Help npower off peak bill( reposting properly!!)
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Hi there, I contacted npower a few months ago after receiving letters saying that I had not been topping up my prepayment meter, I wanted to speak to someone about this as I spend about £40 a week on electric. It was a nightmare to get through to anyone as they could never find my account and I was put on hold on countless occasions then just cut off! I finally used the online chat and it took about an hour of finding numbers on meter etc the girl finally found my account. Whilst going through all the screens with her I noticed that meter said £177.40 debt, said they taking £11 charge per week plus £10 per week debt recovery. I was very concerned as I have no debt with them. So she said an investigation would start and I'd hear back within 28 days. I waited heard nothing so contacted them again, they said sorry for some reason nothing has happened so they started new complaint. This has now been ongoing fr 3 months, I have been told that I must have been paying previous tenants debt as they had not added any debt messages since I moved in in 2011. They informed me that they could not tell how much I had paid to this debt until they removed meter which they scheduled for the 12th April. On 11th April I got text saying they we're cancelling removing meter for another month. I called again yesterday to speak to the complaint handler and was told she not available again. I got a young man who I asked to explain each screen on meter to me etc finally after an hour and a half on phone he said they had realised that I had 2 meters, 1 is my normal prepayment meter and the other is an off peak meter which they can not charge you on prepayment for so they have to register cost as debt. I was totally confused as I know how much electricity I use. He said usually it is for storage heaters or underfloor heating etc, I have had no central heating working for years the housing association only fitted new combo boiler last year which I can't use as the gas was unused for so many years that it put the prepayment meter into huge debt with service charges. Over the last year I have been paying off the debt to Scottish power slowly and only owe £50 now so when that is clear I will finally be able to top up gas meter and use heating without it all going to debt! So I am just devastated to hear that I have been paying thousands for heating for years when we have been freezing every winter! Npower said I just have to wait now another month for them to remove meter (which incidentally will be when the debt currently on meter is finished!) then they will take meter and decide if they owe me any money or if I owe them!! This cannot be right, I already pay a lot for just lights etc. Please any advise would be appreciated. Thank you Lisa
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Comments
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Your title is misleading!
This wall of text needs splitting into paragraphs!!0 -
Hi there, I contacted npower a few months ago after receiving letters saying that I had not been topping up my prepayment meter, I wanted to speak to someone about this as I spend about £40 a week on electric.
I finally used the online chat and it took about an hour of finding numbers on meter etc the girl finally found my account. Whilst going through all the screens with her I noticed that meter said £177.40 debt, said they taking £11 charge per week plus £10 per week debt recovery. I was very concerned as I have no debt with them. So she said an investigation would start and I'd hear back within 28 days. I heard nothing so contacted them again & they started new complaint which has been ongoing for 3 months.
I have been told that I must have been paying previous tenants debt as they had not added any debt messages since I moved in in 2011. They informed me that they could not tell how much I had paid to this debt until they removed meter which they scheduled for the 12th April.
On 11th April I got text saying they we're cancelling removing meter for another month. I called again yesterday & got them to explain each screen on meter to me. He said they had realised that I had 2 meters, 1 is my normal prepayment meter and the other is an off peak meter which they can not charge you on prepayment for so they have to register cost as debt.
I was totally confused as I know how much electricity I use. He said usually it is for storage heaters or underfloor heating etc, I have had no central heating working for years the housing association only fitted new combo boiler last year which I can't use as the gas was unused for so many years that it put the prepayment meter into huge debt with service charges.
Over the last year I have been paying off the debt to Scottish power slowly and only owe £50 now so when that is clear I will finally be able to top up gas meter and use heating without it all going to debt!
Npower said I just have to wait now another month for them to remove meter (which incidentally will be when the debt currently on meter is finished!) then they will take meter and decide if they owe me any money or if I owe them!! This cannot be right, I already pay a lot for just lights etc. Please any advise would be appreciated. Thank you Lisa
Did you register with the current supplier (NPower?) when you moved into the flat? I presume not and that's why you are paying off a previous tenants debt. You should always contact the current supplier to let them know you are a new tenant & give them meter readings for both gas and electric as soon as you move in. With pre-pay they would send you a new key and/or card and the debt would be reset on the meter when you started using the new key/card.
If there is a second electric meter next to your pre-payment meter, perhaps the house used to be an all-electric property and gas central heating installed by the housing at some point, can't see why else there would be a second meter? You should ask the housing association about this, and can then possibly get NPower to remove the second meter if you don't use off-peak electricity since you have gas central heating. As a housing association property, there's not likely to have been underfloor heating installed!
Not sure why you say you are paying of a debt to Scottish Power for the gas meter. Again if you'd contacted them when you moved in to set up an account with them and gave them a reading, there shouldn't be any debt.
I'd be contacting NPower again and saying you have a complaint raised and you want a freeze put on the debt on the meter in the meantime while they sort it out.0 -
Hi there thanks for reply. I told Scottish power who gas and electricity was supplied by when I moved in. I have dealt with Scottish power but had no reason to contact them until I received letter from npower saying I had not been topping up meter. I contacted them and they said they took over my supply in 2013! I did not change it!
The letter saying I had not topped up they said was mistake. It just seems like huge mess and I am not an expert in dealing with this, I apologise for the layout of my post now!! This is the 3rd reply Iv had on here out of 5 telling me off for my grammar...��0 -
Sorry not u telling me off!! The post above!0
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Not telling you off! Far from it, It was for your benefitThis is the 3rd reply Iv had on here out of 5 telling me off for my grammar...��
It's nothing to do with your grammar! No-one should worry about their grammar/spelling etc
You will get far more response if you break up that wall of text and help people to read it!
But if 3 people have told you about it already (after just 5 posts here) why aren't you getting the message?0 -
Your title is misleading!
This wall of text needs splitting into paragraphs!!
No it does nt ! , just read it. Thats how all broadsheet newsprint is, or was printed in the quality press like the Times/Guardian except it was much smaller. a wall of text. Its easy
Personally i don t need huge gaps in text to take in the gist.
why don t you all just advise the lady with her problem and stop complaining about text or grammar or huge spaces between sentences0 -
Hi,No it does nt ! , just read it. Thats how all broadsheet newsprint is, or was printed in the quality press like the Times/Guardian except it was much smaller. a wall of text. Its easy
Personally i don t need huge gaps in text to take in the gist.
why don t you all just advise the lady with her problem and stop complaining about text or grammar or huge spaces between sentences
Wow, great example, and you managed to fit in some double spacing. :T0 -
No it isn't. It's a solid wall of text & virtually unreadable.No it does nt ! , just read it. Thats how all broadsheet newsprint is, or was printed in the quality press like the Times/Guardian except it was much smaller. a wall of text. Its easy
Newspaper columns are much narrower than a web page but that's irrelevant as readability on web pages needs a different approach. Here is a link to a lead article in the Guardian showing the text split into paragraphs of one or two sentences with plenty of white space in between. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/apr/13/corbyn-told-back-eu-referendum-or-lose-millions-voters-brexit0 -
Ask for a meter exchange as soon as possible to remove the off peak, they will be able to wire this into your prepayment meter for you. Should you not do this your energy company will work out how much they think you will use for the year ahead and add this as a debt to the prepayment meter. This is to ensure you don’t go into debt. However, anything not charged and billed for for 12 month should be cleared as it falls under the codes of practice as it’s a credit meter.
As you now have gas this should be easy resolved, however you will need to ask about the charges loaded to the meter to see what has been billed and what you paid they will hold a record of this.
In regards to gas if this debt is on the meter owed screen ask it to be moved to the back of the meter to be recovered at a weekly amount, then you can start using this straight away. Standing charge always builds up when the meter is not used which can just add to the debt.
Hope this help
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OK, lets forget the style of the OP's postings and try to deal with the problem
OP moves in and signs up with the current supplier, Scot Power.
We don't know the date, but some time later in 2013 without any action from the OP, the account switches to N'power.
My bet is that the account was subjected to an Erroneous Transfer, with the usual "Welcome" correspondence and Npower account key being sent to a different address.
With the OP in blissful ignorance of the change, all further top- up payments made with the original key would in the end up in the hands of Scot Power, which explains why Npower have never received any top-up payments
Sorting out an Erroneous Transfer after 6 years is a herculean task, the OP's best bet is to WRITE a joint letter headed Complaint to Npower & Scot Power, which at the very least will force Scot Power to repay all monies sent to them since 21030
This discussion has been closed.
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