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Npower - 2 year nightmare - Please help


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Hello all,

 

I just wanted to gather some advice regarding this, as I am currently thinking of taking it down the route of small claims court.

 

Around about 2 years ago (23 months to be exact) we had to have a new meter installed at our flat due to the monitor on the then existing one breaking.

No worries, that is absolutely fine, crack on.

 

Slowly but surely we started to see a dramatic increase of the price of our bills.

From when we were paying on average £40/50ish (one bed flat), started to become £100, sometimes £200 plus.

Obviously to any rational human being that would flag as something being rather wrong, you would think, but not to N-power, oooohhh no, that seemed around about what we should be paying.

 

After around 6 months of arguing with N-power I got rather bored and went to the ombudsman, this wasn't being we now had a bill in excess of £1000 (If not more, can find that later if important but at work at moment).

 

Now we sit and twiddle our thumbs expecting Ombudsman to come back with some fantastic news that it was all incorrect.... Na, not a chance!

They ruled with N-power and stated that we were using the amount of electric they said.

 

At this point me and my partner were rather deflated, but knew in our heart of hearts that this could not be right, it just couldn't be!

We accepted a deal with them in which we were then paying £120 a month to clear the debt in order to take some of the strain off ourselves, and frankly get some breathing space as they started threatening legal action.

 

Whilst still arguing and debating with N-power we were not getting anywhere (Why should we, we were in debt to them and the Ombudsman agreed with them),

then one morning we got an email stating that our direct debit was going up and we would have to pay £350 a month speechless-smiley-040.gif

 

Well, that was it, I ordered my partner to make a cup of tea whilst I sat in bed and started typing a review on N-power Facebook.

I had the added advantage that I saw the head office (Or a N-power office) was based in Solihull, I thought this is brilliant, I'm going to be working near that for the next few months, I shall tell them I will pay them a visit.

 

Surely enough they took notice of this, and arranged for someone to test our meter.

This gentleman who came to test our meter was nice, one of a kind, told me at that even though he wouldn't have the results right away, the meter was fast.

 

Two weeks passed and we got a call from N-power, yes they confirmed, your meter is clocking up too fast!

HOW FAST?!?! I asked barely able to contain my excitment..... 58.8% fast!!!?! WOOOOOOW.

 

Now the gentleman from N-power was nice and said don't worry, give him a few weeks as he has to adjust every bill we've had since installation of this meter.

No problem, that is absolutely fine thinking this is the end.

 

Took our meter reading for that month, that'll be £52 please, yes that seems about correct!

 

Was it the end??? No.

They only went and messed up the figures and we were still left with £1200 to pay.

A little confused, I emailed back my figures based on 58.8% deduction, plus the excess we would have paid.

Nothing.

 

I have now gone back to Ombudsman but they are not sure they can take the case as it relates to a previously ruled on case.

I asked them even with the knowledge that we were correct and N-power were wrong???

They said they would have to check with the powers that be.

They are currently doing that (To be fair they said it would take a few weeks due to Xmas and New Year).

 

Now, that is a very light hearted post I have written whilst killing some time at work.

I really cannot stress how stressful the whole process has been.

Me and the partner have argued, tears, stress, literally wanting to kill N-power, sitting in the freezing cold not wanting to waste any energy and a magnitued of other things.

 

My question is,

if ombudsman rule they can't look into it again, would be have a claim for small claims court?

More out of curiosity than anything, because I am not going to let this go without a fight.

 

Also, this is on another forum also,

but I had never heard of this forum until around an hour ago and having looked through stuff you guys seem to know your stuff!

 

Hoping to get all the information I need to absolutely hammer these clowns.

Edited by dx100uk
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I would say its a new complaint as its now a proved faulty meter.

please don't hit Quote...just type we know what we said earlier..

DCA's view debtors as suckers, marks and mugs

NO DCA has ANY legal powers whatsoever on ANY debt no matter what it's Type

and they

are NOT and can NEVER  be BAILIFFS. even if a debt has been to court..

If everyone stopped blindly paying DCA's Tomorrow, their industry would collapse overnight... 

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Your route now is to go to to go to the county court go and sue them.

 

Npower are renowned for being stupid and having poor customer service.

 

I'm away at the moment and so I am mainly doing this on the telephone but let me have a look at your story and ask questions so I can get a better picture in my mind.

 

Please monitor this thread and respond quickly to any questions

 

However, please send npower an sar immediately.

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read our customer services guide and if you have any telephone dealings with them, then make sure that you have implemented the advice we have given there

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Your route now is to go to to go to the county court go and sue them.

 

Npower are renowned for being stupid and having poor customer service.

 

I'm away at the moment and so I am mainly doing this on the telephone but let me have a look at your story and ask questions so I can get a better picture in my mind.

 

Please monitor this thread and respond quickly to any questions

 

However, please send npower an sar immediately.

 

Amazing you should mention a SAR. I saw a thread in which you were advising and I’ve literally just sent one off.

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Good, that is always the starting point with this company.

 

wait until you receive the disclosure and then come back here. In the meantime read our customer services guide and also start assembling all your evidence

 

Don't worry about the ombudsman.

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do you happen to know the name/identity of the gentleman who came to read the meter?

 

Do you still have the same meter in place? If so then you should make sure at least that you take it's serial number down. also, if somebody tries to remove it and change it I think you should object until the matter is settled.

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do you happen to know the name/identity of the gentleman who came to read the meter?

 

Do you still have the same meter in place? If so then you should make sure at least that you take it's serial number down. also, if somebody tries to remove it and change it I think you should object until the matter is settled.

 

Yeah I do actually, he was outsourced by Npower, and gave me his card if I ever needed anything. He was a decent bloke to be fair.

 

I don't actually have the same meter, but I do have the serial number of my old meter, and photos/video recordings.

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And does the new meter now produce a correct assessment of your energy usage?

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And does the new meter now produce a correct assessment of your energy usage?

 

It does appear so, when we submitted our readings it came out at £52 for the month, which is around what I would expect. Only had it for the one bill though.

 

Day

0 Our estimate

31 October 2018

303 Our reading

30 November 2018

303 kWh at 14.790p £44.81

 

Night

0 Our estimate

31 October 2018

63 Our reading

30 November 2018

63 kWh at 7.550p £4.76

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Here is the email I got from Npower regarding the accuracy results.

 

 

Further to my previous email, I would now like to provide you with an update around the result of your recent Meter Accuracy Test.

Our analysis shows that your previous meter has recorded high usage since it was installed on 28.02.2017 therefore, your account will be amended for the full period the meter was installed.

 

Start Date: 28.02.2017

Start Read Day: 24353

Start Read Night: 4275

 

Meter Removed: 29.10.2018

Removed Read Day: 38692

Removed Read Night: 13555

 

Based on the meter recording 58.82% Fast the removal readings have been amended to:

 

Amended Read Day:33381 – Removing 5311 Day Units

Amended Read Night: 10118 – Removing 3437 Night units

The billing on your account has been reversed and the incorrect final meter readings have now been removed. The removal readings have now been amended as outlined above and we have billed the account to the installation readings from your new meter.

The balance on your account detailed within your last bill dated 14.09.2018 was £1,926.72 debit, which was billed to estimated meter readings from 13.09.2018. The new balance on your account after adding the new amended removal readings is now £1,151.90 debit. Please allow 3-5 working days to receive your new statement within your online account facility.

Based on these revised figures, I have calculated that moving forward, you will use approximately 5,400 kWh Day units and approximately 3,504 kWh Night units over the next 12 months. On your current tariff Online Fixed energy March 2019, this works out at approximately £1,452.20 per annum or around £121.00 per month.

Please note that this figure is based on the usage on your current tariff over the next 12 months however, your tariff actually expires at the end of March 2019 and at that point this will naturally revert to our Standard tariff, should a new tariff not be chosen by that point.

The next time we are due to complete a review of your monthly payment is on 3 December 2018 and this will be shown on your new statement at the time. If you would like a repayment plan for your outstanding balance, please contact me and I will review this for you.

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Please would you post up the final letter which you received from the ombudsman in pdf format.

 

I wonder if there is any way to give the energy ombudsman a slap as well.

 

I think that you should be thinking about recovering your excess payments + compensation for the difficulties that you have suffered because I think that there is an action here for breach of the data protection act because they have a statutory duty to keep accurate recordsand you should be able to claim for the distress which has been caused to you and your family.

 

It's up to you. For an easy life you can simply go for recovering the excess payment.

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Here is the response we initially got from the Ombudsman. We rejected resolution as we were not interested in an apology letter at that point, but simply wanted it sorting out.

Understand it was my fault for not sending the readings, and when I pointed out that the meter was taking readings, it was just the display that was broken, I got no reply.

Your complaint about npower.pdf

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I wonder if there is any way to give the energy ombudsman a slap as well.

 

I think that you should be thinking about recovering your excess payments + compensation for the difficulties that you have suffered because I think that there is an action here for breach of the data protection act because they have a statutory duty to keep accurate recordsand you should be able to claim for the distress which has been caused to you and your family.

 

It's up to you. For an easy life you can simply go for recovering the excess payment.

 

When getting back to Ombudsman the second time round by way of new complaint (But linking original complaint in) said that the Ombudsman had failed us, so I want to get retribution from them also.

I'm not bothered about an easy life, I want to absolutely hammer them for the way we have been treated.

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I'm getting confused.

 

What is all this business about an original meter showing transposed readings and about npower having overestimated your usage in that case?

 

I haven't seen anything of this in your story so far.

 

please could you post upup a bullet pointed chronology of the entire history of your meter problems In particular addressing everything that the energy ombudsman investigator Lucy Clark has referred to. Please make it brief and minimum of narrative

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- Moved to Npower 4th July 2016

- 17th Feb 17 - I went to do a meter reading as I knew I hadn't been doing them. Noticed the display on meter was not working. Called Npower and they replaced on 28th Feb 17

- May 2017 bill for £534, first complaint to Npower made

- To and from with them for a little bit and they sent a deadlock letter, approached Ombudsman in November 17.

- Letter from Ombudsman (attached above) sent to us on 14th December 17.

 

 

What is all this business about an original meter showing transposed readings and about npower having overestimated your usage in that case?

Npower thought that the readings were the wrong way round a few times, and switched them around 5 times. This was talking to general complaints whilst trying to get a resolution, even though we told them several times they had been switched etc, but I honestly don't think they were reading notes on file.

(I hope that is what you meant)

 

Apologies, the original story only really went into things this year, didn't really think of last year. My bad:-(

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Also Bankfodder - Can I just say how much I appreciate you taking time out to help with this!

 

I'm not the best when it comes to electric, never have been, just know roughly what I should pay.

I know you don't have to do it, but just wanted to say thank you.

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this is becoming more complicated, not less complicated. Also I'm using a mobile phone so it is very difficult for me to engage with this properly.

 

When did you move to the property? if you were at the property already before you started with nPower, then how was it going with your previous supplier? Who was the previous supplier?

 

On what basis do they say that you owe them over £3,000?

I would still like you to lay out a story in greater detail but carefully without narrative and in a bullet pointed chronology

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Okay, may not know exact dates until I go proper digging into old emails (On work comp and don't allow access to own email), but here goes.

 

- April 16 - Move into property, prepayment meter

- July 16 - Join Npower, remove prepayment meter, install new E7 meter.

17th Feb 17 - I went to do a meter reading as I knew I hadn't been doing them. Noticed the display on meter was not working. Called Npower and they replaced on 28th Feb 17

- May 2017 bill for £534, first complaint to Npower made

- To and from with them for a little bit and they sent a deadlock lettericon, approached Ombudsmanicon in November 17.

- Letter from Ombudsman (attached above) sent to us on 14th December 17.

- Late December 17 Npower contacted and payment plan of £157 per month set up. £100 for usage, £57 for outstanding debt. Not the £120 I stated, I got that figure wrong.

- That is all fine apart from general calls to Npower still arguing that I believe the meter to be broken, but get absolutely nowhere with that.

- October 18 (early) get an email stating that direct debit will be changing from £157 to £344 per month. This is when I complain on social media and threaten to go to office. I get a call that morning stating something will be sorted.

- October 18 (mid) - meter is tested and shows 58.82% fast

- October 18 (31st) new meter is installed

- November 18 (6th) - email from Npower with adjusted figures for period old meter was installed.

- November 18 (20th) - I had emailed asking for compensation and Npower replied that they are willing to wipe the exit fee (£35)

- December 18 (19th) - Email from Npower asking if we had given any thought to a payment plan

-December 18 (20th) - Contacted Ombudsman requesting new complaint, whilst advising of old case that went against us and that I think it should be opened on new evidence.

- December 18 (29th) - SAR requested.

 

That is how it has been left. I can't face calling him/emailing him back as it just frustrates me.

 

£3000 figure, I don't know, I logged into my online account and that is what it says.

All old bills appear to have been removed, and replaced with new amended ones.

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Which bill is it that the ombudsman says was underestimated?

 

Please can you post up a copy of your written complaint to the ombudsman? In pdf format

 

do I understand that npower have removed the previous bills and you don't have copies of anything in your possession?

 

In respect of the £3,000, surely there must be some dates and meter readings?

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Original bills that Ombudsman believe were underestimated were 4 July 2016 to 28 February 2017, that was when we had the original meter with the broken display, before the new (Faulty) meter was installed end of Feb 2017.

 

Would have to try and find the original complaint to ombudsman when I get home and onto normal comp (Work PC won't let me log into emails).

 

It was an online account, no paper copies, I always went through the website to get my bill.

 

Last meter reading I gave was the one I posted earlier for 31st November 2018. Haven't touched the readings since then.

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This was last meter reading - 30th November

 

Day

0 Our estimate

31 October 2018

303 Our reading

30 November 2018

303 kWh at 14.790p £44.81

 

Night

0 Our estimate

31 October 2018

63 Our reading

30 November 2018

63 kWh at 7.550p £4.76

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