NPower gas 'sculpting'

Paul7349

The best thing to do is call them and ask them to send you a apck on how they bill gas i had one sent to me and after i have gone through it i understand it. I also "think" when they change prices and if you change to a different product your 4572 units is reset. Hope this helps."my first post lol"

colonelhall

I see that Npower are not going to reduce their gas rates. Apparently, it is because they did not put their prices up enough last Winter. I thought that they had clawed back the mistake via the "gas sculpting" fiasco. At least, that is what they told me!
Has anybody put a calculator over the charges for various companies? Are Npower still the cheapest, as the seem to be implying?

Sterling

Hi hvaghela (post #1043)

Welcome to the thread; and thank you for providing your billing figures. As you may know, due to two changes by Npower in 2007, gas customers at the time (on tariffs with a two tier pricing structure) wound up paying for too many high tier units. This forms the initial basis of customer claims, but an additional claim is also possible arising out of Npower’s lack of notice to its customers, as you may have seen from recent posts.

You might care to look at DirectDebacle’s post #692 page 35 for the basic details of what the said changes were all about, but in the meantime, suffice to say that the maximum figure for high tier units charged over any twelve month period is 4572 (which was exceeded), and how these units are apportioned month by month is now referred to by Npower as ‘gas sculpting’.

I have had a quick look at your billing figures, which cover two years eight months beginning on 26th May 2006. So you were obviously affected by both sculpting changes in 2007. I took a twelve month period 1st March 2007 – 29th February 2008, which I suspect gives the best overall balance when calculating a claim on your figures and unit prices. Here is what I found.

The said year 1st March 2007 – 29th February 2008 is contained in your bills 8 to 16 (counting from the top down), but bills 8 and 16 need to be apportioned as the dates don’t coincide with the above year start and finish dates. An explanation of how this apportionment is done is contained in my post #1006, which you might like to refer to later. Otherwise the figures are lifted straight from the high tier units on the bills.

Taking the year 1st March 2007 – 29th February 2008
………………………………………………………………………………………..High tier units

Bill .8 – apportioned for 1st March 2007 to 30.04.07………….1006
Bill .9 - ………………………………………………………………………………….145
Bill 10 - ………………………………………………………………………………….739
Bill 11 - ………………………………………………………………………………….256
Bill 12 - ………………………………………………………………………………...1082
Bill 13 - …………………………………………………………………………………..176
Bill 14 - ………………………………………………………………………………….1673
Bill 15 - …………………………………………………………………………………..985
Bill 16 – apportioned for 07.02.08 to 29th Feb 2008……………...669
……………………………………………………………………………………Total....6731
……………………………………………………………….Less maximum….4572
………………………………………………………………….….Excess units……2159

The excess units occur after the 4572 has been reached, and are therefore contained in bills 16, 15 and part of 14 (669+985+505 = 2159).

It is now just a question of multiplying the excess high tier units by the difference in the high and low unit prices in their respective bills, thus

Bill 14 – 505 * (4.412-1.915)/100……………..£12.61
Bill 15 – 985 * (5.339-2.317)/100………………..29.77
Bill 16 – 669 * (5.339-2.317)/100………………..20.22
…………………………………………………….Total…………62.60
……………………………………………Add VAT at 5%....3.13
………..Overcharged in this part of the claim…£65.73

As for the other possible aspect of your claim (and what to do next), I hope DirectDebacle will oblige; it’s definitely his field of expertise. Over to you – DD.

Edit – I have put the claim figures back to as they were originally. What I thought had been an arithmetical error turned out to be my incorrectly entering one of the unit prices in bill 14 on screen.

DirectDebacle

Sterling wrote: »

Hi hvaghela (post #1043)


As for the other possible aspect of your claim (and what to do next), I hope DirectDebacle will oblige; it’s definitely his field of expertise. Over to you – DD.

As usual Sterling our figures don't agree. I am sure yours are correct but I used the year 1/4/07-31/3/08.

They are here:http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=19842623#post19842623

I had a think about the suggestions for making info more accessible. I was stumped as to how to go about sorting this thread out so I started a new one linked to this. My hope is it will become a 'how to thread' where claimants can access core info and have a go at their own claims. If they get stuck, have questions etc they can come on this thread to ask and try to leave the 'how to uncluttered' I haven't quite finished it but have a look (and everyone else) and come on here with suggestions so I can add to or amend anything on it. I took the liberty of using your fantastic ready reckoner. Hope you don't mind.

I used hvaghela post as a working model.

DD

Sterling

DirectDebacle wrote: »

As usual Sterling our figures don't agree. I am sure yours are correct but I used the year 1/4/07-31/3/08.

As it happens, in my haste to get my figures into a post, I made a slight error in the final set of figures, which I have now spotted and corrected. This changes the final figure by about £4 to £69.55 incl VAT.

Edit – I have put the claim figures back to as they were originally. What I thought had been an arithmetical error turned out to be my incorrectly entering one of the unit prices in bill 14 on screen.

I am really very glad you find my tables useful; and I am more than happy for them to be used by all concerned, including of course your good self.

I think the new thread you have started is far and away the best place to build a virtual kit for those who may have a claim against Npower under this topic, and I applaud what you have achieved with it already. It is no easy task by any means

meggsy

meggsy wrote: »

We received our first dual fuel bill today covering six months 30th August 08 to 8th March 09. Over the past year we have been charged for 4528 higher tier units however I have searched for the promised discount which appears to be missing :rolleyes:

A letter from npower in September 08 said they had increased the discount from £80 up to £100 from 1/09/08, in our case as existing customers the discount would be £95 March 08 to March 09.

It's not easy being an npower customer is it :mad:
email despatched

.... and here is the reply to that email ... :mad:

"Having checked your account i can confirm that your dual fuel discount was due on 10 March 2009. As your current bill only covered up to the period 10 March 2009 your dual fuel discount was not included. :rolleyes: Your dual fuel discount will show on your next bill issued approximately on 2 June 2009.

I trust this clarifies the situation for you"

Our next bill will be in September !

Another delaying tactic do you think ?

I'll compose my reply very carefully

Sterling

Paul7349 wrote: »

The best thing to do is call them and ask them to send you a apck on how they bill gas i had one sent to me and after i have gone through it i understand it. I also "think" when they change prices and if you change to a different product your 4572 units is reset. Hope this helps."my first post lol"

Hi Paul, and welcome; I note that the above was your first post. Nevertheless, I hope you won’t mind if I put the following questions to you.

• How long have you been a gas customer of Npower’s?

• What made you decide to send off for Npower’s information notes on how it works out its bills – did you have a problem?

• What exactly makes you “think” as you say in the above quote?

• Are you employed by – or in any other capacity associated with – Npower (except as a customer)?

I look forward to your replies to the above.

1carminestocky

hvaghela

Sterling wrote: »

As it happens, in my haste to get my figures into a post, I made a slight error in the final set of figures, which I have now spotted and corrected. This changes the final figure by about £4 to £69.55 incl VAT.

Thanks Sterling and DD for your help.

Sterling - by my calculation I get your original figure of £65.73. How did you get the 69.55 figure (for the 1.3.7 - 29.2.8).

DD - I've read your new post on the 3 Easy steps and found it very useful. However it's interesting to note that if i use the 1.3.7 - 29.2.8 dates I can claim a few quid more than the 1.4.7 - 31.3.8 dates. Which one should i quote to npower?

Thanks again for your time!!

hvaghela

Sorry DD for the haste in my post in the '3 Easy stages' thread. I look forward to reading the rest with anticipation.