NPower gas 'sculpting'

Sterling

An excellent letter, DD; absolutely five star.

Stop me if this has been done already, but I have prepared a sort of ready reckoner which makes doing all these high tier calculations pretty simple, and nearly as quick to use as a spreadsheet. I thought it could perhaps form part of a virtual “kit” for all would-be claimers who visit this thread (along with an agreed set of step-by-step instructions on making and successfully pursuing a claim) on a single post that older hands could immediately direct newcomers to, while offering back-up assistance where necessary.

My ready reckoner is in two simple Word tables on a single page. I believe that getting tables on the MSE posting system is difficult, if not impossible especially for a non-techie like me; so I had the bright idea of printing the page out (which I did) and then scanning it back in as a picture file, which I could then put in a post. I assumed that this is how donnajunkie posted the Npower letter in post #909 (page 46).

However, I cannot figure out how to get it into a post. Can anyone help please?

Agrajag – I think you will find that DD’s post #692 (page 35 of this thread) will supply you with the missing sculpting information you wanted.

DirectDebacle

DirectDebacle wrote: »

Agrajag I would be minded to go for them full on. Health Warning. Do not rely on my figures. I make mistakes. Check them.

I have re-read my previous post. As far as the recalc of the bill goes this should be recalculated from 1/11/2007 to the time you left npower.

It is impossible to accurately separate the number of units you used in the 30/9/07-23/11/07 bill into units for October and November unless you take monthly readings of your own. I allowed 334 units for October and deducted these from the total of 1417kWh for that bill. That left 654 high rate and 201 low rate to allow for the Nov. portion of that bill. The rest are as billed to the end of your contract.

Figures for the recalc are 3842 high rate and 14130 low rate.

I work this out to £104.60 incl Vat as the overcharge due to the non-notification and NOT £85.33 as previously posted.

Slightly more than I originally calculated. I had my claim in mind which went back to 1/4/2003 when two tier charging applied. I thought yours would be recalced back to when you joined npower. It is different and can only be recalced back to the day before the change 31/10/2007, using the prices applicable on that day.

Should read as follows,

'As I was given no opportunity to either accept or reject these changes then these changes should not have been applied to my account. Therefore all my gas should have been charged at the rate applicable on 31/10/2007.

Recalculating my gas usage from then to the end of my contract using that rate gives a total of £439.61. incl Vat. I was charged £544.21. incl. VAT.

The difference being £104.6

Total refund requested: £133.15

I request an immediate refund of this money.

Am I making myself clear? Well have a look and see what you think. That is what really matters as it is your claim, not mine.

DirectDebacle

Sterling wrote: »

However, I cannot figure out how to get it into a post. Can anyone help please?

MSE is a nightmare for that sort of stuff. You have to upload a photo to a specialised site which converts it for you and then you copy the code it gives you to paste into your post and when you press submit post it then converts the code back into a photo. ! I think you are having a laff Sterling. Thats obveeus innit:rolleyes:

A quick post on the techie board will have 100 replies in seconds.
Another way with a word document is to copy it to a new word document and then select Paste Special. Choose Unformatted Text (I think) and then copy this and paste into your post. It prevents all that font stuff coming up but still doesn't seem to reproduce it as your original word document.

Ask the Techie boffins about word documents. I am sure they know some good tricks.

Sterling

I think you are having a laff Sterling. Thats obveeus innit:rolleyes:

I can assure you I am most certainly not having a laugh - I only wish I was; but thanks for the info.

Agrajag

DD thanks for all the attention you have given to my account, and the letter template. I will recheck my figures, (and yours) and proceed from there

And sterling, it appears you have to find somewhere online to host the image you create. Some people seem to use rapidshare or other filehosting sites.
I have access to a small site. But I suspect putting an image up here may exceed the allowed bandwidth when .lots of people look at it
Lets give it a go:

(edit removed image - it was only a set of junk data using up bandwidth)

well that looks like it works.

I suppose I could put up what you want to post Sterling. But I am not sure how long it would last. I have no idea of the limits on this hosting site

One tip I will give you. If you save a screenshot of anything other than a photograph, I suggest you save is as a PNG file. Most people automatically use .JPG. The latter is great for photos, but is poor for most everything else, especially computer text and graphics - it is 'lossy' which means it loses detail. .PNG is more like a zipped file - perfect reproduction. It is good at blocks of computer text and graphics, but compression is pretty poor for photos)

DirectDebacle

Sterling you could try this file hosting service:

http://www.savefile.com/index.php

It is free. I used it to post my Statement of Claim and npowers Statement of Defence last year. They are still on there and are still being downloaded. You could try putting the link to your stuff in your signature. MSE might allow it.

shoopshoop

Hello Agrajag,

Sorry for the delay in replying. My claim (at this second attempt) went initially to npower's Customer Relations via the Times template letter mentioned elsewhere on the thread.

This brought a standard reply where they try to argue that I haven't been overcharged.

So I wrote back - this time to Executive Complaints - highlighting that the central issue was one of breach of contract - ie exceeding 4572 kwh at the higher rate tariff. I also dismissed npower's attempt to fob me off with the argument that the reduction in price of tier-2 units & increase in the dual fuel discount offset any potential overcharge - saying this was irrelevant since they hadn't told me at the time this was why the price was reduced/discount increased.

I threatened to start proceedings if they didn't refund me in full within 14 days of the date of this letter.

Good luck!

shoopshoop

P.S I didn't actually get to start proceedings. They refunded me at the 11th hour.

1carminestocky

shoopshoop wrote: »

P.S I didn't actually get to start proceedings. They refunded me at the 11th hour.

This will happen with every claim - there's no way on Earth npower will let ANY of these claims proceed to court. Plus, DD's case has already established that it would cost them in excess of £1300 (so npower say ) to have their day in court. Hmmm....

DirectDebacle

A Short Summary of the npower Sculpting Saga

1st April, 2003. npower change from a Standing Charge to a two tier pricing system. The 1st 4572kWh charged at the higher (Tier 1 or Primary Block rate) and the remainder at the lower (Tier 2 or Follow On rate).

This change is notified to customers.

The Primary Block units are charged for in one of two ways.

1. An even flat rate of 381kWh per month (381 x 12 = 4572)

2. A seasonally adjusted rate where an uneven amount is charged to each month depending on the time of year. More units are charged in the winter months. It still totals 4572kWh per year. This has become known as ‘sculpting’.

Neither of these methods are notified or explained to customers. They are not included in the Terms and Conditions. They should have been.

For the year 1/4/2003 – 31/3/2004 the Primary Block units are charged at the flat rate profile. No more than 4572 Primary Block rate units are charged.

From 1/4/2004 – 30/9/2004 the flat rate is continued.

On 1/10/2004, in combination with a price increase, npower change the profile from flat to the seasonally adjusted. The price change is notified to customers but the change to the charging profile of the Primary Block units is not. By the end of that year (1/4/2004 - 31/3/2005 a theoretical maximum of 5482kWh Primary units could have been charged. Large numbers of customers will have been overcharged because of this change.

From 1/10/2005 – 31/3/2007 this seasonally weighted profile is continued. It is not thought there were any other instances of overcharging of the Primary Block units during this period.

April 2007 is charged at the previous profile (448kWh maximum for April).

May 2007 npower implement a previously announced reduction of the price of the Follow On units only. At the same time they alter the Primary Block rate charging profile from the seasonally adjusted profile to the flat rate. This change to the way they charge for gas is not notified to customers and the flat rate profile is applied until the end of October, 2007.

1st November, 2007, npower re-introduce seasonal weighting. This profile has a more aggressive winter weighting bias than the previous weighted profile.

Npower do not notify this change to customers.

These last two changes (May and November, 2007) have a significant impact on customers’ bills. The majority are disadvantaged by these changes.

For the year 1/4/2007-31/3/2008 customers could have been charged up to 6534 Primary Block units. The amount will vary from customer to customer. Bills need to be carefully checked. Millions of customers could have been affected.


Ofgem Ruling

Not content with overcharging the majority of their gas customers, npower also managed to overcharge some customers whose gas usage was very low. This occurred during the months of May-October, 2007, and was investigated by Ofgem who published their findings in February this year.

They ruled that npower had a duty to notify customers of the changes they introduced on 1/5/2007. Npower neglected to do this and as a result Ofgem recognised that some 200,000 customers had been overcharged. Npower were ordered to repay the overcharged customers. No punitive measures were imposed by Ofgem on npower.

The changes were almost identical to those made in October, 2004 and November, 2008. The lack of notification was certainly the same. Ofgem were not tasked to investigate these other two instances or their effect. Had they done so it is likely their conclusion and action against npower would have been much more severe.

In view of the above ruling npower are now even less likely to contest a court claim. Although not stated as such the ruling is that npower were in breach of contract. It would seem reasonable to argue that they were similarly so on these two other occasions. This would open the way for customers to add this (breach of contract) to any overcharging claim. Such a breach allows for bills to be recalculated at the rate applicable before the change took place. This applies to all the gas used, not just the Primary Block units.

Post #995 page 50 outlines how this aspect could alter a 'simple' overcharged Primary Block units claim.

I made this part of my claim. Npower settled my claim in full 48hrs before the court hearing. This was several months before the result of the Ofgem investigation was published.