npower ... @#?!$#'$

[survivor]

What a bunch of incompetants...

I've been getting both gas and electricity from Noddypower for a number of years and never, ever had a problem and have always paid my bills on there 'budget plan' dd scheme.

At the start of this month, they sent me my quarterly statement which showed that i owed them £369.70, and confirmed that my dd o £30 had been taken every month. I called them to query how they could possibly have arrived at the figure, given that the dd payments had been calculated by them to cover the cost of anticipated usage, and the dd had always covered the annual bill - things had levelled themselves out by this time last year, I'd gone from being in credit summer 2005 to having a minimal debit amount in Jan/Feb 2006.

Anyway's, spoke to one of the many incompetants, who told that '..well, there have been 3 price increases this year..'. I pointed out that as they had set the amount that they wanted for thedd, surely it was down to them to increase the amount taken to cover price rises, or any other unexpected and/or extenuating circumstances. Incompetant paused for a while - keys were heared being rapidly tapped on a keyboard, and I was expecting the well used phrase of ..The computer says no..!' -then incompetant muttered something unintelligible and I was put on hold.

A 'senior' incompetant then took over the call, and after much ooing and ahhing agreed that Noddypower had '..failed to meet the exacting standards of customer service that we usually provide..' and '..can I offer you £25 as a gesture of goodwill..?'. She also told me that my account was with the dd team, who were currently reassessing my dd payments, and that they would write to me with the revised dd amount.

My response was to say no and ask for £50 - she agreed and said that it would be creditted to my account. I thanked her and told her that I was now going to compare gas/electricity providers and look to change supplier. Senior incopetant told me that they would prevent me doing this as I had a debit balance on my account and that no-one else would be prepared to supply to me. I thanked her for her advie and terminated the call.

Now the really frustrating and annoying bit...

This morning I got a letter from COLLECTION DIRECT - Pre Court Division. This is basically a subsidiary of Noddypower. The contents of the letter were, fundamentally, that I had an outstanding balance of £369.70 and that if this is not paid within 7 days, they will commence court proceedings, whch will incur further costs...

I have this mornig spoken with avery helpful female @ EnergyWatch, who intimated that they have had numerous complaints re Noddypower (and others) who have put customers in the position I am in by not reviewing dd payment after price rises. She put me throught to a 'slightly' competant @ Noddypower whos has NOW credited £50 to my account (not credited when I was told it had been) and is (allegedly) going to have my complaint looked at, and resolved, within 10 days. He has also assured me that my account has been marked as 'in dispute' - thus preventing court proceedings..

Apologies for the rant, but as you can appreciate form the above, Noddypower obviously don't have 'Big Ears' when it comes to listening to their customers.. - my advice to anyone else in this situation with Noddypower is claim a Goodwill Gesture of £50 from them, at least then they may sit up and listen to those of us that complain..

Rant / sermon completed..

Survivor