NPower gas 'sculpting'

fiddling_flower_petals

Anne3333 wrote: »

Yes of course you are welcome Fiddling Petals, however I think it only fair DirectDebacle, that anyone in the 'We Adore NPower Club' is also allowed to post here without intimidation to join us. Life is far more interesting when you have variety of opinions!
Anybody like to stick up for NPower??? C'mon anybody???

Thanks Anne & DD

I think I'm currently wanting to hate the sculpting scammers, especially in light that I've probably been mis-sold on fix for free:mad: (knew that sounded to good to be true) but it seems I'm doing rather well by comparison with other Npower sculpt customers.

Perhaps NPower have realised the error of there sculpting way, or more likely I've slipped through the sculpting net, so far and will receive a revised bill to include sculpting. So may well sit on the fence and hope I can last out till annual discount are applied then ditch and switch.

RM5_2

DirectDebacle wrote: »

Just thought I'd let those who might be affected know that 'sculpting' commenced on 1st October 2004. The profile used was the one quoted on here for 2006/7. The sculpting operated on this profile without a break until 31st April, 2007. Then as most of us know was increased to a 381 per month rate until 1st November 2007.
I did this by re-calculating my bills from 1st April, 2003. From then to the 1st October, 2004 the high rate was calculated on the flat daily rate.(12.526)

So much for the letter npower sent telling me that 'sculpting' was introduced on either 1st April, 2006 or 4th December, 2006.

Well done for keeping all your old bills!
I am not at all surprised they started sculpting in autumn rather than spring. On the other hand, this means that the initial introduction was already a change that was to a significant disadvantage to the customer and they failed to notify you about it. Hence for you and other customers who have been with npower for that long, all sculpting is null and void and given your low consumption in summer you should have been paying less than 4572 primary units a year. Therefore, the high refund you claim is entirely justified.

Are you sure they continuously used the old sculpting profile from 1/10/2004 to 31/4/2007? I seem to remember you had more than 5000 primary units in some of the years in that period, which would not be possible without sculpting changes.

colonelhall

Checking through my old emails, I found this one:

"Good morning,

Thank you for your email.

Gas Sculpting

I can appreciate your frustration as to how your recent gas bill has been calculated. I know the previous correspondence I sent to you stated you would be charged for 4572 units at the higher rate however, on 1 November 2007, we amended our billing process for gas customers, the way we charge now is called gas sculpting.

This billing process was originally enforced in December 2006, it was then stopped on 1 May 2007 and enforced again on 1 November 2007. As the gas sculpting was stopped and started within the same year this has resulted in you being charged more units on the higher tariff.

This therefore means that you will not be getting overcharged. There was notice sent out of this in November 2007, I apologise if you didnt receieve this.

I trust this information has been useful.

Kind regards
npower customer service"

"resulted in you being charged more units on the higher tariff"
"This therefore means that you will not be getting overcharged"

Explanation anyone?

DGJsaver

What dreadfull business practice that is
I cant wait for my switch to go through

Anne3333

colonelhall wrote: »

"resulted in you being charged more units on the higher tariff"
"This therefore means that you will not be getting overcharged"

Explanation anyone?

Oh Colonelhall, you clearly do not speak NPowerish, perhaps the 'We Hate NPower Club could start some beginners classes for this foreign language!

RM5_2

colonelhall wrote: »

This therefore means that you will not be getting overcharged. There was notice sent out of this in November 2007, I apologise if you didnt receieve this.

The only thing consistent about their statements is the poor spelling and grammer. This company is a complete mess. I asked a 3rd level complaints operative several times if any notice of the sculpting was sent out, and he confirmed that this was not the case. He claimed this was not required because it was 'billing method change' and not a 'price change'. The 'How to work out your gas bill' leaflet I received after complaining this April is dated 5 November 2007 but is just a printout that looks completely unprofessional and has not nearly the production quality you would expect from a leaflet sent out to millions of customers.

DGJsaver

RM5 wrote: »

He claimed this was not required because it was 'billing method change' and not a 'price change'.

Statments like that make my blood pressure rise:mad:

DirectDebacle

Sculpting started 1/10/04 upon which date there was a price increase from 2.65 to 2.98 for high rate. Below are my bills from 1/04/06 - 18/01/07.
I chose these because that period is of interest to most and covers Dec 06 which for some reason npower have decided sculpting started in some replies. I have included the days so you can cross check the sculpting profile with a flat daily rate of 12.562.

1/4/06-18/5/06 (47 days) 623 high units

18/5/06-22/8/06 (96 days) 516 high units

22/8/06-1/10/06 (40 days) 234 high units

1/10/06-18/1/07 (109 days) 1741 high units.

RM5 I know what you are saying but i haven't had time to analyse the the bills in depth. Anyones guess what they have been doing. As far as your leaflet goes I received in my March 08 bill a proper pamphlet which mention seasonally adjusted weighting but gives no details of it. As far as I am concerned the only official notification I have ever received about sculpting or the 'tariff year' is in their letter to me dated 30th april 2008. Unless anyone has received details in writing, signed and on headed paper then take it you have not been notified. That goes for emails too. they can dismiss an email as being written by inexperienced rep and what they said wasn't company policy. They can't do that with signed official letters, which is why they are reluctant to answer you in writing.
1/

DirectDebacle

With refence to colonels email I am still trying to work out their fixation with December as the starting point. Total units for a year from 1/12/06-31/11/07 using the on/off/on method comes to 6007 high rate. Although they say they 'suspended' sculpting in May they never said they zeroed the 4572 and started a new tariff year. So is the alleged tariff year from Dec 06 - 31st October 07 or from Dec 06 to 4th Jan 08? I know in The Times they said 'the short tariff year of seven months we didn't... etc'. Everything they come out with is either ambiguous or contradictory. I think you can only use what you get from them in writing and so far this is precious little.

Just received a letter from Energywatch. npower have refused to answer any of the points I asked Energywatch to raise with them but will be writing to my legal team. Fair play. Off to have a team meeting now.

meggsy

Well I've been offline for the past month due to Pipex/Tiscali problems, and have now changed ISP so thought I would post an update.
After a month it is near impossible to catch up with all the posts, but after my complaint to npower I only received a leaflet describing the complaints procedure and no reply to my email, (I have checked my old Pipex account) I had been charged for 2037 high rate units over the past year. I did put in a complaint to Ofgems 'call for evidence' so I guess it is now a waiting game !