NPower gas 'sculpting'

Yes cardew, I am getting it in writing. The price rises have no effect on the sculpting. The only thing that effects how many tier 1 units you over pay is if they change it (gas sculpting), turn it off, turn it back on at a whim, if they should wish so, without having the need to notify anyone. As for any documentation that was sent out to the public in regard to the gas sculpting nov 07, and price rises jan 08, both of those state blah no need to worry, you will only pay upto 4572 kwh tier 1 regardless, which is kind of false, because they can switch it off, change it, put it back on when they like without informing which resets it to zero !!! So you start a fresh again. The result is you never should pay more than 4572 kwh tier 1 per every gas sculpt being enabled and left for 12 months, but they have proven to not leave it alone, hence you pay more than 4572 in total, but per new / changed gas sculpt you pay a max of 4572.

Anyway just wanted to further add to my post above, and copied below.

For every tier 1 kwh that is scammed out of us / me costs approx 4 pence. So far this scam has cost me a total of 1000 kwh over payment on tier 1, which equates to approx £40 scammed out of me. Some people have posted they have paid an extra 2500 kwh at tier 1 over the 4572 in a year, which equates to approx £100 scammed. They have several million customers on gas, work it out...Npower say it is completely correct and in order to over pay tier 1 due to the gas sculpting system being stopped / started / changed at different periods and being reset to 0. Complain like hell to watchdog, energy watch, and ofgem !!!

Right here it is confirmed from an executive level, and what causes myself to pay more tier 1 than 4572 kwh per year as per contract.

Depending on what billing system you are on (there are 2), the sculpting is put on and then off, then might be changed and put back on again. For example on the billing system I am on the gas sculpting went like, Nov 06 stopped, Dec 06 started, April 07 stopped, and then Dec 07 started.

EVERYTIME the sculpting changes IT RESETS the amount of tier 1 paid to ZERO !!
This is what causes myself to pay more tier 1 than 4572 kwh a year as per contract, and in fact this worked out to be 800 kwh more at tier 1, others have been less fortunate as per other gas sculpting thread, some have paid 2500 kwh tier 1 more than they should. The billing system is not at fault in any way, the bills are correct as per their sculpting. When asked, why have they not informed myself of the impact on tier 1 units paid or about previous gas sculpting periods, the reply was they only have to inform me of price changes / rises, the gas sculpt on / off and the higher number of tier 1 paid does not constitute a price change / rise. Obviously for myself it does constitute more money paid unjustly, as I am contracted to 4572 kwh tier 1, but to them it does not constitute anything.

So thats the explanation I recieved, and in my view its the biggest scam i have ever known and I can pay any amount above 4572 kwh tier 1 anytime they wish to change the gas sculpt without even notifying me. They did say they have no plans over the next 12 months to change the sculpting, so hopefully it may result in being just 4572 tier 1 paid, but, if they change their mind, they dont inform me about it anyway, and will result in more tier 1 paid than I should.

Cardew, I never stated it was reset from a price change, the other guy did, on page 1 of this thread (nearly). I did use it as a prompt though in a pm to you. In other words it was nearly what was desribed to the other guy, but not quite correct. It resets from when a new gas sculpt is enabled, changed etc.. at any particular point, and not the price. As for it being changed randomly yes it is, at the whim of npower. It was a senior manager in the executive complaints team m8 that informed me of this, so yes it is correct and said I will recieve a letter of everything stated / discussed. The reason they are confident in informing me of this, they state ofgem has looked into the gas sculpting, and they have not heard anything back, I guess they assume everything is ok.

Terrylw1 wrote: »

Hi,

Did the Executive Level tell you there are 2 billing systems?

They transferred into 1 billing system out of several systems over the past few years. Their last gas system was turned off in 2007 so there is only one that now bills everyone.

This means they bill gas & elec for dual fuel customers through one account now as opposed to 2 in the past. So, a system error could affect both. I heard the elec also suffered this system error so worth checking your elec bills.

The reason I mention that is I'm questioning the experience of the person who is responding to the MD complaint. They hand out their MD complaints to various teams of advisors across the business. These advisors are the same as anyone else but they have been their longer and have more experience. Thats how their structure has worked for years. The majority of these people are lower than even a team manager but they have specialised experience in their areas. These guys deal with complaints from Energywatch due to their experience but in terms of level, they are lower down on the structure.

So, if you don't get what you want ask to speak to their managers.

It's certainly worth you handing this over the Energywatch to intervene on behalf of all their customers as it will affect a lot of people.

If Ofgem are investigating this, they will be in big trouble! Did they say Ofgem are investigating their seasonal calculation methods or the fact they deprive customers of their tier 2 by restarting their tier 1 year?

By restarting like that they are scamming everyone though as your contract is for a tier 1 allowance plus tier 2 over an annum. Otherwise they could restart it constantly stopping you having tier 2 which would invalidate the T&C's.

Be interesting to see what you get back in writing. Their system did this on elec by restarting when it shouldn't do so hopefully it's a simple fix rather than a CEO decision to get themselves on the road to licence removal!

Yes 2 billing systems.

The person I spoke to was a manager.

They said ofgem has been looking into gas sculpting, and they have not heard anything back, I can only assume they feel confident about it.

Its not a fix or fault with the system, its intentional to restart tier 1 when a new gas sculpt is enabled.

Well, I do recall watchdog mentioning about 2 billing systems and that npower were moving them across. They denied having a problem with the elec by the way.

I am glad to see that there are people out there who are not willing to take this laying down. I have still not been contacted by a senior advisor, in spite of phoning each day for the last week. Each time, I have been told that someone will get back to me. I am therefore not in a position to take my complaint further.
I would like to publicise this as much as possible and would like to contact newspapers, television etc. Does anyone have addresses of the possible contacts. Unless this is brought to the interests of the public at large, Npower will continue to rip us off for £100s!