NPower Have increased my bill by 300 a month

Douglas97 · 5 December 2018 at 10:49AM

I moved home in June last year and I started paying £114 a month for dual fuel, I gave them regular readings but they kept rejecting my Gas readings, they then decreased my payments to £94 and then further reduced them to £54.

I was then contacted by NPower to check the serial number of the gas meter and it turned out that the serial number was wrong and they would need to amend my statement and this is what has lead to my new payment amount, including a charge for late billed consumption.

NPower removed all the meter readings I had gave them from the website and the starting meter reading they produced seems incredibly low but I have no way to confirm this.

How do I get them to lower my bill and remove the charge.

Thanks

dogshome · 5 December 2018 at 1:19PM

What is the date of issue on the first gas bill you received ?
This is important as the "Back-billing" code does not allow a supplier who has failed to send a bill for 12 months, to charge for Gas supplied prior to 12 months back from the date on that 1st bill.
Assuming that you have just had this bill, n'power can't charge for any gas supplied before the relevant day in December 2017.

If the info in your post is accurate with no detail left out, a 'Fine' for late payment is so far out of order it's laughable

Pity you did not keep a record of the readings you supplied, but in the end if n'power have deleted the readings you gave and are insisting xxxx is your start reading, then they should be asked to prove it., and by the way, what is the payment they are now asking for ?

To tackle this you must write a letter headed Complaint and send it by *Royal Mail
1) Set out your claim for Back-billing

2) Challange the Late Billed charge on the grounds that the late
billing was caused by problems of their own making

3) Ask on what evidence they have based your Start Reading on, as it
doesn't match your own recollection.

*n'power have under the cosh of Ofgem for the number of Complaints
and failure to deal with them -Their reaction has been to come up with
creative ways of reducing the problem, such as denying a complaint was
made, Officially closing the Complaint when they had done nothing
about it and denying receipt of Emails.
A letter by Royal Mail has legal standing in Law and the Post office
give you a Certificate of Posting for FREE

nPower · 5 December 2018 at 1:32PM

Douglas97 wrote: »

I moved home in June last year and I started paying £114 a month for dual fuel, I gave them regular readings but they kept rejecting my Gas readings, they then decreased my payments to £94 and then further reduced them to £54.

I was then contacted by NPower to check the serial number of the gas meter and it turned out that the serial number was wrong and they would need to amend my statement and this is what has lead to my new payment amount, including a charge for late billed consumption.

NPower removed all the meter readings I had gave them from the website and the starting meter reading they produced seems incredibly low but I have no way to confirm this.

How do I get them to lower my bill and remove the charge.

Thanks

Hi Douglas97,

Thanks for you message - please contact us using the details on our profile page so we can look into this.

Thanks,

Jen

Mister_G · 5 December 2018 at 1:32PM

OP, this is the "LPG, Heating Oil, Solid & Other Fuels" Board.

If you post in the correct board, "Energy", you may get more replies.

Perhaps the mods could move it for you.

wavelets · 5 December 2018 at 1:44PM

Douglas97 wrote: »

I moved home in June last year and I started paying £114 a month for dual fuel, I gave them regular readings but they kept rejecting my Gas readings, they then decreased my payments to £94 and then further reduced them to £54.

I was then contacted by NPower to check the serial number of the gas meter and it turned out that the serial number was wrong and they would need to amend my statement and this is what has lead to my new payment amount, including a charge for late billed consumption.

NPower removed all the meter readings I had gave them from the website and the starting meter reading they produced seems incredibly low but I have no way to confirm this.

How do I get them to lower my bill and remove the charge.

Thanks

If I understand you correctly, the supplier has incorrectly billed you for gas consumption because they believed you were being supplied trough a different meter. (it had a different serial number to the one that you are actually supplied by)

I wouldn't hold out too much hope of the supplier upholding the back biilling rules in this case unless you can prove you contacted the supplier 12 months or more ago to tell them this error.

1. The meter serial number the supplier is using is on the bill.
2. It would be a very stange coincidence, if the start meter reading you provided was the same as a different meter had. Did you check it when you received your fisrt bill, and query why the start reading was different at the time?
3. What complaint had you raised to the supplier that previously submitted meter readings were constatly being rejected?

The supplier will be aware of the start reading they should use, by reference to the end reading the previous account user was billed to.
Unless you have evidence to the contrary, it will be very difficult to argue against.

The supplier will have removed past estimated meter readings from your online account as they refer to a different meter/supply.
As you said, your meter readings were being rejected. If that was on submission, they probably don't have them; otherwsie they probably do have them even if not available to you online,

All that is really relevant is the start meter reading, and the latest meter reading - you will be billed for that consumption.
(Any meter readings you supplied that related to your own meter, that the supplier has, may help them confirm the start meter raeding they will now adopt is correct)

dogshome · 5 December 2018 at 3:01PM

Disagree with wavelets

How could the OP check the meter ident on the bill against the meter, when n'power were not issueing any bills ?

n'power knew there was a problem when they rejected the OP's Start Reading at the very beginning of the account, let alone all the following readings the OP gave.
Yet it took them 18 months to even try to resolve what was a system error way beyond the OP's knowledge or control

wavelets · 5 December 2018 at 5:18PM

dogshome wrote: »

Disagree with wavelets

How could the OP check the meter ident on the bill against the meter, when n'power were not issueing any bills ?

n'power knew there was a problem when they rejected the OP's Start Reading at the very beginning of the account, let alone all the following readings the OP gave.
Yet it took them 18 months to even try to resolve what was a system error way beyond the OP's knowledge or control

You are free to disagree with me.

Can you clarify for me where you gleaned that nPower were not issuing the OP with any bills please? :huh:

dogshome · 6 December 2018 at 5:54PM

WAVELETS - Read Post #1
n'power were rejecting the OP's Gas meter reads and because it was not being billed, they gradually reduced the D/Debits because OP's monthly payments for Gas were building up a large credit balance.

NPower Have increased my bill by 300 a month

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