N Power And Phantom Bills

[REDDRAGON]

Hi All,

During the summer at a local fete we were approached by a guy with a clip board supposedly doing market research who asked us a few questions about our gas and electric suppliers. We informed him we were with British gas for both he then asked us if we had ever heard of Npower I told him we had he asked us if we would consider changing we informed him we were happy where we were. At the end he asked us for our post code and house number (for his research).

A couple of weeks later we started to recieve letters from Npower welcoming us as new customers. I informed them that they were wrong and we were with BG. Then we started to recieve letters from Bg saying sorry your leaving etc. Spoke to them saying not leaving happy as we are.

The begining of Sept we had a guy call to our house from BG wanting to know why we had left I told him we had not left and didn't know where Npower had the idea that we were now their customers. The guy from Bg showed us some paperwork that they had from Npower stating that we were now customers of thiers from a few days earlier. The guy from Bg said if we wanted to come back to them then it would take five to six weeks to set up and for that period we would be customers of Npower. Not really happy with this as we did not want to change in the first place.

Fast forward to last week where we recieve bills from Npower for our gas and electric for the past six weeks. The gas one isnt too bad but the electric charge is nearly double that what we pay per quarter with BG. Not happy with this tried to phone them with no joy continually put on hold.

looking at the bills the charge is made up of estimates. The first charge is an estimate ie from the date they say we became their customers and the last charge is estimate from the date we went back to Bg.

a few questions no one from Npower has ever been to our house to read the meters so how the hell can they and we query the ammount. we have never signed anything from or to Npower so how can they say we are customers of theirs. they do not have any of our bank details so how can they and we pay the bills even if they were correct. Can we dispute the fact that they say we were customers of theirs in the first place and how do we resolve this?. Wife is now panicing as the bills should have been paid yesterday but I want to hold fire until I get some answers from Npower, she is worried that if we do not pay then this is going to end up with a dca.

Any advice gratefully recieved.

[ozzywizard]

You do have a few options, you have been missold a product from Npower by a dogy sales man. First I would raise a complaint with Npower in writing against this advisor, not for your benifit but to ensure he does not continue to do the same to others.
Regarding your situation, its quite messy in the sense if you raise a full complaint it will drag on and you will be spending most of your time on the phone between companies etc. If you want to take this route then phone BG and raise what they call an erroneous transfer. Then phone Npower and ask them to put the account on hold under investigation.
The easier route for you is to check the COS (change of supply) reading from both BG and Npower and check it is the same, if it is then you are only paying the price differance. They can only estimate the reading because they had no way of getting a read of you on the exact day you changed over so have to estimate. As long as BG ended service with same read as Npower finished on and vice versa on rejoining BG it will work out the same apart from a couple of pound differance either way in price.
Good luck with it and keep us informed, if you need further advise just give us a shout. Get your readings to match up.

[bazak1]

in my belief, firstly the salesman would have had a signature from you as well as postcode, house number etc, so check to see if that supposedly " market research" sheet actually has your signature on. if it has then it sounds like the rep's done it and you have " forgery" to back your claim up. ( i have heard of this happening before, because i think the rep gets commission for every " new" customer he gets).
Secondly, make sure you dont fall for this scam, ( and some do actually ask you to sign just as a way of "confirming" the rep has asked you the questions), this is a lot harder to get out of because that really is your signature on that paper.
if you have no joy try energywatch ( consumer body ). http://energywatch.org.uk
They should have all the info' you need.
good luck

[honey5]

i had this happen to me too and my first bill (bearing in mind was for 1 months supply) came to £4,987.78 haaaaaaaa?? nope i was mortified, it was only the bill for the northern rock along the road!!
never mind sorted that then got a bill in the Jan saying i owed whatever when i rang they said oh yes we have been out to service your gas pipes??
i told them that if they had theyd have realised that our gas pipes were being seen too at that moment by transco as they are visable about ground level!!
next letter too arrive
you owe us £320 as we HAVE serviced your pipes
theyre a shambles honestly and have charged me £107 per month plus all this "servicing" but trying to get rid is a different matter!!!
ill keep an eye on this thread and hope you are successful
honey x

[Conniff]

The same happened to our household. My wife answered some survey questions from someone while out shopping.
We then received the 'Welcome' letter. I was really annoyed at this and phoned them, they said it would take 28 days to change it back. A bill came but I refused to pay it and told them I will pay that to my supplier.
I paid to my usual supplier who rang me and said I was no longer with them and I told them 'yes I was as it was a con' and I would not be paying the new company but them only.
I heard nothing more, and am still with my prefered supplier.