NPower gas 'sculpting'

DirectDebacle

Work out this bill

17th Mar 06-1/04/06 Total 879kWh 264 kWh at high rate (17.6 kWh per day)

1 Apr 06-18th May 06 Total 2168 kWh 615kWh at high rate (about 12.52 per day = flat daily rate for 4572 over a year if scalping percentages used should have been 772.61 I think.)

18 May 06 13 Jun 06 Total 1110 kWh 219 kWh at high rate.(about 31 kWh per day and as the scalping percentages given for 2006.)

Baffled. Looks like I was scalped in March 06,apparently before it was invented then in April to May they didn't use the new invention then May to June they did. Weird.

Anne3333

I have evidence that more higher rate kWh were charged from as early as the 12 months beginning January 2006 and sent this evidence to Ofgem.
Oh, and thank you for your Npower FAQ's DirectDebacle, they were hilarious! Sometimes you have to laugh, otherwise you would SCREAM!

mute_posting

Cardew wrote: »

Their defence that their secondary rates were set lower to compensate and they increased the monthly direct debit dual fuel discount(to what? from what?) surely cannot be serious?

Is a pretty lame excuse from NPower - "we over charge you, but if you keep paying us more money, eventually you will be in the position where you break even"

They expect people to chuck good money after bad.

RM5_2

Hi DD, the bills you quote are consistent with a sculpted profile being used throughout, i.e as early as 17th mar 2006. Maybe they started scultping in December 2005?
With old sculpting I get 267, 622 and 219 kWh at high rate, pretty close to your figures. With flat sculpting I get 185, 589 and 325 kWh, which is way off.
For instance the 1 Apr - 18 May units with sculpting are worked out as
((30-1)/30 *9.8% + 18/31 * 7.1%)*4572kWh.
If they used this old sculpting throughout 2006, I wonder how they managed to overcharge Anne in this period?
Also thanks for forwarding nPower's response in its full glory. You almost feel sorry for the customer service rep who had to write this nonsense. Their reply is an incoherent mix of several different excuses each of which has been refuted repeatedly on this tread.Seems they are clutching to straws.
BTW I like your use of scalping for sculpting.

DirectDebacle

Thanks for that RM5. It was unclear in the letter when scalping started. One sentence says it began April 2006 and then another says it started Dec 4th 2006. Why pluck that date out of the hat. Can't trust any info npower give you, they are in disarray. Would have thought their legal team would have put forward a standard response to this so all their reps sang from the same song sheet but I am sure the rep I spoke to composed his response off his own bat. Might be a ploy by management to put the blame on the lower ranks or individuals, deny knowledge themselves, shocked and heads will roll etc if it goes pear shaped on them.
Maybe Anne 3333 has a bill or 2 with overcharging from '06 she can post.

Taffyscot

Thank DD for all the leg work that you are doing here and all the discoveries that you are making. Not that this affects me as much as the rest of you as I am a new customer. Thank goodness for British Gas for the last 3 years for me is all I can say. Taffy

eco123

I have taken the trouble to report this to Watchdog in the hope they take notice.

If enough people do the same it will have the weight it deserves.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/consumer/tv_and_radio/watchdog/contact_index.shtml

DirectDebacle

For some reason back in Jan '07 my account was 'pulled' for a review. They sent me a difficult to follow break down of every meter reading (Actual, Estimated and Customer) dates, total kWh used, high rate and low rate split and the prices for high rate/low rate which applied at the time.This review goes back to Jan'97 when I signed up.For what it's worth here is the high rates I was charged from 1st April 2003 ( Two tier charging introduced) to 31st March 2008. Five years of their figures should be a fair picture.

2003/4
5073

2004/5
5551

2005/6
4624

2006/7
4361

2007/8
5771

Total 25380

4572*5=22860

Sitting Bull coildn't have scalped me any better. But he would have only taken hair and left me with my shirt on my back!

AdrianHi

I have a letter from N Power dated 26th April 2008, the letter includes a contract number at the top. This letter is to tell me I am now an N Power customer (just uSwitched and then found this thread ) and it specifically states that I will be charged up to 4572 units at the higher price (forget what that is at the moment) a year. I will be checking on this 26th April 2009 and you can bet I will be on the war path if I'm charged more that 4572 higher rate units.

colonelhall

There's a good chance that you will becharged closer to the 4572 figure, if they stick to the current schedule. The main problem relates to the period May - November 2007.