Hi, Can anyone offer any advise on how to deal with N-Power? I was with them for 2 and half years, and they kept messing up the DD and they sent so many wrong statements and bills. Eventually we were set up on a plan which expired in April this year. They then sent us an invoice saying we owe them £3400 as we have been paying the wrong amount even though they put us on the tariff and set the DD up. I've complained and complained and complained to them. I eventually managed to switch providers as they blocked it at first. It has now reached deadlock with their final say on the matter is they will knock £250 off due to the bad service but because we are no longer a customer of theirs we need to repay the rest within 2 years at £132pm. At the moment our outgoings are a lot more than our incomings so their is no way we can afford anywhere close to this. We offered £20pm but they wouldn't accept that and are now threatening to get a 3rd party debt collection involved, even though I have never signed anything to say they have authorisation to pass my personal details to another party. Their customer service is absolutely appalling. I am going to go to OFGEM but will it do any good? I am just worried now that we are going to end up with bailiffs banging on the door or extra charges being added. Can they really force us to pay £3100 even though it was them who set the payment up incorrectly? Please help, we are at the end of our tether.

We just received an electric bill from Southern Electric for nearly £400. This is for the period between late February and early May. We are on economy 7 and for most of this billing period we have had our night storage heaters switched OFF. So to our shock, according to our meter, we have used over 5000 units of energy at night. Our day usage has stayed more or less the same. We are bewildered as to how our night energy usage can go UP from the previous quarter, during which we had the night storage heaters ON. The funny thing is, the exact same thing happened last year in the same flat. Our May bill was £500. Again, according to our meter we used over 7000 units of electricity at night. Again, night storage heaters off during this period and again this is substantially higher than the previous quarter, during which the night storage heaters were on. It seems really suspect that this can happen in the same quarter two years in a row. Last year, I contacted Southern Electric to complain. I was told that the meter was working correctly and that there were no issues (I believe they sent someone out to look). Again, in the previous quarter and the one following the massive bill, the usage was accurate. We ended up paying the bill, as Southern Electric refused to believe that there was a mistake and assumed that we had actually used such an impossibly high level of electricity. I fear that will likely be the same result this time around, but it seems fraudulent. How can our meter reading jump so high at the SAME time each year, and yet be accurate during the rest of the year? Also, we are in a 2 bedroom flat, even if we had every appliance we own, and all the heaters on all night, I am pretty sure we couldn't use over 5000 units of energy. It makes no sense. Would love to know if anybody else has has similar problems or has any suggestions! I should note, that we have double checked to make sure there are no errors such as transposed readings or rates. It just seems as though our meter reading has jumped inexplicably.