NPower gas 'sculpting'

Upwind

I have finally done the maths and have 'constructed' my letter to Npower which is below. Special thanks should go to DD, Sterling and Meggsy, whose collective thoughts and words I have blatently stolen and used liberally to produce this - I only hope that it may be of some assistance to someone else........................................



Executive Complaints Team
Npower

Dear Sir/Madam

I have been a customer of yours from since 6 May 2005 to the present day.

I have just become aware of a recent Ofgem ruling that you were in breach of contract in respect of fulfilling your obligations to notifying customers of changes to the way you charge for gas.

This prompted me to check my bills during the period that I have had a contract with you.

I make the following observations:

For the duration of the account a total of 45848kWh have been billed – up to my last bill on 27 January 2009.

This has been split into 18046 charged at the Primary Block rate and 27802kWh at the Follow On rate.

Further analysis shows that from 1/4/2007 - 31/3/2008 (12 months) a total of 6103 Primary Block units were charged. The contract allows for a maximum of 4572 Primary Block units per annum. Therefore for that calendar year I have been charged 1531 Primary Block rate units which should have been charged at the Follow On rate.

The seasonally adjusted weighting profiles you used through this period show that the maximum 4572 Primary Block units would have been reached by on or around the 3 January 2008. It would therefore appear that appear that I have been grossly overcharged for this period.

Having done a recalculation of my bill during the period indicated and have calculated an overcharge of £74.98 incl Vat.


In addition to not notifying me of the changes in May 2007, as found by Ofgem, similar changes were made without notification on 01 Nov 2007. They have not ruled these changes as a price increase but as a change that should have been notified as required by the Gas Act and the Terms and Conditions of the contract.

During the period of my contract with you all price rises were notified in accordance with the requirements of the contract. However, the changes to the weighting occurred at the same time as a price increase, therefore, if I had been correctly notified then I would not have agreed with the changes and would have had to change supplier and Npower would not have been able to 'enforce it nor take advantage of it'. Thus there was no opportunity to accept or disagree with them within the specified time.

At the time I opened my account with you the methods you use to charge for Primary Block units were not explained to me or made plain in our agreement. Had I been correctly informed of them I would not have opened an account with you. It would therefore appear that your company has been in breach of contract for the entirety of our contract. As a result of this I require that you re-calculate my account from the day that I joined to the present day at the prices applicable on the day of joining.

I have calculated that the difference between this amount and the amount that I was billed equates to £493.83 incl. Vat.

The total amount owed to me is £74.98 + £493.83 = £568.81

Your breach of contract and behaviour has caused me a large amount of unnecessary expenditure, both time and money in making this claim. The costs incurred that I claim are £100.00.

The total amount that I claim is £668.81.

I understand that this is not the first time that you will have received this type of claim. I am also aware of the excuses you have used to justify overcharging.

If within 14 days, this claim has not been met in full or you have not provided a satisfactory reason to justify your charges, then I will initiate recovery proceedings.

Should you dispute my claim, I would be grateful if you could supply me with your own calculations as to how you arrived at the Primary Block KWh that you have charged me.

DirectDebacle

Good letter and good luck. Nice to see you took the Stage 2 route. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Very similar to my claim. If they adopt the same stance with yours as they did with mine, then be prepared for battle.

Keep us posted and do not hesitate to ask for further advice, should you need it.

Sterling

A fine letter and very powerful; ten out of ten. This should be fun.

shannonr

Thanks DD - as the mist slowly cleared I was beginning to see things in the way you describe, but I will have a look at the primary units issue as perhaps I can get something back. Again, thanks for your help

meggsy

IMO this is good news ... Anne Robinson to return to Watchdog, and the programme is extended to one hour :T

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/may/11/anne-robinson-returns-watchdog

Sterling

Excellent news indeed, meggsy.

How I would love to see the chief executive of npower face an interview with Anne Robinson live on Watchdog, especially on the subject matter of this thread. She used to reduce such people to gibbering wrecks.

While I somehow doubt such an interview will ever happen, I still welcome Anne Robinson’s return. I can honestly say that when she used to present Watchdog previously, I found that various companies that had let me down in one way or another duly coughed up compensation whenever I threatened to draw my claim to her attention. Such compensation amounted to several hundred pounds in total. Thank you very much Anne Robinson.

After her departure, the programme never carried the same threat level. Doubling its length to an hour sounds a good idea too. And maybe…just maybe there may be time for this issue. You never know.

meggsy

I heard from Consumer Focus yesterday who have investigated the annual discount payment dates and they say that although the approach is unfair it is within the legal/regulatory framework :rolleyes:

I will post their reply in its entirety if they give permission to do so.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1569801&page=2

DirectDebacle

Hmm. Bit like MP's expenses, legal but unfair, a year that is anything other than 12 months is also, apparently, legal but unfair.

I wonder why we have an Office of Fair Trading. Perhaps if it were re-named Office of Legal Trading it would then serve some purpose.

meggsy

"it is within the legal/regulatory framework"

I think the framework has a screw loose DD, which needs tightening up pretty damn quickly :rolleyes:

Somerset_Sue

Sorry if I have missed this in 61 pages of replies, but I'm no longer with NPower and can't find all my bills for the period. Since my bills were horrendous (hence change) I have probably been overcharged to some degree.

Will NPower let me have copies of old bills now I've left them? If so, will I have to pay for them under their FoI rules; which will probably negate any refund I get anyway?

Anyone know the answer?

Thanks. Sue