NPower Huge Bill and Dispute

[saffy33]

I've been trying to solve this problem for a couple of years now on my own but I think I need some help now!

Below is the that I wrote in a letter in December. Sorry it's long but it includes all the facts. I didn't receive a response so I sent another letter in January and I complained via energywatch. I then received a final notice from a collections agency on 4th June. I don't know what to do next!!

I am writing to you regarding my outstanding bill because it seems I can never get anything resolved over the telephone.

I have called you on numerous occasions to tell you that my bills are far too high for a two bed flat (with two people living in it) containing 1 working storage heater, 1 oven, 1 washing machine, 1 immersion heater (rarely used) and a dishwasher.

I first called you in April 2006 after receiving a bill for £754.59. You said that you would send someone to read the meter on 7th April but this never happened. I then received a bill on 22nd June for £1013.08 which is a ridiculous amount for such a small property. There is no way we could use that amount of electricity in such a short amount of time!

Again, I called you and asked you to check the meter was correct. Two more bills arrived in September and November but still no adjustments had been made and I called you again on 15th November after which adjustments were made.

I have paid a monthly direct debit of £29 (an amount I agree to be reasonable for a small flat) but this has still allowed my bill to accrue to £558.50 in July 2007.

You then asked that I raise the amount of my direct debit but I refuse to pay £120 a month for electricity for a small flat. Therefore, I have cancelled my direct debit and I will not set another one up until you have carried out a review of my meter, my account and my home. I had arranged for somebody from npower to look at my meter on 30th November and, although I had taken the day off work to wait in, nobody showed up – no big surprise!

Please contact me immediately to tell me how you intend to resolve this dispute. I will be contacting the Citizen’s Advice Bureau in the meantime to receive best advice on how to proceed with this case.

[old_andrew2007]

bump

[mree]

A few questions - what tariff are you on? What is the reading given at the start of the billing period referred to, what's the latest reading, and what kind of readings are they (customer, meter reader, estimate)? When do you use your storage heater, and how old is it? Do you have any other electric heaters?

[saffy33]

I moved out of the flat in Feb 08 so I can't get a latest reading plus all the meters for the block of flats were locked in a room so it was always difficult to access it anyway. Anyway I hope these details help:-
Tariff - D5- E7
For the period I'm arguing over (6th Jan 06 to 23 March 06) the readings were:-
Day Present 09151 Previous 03610E
Night Present 12638 Previous 07378E

This came to a total charge of £754.59

The charge for the next quarter was £345.49 and then something odd happened the quarter after that because the bill said I'd used -1746 units!!

The storage heater had been installed in 2003 and it wasn't used at all during that time (genuinely!) because it didn't have any effect.

[customer1805]

Hi Saffy33,

We are facing the same problem with npower. We recently moved into a one bedroom flat and 1 month later received a bill of £286 (2 Apr 2008 to 12 May 200 in which the previous tenant's bill was also added. We called npower and were told they would send us a corrected bill in due course of time. Two months later we received a bill for £86.52 based on estimated readings and were told that we would get billed for actual readings next month onwards.

Now, we've been sent a bill of £317 for a duration of roughly 2 months (from 12 May 2008 to 23 July 200 with the energy units adding up to 1873 during peak time. This sounds completely absurd ! The only appliances used are the stove, microwave, fridge and washing machine. How can this add up to 1873 units ! It being summers, the boiler has never been used.

We are now required to pay this bill by 8 Aug. What do we do? Please advise.

Thank you

[sduffield]

Did you record the meter reading when you moved into the flat? If so, then you can work out the total amount of units used since living there. Give this figure to npower and advise them that you will only pay for what you personally have used. They can not try to recover a previous tennants bill from you.

[mree]

Originally Posted by saffy33

Day Present 09151 Previous 03610E
Night Present 12638 Previous 07378E

And here we have the problem - estimated readings from (I'm assuming here) the date you moved in to the property. Were readings taken when you moved in? If not, why not? You'll need to take regular readings over the next couple of weeks and ask them to use these to manually estimate your start reads, allowing for seasonal variation.

[old_andrew2007]

Originally Posted by customer1805

Hi Saffy33,

We are facing the same problem with npower. We recently moved into a one bedroom flat and 1 month later received a bill of £286 (2 Apr 2008 to 12 May 200 in which the previous tenant's bill was also added. We called npower and were told they would send us a corrected bill in due course of time. Two months later we received a bill for £86.52 based on estimated readings and were told that we would get billed for actual readings next month onwards.

Now, we've been sent a bill of £317 for a duration of roughly 2 months (from 12 May 2008 to 23 July 200 with the energy units adding up to 1873 during peak time. This sounds completely absurd ! The only appliances used are the stove, microwave, fridge and washing machine. How can this add up to 1873 units ! It being summers, the boiler has never been used.

We are now required to pay this bill by 8 Aug. What do we do? Please advise.

Thank you

Hi, customer1805

Firstly, Welcome to CAG.

I noticed your concern about Electricy bills, if you start your own thread I am sure you will recieve advice fairly quickly
To start a new thread, go to the page you want to have a thread, at the top and bottom of the page there is a blue box which says...NEW THREAD. Click on that.

You will get an empty box up, Give your self a title, ie...customer1805-V- N-power, and your off.

Please have a read of this link i am giving you. It has everything you will need to know to help you find your way around this site.

"How do I...?" A Dummies' Guide to this Forum

Also please have a really good read around the site. As soon as you are ready, make a post and some one will be around to help you.
I've sent the above as a PM also

Andy

[customer1805]

Thank you for you responses!

Well, the first bill was sorted by our letting agents and we've already paid for it. It is the second one which is a cause for concern. We've got in touch with npower and they've agreed to put the bill on hold for a week now. During this week, we are required to note down meter readings at a fixed time on a daily basis and also to list down all the appliances that are being used. The customer representative stated that at the end of the week, we would send this information to npower and it would be taken forward from there.

Let's see how this works out. Will keep you posted.