NPower gas 'sculpting'

DirectDebacle

Yes colonelhall you have it more or less correct. However npower never said this price change to the lower units was a refund. They said it was to compensate. They also said they raised the Direct Debit Dual Fuel discount. They have also said they recognised there would be some winners and losers. All of this along with, 'tariff year', zeroing and starting a new block of primary rate units etc are red herrings to deflect you from what they actually did, break the contract you had with them.

I would try to keep it simple and just repeat that they had a contract to supply you with 4572 high rate units over a year and that over a year they charged you x high rate units. Therefore they were in breach of contract and are obliged to return the overcharged amount.

If you really want to get into the nitty gritty you can work out what you would have been charged over that year at the 06/07 percentages which would have applied if they hadn't changed it. Show them what they actually charged you because of the change and ask them how to explain this has compensated you.

There is a lot more you can challenge just on this price alteration but I don't think it is worth pursuing as in doing so you are halfway to acknowledging that they were entitled to do it. Just tell them it is irrelevant and that you want the contract you had with them honoured. That means a full refund of the overcharge.

Cardew

colonelhall wrote: »

I am still working on my response to Npower's statement that any overcharge has been repaid via their tariffs.

If I've got it right, they reduced their prices on 3/4/07 and increased on 4/1/08, so any money returned must have been worked into the tariff during this period.

1.) The overcharge occurred during the period May - November. Therefore they must have known exactly how much the overcharge would be. If this were the case, they could have told us and announced the refund.

2.) According to my bill, the reduction during this period only applied to the lower rate units, therefore each customer would have received a different "refund" relating to how many units used. There is no way of knowing how much "refund" I received.

3.) Anybody signing up from November, would be receiving this "refund" until January, in spite of not qualifying.

Have I got this right?

You really should not dignify NPower's excuses, as that is letting them set the agenda.

If you do indeed have a military background, it is like allowing the enemy to fight the battle on the ground of their choosing!!!

colonelhall

Thank you for your replies. They will certainly help.
Am I right with these figures:
Extra high rate units charged for 2007 = 1740

Difference between high and low =2.497 p

Overcharge = 43.45 plus vat

Date on which 4572 units were up = 2/11/07 (leaving 60 days at 29.5 per day)

I have worked out savings made as a result of the price drop but, as you say, it's all irrelevant. The price drop was made in a competitive market, along with all of the other companies. The fact is, they have not stuck to the contract, they did not inform me of the extra units being charged, they did not inform me of any "compensation". I want my money!

As Tommy Cooper once said "It's not the principle, it's the money"

DirectDebacle

colonelhall wrote: »

Thank you for your replies. They will certainly help.
Am I right with these figures:
Extra high rate units charged for 2007 = 1740

Difference between high and low =2.497 p

Overcharge = 43.45 plus vat

Date on which 4572 units were up = 2/11/07 (leaving 60 days at 29.5 per day)


As Tommy Cooper once said "It's not the principle, it's the money"

Or in this case its both!

I worked it out like this. These are pure figures so you have to physically compare with what is on your bills.

1st April 2007-31st March 2008

Unaltered 'sculpt' 4572 units

Amended 'sculpt' 6534 units

Overcharge 1962 units.

Price difference is your prices but use the lowered low unit rate to calculate the differential. For me it was lowered from 2.492 to 1.915. That was on the first of May when they amended it so calculate April only using the unchanged lower rate. May-Jan 4th with amended lower rate and from Jan 4th onwards with the new rates.

notbritishgas

DirectDebacle wrote: »

For those of you that like to plan ahead there are now only 200 days to Christmas.

An npower year then?

colonelhall

Yes, on my spreadsheet I can see that if you are working on the basis of a financial year, you come out with a further 228 units.
Financial year 6542
Calendar year 6314
Tariff year 4572

In my entire military career, I have never encountered such a devious enemy, although with Sergeant Bilko in my regiment, who needs enemies?

DirectDebacle

In my entire military career, I have never encountered such a devious enemy, although with Sergeant Bilko in my regiment, who needs enemies?[/quote]

Sgt. Bilko! Crikey! Next you'll be telling us you served with General Rule and Private Function and Major Road drove everyone round the bend.

RM5_2

DirectDebacle wrote: »

Sgt. Bilko! Crikey! Next you'll be telling us you served with General Rule and Private Function and Major Road drove everyone round the bend.

For dealing with Npower, Corporal Punishment would surely be the most useful acquaintance.

Anne3333

The European Commission (funded by NPower) has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility.

As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5- year phase-in plan that would become known as "Euro-NPower-English".

In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c". Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy.
The hard "c" will be dropped in favour of "k". This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter.

There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced with "f". This will make words like fotograf 20% shorter.

In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling.

Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent "e" in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away.

By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" with "z" and "w" with "v".

During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou" and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensi bl riten styl.

Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech oza, (an ze Npwr contrct). Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru.

Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German/NPowerish like zey vunted in ze forst plas.

Apologies to all my German NPower friends, especially RM5, but I just couldn’t resist!

meggsy

meggsy wrote: »

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 !

I have today received a letter from the Complaints team to my email of the 28th April ! The letter assures me that the method used to calculate my bill is correct, and that as most domestic gas use is in the winter months we seek to apply more of the primary units in those months to help ensure that we recover fixed costs. If we don't do this, customers who use little gas in the summer do not make a fair contribution towards their fixed costs and this leads to the unfair position where one group of customers effectively pay these costs for another group. It goes on to say that I can expect to be charged far fewer primary units during the summer and over the year from 1st November 2007 no more than the published total of 4,572 will be charged. I guess this is a pretty standard letter which others who have complained are receiving ?