NPOWER pre payment meter and now a bill....

Terrylw1

Apologies, misread your point about the government telling them not too.

Here's the link from Energywatch. Npower have agreed to £70 as of Dec 2006. Apologies to Shogs on that one. Thats why I asked as EW seem to be giving out misleading advice to others in the same situation on this board who are over the £70 threshold. This makes me question whether there is a cut off date as there is in Ofgem's backbilling policy e.g. anyone made aware of charges prior to Dec 2006 is stuck on an old agreement to bill up to Ofgem's policy. Thats why I asked.

http://www.energywatch.org.uk/your_questions/index.asp

However, this is limited to Npower per Energywatch and is not across the board from their site. Other utilities are also demanding more back than £70.

If all Suppliers had agreed this with Ofgem, they would not be sticking to those debts.

You didn't state that Suppliers have removed this practice - I did. It's common knowledge that most companies have now removed this due to how underhand it is. So, they charge from the point where the meter is recalibrated.

I pointed out who the meter belongs to because people on this board often think that and it's incorrect. Suppliers are responsible for their agents & activities yes - but they do not own them as you suggest.

Honestly, I agree that charges should be wiped if they are due to a Supplier. It's Ofgem's fault that this has happened anyway since they did not expand the backbillign issues to cover this area of PP when they knew about it.

However, they should be given the ability to backbill where they have been denied access. Unless consumers want more warrants serving against them?

TheImportanceOfBeingIdle

Terrylw1 wrote: »

Apologies, misread your point about the government telling them not too.

Here's the link from Energywatch. Npower have agreed to £70 as of Dec 2006. Apologies to Shogs on that one. Thats why I asked as EW seem to be giving out misleading advice to others in the same situation on this board who are over the £70 threshold. This makes me question whether there is a cut off date as there is in Ofgem's backbilling policy e.g. anyone made aware of charges prior to Dec 2006 is stuck on an old agreement to bill up to Ofgem's policy. Thats why I asked.

http://www.energywatch.org.uk/your_questions/index.asp

However, this is limited to Npower per Energywatch and is not across the board from their site. Other utilities are also demanding more back than £70.

If all Suppliers had agreed this with Ofgem, they would not be sticking to those debts.

You didn't state that Suppliers have removed this practice - I did. It's common knowledge that most companies have now removed this due to how underhand it is. So, they charge from the point where the meter is recalibrated.

I pointed out who the meter belongs to because people on this board often think that and it's incorrect. Suppliers are responsible for their agents & activities yes - but they do not own them as you suggest.

Honestly, I agree that charges should be wiped if they are due to a Supplier. It's Ofgem's fault that this has happened anyway since they did not expand the backbillign issues to cover this area of PP when they knew about it.

However, they should be given the ability to backbill where they have been denied access. Unless consumers want more warrants serving against them?

My experience is with npower and I've not really looked into it being done by others. It's not something I'm very aware of.

It happens because of a price increase. They generally only recalibrate their meters once a year. So you'd think it was for a few months usage at the most. Unfortunately it doesn't always happen like that.
As we're all well aware, the reason behind pre-payment is to get rid of debt and to budget. Suppliers adding more on because of their incompetence is sly and immoral in my opinion. They have had well over 11 months to alter my meter and failed to do so. I don't see why I should pay for their failure to set the meter to the correct tarrif.
With regards to being denied access, would it not be simple to say 'We'll recalibrate your meter on this date, within this time frame. If you're not in we'll bill you for wasting our time.' Or even issue a warning that should they not allow access, then their meter will be left as is and when they do finally calibrate it then they'll be billed for the full outstanding amount. Instead of just having letters dropped through the letterbox saying you owe x amount.

stimpo

When the metermen come round to recalibrate the meter they only have to try once. Leave a card asking you to arrange a suitable time. If this is not done within a set period (I dont know the period) yu will e isued with a warning letter advising you that if you do not allow access they will obtain a warrant with charges of up to £200.

Its in your interests to allow access, if access isnt provided it'll be your locks that get changed, and they'll even be considerate to add the warrant charges to the meter while they are there. This may mean you have a long busride to collect your new housekeys, they wont be delivered to you.

RBosdet

I had a similar problem with npower. The prepayment meter went wrong and was replaced. The next time I heard from them was a year later when they hit me with a bill for "arrears" of £425, without any details whatsoever of how they worked this out. It took me 2 years to get the bills to which this related and to discover that they had failed to credit me with £225 I had put in the meter and had charged me twice for another £300 of electricity. In the meantime they sent disconnection notices and threatened to get warrants to enter my home. In the end I paid them £497, to avoid being dragged before a court as a defendant with the possibility of credit rating problems etc. Then I sued them in the County Court for the return of my money. I added in a claim for damages and compensation for their unreasonable and threatening behaviour. They declined to settle out of court and defended the claim, although they didn't produce any evidence. In Birmingham County Court I won on all counts and npower was ordered to return all of the £525 I had paid in the meantime plus £175 compensation, plus costs, plus interest. Needless to say I have moved my electricity (and gas) accounts to another supplier - in my case Atlantic.

My advice is : if you are certain they should not have charged you - sue them! I wrote more than 50 letters to them and never got a sensible reply. I even wrote twice to their CEO, David Threlfall, who was so ignorant he never even bothered to acknowledge my letters, let alone reply to them or deal with the matter. He doesn't seem to care that he loses customers.

SwanJon

TheImportanceOfBeingIdle wrote: »

I've just received a letter today saying I owe them money becuase of THEIR failure to calibrate the meter.
...
If the company can't get it right then the customer shouldn't have to suffer.

stimpo wrote: »

When the metermen come round to recalibrate the meter they only have to try once. Leave a card asking you to arrange a suitable time.

This is probably the biggeest issue. If your meter is inside your house, they can't get at it to recalibrate it without you letting them in.
If they leave a card, not many people will actually respond to it - look at all the complaints about estimated bills.

If they tried and you weren't in, whose failure is that?
What if you don't let them in?

I've not seen any cases going to warrant for this (not been looking), but I wouldn't be suprised if it happens.
Maybe more so for the 3 companies who are wiping the balance as they have more to lose, and more people get the idea they once recalibrated, the meter will charge them the right amount (more).

Totally agree that for most customers it is not their fault, but like estimated bills, customers have to take some of the responsibility in some cases.

plattinum

I received a reply from energywatch today. They have asked NPower to make contact with me in order to resolve the issue within ten working days, and if they fail to respond or I am dissatisfied, get back in touch with energywatch to persue. How is everyone else getting on with their problems? Glad to hear of your sucess in claiming back your money RBosdet. You do often feel like you are wasting your time triyng to communicate with these large companies and ending up spending more money, and time persuing the matter, but well done. I have agreed to pay the bill to keep NPower off my back for now, as they are threatening legal action, but will claim back if they are in the wrong. Although still having trouble claiming £60 back from tiscili from 18 months ago!