NPower gas 'sculpting'

Cardew

I just wonder how long this formal enquiry will take - probably months!

There really is no excuse for it taking more than a few days as the facts are not in dispute.

NPower have conceded that they have charged for more than 4572 primary units in a calendar year.

The have also conceded that they have made no mention of a 'tariff year'(of 7 months or any other length) in their T & Cs.

The data used by all the comparison sites(presumably supplied by NPower) was calculated on an annual(e.g. 365 days!!!) allocation of 4562 tier 1 units. So by definition the results of all the comparison websites for that period were inaccurate and strongly favoured NPower.

The only 'defence' they have put forward, as far as I can see, is that they could have charged more for tier 2 units, than the price they published.

DirectDebacle

A barmaid spoke of her disbelief after receiving a £90 million electricity bill.
Alison Turner, 50, of Cambridge, was stunned when the demand from npower arrived through the post.
The mother-of-two, who lives alone in a one-bedroom flat said,” npower contacted me two weeks ago to tell me their computer had forgotten to seasonally weight my account. I heard that people had complained to the press that this caused big bills. I was relieved when I got mine and saw how reasonable it was. You can’t believe everything you read in the papers”

An npower spokesman said, ’We are running checks to ensure this is an isolated incident. All of our customers should be as surprised as Ms. Turner with the size of their bills”

colonelhall

There's also a mention in the Guardian, although they just churn up their previous story about an earlier complainant. The question is, do I keep on at them or shall I wait for Ofgem?

DirectDebacle

colonelhall wrote: »

There's also a mention in the Guardian, although they just churn up their previous story about an earlier complainant. The question is, do I keep on at them or shall I wait for Ofgem?

Back both horses colonel. Download the proforma claim letter the Times have done and send it recorded delivery. Print out and keep the proof of delivery.

If npower offer you a full refund take it. If they offer a partial refund refuse it and wait for Ofgem. If you don't like the Ofgem decision you have your claim lodged with npower and can take them to court if you want.

colonelhall

I'm way beyond the Times pro-forma. I've been through the "tariff" stage and am now on to the 'compensation included in lower rates' stage. I've written back stating that this is totally unacceptable and have demanded answers to seven questions, stating that unless they are answered to my satisfaction, I will be going to court, I'm just hopingt hat Ofgem saves me the trouble.

2latenow

Seeing as the npower scam is in part centred around unwritten/unlikely interpretions of generally assumed terminology (ie a year being other than 365/366 days), I wonder if there is anything in the T&C that specifies the meaning of "pound".

I'm expecting my final bill from npower to be approx 140 pounds,.......

Dear Npower,
It has come to my attention that I was not making my energy supplier aware that the term "pound" is actually Lebanese Pounds.

In accordance with Npower's policy of not accepting liability for making mistakes in their communication with third parties, the payment enclosed is 140 Lebanese Pounds (as payment for energy supplied over the past 150 day "year").

Yours, etc,.


(Apparently that's about 4.77 British Pence)

oh, if only that would work....!

colonelhall

I see that there is a brief editorial today. It looks like pretty lazy journalism to me. Once again, they are repeating their earlier story about Mr. Bramwell the amateur mathematician, who got back 25 quid in April. Don't they realise that this is a much bigger story now? Plenty of mileage to be had from the "tariff year" alone. As for the notion that we were compensated by lower prices. I would have thought that journos would have a field day with kind of material.

Anne3333

Interesting article in The Guardian dated Tuesday 15th June 2008

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2008/jun/17/householdbills.consumeraffairs1

"Online comparison sites, once the reserve of nerds and penny-pinchers, are today crucial tools for consumers. Sites such as moneysupermarket.com, tescocompare.com, !!!!!!!!!!!!!!, switchwithwhich.co.uk and uswitch.co.uk have become regular haunts for consumers.

However, doubts have been raised about their transparency, commission payments and lack of regulation, and the Financial Services Authority (FSA) has stepped in. Last month it warned comparison sites that they must treat customers fairly and give correct information or risk a regulatory crackdown."

Perhaps we should all be emailing the comparison sites and asking them to confirm that they have received the correct details from NPower with regard to their pricing structure. Have NPower informed them of seasonal weighting and their shortened 'tariff year'? Without that vital information it is very likely that the comparison sites are not Treating Customers Fairly and the FSA (Financial Services Authority) should consider regulation.

If NPower have provided the wrong information to the comparison sites, (as well as to us the consumers) then surely this evidence should be sent by them to Ofgem?

meggsy

First job for
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]New energy ombudsman appointed[/FONT] Anne

Anne3333

meggsy wrote: »

First job for
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]New energy ombudsman appointed[/FONT] Anne

And my first job under my new appointment will be to award the full £5,000 maximum award to all the long suffering NPower consumers!