NPower gas 'sculpting'

donnajunkie

DirectDebacle wrote: »

Thank you so much for going to the trouble of posting the letter. Shame about the bills. They have identified you as a low user of gas. Have you any idea how much gas you use in kWh per annum or failing that if you pay by D.D. what is it for gas per month.

In the meantime I will try to back calculate to see how they arrived at this figure. Advanced maths is not one of my strong points.

In the meantime I suggest you follow their advice at your peril.
'Relax.
You don't need to do anything.'

Very similar to March 2008 when they enclosed a leaflet with their bills stating that no-one would be charged more than 4572 Primary Block units a year.

Coming from npower advice such as this usually means you should be on full alert and watching them like a hawk.

we dont pay by direct debit. we pay fortnightly with a card. we are currently paying £37.

this is some info i have been able to find.

electric.

7/4/08 to 7/7/08, 446 kwh, first 181 at 14.150p, next 265 at 13.600p.

gas.

7/4/08 to 7/7/08, 1123 kwh, first 310 at 6.154p, next 813 at 1.990p.


electric.

7/7/08 to 28/8/08, 376 kwh, first 102 at 14.150p, next 274 at 13.600p.

28/8/08 to 7/10/08, 301 kwh, first 80 at 15.280p, next 221 at 14.690p.

gas.

7/7/08 to 28/8/08, 129 kwh, first 76 at 6.154p, next 53 at 1.990p.

28/8/08 to 7/10/08, 194 kwh, first 112 at 7.693p, next 82 at 2.488p.

Sterling

DD #908 – In the light of your post I take your point that rival newspapers are not in the business of banding together. You are also quite right to stick with the Times; anything less would clearly be seen (by your contact) as siding with a rival and would not be appreciated. Furthermore, the Times coverage has been excellent so far.

But as you also mention the desirability of a “wider coverage”, I don’t suppose it will hurt for others (including me) to have another shot at writing to any branch of the media where it might do some good. The story is of course different now, in that Ofgem have failed to reach the obvious result, and in so doing have paved the way for other energy companies to pull similar strokes; and that the current system of energy consumer protection has failed.

Donnajunkie # 909 – Would it be possible for you to ask Npower to let you know in detail exactly how they made the calculation of £1 mentioned in their letter to you? After all, the average payout is supposed to be £6 (itself a joke). Thanks for the figures (#916). As it happens, the overcharging for gas occurred in 2007 due to too many high tier gas units being billed. If you were an Npower gas customer in 2007, perhaps you could say if you were for the whole of 2007 or just part. Even without you bills for that year, I can give you a figure for the number of high tier units you would have been charged for, from which we can work out how much you were overcharged. You have been charged for the correct number of high tier gas units on the figures you provided (2008) by the way.

Meggsy # 915 – Your signature is a brilliant idea.

DD - As for the Red Top Banner Headline Competition, my entry (for The Sun) would be NPOWER GAS? – A FLAMIN RIP-OFF.

DirectDebacle

Thank you all for comments. Sterling I do hope you (and anyone else so minded) fire off all the letters/emails to whatever branch of the media you may think will further publicise this issue.

I have done a bit of spreadsheeting on the refund aspect. Not enough information to be accurate so I have made some assumptions.

These assumptions are:

1. The 6 month summer period represents 25% of the annual consumption for gas customers.

2. The average annual consumption for the average gas user is 22000kWh.

I have concentrated on the six month period May-Oct 2007 as this is the period covered by Ofgem during which npower admitted overcharging low users.

If npower had not altered their weighting profile then the maximum amount of Primary Block units they would have charged were 1262kWh over the 6 months.

The changes to the weighting profile increased this to 2286kWh. At the same time they also reduced the price of the Follow On units.

Anyone using 1262kwh or less over this period would have been charged exactly the same for their gas under either profile as all gas would be charged at the unchanged Primary Block rate.

Looking at the figures donnajunkie provided which, more or less, cover the May-Oct period (although these figures are for 2008) a total of 1446kWh were used.

Not knowing the prices for 2007 for donnajunkie I have used my own.

These were 4.412 and 2.492 prior to the change and 4.412 and 1.915 after.

Using donnajunkie kWh and my prices donnajunkie would have paid £3.71 incl VAT more as a result of the changes.

To achieve an overpayment of £1.00, at my prices 1311kWh would have to be used. (5244kwh per annum if 1311 is 25% of annual usage)

To achieve an overpayment of £6.00 (the £1.8m overpaid by 200000 consumers)
1562kWh would need to be used (averages up to 6248kWh per annum.)

A maximum overpayment of £20.18 is achieved with 2362kWh used over the 6 months. (averages up to 9448kwh per annum, still very low)

Above this amount of usage the overcharge reduces. At 5662kwh the overcharge is £0.19p. More or less even at an annual average usage of 22648.

Interesting that the equilibrium is reached at around the national average gas consumption.

The figures for my account over this period are:

Total kWh used 8385 (I am a high user). I was £16.85 better off.
8385*4= 33540kWh per annum. I used just over 32,000kWh that year so the 25% assumption for the summer seems about right.

To achieve the £1.00 overcharge would in theory mean an annual usage of 5244kWh. This is of course in excess of the 4572kWh annual maximum. Because of the further change to the weighting profile from Nov. 2007 it is almost a certainty that all of these units would have been charged at the higher rate.

There would appear to be the double jeopardy for low users of being overcharged because they used little gas. Have been additionally overcharged because they use more than 4572 in a year.

The only users who would not lose out under these circumstances would be those that used no more than 1262kWh during May-Oct 2007 and less than 4573kWh over the year.

There will be some. For example someone who spends May-October in the U.K. and the remainder of the year abroad with no U.K gas usage.

donnajunkie is the second person to post on MSE that they have received £1.00 rebate.

It won't happen but all those receiving rebate letters should ask npower to provide full details of their bills for the whole of the period 1/5/07-30/4/08. I am sure some would find not only the details of the May-Oct overcharge but also being overcharged on more than 4572kWh Primary block units. In some cases this could mean they have paid for all of their annual usage at the Primary block rate. This would apply to those using more than 4572kWh and less than 6359kwh per annum.

I am smelling a rat here. Unless Ofgem went through npowers books and themselves identified the 200000 customers that were overcharged then it could be that npower have again misled.
npower have started issuing rebate letters and would have identified the customers and amounts prior to the Ofgem ruling. This must be the case as otherwise npower could not have provided Ofgem with the numbers which they published with their ruling.

Ofgem should now or very soon audit npower to ensure they have kept their promise.

Without transparency and some essential details of the way the investigation was conducted then Ofgem are open to speculation as to their impartiality and efficacy.

donnajunkie

as we pay fortnightly and sometimes pay late would it be possible that when they worked out the £1 that we may have been behind by a payment and therefore could that be why it is only £1?

DirectDebacle

donnajunkie wrote: »

as we pay fortnightly and sometimes pay late would it be possible that when they worked out the £1 that we may have been behind by a payment and therefore could that be why it is only £1?

The rebate is for overcharging in 2007 and the rebate has only just been worked out. I imagine your payments were all up to date at the time they worked out the rebate. I don't know how they they arrived at your £1.00 rebate and more to the point, neither do you. In order to work out where your £1 rebate comes from the bills covering, ideally, 1/4/07-31/3/08 are needed. 1/5/07/-30/4/08 would do just as well. It would be interesting to see where the £1 came from and even more interesting to see your total gas usage for that year. If it was more than 4572 I imagine you were overcharged on the high rate units like the rest of us.

I see on your letter that there is a phone no. to call if you have any queries regarding the credit. You could give it a try and see if you can get the information from them. You need the whole year 07-08. Don't be fobbed off with just May-Oct 07 otherwise you will not know if there was overcharging later on.

1carminestocky

Again, not my area of expertise (have I actually got one? ) so apologies if way out here but couldn't people get copies of ALL their bills sent to them by npower under the DPA? I know it will probably cost a tenner but if, like DD, you've been with them for many years I would imagine it's entirely possible the 'refund' would dwarf that outlay?

DirectDebacle

1carminestocky wrote: »

Again, not my area of expertise (have I actually got one? ) so apologies if way out here but couldn't people get copies of ALL their bills sent to them by npower under the DPA? I know it will probably cost a tenner but if, like DD, you've been with them for many years I would imagine it's entirely possible the 'refund' would dwarf that outlay?

Again you are correct but it would only be necessary if npower refused to provide the information. No reason to think they would do that is there?:rolleyes:

DirectDebacle

donnajunkie. The letter you posted. Did you delete/mask your name and account no. or was it posted 'as is', just a generic letter.

donnajunkie

DirectDebacle wrote: »

donnajunkie. The letter you posted. Did you delete/mask your name and account no. or was it posted 'as is', just a generic letter.

yeah, i just cut out a bit of paper and covered those details before scanning it.

meggsy

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