Big Bill from NPower.

mr_green_3

We moved into our house in Dec 2005, ( 2 years ago) At that time we continued on with the then supplier, E.On and gave them the meter reading. We changed to NPower in Sept 2006. Since then we paid by direct debit . The meter box is on the outside of the house and so I believed the meter readers were taking the readings. But now I get a bill for over £1000 and it states that the meter has been read and shows the total for the period 27.9.06 to 2.1.08 as £1613.98 and outstanding is £1138.81.
Before I make contact with NPower has anybody any advice on how to approach them. I am going through my bank statements at present to establish what I have already paid them but would appreciate other members experiences of NPower. Thank You

ecoelle

I would double check all your bills and the meter reading they say they have taken as we have had a £2000 electric bill in the past when it turned out they owed us money! If it turns out you do owe them money then i'd like to know why they have been using estimated bills when they have had access to the meter and then ask them to set up an affordable payment plan for you, i'm sure they'll be understanding and try to help, but if you owe it then you have to pay it.

Cardew

They are entitled to estimate bills over that period and the bills you have received should have clearly shown that the meter readings were estimated.(and almost certainly they will show that)

Their approach will be that you should have checked the bills and the meter reading and notified them of any discrepancy. That is normally laid down in the 'small print' terms and conditions that nobody ever reads!!

However there are plenty of cases in this forum where people have made a fuss, approached energywatch etc etc and got a 'goodwill' reduction of 10-20% and they will always let you pay off the arrears over the time it has taken for the debt to occur e.g. your DD increase to clear the debit balance in the 15 months it took for the debt to build up.

mr_green_3

Thank you Ecoelle and Cardew.
When I do speak to them is it worth while saying that I will change to a different supplier or would they just then say, well we want the whole amount now before you do change over. I'll see what my Bank statements show up first before I approach them. Thanks again

SwanJon

If you have an outstanding balance, they can object to you leaving, so switching isn't an option.

Check your current reading to make sure it has been read correctly.
Did you ever challenge any of the estimated readings? Have they used the right reading to open the account?

Terrylw1

Hi,

Are the opening change of supply readings correct?

I think you have also missed a trick here. The bill is for a period from Sept 06 to Jan 08. They can only bill you for 12 months in this case which will give you an instant reduction even if you have used all of this consumption. A few months off is better than nothing.

Work out your daily usage based on this bill spread between these dates. Do you use that much? Did you with Eon? If not, either the current reading of the change of supply reading is incorrect.

Your Supplier cannot change that reading over 14 months, so they now need to reduce your bill by making a reading amendment within their company. You then may have to speak to Eon if you need the final reading with them amending.

Cardew

Terrylw1 wrote: »

Hi,

Are the opening change of supply readings correct?

I think you have also missed a trick here. The bill is for a period from Sept 06 to Jan 08. They can only bill you for 12 months in this case which will give you an instant reduction even if you have used all of this consumption. A few months off is better than nothing.

Work out your daily usage based on this bill spread between these dates. Do you use that much? Did you with Eon? If not, either the current reading of the change of supply reading is incorrect.

Your Supplier cannot change that reading over 14 months, so they now need to reduce your bill by making a reading amendment within their company. You then may have to speak to Eon if you need the final reading with them amending.

Terry,
I think you have misread the OP's initial post.

He does not say the bill is for the period Sept 06 to Jan 08, but that the total for that period is £1,613 and £1,138 is outstanding.

So he clearly has had other bills during that 16 month period, albeit based on estimated readings.

mr_green_3

Hello again. Thank you for your comments and advice. I have looked at my bill again and there are four cancelled bills as follows; 18/1/07 for £173.84; 10/4/07 for £208.15; 17/7/07 for £ 124.60 and 4/10/07 for £127.61. I have no idea why these bills were cancelled. I have been paying £22 month by direct debit to NPower since I changed over to them, then they upped it to £91 month and the bill shows payments for 1/11/07, 4/12/07 and 2/1/08. They have never read the meter even though it is on an outside wall of the house. I dont know if I still have my reading when I took over the house. Also on the bill is the fact that I have Economy 7 but I dont have any storage heaters. Has anyone had any experience of cancelled bills.

crk81

Hi Guys,

Cancelled bills on Npower is your previous estimated bills. that means aprox the last 12-15months have been estimated. Best thing is to double check you read as prev advised to ensure that a meter reader hasnt taken a incorrect reaidng, although this doesnt happen often it still happens. Also Npower & all other suppliers only have to obtain a reading every 18months by a meter reader, always best to call up with a customer own reading if the data collectors don't get around.

Terrylw1

Cardew wrote: »

Terry,
I think you have misread the OP's initial post.

He does not say the bill is for the period Sept 06 to Jan 08, but that the total for that period is £1,613 and £1,138 is outstanding.

So he clearly has had other bills during that 16 month period, albeit based on estimated readings.

Hi Cardew,

If Npower's bills state they bill from X to X they are either:

- 1 large bill covering a period of more (or less if it's a pro rata bill) than a quarter hence they state which periods they cover. Or,

- they are replacement manually amended bills to back out more than 1 bill since they cannot amend further back without staff intervention.

Thats how I read it.

It seems that from the OP's new post that this replaces previous bills. So, this changes things slightly. However, I would always question 1 bill that completely replaces the whole billing of the account from a CoS date.

This almost certainly means that the opening reading on the account was incorrect. So, to correct it they back out all bills and replace it with 1 manually amended account which has to state the period it covers.

The OP needs to check the readings here. Difficult to say withot seeing the opening & current readings from the bill.

I heard something very interesting about how Npower is managing it's readings - they don't check Time Pattern Regimes (TPR) in their new billing system when they use COR or firm readings. This relates to manual billed readings by staff, not the automation by the system but it's worth considering in the case of a large jump in a bill.

This means they can easily keep transposing your readings!

crk81

Terrylw1 wrote: »

I heard something very interesting about how Npower is managing it's readings - they don't check Time Pattern Regimes (TPR) in their new billing system when they use COR or firm readings.

This means they can easily keep transposing your readings!

Can you explain this a bit more Terry? never herd of TPR before? are you meaning the E7 readings being crossed over?