NPower - compound failures?

Spesh99

Hello.

I have joined this forum with the sole reason of asking people if I am being ridiculous of if NPOWER are taking the micky out of me - and to find out some advice or if people have been in similar situations. I am not a complainer, have zero experience in the topic and generally (wrongly) just accept when things are what they should be.

I'll try not to waffle and in the interests of simplicity will round numbers accordingly. This whole babble is for Dual Fuel too.

I moved from a flat to a 3B Semi in May 17 - and joined NPOWER - based on a comparison website.

We were put on a £92 DD fully expecting it to fluctuate over time.

I paid £92 on DD until MAR18

In MAR18 I called NPOWER simply to ask when my tariff was up - so I could go and shop around. I was offered an opportunity to recontact there and then and took it.
Now - the important bit. The NP representative offered me a £48 DD. This knocked me back - seeing as we had being paying £92. There are only 2 of us and we are out the house a lot - plus we had re-wired the house (LED lights etc), Re plumbed (very efficient boiler etc) and the rep suggested that they were already paying dividends! Great I thought. I thought this figure was too good to be true and so challenged the representative on this - even he said "Yes that does seem too good to be true let me double check". And Came back confirming £48 is plenty, Because I like round numbers I asked him to set it at £50.

Fast forward to Nov18 (7 x months of £50 DD). NP call me saying my account is many hundreds of pounds in debt (cant recall he figure, circa £250). I am gutted as am generally on the ball with money. He wants a single payment to clear the debt but I negotiate to do A) A one off payment of £100, and to up my DD from £50 to £150 for FOUR months when it would then drop to £90. This satisfied both of us and would get us back where we should be.

I complain - saying that I clearly should have never been recommended a £50 package - but allow the complain to be closed once the above scenario was agreed.

Fast forward to Mar 19. I ring NPOWER remembering that my 4 months of increased DD are coming to an end - and wanted to check what they would default back to - and to check if this new DD is still satisfactory. Can you believe my horror when I am told my account is now in DEBT by just shy of £500!!!!

I challenge this - saying this is horrifying - even if it has been a old winter. I eventually dig deep enough to find that NPOWER changed my DD from 50 - straight to 88 - and never took the 4 months worth of £154 as agreed. (circa £240 that could have cleared my account).

So what started a a simple mis-recommendation by putting me on a £50 tarrif - initially manifested itself in a account debt of £250ish. A solution was the devised by myself and NPOWER (on a recorded call) - NPOWER failed to action that agreed resolution - and subsequently my account has gone further and further into debt.

I accept I take a degree of responsibility here for not checking my Direct Debits did increase to the £154 as agreed . but does everyone. We agreed an amount - and I was told it was proceed (plus they took the £100 over the phone).

I have a 6 day old baby - and we both work full time - we are not living on the breadline and we don't have money worries. If push comes to shove I could find £500 to clear my account - but for me its the principle here.

I have re-opened my original complaint with NP - they asked me what my desired outcome was - I have said I want the account debt reduced by £240 (crudely worked out as 4 x months of what I did pay (88) vs what they should have taken off me (154).

Ironically every member of staff I have spoken to are really nice - and although they cant openly say I am right - their tone says it all - there are these awkward silences when they realise I have been a victim of a double bout of NPOWER incompetence in my opinion.

I await NP's response to my complaint and have been advised if they don't satisfy m request to go through the ombudsmen, Worth it? Pointless? Should I just pay and get the hell off NP's books.

I'd welcome anyones opinion.
Many Thanks

bonus2010

Would I be right in saying you don't have smart meters installed?

Spesh99

Correct. Requested. Just "on the list".

Robin9

and you don't read your meters ? It's not DD that matters its consumption

Spesh99

Yes. I sent in readings via the app.

bonus2010

Well, it would seem to me that the debt has arisen because the supplier hasn't had up to date meter readings, however I'm struggling to understand how the Npower agent manages to offer you half the DD that you were paying in March '18 when Npower should've know more accurately what your estimated annual consumption should've been unless he was more keen in selling you the contract that asking for an up to date meter reading at that point.

The best way though is to know your average consumption in kWh and do the calculation yourself instead of relying on the monthly DD estimated by either comparison sites or energy suppliers sales folks.

nigelbb

Spesh99 wrote: »

So what started a a simple mis-recommendation by putting me on a £50 tarrif - initially manifested itself in a account debt of £250ish.

You were not put on a £50 tariff. You were put on a payment of £50/month however your energy consumption looks to be about £100/month. You haven't lost out as you were underpaying for many months that is why you owed them money.

You obviously didn't check your bank statements or you would have noticed that they hadn't been taking the agreed higher payment thus increasing the amount that you owed.

dogshome

In all this lengthy post, I can only see reports of telephone conversations.


Did you not get any bills over over those first 10 months of residency, and nor any for the following period?

matelodave

Had you been monitoring your account and making sure that your bills and statements were correctly using your readings you would have noticed that your DD's were insufficient to cover your consumption. You would also have been aware that they had not been taking the increased DD

Your situation is the same as around 90% of the complaints on this forum from those who just pay their DD's but don't actually to check their bills or on line statements and so don't have a clue whether they are paying too much or too little on their DD's.

They then get a nasty shock at the end of their contract or review when the ginormous catch-up bill arrives.

You need to take more control by checking your bills and bank accounts more frequently and understanding what is going on rather than hoping someone else is doing it for you.

It takes about 10 minutes a month and saves you hours of grief in the future

Spesh99

Thank you all.