NPower gas 'sculpting'

DirectDebacle

ABN wrote: »

Had a phone call from Npower today asking why I was leaving (moving to Scottish Power fixed price 2011).

I explained that it was due to the overcharging brought about by the sculpting. She tried to defend it but became rather quiet once I mentioned the 7 month year. But she did go on to say that they have now dropped the sculpting due to customer complaints(whether that’s true or not I don’t know), then went on to say that they would ensure that the transfer went smoothly without making any attempt to persuade me to stay with them.

At least they know that they have lost at least one customer over this.

If it is true then scenes of deja vu. Exactly what they did last year.

Nov 07 - May 08 = 4118kWh
Jun 08 -Oct 08 = 1905kWh (@ flat rate) = 6023 Not too bad I suppose.

DirectDebacle

I received a letter from npower the same as meggsy and colonelhall. I sent them this reply.

Thank you for your letter dated 6th June, 2008. It does not explain how and why my account was overcharged.
For some reason you have picked on the date 1st November, 2007, as the date when additional high rate units were charged.
The year 1st April, 2007 to 31st March, 2008 is the period when I was charged more than the agreed 4572kWh high rate units per year.

Please answer the following questions.

1. What rates were being applied for the period 1st May – 31st October, 2007?

2. What were the rates for the period 1st April, 2007 - 30th April, 2007?

3. When did you cease applying an even annual rate for the 4572kWh high rate
block and introduce a seasonally weighted profile?

4. Why have you selected from the 1st November, 2007 to calculate whether there was an overcharge or not?

5. Why were customers not notified of these changes and the methodology used to calculate how the high rate units were charged on each bill?

6. You say you set an equal number of high rate units to be applied from 1st May – 31st October, 2007 and lowered gas prices to take account of this. You knew the amount of high rate units you would have charged had there been no change. You knew the amount of high rate units that you were going to charge because of the change. Therefore it was simple for you to work out the number of additional high rate units that were going to be charged. Any overcharge would have been avoided by adjusting the price of the high rate units accordingly. You did not know how many secondary (low rate) units any customer would use during that period. You knew exactly how many high rate units you were going to charge over this period. Why did you choose to adjust the price of the low rate units?


7. Why were the rates set as high as they were from 1st November, 2007? By that time you knew how many of the 4572kWh high rate units had been charged for since 1st April, 2007. If you were so concerned about not overcharging customers then why wasn’t the amount of units set for the period 1st November, 2007 – 31st March, 2008, the balance of the per annum block of 4572kWh minus the amount of that block already charged for from 1st April, 2007 – 31st March, 2008? There would then have been no need for a price adjustment in the first place.


Yours sincerely,'

meggsy

I notice that The Times is keeping up the momentum on this scam and for anyone who wants to download it there is a template complaint letter available http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/money/consumer_affairs/article4122913.ece

colonelhall

I found the page on the times, but I cannot make the link to the complaints form work. I'd be interested to see what it says.

ABN

Here is what it says

npower Customer Relations

Ravens House

Eighth Avenue, Team Valley

Gateshead

Tyne and Wear

NE11 0SX



Date

FAO Complaints Department, Npower

Dear Sir,

I am writing to you about a problem that I have experienced with your company which relates to my gas account.

Address that the complaint relates to:

Account Number:


In your literature you state that you will not charge customers more than 4,572 units of gas per annum at the higher price.

But in the period from ..... to ........ you have charged me ..... units at the higher price.


I would like Npower to reimburse me in full for the cost of the ....units that it wrongly charged me at the higher price.



I look forward to your earliest reply.

Yours faithfully


Insert name

RM5_2

meggsy, thanks for typing out nPower's reply. It seems the tariff year has gone a bit out of fashion since it was comprehensively ridiculed in the Times. Good riddance!

Most of the letter sounds quite reasonable, because they are mainly justifying the sculpting itself, and we agree this is legitimate. It should, of course, be explained on the bills. There is not the slightest hint on the bills how the number of higher rate units is calculated, making it impossible for the customer to check if the bill is correct. The main issue, the additional high units they embezzled by changing sculpting twice, is glossed over in a paragraph.

meggsy wrote: »

Last year we suspended this way of billing primary units between 1st May 2007 and 31st October 2007 whilst we completed vital work on our gas billing systems. This meant that an equal number was charged each month and so more units were charged at the higher rate than normal in the summer period. This was taken into account when setting lower gas charges in April.

There are only 2 of the original 4 excuses (see post 149) left. The technical excuse is of course useless, I am sure the system migration would have been simlified even more by charging ALL units at the higher rate, but that does not make it legal.With regards to the second one Cardew hit the nail on the head:

Cardew wrote: »

Agree with RM5 on this, don't get involved with what NPower, would or would not, have done with tier 2 prices.It is like your supermarket admitting that it has charged you a higher price for milk, than was displayed on the carton. However they defended that action by saying that they could have charged more for bread.The issue is simple, if you have been charged for more than 4,572 tier 1 units in a 365 day period*, you have been defrauded.

Contrast nPowers behaviour on this with any reputable supermarket, where the cashier would:1) Apologise profusely for the error.
2) Give you the items you were overcharged on for free as a compensation.
3) Make sure that the discrepancy between shelf price and till price is corrected so that no other customers are overcharged.
Any retailer found deliberately and systematically charging more at the till than displayed on the shelves to boost profits would be in serious trouble, including fraud charges. It does not matter if the price charged was correct a week ago or still the cheapest in town. This is a serious breach of trust, made worse in the case of nPower by the way they made it difficult to detect by the way they operated their undocumented sculpting magic.

DirectDebacle

The 4572kWh, though not set in stone, has remained unchanged with npower since they introduced it on 1st April, 2003.

The lower tier is for the remaining kWh used and has never been linked to the 4572kWh.

As far as I can tell what npower have done is unprecedented. With total disregard to their T&Cs and all current legislation and guidelines they have unilaterally increased the 4572kwh charged per year. That is a price increase.

Simultaneously but separate to the above they lowered the tier 2 rate for their own reasons. They were entitled to do this but it in no way validates the breach of contract, caused by raising the 4572kWh. Even if the lowering of the tier 2 meant you paid less over the year.

Another red herring dreamed up by the convoluted mind(s) that invented the tariff year. Long may that R.I.P.

Cardew

DirectDebacle wrote: »

Every supplier who uses a two tier pricing system applies their higher rate to 4572kWh per year.

Although I obviously agree with the thrust of your argument, the statement above is not accurate, either historically, or currently, and I suggest should not be used in your legal action.

BG for example use 670 kWh per quarter(2,680 kWh p.a.*)

* Their year has always been 365 or 366 days!

DirectDebacle

Cardew wrote: »

Although I obviously agree with the thrust of your argument, the statement above is not accurate.

Point taken. Inaccurate sentence removed.

2latenow

Hi,

I've been following this thread since the early days but didn't have much to add seeing as I was getting nowhere with the NPower call centre.

I've now (finally) had a letter from "Stage 3" "Sculpting complaints" team.

Some of it seems similar to what others have had, but there are parts which I dont recall seeing others report previously, so I thought I'd share....

"Dear Mr [2latenow]

As discussed, having had a meeting with our Pricing Manager, the reason that some of our customers have seen an increase in the "Higher Rate Tariff" was due to the way we introduced changes in our pricing structure. Between April 2007 and November 2007 whilst a migration/merging of all our customer's accounts were integrated into one billing system, which meant that it was impossible for us to maintain present billing structures."

- as others have said their internal systems changes are not (should not be) our problem.

"Our pricing team recognised that there would be an impact where it was not possible to maintain the seasonal charges and therefore as part of using a standard daily flat rate for the higher rate charges, they set the new follow on rate lower than normally would have been the case in April 2007 to compensate for some of our customers who may exceed the 4572 kWh per annum."

"With regards to the 4572 kWh per annum, it has come to our attention that we are not making our customers aware that the 4572 kWh was calculated over a tariff year. Thi means the 4572 kWh is across a tariff year, which begins at the change date of any change in gas price or change in application of pricing methodology. In the electricity and gas industry the year quoted is a "tariff year" that begins from the introduction of any changed charges. If there are no pricing changes within a full billing year period, then of course the higher rate tariff would not exceed the 4572 kWh."

- This looks like an admission by npower that they have not been providing adequate pricing info to customers. I'm suprised the statement is so definate (ie not even saying vague like it wasn't "clear enough".

They say they wont credit the amount i say they have overcharged me, but are offering a smaller amount to compensate for the lengthy delays in answering my complaint. Whilst I appreciate this, it is still short of the amount of the overcharge, so I'll be writing back to them further....

... meanwhile as of last week I'm no longer an npower customer - laughably their retentions team called me to ask why I was leaving --- just waiting for the final bill.

Anyway, I hope this info is useful to other victims of this scam, espescially the bit about making customers aware of the tariff "year".

/2latenow