Anyone taken npower to court?

Pukeko

I could rant for ages about npower and the frustrations with them & their c/serv dept :mad: but this is as calm a summary of the problem as I can manage:
(I know you should post when calm but when it comes to this topic I don't think that time will ever come!! :sad: )

• moved into our house (1st time homeowners) in Feb 2003 & inherited a pre-pay electricity (and gas) meter
• previous owners in debt difficulties it turned out, but meter in credit when we moved in
• asked npower to remove meter since we had just moved from a rental property where they were our supplier by direct debit (and no worries there)
• were told that meter needed to show some payments for a little while before it could be removed
• roll on a few months and now they claim that there are problems with the card not registering that we are buying electricity, they tell us we owe them money so they cannot remove the meter until we pay them - around £150
• since we are already paying for our electricity every time we are topping up on the hated pre-pay system I refuse out of principal to pay them any extra (let's ignore of course that pre-pay electricity costs more than dd electricity in the first place)
• many many phone calls to npower c/serv, followed by calls and letters through EnergyWatch, all to no avail; by this time we have practically lost the will to live with it!! :wall: :wall:
• this situation carries on until now when we have moved out of that property and npower think that we owe them nearly £1200!!!!!!!! _pale_ :mad:

My main problems with everything that has happened to us are:

1. we wanted to pay by dd, we never wanted to be on a pre-pay - we wanted them to remove the meter and we could also show that we had previously been great dd customers to them
2. when we later asked to switch supplier they told us we couldn't because they claimed that we owed them money

This means we were trapped using them as our supplier and forced to use a more expensive service. That feels anti-competitive to me as well as falling very far below fair trading standards, in my opinion.

We have decided that we only want to take this further now, through the correct channels - first a final letter to npower's Head of Customer Relations (as per their website escalation), asking for:

• acknowledgement that we do not owe them anything
• a refund for the difference between the pre-pay and the direct debit rate and interest on top of that (at inflation rate) for having been deprived of this money
• the immediate removal of the pre-pay meter so that the next person does not have the same problems

(Don't laugh at my demands! )

I think this is the sort of thing this site is all about, not letting companies pull a fast one on you, and standing up for yourself and others and what's right. Look at Martin's success with the banks - that's fantastic!! :T:money::T

So next we will go to the ombudsman and lastly I want to take it to court if it still hasn't been resolved satisfactorily.

So back to my subject header, has anyone else been in this situation (or similar) and ended up in court with npower?

Cardew

Pukeko wrote: »

We have decided that we only want to take this further now, through the correct channels - first a final letter to npower's Head of Customer Relations (as per their website escalation), asking for:

• acknowledgement that we do not owe them anything
• a refund for the difference between the pre-pay and the direct debit rate and interest on top of that (at inflation rate) for having been deprived of this money
• the immediate removal of the pre-pay meter so that the next person does not have the same problems

(Don't laugh at my demands! )

I think this is the sort of thing this site is all about, not letting companies pull a fast one on you, and standing up for yourself and others and what's right. Look at Martin's success with the banks - that's fantastic!! :T:money::T

So next we will go to the ombudsman and lastly I want to take it to court if it still hasn't been resolved satisfactorily.

So back to my subject header, has anyone else been in this situation (or similar) and ended up in court with npower?

You are in a similar position as the person thinking of taking Powergen to court.

They say you owe them money - which you both dispute - but as yet they haven't taken court action against you.

The dilemma you both face is that they will simply pass the problem to a debt collection agency and this will affect your credit rating.

I clearly sympathise with you over their insistence that you must retain a PP meter when you have already been a DD payment customer.(I solved that problem when my daughter went to University by paying them a deposit)

However many people do not want PP meters but it is a commercial decision and I can’t think how you can retrospectively challenge that decision, especially when you have used energy on that tariff.

If Energywatch won’t take up cudgels on your behalf, you might have a very long and expensive fight on your hands.

Good luck.

Pukeko

Thank you for your comments Cardew and thank you for pointing out the bit about the fact that they haven't taken me to court yet - I find that promising!!

Terrylw1

Hi,

Ok, they have the ability to credit check you and remove the PP whenever they wish. However, Suppliers have a nasty habit of trying to discourage customers and failing to remember that you cannot be judged on the problems caused by a previous customer.

I've been there with collections & customer service managers before, and they lost on that one!

Ok, it will go to a debt collector and thats it. They sell the debts off. The debt collector may then take it further.

In reality, they will increase your payment scheme on the meter. This will then collect the money everytime you top it up.

To be honest, I would have expected them to suggest that unless you weer resistant to it - hence a further argument over paying at all.

Now - the issue over Suppliers forcing customers into higher tariffs being anti-competitive...thats been voiced directly at Ofgem before and they disagreed. They state they uphold competition and as long as Suppliers have advised the disadvatages of PP metering, thats all thats needed.

However, they tend to forget about your scenario. However, their ruling does not apply to a new customer, merely one who is considering having a PP meter fitted.

There are some issues in here that are different to the PGen thread because you state problems with the card.

So, when you moved in did you get a new card? If not, you may have paid against the previous customers account on the Suppliers billing system - hence your payments have gone missing. However, this is very easy to rectify as the payments on the card will show as being after the old tenant moved out. So, they just transfer them and your account then tallies up.

What they said about leaving it in for a while sounds like a failure of a crdit check and they suggested trying again later. They could have suggested a deposit though.

I think the info in your post is a little vague to fully advise you.

Could you explain more about how the debt has occurred? Is it due to a faulty meter update so the price rises have been added in a block amount to pay? Or, is it missing payments?

It could be either from your post.

If you can clarify, I will try and help.

Regards

Pukeko

Hi Terry - thank you so much for your reply!
I'll get back to you with more detail later on today if you are still willing to have a look over this issue, I would really appreciate it.
I can confirm though that we had a new card when we moved in - because we even had problems getting that!... :rolleyes2
I hadn't thought about the debt collector bit. It makes me angry to think how many people have been so badly served by these big companies :mad:
Anyway thanks again and I'll post again in more detail later on today.

Pukeko

Oh dear! I've gone back over our bills/statements and it's all very confusing.

We got a new card when we first moved in and were buying power on it. By the end of July 2003 we owed (according to npower) £365.47! Having moved in mid-Feb 2003 and bought power for the PP meter on the card as you do, I can't understand this.

My husband tells me that they also thought that we had a dual rate meter but apparently we only have a single rate meter.

They sent a chap out to recalibrate the meter as npower said we had "lost payments" on the meter. But I can't see how anything came of it.

I also notice that in December last year they sent us a statement it has:

charges for this period £220.37
previous bill £3456.48 :eek:
cancelled bill 20/10/06 £1101.30CR
cancelled bill 23/10/06 £912.15CR
cancelled bill 08/11/06 £875.75CR

????

What the heck are they on about?!

Don't get me wrong - great about the cancelled bills only what are they on about in the first place!!

I feel a bit overwhelmed having looked at the statements again because I can't make head nor tail of them. I just can't understand why they are claiming we owe them money when we've been putting credit on the card. I guess it must come down to meter problems or payments we've made not registering on their system.

Sorry I feel a bit depressed about it all again!!!

I'm not sure what else to tell you about if you can help - maybe we should get someone to look over these bills/statements, like a solicitor or the CAB or somebody? Any thoughts as to who might be able to help here?

Thank you

Terrylw1

Ahhhh, there are some possibilities here.

Ok, cancelled bills - this is one of 2 things:

1 - they hav produced bills and then replaced them e.g. if you gave them a reading, they send you out an amended bill which replaces the previous one
2 - they have had to correct a problem that spans several bills. When they do this it can replace several bills which looks likely based on what you have said. So, those bills have not really been cancelled but has been replaced with a bill that covers those periods and also bills you up to your last quarter (or your current one if you are due a bill now)

Do you have that previous bill for £3000? Was it ever sent to you?

What your husband has said may point to the real problem here. It could be that they have billed you based on an incorrect meter or just keyed a reading wrong due to it. This can often create huge bills for no reason. They then just correct the meter, remove the bills that cover it and replace it with a new one.

This tends to look very confusing to the customer though.

Could you provide the readings of these bills? It might help show where this huge debt has come from.

As far as loosing money on the meter, you pay for credit which is then sent to your Supplier. They then have to map your payments over to your account. If they don't do this (or you have someone elses card) it never reaches your account and you look like you are in debt.

The meter can have faults but it wouldn't matter to the Supplier as far as their statements go since they get your payments from the retailer!

Looking at the credits & dates of your bill, either they have taken a meter reading and it has all gone wrong. Or, they have replaced your bill and not attached the previous credits.

According to what you have wrote (and how Npower produces it's bills) you would appear to owe £3456.48+£220.37. Thats if that is your closing bill.

So, on the largest bill - are there any credits? If not, that could be where it's all gone wrong.

I would say to hang on as far as solicitors go. They will charge you and they may not even be able to work it out either and will just ask your Supplier to clarify it sll in writing which you can do without them. CAB could help if we can't get to the bottom of it on here (as the bills may need to be viewed)

Pukeko

(responded by PM)