NPOWER SCAMS featured on WATCHDOG 10/03/08, Email watchdog with complaints

c0113tt3

So to summarise, my experiences of npower.

1. Late notification of npower price increases (this may mean that I am underestimated at the lower prices, and over estimated / biased towards the new prices (from my experience of the billing system)

2. If they inform me before the price rise, I must give them a reading so it ensures my bill is accurate as possible.

3. Gas sculpting ensures very expensive winter bills, although should be cheaper summer bills, but I no longer benefit of less than 4572 tier 1 units, as I would have not used all tier 1 allowance in summer.

4. Gas sculpting process can be switched on / off at a whim by npower, with no notification to myself, which can cause to pay more than 4572 kwh tier 1 per year.

5. Completely innacurate and misleading averages used in my area of price increase.

6. They denied, or tried to, that gas sculpting costs me more

7. Constant innacurate and very complex bills.



So, those are my experiences., thank god ive already switched, just await my final bill from npower.

Terrylw1

NewcastleMum wrote: »

c0113tt3 - I had the same problems with nPower in 2006.
I did get reimbursed - but I had a lot of evidence that they had over estimated for the expensive period because half-way through the year they had started to ignore an actual reading, so their end-of year estimates were impossible. And it took a lot of my time to find a sympathetic ear - in terms of value of my time, it was probably a relative financial loss for me.
But I thought I had made a point and they wouldn't do it again! Not so....
When I heard prices were going up in January, I immediately submitted readings online. They used to send out new bills, but I got a message saying that I wouldn't get a revised bill but the readings would be taken into account on the next bill. They haven't been - I've now asked for the bill to be recalculcated 3 times to no avail. They have put lots of units into the new price regime, so I reckon they owe me £40. I'm having a sense of deja vu now and am unwilling to accept their excuses any longer (in 2006 I must have spoken to about 10 people and spend several hours on hold).
So I'm ready to make a serious complaint.
I was wondering whether anyone else has had the same experience this time? because such information would be useful to produce in evidence, when they tell me that noone else has complained about this issue, which is the common response.

If your reading is say 4 weeks prior to the new bill date, they can't use it as it would cause a larger jump in your next quarter. They can use it when estimating the new bill for you. Have they done that?

Customers often submit readings midway through their quarters and if Suppliers used them their estimates would jump all over the place. If they haven't even used your reading to help them accurately estimate your current bill or your reading is close to the currenrt quarter, then they are in the wrong. However, billing systems always estimate even if there is a reading close (if it's outside what they have set up as a window to capture them)

Always worth doing what you are doing though. Always get your bills replaced with your readings and any estimtaion they use improves but it realy takes a year or 2 to get there.

Terrylw1

c0113tt3 wrote: »

After reading the npower gas sculpting thread, I have the explanation as to why I over pay tier 1 kwh. Apparently when they apply price increases such as 04/01/08, this resets the amount of tier 1 kwh paid !! so I end up paying more tier 1 kwh than 4572 !! per year.

So to summarise, my experiences of npower.

1. Late notification of npower price increases (this may mean that I am underestimated at the lower prices, and over estimated / biased towards the new prices (from my experience of the billing system), also means they can reset my amount at tier 1 paid, meaning more than 4572 paid per year) = possible double whammy !!

2. If they inform me before the price rise, I must give them a reading so it ensures my bill is accurate, although I may avoid a possible bias due to billing system (from my experiences), I am still hit with tier 1 kwh reset !!. (as informed from other thread)

3. Gas sculpting ensures very expensive winter bills, although should be cheaper summer bills, but I no longer benefit of less than 4572 tier 1 units, as I would have not used all tier 1 allowance in summer.

4. Completely innacurate and misleading averages used in my area of price increase.

5. They denied, or tried to, that gas sculpting costs me more

6. Constant innacurate and very complex bills.



So, those are my experiences., thank god ive already switched, just await my final bill from npower.

I think we all need some written confirmation as the post in the gas sculpting thread looks like it could be based on a call centre advisors words with no later written statement. It may be inaccurate so I would hang fire on what the specialist team say and anything else we all find out between us on here.

I'm not sold on that one since they have never done that on their elec since de-reg. They do have a newer billing system now and that has been making tons of billing of mistakes from what I have heard so I'm wondering if either a) IT have messed up the billing rules or b) they have been told to scam customers???

The restarting method would mean they could easily raise (and lower prices) and always overcharge you. If that is proved we should all go to the media and let them take it on from there since Wtahcdog and NOTW have been after them this year.

c0113tt3

I too am waiting for confirmation from the specialist team, as is the guy at stage 3 complaints, as even his calculations found a believed overpayment with tier 1.

To try and quicken the process of an answer, I sent emails to the md / chief exec of npower and copied in watchdog, energywatch and ofgem, since watchdog stated that energywatch had referred a number of complaints to ofgem.

Terrylw1

I doubt any employees would be willing to put that in writing for fear of being "managed out" shortly afterwards to be honest.

Did you send that to Andy Duff then at Npower?

I think my money is on their billing system as it's been overcharging customers here and there for no reason but it was always very isolated and followed no pattern.

Energywatch will be very interested, they will be able to contact them direct about it. Ofgem, well...bit of a dinosaur and probably won't do anything until Energywatch kick them up the...

Watchdog might have a 3rd show instore then based on your letter.

c0113tt3

I sent the email to the 3 main guys, initials being AD, KM, DT, giving my calculations (the same as stage 3 complaints guy) querying overpayment of tier 1 on both mine and my father in laws accounts.

Just as a note, personally the whole world ought to know who the main guys are so everyone can forward their complaints, but if I may suggest to possibly edit your post above with one of the main guys name in I think a few people are very aware in this forum who to email, but Ive never seen anyone publically name them, only ever given in private messages.

But if its a name and shame kinda thing, then yeah its cool

Terrylw1

No worries there, Andy Duff's name is in the public domain.

It will most likely get passed off to a complaints team that does them. I'm sure he gets a lot thesedays...

c0113tt3

Just had an email back from the md, they have identified a fault with the billing system, and will rectify the problem so it makes it fairer to everyone. They will also refund all customers affected and will send a small compensation payment. They also stated that they are going to make a much fairer and accurate gas sculpting process and will ensure they inform customers of price rises prior to the actual date and will be the actual price rises and not misleading averages.

Heh, pity its April fools... !!

This part of the post is not an April Fools I have been in contact with executive complaints, who state that they are still trying to find out about the possible over charge with tier 1 units (gas sculpting) with the specialist team, and will be in contact hopefully with an answer 02/04/08 morning. They also stated that OFGEM are also looking into the gas sculpting process.

I also gained a useful telephone number too, for the executive complaints.

If you ever have a complaint try the normal customer service line first on 0800 073 3000. If you find you get nowhere, and are prepared to submit a complaint to energy watch then you can goto stage 3 complaints on 0800 1070394. If you are still unhappy with the outcome of stage 3 complaints, you can then either email the chief executives / managing director for an executive complaint or you can telephone the executive complaints on 0845 073 0861, but always try customer service / stage 3 first

MoneyTalks_3

1ipstick wrote: »

I have what might be a very stupid question: Would the winter months still be the most expensive months (for the electricity) if all your heating is gas? I live in a small 2-bed flat and my heating is gas. My Npower bill went from £20 down to £14 in October (so obviously they must have realised that I wasn't using £20/month).
My recent bill from the end of Feb has put my bill up to **£83** a month!! An increase of 600%!
I phoned up to ask why and got a vague answer that 'it's normal to pay more in winter'. They put the payments down to £66 (presumably over a longer period, but I couldn't get an explanation out of the clueless customer services person). I sent another meter reading immediately and have had another bill which seems to be even more (haven't had a chance to look at it properly today).
I understand that if there was some under-estimation over the past few months, then my new bill will include making that up as well as the ongoing charges, but surely not by that much. I also understand that they've raised their prices but again, surely not by that much!
I have sent an email but they take days to reply - they said that that's what my usage was. I have not changed my habits at all in the last few months. In fact I don't know what I could do to use my appliances 6 times as much as I do now!
Does anyone have any idea how I could have racked up this high charge, or could there be something wrong with the meter? (I don't read the meter that regularly as it's hard for me to access and I need help doing it).
I'm going to switch but am desperate for help as to what to do!
Thanks all.

Apart from it being NPower - who, through personal experience, are clearly the experts at messing things up (they're still billing me for a flat I moved out of a year ago despite confirming receipt of my letter with a meter reading informing them I was leaving the property) - there are some possibilities which I'd suggest; however most would only contribute in a relatively small way:
We often use our lights a lot more in the darker months and are more likely to leave them on also,
Not sure if you're cooking with gas and/or electricity; however people usually have more hot food and drinks in the winter instead of salads and cold drinks,
You might stay in more in the bad weather of winter and watch more TV or be at the PC for longer - children using the games consoles instead of playing outside.
Something you may want to check out being in a flat, though, is whether any of your neighbours have had any work done recently to their electrical system - I'm not suggesting anything untoward; however make sure you're not paying for someone else's electricity supply due to a wiring error. It might be worth asking them if they've noticed a significant change in their bills - if they're over the moon with their recent savings, you might be on to something!!
Hope that helps a little...

Terrylw1

c0113tt3 wrote: »

Just had an email back from the md, they have identified a fault with the billing system, and will rectify the problem so it makes it fairer to everyone. They will also refund all customers affected and will send a small compensation payment. They also stated that they are going to make a much fairer and accurate gas sculpting process and will ensure they inform customers of price rises prior to the actual date and will be the actual price rises and not misleading averages.

Heh, pity its April fools... !!

This part of the post is not an April Fools I have been in contact with executive complaints, who state that they are still trying to find out about the possible over charge with tier 1 units (gas sculpting) with the specialist team, and will be in contact hopefully with an answer 02/04/08 morning. They also stated that OFGEM are also looking into the gas sculpting process.

I also gained a useful telephone number too, for the executive complaints.

If you ever have a complaint try the normal customer service line first on 0800 073 3000. If you find you get nowhere, and are prepared to submit a complaint to energy watch then you can goto stage 3 complaints on 0800 1070394. If you are still unhappy with the outcome of stage 3 complaints, you can then either email the chief executives / managing director for an executive complaint or you can telephone the executive complaints on 0845 073 0861, but always try customer service / stage 3 first

I found out today that it has happened recently on the elec as well so people may want to check on those bills too.

Incidently, they sent out a brief stating the problem was a one off and had been rectified. Trouble is, it's now happened on gas as well.

So, it would be worth everyone keeping an eye on their bills.