Npower Dual Dating On 5 Year Contract

[salinia]

First post thanks for having me!
We are a small ltd company I signed a contract with npower 5 years ago the date's written on the contract by the sales advisor read 04/04/03 or 09/10/02 (yes! 2 dates) I looked at our contract last February/07 to remind me when to give the 30 day required notice to terminate...plenty of time I thought I'll get around to it early in the new year.

5 years on from the first date on the contract would be 03/04/08 I reasoned, however Npower let me know on the 21/09/07 that our 5 years was up by 08/10/07 I spoke to them to see if a mistake had been made, No we have been supplied for 5 years up to their expiry date. I asked to switch supplier due to the ambiguous nature of having 2 dates on the contract.....No we are stuck with a rolled on 12 month contract and inflated prices I have asked for the assistance of the omsbudman and energywatch (awaiting their reponse) because we feel that the first date on the contract is fundamental and why were two dates put on the contract anyway? npower could not answer that one. Do we have point? what do you think? Hope you found this of interest. Gary

[Bigmac versus]

Hi Gary and welcome to the forum, you have every right to complain and stick with it, you have the proof of the other date so simply fax them a copy of it and advise them of your intentions to swap suppliers.
Keep us updated of any progress.

[salinia]

Thanks for the reply, there's more! we have been digging and I have been regressing. Having found a 3 year contract with Npower that preceeded the 5 year one it is now my belief that the reason 2 dates were put on the contract is because the sales agent was aware that a new 5 year contract would overlap the 3 year contract and because of his contractual concerns he put 2 dates on so that npower could choose when to recind the old contract (we had no wriiten notice of that) and commence with the new one. Unfortunately I am in the habit of looking at the contract when it needs renewing and not finding old invoices when they actually started to supply electricity at the new rate! Still no word from the omsbudman, we are now considering sending another letter to them by recorded delivery (last one sent by recorded delivery no reply had to fax it to them to get response) to inform them that they are in breach of contract and that we would like them to release us so that we can go with another supplier......Gary

[salinia]

energyomsbudman....inappr opriate in our case, householders only. energywatch have replied to us and are on the case let you all know more later. Only had one opinion from my fellow members of this forum....it is a little bit of a puzzle, I remain ever hopeful of a succesful outcome "right is might"...Gary

[Surfer01]

The latest contract (5 years) that you signed would be the valid contract and Npower should be charging you at thsoe prices, not the rolled over prices. Ask them to produce the contract that ended on the 08/10/07 and more than likely they will not be able to produce this so no valid contract. However as you are able to produce a valid contract taking you through to March 2008 Npower may not have a leg to stand on.

[salinia]

Thanks surfer01...Coincidently npower did ask to see a copy of the 5 year contract and I emailed a scanned copy proving the 2 dates. At the time our copy was the 3rd one. The top copy and the third down to npower 2nd to salesman..5th to existing supplier. Made no difference to them as far they were concerned we had been supplied with electric at the contract price for 5 years up to 08/10/07. We are sympathetic and would not like them to lose money...ahem..and consider 2 dates rather misleading and would just like to switch supplier rather than be forced to pay extortionate rates. Awaiting written response from npower which should include copy of their top copy and hopefully a show of goodwill in letting us go or continuing to the effective date of expiry which in our mind is 03/04/08. If they cannot produce a copy of their contract would that really make a difference as they now have our copy? is this just a case of being reasonable?....Gary

[Surfer01]

If Npower asked to see a copy of the contract, then it is fairly obvious that they lost the original one. As you have supplied a copy of a contract showing the expiry date to be 03/04/07 and they are now charging you at another "rolled" over rate, basically I would say that Npower are in breach of contract. Perhaps consider sending a preliminary letter stating the obvious along with another copy of the 5 year contract and advising them that unless they revert back to the 5 year contract you are going to sue them for breach of contract. If they still do not play ball, then it is a letter before action. Send any correspondence by recorded mail. I work for the largest independent supplier in England and you will be amazed at the number of mainline suppliers like Npower, BGAS and other large suppliers that try this on.

[salinia]

So you would ignore the second date on the contract 09/10/02 and their insistance that the well has run dry so to speak. I appreciate your time in putting forward your view. We have sourced a new supplier and the difference in price would be worthy of a claim via the small claims court as it does concern 3 supplies on the contract. Our champion energywatch has written quite favourably to us and have written to npower with our concerns... the letter we feel would be an asset in court.