NPower gas 'sculpting'

Sol00

Just thought I'd read through this thread to see what gas 'sculpting' actually was. I take it it's only npower who do this? I think they were on Watchdog a couple of weeks ago for being the worst provider out of the major suppliers, no wonder

colonelhall

"An npower spokesman said: “What we promise is that we won’t charge gas customers more than 4,572 units at the higher rate in a tariff year, which is not always the same as a calendar year. In our short tariff year of seven months from April to November 2007 we didn’t charge anyone more than 4,572 units at the higher price, but over a full 12 months, we did."

We must have missed the bit about a year being 7 months. Were was it?

Thank you for all those who have got us to this point. Reading statements like this in a newspaper, shows Npower to be pretty ridiculous.

DirectDebacle

Correct me if I am wrong but as far as I know Ofgem will not order a supplier to re-imburse individual customers. Energywatch can ask a supplier to refund you but have no enforcement powers if the utility refuses.

I think this is very like the bank charges case. Individual customers will have to go to the County Court in order to get a refund. npowers position is now clearly stated. They believe they have acted perfectly correctly. The strength of their argument will have to be tested in court and it is reasonable to assume that their argument would fail. I believe npower will refuse to pay anyone until they actually receive a summons. Then they will pay up. This serves them as follows:

1.They will not have to admit wrongdoing or be found liable for their actions

2. It will stop the court action as you cannot pursue the claim if they have offered to settle it.

3. It will allow them to continue the overcharging if they so wish.

They will be hoping to refund only a few thousand customers as opposed to all of them. If they get away with it and find some way of slipping a 'tariff year' into their T&Cs it will only be a matter of time before the other suppliers follow suit. Then whoever you are with won't really matter.

On the other hand Ofgem may direct that all the suppliers follow the same charging principles, e.g. a flat 1143 high units per qtr,who knows.

I don't see any of us getting a penny back anytime soon without taking direct action and going to court yourself. This in itself is more likely to take months rather than weeks.

c0113tt3

Well if the idea of a tariff year catches on with energy suppliers, though I think ofgem will rule against it, Im glad I moved to an ethical company called ebico.

I really dont think npower will get away with a tariff year, of being any various period of months, although Ofgem may fix the period. If all suppliers follow suit, this would completely screw up the market, because they could never be compared, and you could never tell which was the cheaper or most expensive.

Currently npower have that advantage against other energy suppliers, they appear one of the cheaper, based on 4572 per real year which is what is being compared against other energy suppliers. When in fact they are more expensive based on tariff years which is what they practice. It is an unfair practice, that will screw up the market / competition.

I think other energy suppliers need to be more aware of this practice, and especially if npower make any claims against other energy companies that they are cheaper.

For example, they made claim last april 2007 that they were cheaper still against british gas, british gas complained to ASA , and the ASA found the "still" part to be wrongfull and misleading. Now, that means that they were left with the cheaper part of the statement to be correct, well, since it has now come about that they have over charged, were they in fact cheaper? more likely not, so british gas actually need to complain about it again....

Cardew

DirectDebacle wrote: »

Correct me if I am wrong but as far as I know Ofgem will not order a supplier to re-imburse individual customers. Energywatch can ask a supplier to refund you but have no enforcement powers if the utility refuses.

DD

I am pretty sure that assumption is wrong and that Ofgem have the power to order them to repay any overcharge.

The Privatisation of the Utility companies supplying gas, water & electricity followed the same principles and the Regulators had broadly similar powers.

In the case of Severn Trent Water I referred to above, the company lied about their performance indicators.

Under the formula used to calculate price increases, this deception enabled them to charge marginally higher prices.(about £2 or £3) a year. They were fined £millions and ordered to repay every customer by ofwat and a file was handed to the Serious Fraud office.

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/investing/news/article.html?in_article_id=426653&in_page_id=2

NPower's scam is of a greater magnitude IMO and I would think it inconceivable that Ofgem do not have the same powers as ofwat.

Just my opinion mind you - but I hope I am correct and I suspect you do as well!!

In the USA this would have been handled by a class action

DirectDebacle

Thank you Cardew. I was aware of that case. I know Ofwat have much stronger powers than Ofgem because the water companies are still regarded pretty much as monopolies. You have to buy your water from your area supplier and can't switch as with the energy companies. That said I am not an expert on these regulators powers and yes - I hope you are correct.

DirectDebacle

"An npower spokesman said: “What we promise is that we won’t charge gas customers more than 4,572 units at the higher rate in a tariff year, which is not always the same as a calendar year. In our short tariff year of seven months from April to November 2007 we didn’t charge anyone more than 4,572 units at the higher price, but over a full 12 months, we did."

I suppose this also means that when they have a long 'tariff year' of say 18 real, whole, genuine, not to be confused with anything else, months, they will still only charge for 4572 units. Hmm what're the chances of that.

Think their statement is all the evidence you need to get your money back.

dellxps

I've been reading this thread with quite some interest. The thing that I find most shocking is not what has happened, but npowers reluctance to hold their hands up and say 'sorry we !!!!!!ed up'.

Surely it would be better for npower to apologise, repay customers if they've been overcharged and move on rather than face a stream of complaints and bad media coverage.

Their reputation is pretty bad at the moment so maybe they're thinking we'll keep the money because our reputation can't get any worse?!

I really do hope that Ofgem take some tough action against npower to show energy companies that they can't do what they like.

c0113tt3

I take comfort in loosing them hundreds perhaps thousands of customers / profits.

It angers me that I proved the overcharge even taking into account everything they state, yet they wish to do absolute nothing and keep our money !!.

Meanwhile, I now take the time to explain the tariff year to friends / family / work colleagues and npowers responses to it, heh it soon puts them off npower, and all i had to state is npowers statements / explanations only, and of course word spreads

Combine this with as much media coverage as we can get on this issue, the better people power will impact on their decisions.

DirectDebacle

WHAT WE ARE UP AGAINST

After they have received 3 recorded delivery letters (all signed for) several phone calls and emails outlining complaints and chasing them up this is the response you get.

Good afternoon and thank you for your email.

Thank you for taking the time to forward over your address details, howver as we haven't recievd the origional complaint I am unable to resolve your query.

Please would you be so knid as to resened your email including your full adress and post code and your initial query.

Once I have recievd these details I will be more than happy to help

Kind regards
npower customer service

Looks like their spellchecker is as accurate as their billing system. I wonder if they will lose the cort prapers.

Sign on the Customer Service wall

'Six weaks argo i cudnt even spell crustomer cervixces argent and now i Are ones.'