NPower gas 'sculpting'

reactor_3

trish06 wrote: »

Hi all i am a bit confused about all this
i was with npower for both gas and electric in 2007

with out reading all this long thread .what do i need to do ?,where do i start

how do i check that they overcharged me ?

Just check if your bill says Npower at the top :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

No seriously now -

I am not an expert on this - but basically if they have charged you over
4500 units (approx) at the higher rate in a year, from April to April I believe, then they have over charged you.

That's not the exact figure but its close enough for you to do a quick check.
There is some more detailed stuff towards the end I will try and find a link.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/money/consumer_affairs/article4957384.ece

http://www.savefile.com/projects/808698866

Worth reading page 37 or thereabouts I would think.

I have not made a claim yet myself as I only recently realised they stole my money.

It seems overcharging took place in 2007

"For the year 1st April, 2007, to 31st March, 2008, I was charged for 6514 Primary Block units. An overcharge of 1942 units (6514-4572)."

DirectDebacle

trish06 wrote: »

Hi all i am a bit confused about all this
i was with npower for both gas and electric in 2007

with out reading all this long thread .what do i need to do ?,where do i start

how do i check that they overcharged me ?

You need to know if you were charged more than 4572 high rate units in a year or less. If you were then you were overcharged. It would help if you could post billing details then a firm answer can be given. Do not post electricity bills as the overcharging only applies to gas.

trish06

reactor wrote: »

Just check if your bill says Npower at the top :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

No seriously now -

I am not an expert on this - but basically if they have charged you over
4500 units (approx) at the higher rate in a year, from April to April I believe, then they have over charged you.

That's not the exact figure but its close enough for you to do a quick check.
There is some more detailed stuff towards the end I will try and find a link.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/money/consumer_affairs/article4957384.ece

http://www.savefile.com/projects/808698866

Worth reading page 37 or thereabouts I would think.

I have not made a claim yet myself as I only recently realised they stole my money.

It seems overcharging took place in 2007

"For the year 1st April, 2007, to 31st March, 2008, I was charged for 6514 Primary Block units. An overcharge of 1942 units (6514-4572)."

Thanks reactor

i will read page 37 and take a look at your links :beer:

trish06

DirectDebacle wrote: »

You need to know if you were charged more than 4572 high rate units in a year or less. If you were then you were overcharged. It would help if you could post billing details then a firm answer can be given. Do not post electricity bills as the overcharging only applies to gas.

Thanks
i still have the bills,just need to dig them out
then i can get the details posted here :beer:

DirectDebacle

reactor wrote: »

Very smilar to me!! I also switched to Southern Electric and have found them excellent, however I am also coming to the end of the November fix and need to look again unfortunately Npower *seem* to have the best deal at the moment :mad:

I think when they called me asking me why I left too, I think I told them to **** off :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::D

Now is not the time to be switching to npower. For the months of Nov. Dec. Jan. & Feb they will charge you 882kWh high rate units per month. In my area that is over 8p per unit, one of, if not the most expensive high rate units of any supplier.

The time to switch to them is to start the process mid to late March aiming for completion mid April when they charge very low amount of high rate units per month. May-Sept inclusive is 45kwh per month. End of September switch from them to a cheaper supplier ie one with reasonable high rate units around 381 per month (1143 per qtr). Of course this will disqualify you from any annual discounts so do the comparisons carefully.

reactor_3

DirectDebacle wrote: »

Now is not the time to be switching to npower. For the months of Nov. Dec. Jan. & Feb they will charge you 882kWh high rate units per month. In my area that is over 8p per unit, one of, if not the most expensive high rate units of any supplier.

The time to switch to them is to start the process mid to late March aiming for completion mid April when they charge very low amount of high rate units per month. May-Sept inclusive is 45kwh per month. End of September switch from them to a cheaper supplier ie one with reasonable high rate units around 381 per month (1143 per qtr). Of course this will disqualify you from any annual discounts so do the comparisons carefully.

Yes I know Npower bills are a bit of a nightmare, they don't tell you any of this stuff,
I certaintly cannot find any of this on my bill or any other stuff they sent me, and I
have kept all the stuff they sent me, barring junk mail, because I needed to know when their discounts changed etc..

All they say is that ~4500 units will be charged at the higher rate in the year, that's
all, they don't say when a year starts for example. I joined in September 2003 however I have seen elsewhere that a year runs from April to April?

As I understand it, legally, when such things are not specified then they should be
interpretated in a way which is favourabe to the customer, but I don't have a reference for that.

I left in Spetember 2007 but I notice that from April 2007 to Sept 2007 nearly all the gas is charged at the higher rate, only 207units were charged at the lower rate.

Personally I think a year should start from the date I joined them and I may do some recalulations on that basis. However as you are probably aware it is a real pain
trying to calculate their charges!!

I have your spreadsheet thing but I am not sure how to use it, I only seem to have the viewer, anyway it may be easier to do it by hand.

I really have to switch soon as my current fixed rate tariff end on Nov 30th,, but no real rush as my current supplier Southern Electric, it one of the next cheapest.

I don't like these no standing charge tariffs becasue you end up paying a standing charge anyway and have complicated bills on top of that.

I will have to do futher work but £250 woud be a large chunk off my bills, infact
it would about halve it.

I guess even if I lose my £100 discount I still save £150 but you would have to deduct whatever they over charge you later in the year from that figure.

Maybe they are offering a good deal now because so many customers, like
me left them vowing never to ever go back to them.

That might be enough to stop me reporting Npower to the police for theft, which
I believe they are currently guilty of.

BallandChain

I was looking forward to the outcome with the police too.

DirectDebacle

reactor wrote: »

All they say is that ~4500 units will be charged at the higher rate in the year, that's
all, they don't say when a year starts for example. I joined in September 2003 however I have seen elsewhere that a year runs from April to April?

I used April-March in my claim as 1/4/2003 is when they introduced the two tier pricing and seasonal weighting. As they are non-specific as to when the 4572 year starts, then April seems logical. It might suit your claim better if you use September. Depends on the day in Sept you started with them.

If you use April then you will almost certainly have been overcharged for year April 2004-March 2005. But unlikely you have been overcharged April-September 2007. Precise dates and calculations will be needed.

As I understand it, legally, when such things are not specified then they should be
interpretated in a way which is favourabe to the customer, but I don't have a reference for that.

This is in the Unfair Terms in Consumer contract Regs.

I left in Spetember 2007 but I notice that from April 2007 to Sept 2007 nearly all the gas is charged at the higher rate, only 207units were charged at the lower rate.

If your high rates for April-September are less than 4572 then you have not been overcharged. According to the rates they were charging for this period they should not have charged more than 2353 (April-448, May-Sept incl 381 per month).

You can also claim, as I did, that all your gas be charged at the price you joined up until the time you left. You would be claiming a continuous breach of contract as the full terms and conditions of how they charge for gas were withheld from you at the time of joining. You were misled into joining them because if you had been aware of the full terms and conditions you would not have entered into the contract.

If you don't ask you don't get. When push came to shove npower met my claim in full without a fight.

DirectDebacle

BallandChain wrote: »

I was looking forward to the outcome with the police too.

But probably not as much as they were looking forward to receiving the crime report.:rolleyes:

reactor_3

DirectDebacle wrote: »

But probably not as much as they were looking forward to receiving the crime report.:rolleyes:

Not sure what you mean by that?
Do you think how they obtained the money was anything other than theff?

After all they gave you your money back and they would not do that if it was rightfully theirs. So we have established they have no right to the money and they knew what they were doing when they took it, futhermore they have not given the money back (to me and others). So it is theft isn't it?