tips

quiet_advisor

I recommend put your case in writing to:
[EMAIL="Directorofcustomerservice@powergen.co.uk"]Directorofcustomerservice@powergen.co.uk[/EMAIL]

Much better to write than telephone.

Energywatch will usually get involved after you have explored the issue with the Company first.

Apparently PowerGen referred some 15000 old alleged debts going back to 2004 to LCS, a debt collector, in April 2007. Most of the accounts had been left untouched from 2004 to 2007, so people are now getting some nasty surprises.

kazzaj

I have told them not to phone me and that I want all correspondence to in writing so that I have an audit trail of exactly what is said, but they are still hassling me to phone them to discuss.
I have requested again that they continue with the direct debits and am awaiting their response.

kazzaj

Powergen have come back to me again, and told me that my options are:
1. Pay the balance in full.
2. Pay half the balance and agree a payment plan.
3. Have a pre-pay meter installed.
Do I have a leg to stand on in attempting to get them to reset by direct debit here. I dont have half the balance to pay, let alone the whole lot.
Thanks for any advice

kazzaj

Hi - me again.
I have just cheked back through my bank statements from August 2006 and I have made payments by direct debit to Powergen every month, yet they have said that the direct debit option is clearly not working. Do you think I should continue to fight my corner on this?

firesidemaid

if you have paid by direct debit every month the amount that they agreed /set-up, then i would think that they do not have a leg to stand on (obviously i'm not an expert....)

if they set up an agreement that you have stuck to rigidly, then it is surely they who are in breach of contract (never mind not coming to read your meter in the first place which led to all of this).

i would state all of this to them by phone if necessary, but also follow it up by email - perhaps put the whole story in writing to the email address that another member posted. that way you will also get everything off your chest at the same time.

good luck and let us know how you get on.

Terrylw1

Hi,

Ok, they have used an excuse to try to get you to pay quicker. It sounds like you have a long running debt and they are trying to get you off this list.

They have stated that you have cancelled your DD and broken this agreement. However, you have proof that this is a lie. So, your first action should be to speak to a manager to sort this.

As far as breach of contract goes, know they haven't. It was an informal arrangement not a formal one unless you have a copy of terms that state you will pay X over X months and this must be maintained or lost. It's very unlikely that you have this since it prevents them from re-assessing your DD each period.

Speak to a manager first. Then go for that email address and send a copy to Energywatch. Be realistic though, there is no way in hell a director reads that - it just goes to a complaints dept.

You'ev just got to fight back by making your case more public to thise in more authority and stop dealing with the phone people who often a) don't care as your a number on a ledger or b) don't have the authority.

Good luck

quiet_advisor

Powergen's complaint procedure can be found on that attached link, from a search of their website.

Best of luck - I'm struggling with them at present regarding an alleged debt from 2004 - the first I knew about it was a text to my mobile from a debt collector last month - as they say, if it wasn't true you wouldn't believe it!

http://www.powergen.co.uk/NR/rdonlyres/50603CF6-E36F-4FD0-95F0-8BEE34396DE3/0/COP_Complaints311007.pdf

kazzaj

Thanks everyone. Since my last email to them yesterday afternoon in which I told them that I had made payments every month as far back as last August, they have not yet replied. I will keep you informed but I appreciate your advice.

kazzaj

Just to update you.
I got home yesterday to a message on my phone from Powergen's Disconnection Department asking me to phone them urgently. I called them back and was told that the account had now been passed to debt collection and they were applying for a warrent to enter my property and fit a pre-pay meter and that the whole balance was due.
I was appalled and extremely distressed and tried my best to argue my case in that all my payments had been made going back as far as August 2006. They said that it didnt matter anymore and that was the plan. I told a little lie and said that I required everything I had just been told in writing because I had a meeting with a caseworker on Friday who was going to help me.
Ten minutes later I got a call back saying that I was absolutely right, payments had been maintained, so they will reset up the direct debit!
What a turnaround!!!