Npower hijacked my gas supply?

ring_leader_uk

My gas supply has been with Southern Electric for a while, however I stopped getting bills back in August last year. I tried to submit a meter reading in January, expecting that they'd be wanting one, however they told me they were not longer my suppliers and I'd been transferred out.

This seemed odd, as I knew that I had not requested a transfer. When I asked who I'd been transferred to, they told me that they didn't know (the guy was surprised they didn't have a record), but if I waited, I would receive a bill from them.

I've been getting increasingly worried as I've seen no bills, and had no correspondence. Today I calculated my use, by last Augusts gas prices for SE's NSC gas supply, and realised I'd owe about £600 by now.

I did some research and called the transco line, and they told me that my gas was supplied by northern electric and gas. I'd never heard of them, but again, after some research, I found that their licence had been revoked in 2004 and they'd become part of NPower.

What should I do about getting a bill, and should I demand to pay it at Southern Electrics cheaper rates as I had not asked to switch? I didn't recieve any documentation from nPower, or from "Northern Electric and Gas".

Is this Southern Electric's mistake, and my supply has reverted to the local supplier (I'm in Leeds)?

Thanks,

Joel

SwanJon

It's not reverting back to a local supplier - someone must have initiated the change.
It could be a rouge sales agent, or a mistake in the system somewhere.
Do you live in a block of flats, or a new estate? They are often invovled in cases like this. Or it could just be that someone mistyped your MPR.
You could ask Southern to get you back as an erroneous transfer, then let them handle it.
Start putting money aside now, just in case.

ring_leader_uk

It's an old house. There are an awful lot of door-to-door Npower reps round here though. They come knocking several times a year.

I am sure that I will have to pay the bill, and I don't see why I shouldn't. I shall ring SE tomorrow and see what they say...

Joel

SwanJon

If you didn't sign (or verbally agree) a contract, then nPower have no right to bill you.
If SE are/were cheaper, ask them to take you back, they'll then generate the bill and should come to an arrangement to pay it back, but won't charghe interest on it.

chaseside

Hi,
This happened to us last year.We were with B/Gas for our electricity & Powergen/Eon for our gas.
I phoned up Powergen last September to discuss up-ing my direct debit payments for gas as the gas prices had rocketed. While I was on the phone the young lad tried to get me to take a duel fuel offer from them.My husband was at home at the time & I passed the phone to him as I get very flustered when people try to sell me things on the phone.My OH told the lad that we do not agree to any sales on the phone but he could send us details of the offer through the post.The lad agreed to do this.
This started 6 months of headaches.
The next day we received details of the duel fuel offer & a seperate letter welcoming us to Powergen.Thanking us for taking up the offer of the duel fuel.
As you can imagine we were very annoyed & immediately phoned P/gen & B/Gas. B/gas said they could do nothing as it was now out of their hands.
Powergen said they would investigate.
After 5 1/2 months of phone calls we finally got an eronious transfer back to B/gas, however the direct debit payment didnt start till the beginning of April (7 months since the initial phonecall, so we were 6-7 months in arrears).
My husband demanded compensation for all the phone call I had made (prob about 6 hours in total) & Powergen offered us £25 ,standard practice we believe.
My husband then demanded (doesnt take fools gladly) to speak to a manager & said that was not enough to cover my time, phone calls or worry & demanded at least £50 or he was going to take this further as to him it was fraud.
£50 cheque appeared within 2 days.
We would of prefered not to have the headache, but at least we got something back.
One piece of advise I would give you is to get a payment card from SE so you can put money on it at the post-office till your erroneous transfer starts, as like us it could take months.
Good luck

chaseside

SwanJon wrote: »

If you didn't sign (or verbally agree) a contract, then nPower have no right to bill you.
If SE are/were cheaper, ask them to take you back, they'll then generate the bill and should come to an arrangement to pay it back, but won't charghe interest on it.

I was told by my original supplier British Gas that they could not just take us back. The start of the erroneous transfer had to be done by Powergen/Eon

lost_and_poor

I had a letter from npower with somebody elses name, as the house was new when we moved in i knew it couldnt be for any previous occupiers.

I opened it and it was a welcome to npower letter. I phoned british gas up my current supplier and they were quite willing to let them take the account even though it wasnt in my name and a final bill had not been arranged.

I phoned npower after searching for a freephone number, i wasnt paying 0870 rates to cancel something that wasnt my problem. It sounded like they do this type of thing a lot, knew correct procedure right away.

Maybe i should have let them take the account under someone elses name, Would have been interesting when they tried to take me to court for non payment.

ring_leader_uk

well, apparently, according to nPower, not only had this been erronously transferred to them, It's had also moved next door to the house next to me (which has been boarded up for 10 years)

Very strange indeed, however a transfer back is now in place and I'm told I should recieve notification within 10 days.

Joel