Help! npower Contract Issue!

bodgery

Hi - this is on behalf of my parents, who are classed as a small business by npower. They have recently come to the end of a 5 yr contract with them, and have now been moved to a significantly more costly tariff. They claim they were unaware of the change, but in any case they dispute the contract start date.... here are the details, see what you make of it!

Chronology of events
03/12/02 After phoning around for new contract, they got quote from npower. npower claim they had signed 5 year contract for electricity supply (which they didn't - see further down);

03/01/03 Powergen (previous supplier) write to state “sorry to hear you’re leaving” and “call now to stay with Powergen”;

16/01/03 Letter to welcome them to npower. Letter states that supply start date is 10/01/03;

01/02/03 First bill arrives. Rates not as discussed originally. Rang and complained – this is when fraudulent signature on original contract came to light. Copy of contract sent to parents to check;

25/06/03 npower acknowledged fraudulent signature. New contract sent, with revised rates. They signed this, as they were happy with the revised dates (but can't remember whether it was back-dated or not - will check this tomorrow!)


So, my question is, can my parents legitimately claim the start date is the "date of supply start" (10/01/03), giving them time to cancel it before it comes to an end? Or is there an angle with the new contract, as a result of the fraudulent signature? Just looking for a way to give them that all-important 30 days window to cancel.

Any help you can offer would be much appreciated!

Terrylw1

Hi,

Sounds like they had one of those many dodgy salesmen that sign the contract for you! Not the first and won't be the last in this industry.

Ok, the Supply Start Date (SSD) is the official that they have transferred from. With them agreeing to the revised rates, I'll bet Npower did not apply an Erroneous Transfer (ET) back to PGen and then reapply the registration with a new SSD? This has caused the problem.

So, what is the date on the revised contract? If the date of the revised contract is within 5 years, they will easily be able to dispute this.

Now they are on what are called "out of contract" rates which are well known as a con. Ofgem's Deemed Contract rule wins here and makes them pay at higher rates for businesses (Suppliers don't do this with domestics)

You normally have 14 days to opt out of an out of contract rate or new contract before your current contract ends.

Personally, I think Npower are just sticking to the letter of the law here and have not considering the fact that one of their sales agents initially causes this by breaking the law.

I can't really say for definite since you haven't included the actual date they signed the revised contract for. However, if that is within 5 years (and if there is a clause about the minimum opt out time at the end of the contract that you have not exceeded) then you can get out of it.

I think they are just looking at your SSD, not the signing date.

I wonder if your folks agreed to a backdated contract? However, as long as they did not sign a date or agree to a date prior to SSD, they should be covered for using the SSD. Eitherway, you have a fraud here that Npower admitted to being liable for so you shouldn't have too much difficulty persuading them that an article in the press just isn't worth it!

If they don't agree, go straight to Energywatch about this.