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

c0113tt3

Just had a call from energywatch in regard to the gas sculpt . switching it on / off resulting in an overpayment of tier 1 kwh.

They are very aware of all the details that is happening, literally thousands of customers are complaining of it, and energywatch are continuously moving forward to deal with the matter as they feel it is an unfair practice. They admit though it may take several months and the best part of 2008 to push for a decision / resolution to it.

They also confirmed, a reply from npower, when energy watch initially questioned them, that npower feel it is an acceptable practice, which energywatch do not agree with !!

As for a right to claim back the overpayments, they could not comment, until a resolution / decision had been made, but people could go through small claims court etc..

daveyjp

npower have just introduced another wheeze which has appeared on electricity bills for business users, but may well be on a bill for home owners soon:

A charge for not paying by direct debit.

Lots of companies do this - Virgin Media, BT etc, but they charge a FLAT rate of £x per bill.

Being a utility company who want to get every penny out of us Npower charge 2% of the bill, regardless of whether the bill is correct or not.

This is an absolute scandal and I have had one bill today based on estimated readings. Electricity useage for the last quarter is zero as the unit is empty. Estimated bill is £900! Of this nearly £20 is a charge for not paying by direct debit.

So npower can make up a figure, send you a bill and charge you 2% of their made up figure for not paying by direct debit. If we had paid by direct debit they would have had £900 for a bill which should be less than £100 and I doubt they would have refunded it.

Scandalous.

Cardew

daveyjp wrote: »

Scandalous.

They call it 'creative accounting'!!!!!!

c0113tt3

They already charge residential customers £80 per year for not paying by direct debit.

If you pay by direct debit, you qualify for an £80 per year discount

They call it 'creative marketing'!!!!!!

What really gets me, is I would like to pay by direct debit, and have no problems with it what so ever. But its not direct debit that you are signing upto, its a payment plan, why cant they just call it what it is. A payment plan that they take your money regardless if the bill is correct or not (always in my experience over estimated), and change it periodically to account for high usage estimates lol !!

c0113tt3

Lets just start a new thread, and say you are a fool to either move to or stay with npower !!!

tomstickland

In my dealings with the energy suppliers I have noticed that they do seem to use any trick going in manipulating their estimated readings. I keep a detailed spreadsheet.

I work full time in a mathematical profession doing spreadsheets and computer programs etc, but it still too me a complete hour before I could make sense of my quarterly bill. It is layed out in a totally confusing manner.

I'm currently trying to confirm what rates I'm actually paying based on the latest bill. Wish me luck!

Terrylw1

daveyjp wrote: »

npower have just introduced another wheeze which has appeared on electricity bills for business users, but may well be on a bill for home owners soon:

A charge for not paying by direct debit.

Lots of companies do this - Virgin Media, BT etc, but they charge a FLAT rate of £x per bill.

Being a utility company who want to get every penny out of us Npower charge 2% of the bill, regardless of whether the bill is correct or not.

This is an absolute scandal and I have had one bill today based on estimated readings. Electricity useage for the last quarter is zero as the unit is empty. Estimated bill is £900! Of this nearly £20 is a charge for not paying by direct debit.

So npower can make up a figure, send you a bill and charge you 2% of their made up figure for not paying by direct debit. If we had paid by direct debit they would have had £900 for a bill which should be less than £100 and I doubt they would have refunded it.

Scandalous.

Dave, you are right in that it is scandalous...but, why not close the account to stop them billing or will that cause problems with you losing a contract rate if you re-occupy?

Billing estimates are like that and it's been an issue since de-reg for all customers.

Estimates work on the pattern of consumption. They need to get those values resolved to stop it happening to you.

The charge is a joke though! I doubt they will attempt that on residential customers, business customers often get hammered by utilities. Why? Ofgem afford you less protection hence they will try it on.

c0113tt3

In reply to daveyjp.

As far as I am aware, business contracts are different with npower. They run for 3 years (correct me if I am wrong), so you would be in breach of contract if you closed before the 3 years run, and would have penalties. Also as far as I am aware, they automatically opt you in for another 3 years when your contract for 3 years is about to end. There is a very, very small window in being able to cancel the contract, and of course they do not remind you of when that is.

You could look legally into it, as far as an unfair term in respect of the 2% charge and also with such a major change to your contract, you may be able to get out of the contract, seek legal advice from citizens advice bureau etc..

Plushchris

c0113tt3 wrote: »

They already charge residential customers £80 per year for not paying by direct debit.

If you pay by direct debit, you qualify for an £80 per year discount

They call it 'creative marketing'!!!!!!

Not that I'm sticking up for them but just to point out that the direct debit discount with Npower is £21 per year for each fuel, so thats £42, the rest of that £84 is made of the dual fuel discount.

colonelhall

I've posted this on another forum, but am posting it here, as it clearly explains everything:

"
Good Evening,

Thank you for your email.

The first 4572 kwhs used are charged at the higher rate during the year, this is then divide out over the months. If there is a price increase the 4572 will start again. The information below is how we calculate our gas bills.

Over the year we charge a maximum of 4572 KWhs on the high rate tariff. This is worked out in one of two ways.

If the whole bill period is prior to the 01/05/07 then it will be ‘sculpted’, meaning that the primary block will be charged at a percentage based on “Season Normal Consumption” data.

If the period of the whole bill is post 01/05/07 then it will be charged on a ‘flat rate’ profile. This means that 8.33% of the 4572 KWhs for every full month will be charged on the high rate tariff and the remaining KWhs would then be charged at the low rate tariff.

If the period of the bill overlaps 01/05/07 then prior to that date the bill will be charged at the ‘sculpted profile’, and after 01/05/07 it will be charged at the ‘flat profile’.

STEP 1 - Work out the KWH’s

Take number of units used and multiply by 2.83 (if an imperial meter which would have 4 dials), with a metric meter (this would have 5 dials) there is no need to do this. Then multiply by the Calorific Value and the Correction Factor and divide by 3.6 (round up to 1 decimal place) to give you the total KWhs charged on the bill.

(The values for Calorific Value and Correction Factor are found on your individual bills however if there are no figures available use 40.0 for the Calorific Value and 1.02264 for the Correction Factor)

STEP 2 - Work out the number of KWhs to be charged at the high and low Rate

SCULPTED PROFILE (Whole Bill Period before 01/05/07)

Prior to 01/05/07 the primary block should be charged at a percentage as shown in the table below. The remaining KWhs would then be charged on the low rate tariff.

Month Consumption Profile %
May 06 7.1
June 06 4.2
July 06 2.4
August 06 2.4
September 06 4.2
October 06 7.3
November 06 10.3
December 06 12.7
January 07 13.8
February 07 13.6
March 07 12.2
April 07 9.8
100%

1) To work out the 1st month % at the high rate, of the bill.

Take the number of days in the month minus start day of the bill and divide by the number of days in the month (round to 2 decimal places). Multiply by the percentage for that month and round to the nearest whole number. This equals the first months proportion of the annual threshold (4572).

2) To work out the middle months % at the high rate, of the bill.

Add the full percentage for each full month

3) To work out the last month % at the high rate, on the bill.

Take the last day of the bill and divide by the number of days in the last month (round to 2 decimal places). Multiply by the percentage for that month and round to the nearest whole number. This equals the last months proportion of the annual threshold (4572).

4) Calculating the total to be charged at the high rate

To get the total percentage to be charged at the high rate for the quarter, add the 3 or 4 months percentages together from steps 1-3.

Multiply the total percentage by 4572 (round up to a whole number) to get the KWhs charged at the high rate.

Example
Bill period = 15/01/07 to 14/04/07

Jan 15 - Jan 31 = 16/31 (bill day/days in month) x 13.8% = 7.1%
February = 13.6%
March = 12.2%
Apr 1 to Apr 14 = 14/30 (bill days/days in month) x 9.8% = 4.6%

Total charged at high rate for bill period = 37.5%
Therefore number of higher rate units = 37.5% x 4572 = 1714kWh


FLAT RATE PROFILE (Whole bill period after 01/05/07)

After 01/05/07 the primary block should be charged at the number of days in the bill period multiplied by 12.526 (=4572/365). The remaining KWhs would then be charged on the low rate tariff.
Example
Number of days in quarter = 91
Therefore number of high rate units = 91 x 12.526 = 1140kWh


COMBINATION OF SCULPTED AND FLAT RATE PROFILES (Bill period overlaps 01/05/07)

Prior to 01/05/07 the primary block is charged at a percentage as shown in the table below. After 01/05/07 we will charge 8.33% of the 4572 KWhs for every full month on the high rate tariff, and the remaining KWhs would be charged on the low rate tariff.

Month Consumption Profile % Month Consumption Profile %
May 06 7.1 May 07 8.33
June 06 4.2 June 07 8.33
July 06 2.4 July 07 8.33
August 06 2.4 August 07 8.33
September 06 4.2 September 07 8.33
October 06 7.3 October 07 8.33
November 06 10.3 November 07 19.33
December 06 12.7 December 07 19.33
January 07 13.8 January 08 19.33
February 07 13.6 February 08 19.33
March 07 12.2 March 08 5.94
April 07 9.8 April 08 5.93
May 08 1
June 08 1
July 08 1
August 08 1
September 08 1
October 08 5.93
November 08 19.3
December 08 19.3

1) To work out the 1st month % at the high rate, of the bill.

Take the number of days in the month minus start day of the bill and divide by the number of days in the month (round to 2 decimal places). Multiply by 8.33 (or by the percentage for that month if before 01/05/07(see table above)) and round to the nearest whole number. This equals the first months proportion of the annual threshold (4572).

2) To work out the middle months % at the high rate, of the bill.

Add the full percentage for each full month

3) To work out the last month % at the high rate, on the bill.

Take the last day of the bill and divide by the number of days in the last month (round to 2 decimal places). Multiply by 8.33 (or by the percentage for that month if before 01/05/07 (see table above)) and round to the nearest whole number. This equals the last months proportion of the annual threshold (4572).

4) Calculating the total to be charged at the high rate

To get the total percentage to be charged at the high rate for the quarter, add the 3 or 4 months percentages together from steps 1-3.

Multiply the total percentage by 4572 (round up to a whole number) to get the KWhs charged at the high rate.

Example
Bill period = 15/03/07 to 14/06/07

Mar 15 - Mar 31 = 16/31 (bill day/days in month) x 12.2% = 6.3%
April = 9.8%
March = 8.33%
Jun 1 to Jun 14 = 14/30 (bill days/days in month) x 8.33% = 3.9%

Total charged at high rate for bill period = 28.33%
Therefore number of high rate units = 28.33% x 4572 = 1294kWh


STEP 3 - Totalling the Bill

Take the total KWhs worked out in step 1 and subtract the KWhs charged at the high rate to get KWhs at the low rate.

Take KWhs on the high rate and multiply by the high pence per KWh, then divide by 100 to convert into pounds and pence.

Take KWhs on the low rate and multiply by the low pence per KWh, then divide by 100 to convert into pounds and pence.


Kind regards"

At last I can sleep easily. I just have to plan the most economical time to leave the wretched company.