@npowerhelp NPower billing problems

[Nickshaw11]

Good Morning all,

 

Hope you can help. I have done some brief resesarch on this site and beleive i have a good case. My situation is as follows:-

 

On 24th February 2007 i moved into rented accomidation. My estate agents wrote to NPower informing them of the change. I have a copy of this letter.

 

Since then all the bills have been coming addressed to the previous occupier. Over the course of almost 2 years i rang NPower 3 times telling them to change it to my name. Each time they never did. By the third time i stopped calling them. My attitude was if they won't listen to me i will ignore the kletters as they were not addressed to me anyway.

 

Finally in January of this year someone from NPower, or one of their agency's, came to the flat. He asked to speak to the lady who previously lived there not knowing that she had moved out! Despite the fact that mhy estate agents had told them in writing and i had informed them on the phone 3 times!

 

My flat mate gave him my details and sure enough on 12/02/2009 we got a bill from NPower for £2,082.43. It actually says on the bill "Welcome to NPower. Here is your first NPower bill". So there is no way they can dispute that it was my first bill.

 

At the time i was unaware of the Code of practice for accurate bills. So instead i agreed with them that we pay it back over the course of a year on top of our monthly bill. They said they would send out a card which i was to use monthly to pay the ammount.

 

I never received the card until i got a letter dated 28/06/2009 stating that they were changing my billing plan to quarterly. It even said on the letter "relax you don't need to do anything". I was quite pleased with this as it would be easier for me and my flat mate to save up the amount every 3 months.

 

To my amazement i received another letter dated 10/07/2009 advising that the full amount has to be paid within 7 days or they will enter the property and cut off the electricity. Bearing in mind i only received this letter yesterday it just gives me today to respond.

 

So my questions are this.

 

1. Will i be able to get the bill reduced to one year previous to Feb 12th 2009 based on the guidelines set out in the code of practice?

 

2. Do i have any room to argue about the fact that one day they tell me to relax and their very next letter 2 weeks later demands all the money! To me this is outrageous!

 

3. I have previously asked thast my flat mates name be added to the bill. They said they could not do this without seeing the tennancy agreement. This deswpite the fact that they added my details to the bill without seeing the tennancy areement. In fact it was my flat mate who gave them my details so it was without my permission.

 

I would be really grateful if yoguys could give me some advice.

 

Sorry for going on.

 

Very kind regards

 

Nick Shaw

[Nickshaw11]

To add a bit of an update.

 

I have explained my situation to someone from customer services who has put my account on hold whilts it is sorted out.

 

She has informed a special team that NPower have to deal with this sort of complaint and i have been told i should receive a response by 7th August 2009. Fingers crossed.

 

She did tell me that she can se on her system they received the letter from my property agents on the day i moved in and admits the first bill was not sent to me until 12 Feb 2009 so i cannot see how they have any sort of defence?

[Clare_L]

If she has all this information there then I cannot see how the Billing Code would not apply, so therefore they will only be able to charge you for 1 year. I believe there is a link on here somewhere outlining the Billing Code so would have that ready for when you next speak to them.

[nottslad]

it's definately clean-cut Billing Code. Just beware they may try and negotiate the amount (it's a shady practice used) and make sure that the bill takes into account any price changes...

 

I was with Npower for 3 months when I moved to my old apartment - despite numerous calls they never took the account out of the name of the occupier - they're pretty useless really

 

 

Hope things work out! And make sure you request to spread the bill over the 2 years you weren't billed for!!

[indebtstudent]

I can see where you are coming from here, but they may try to argue that the billing code does not apply. There were bills sent for usage, but they had the wrong name on.

 

You used the power and, certainly from a service point of view, I think its worth arguing for some of this to be waived because of the efforts you have made to straighten things out. This could bring about the same outcome as going down the billing code avenue.

 

What concerns me is you mentioned an amount of £2000 ish, how long was this for? How large is the property?

 

In terms of worst case scenario personally I would be checking if your opening reading appears anywhere on the bills. In particular on the 'first' bill you were sent.

 

The only reason I can see why the details were not updated is if the prev occupier owed a large balance. But then again I don't see much difference between a letter sent by a letting agent and a tenancy agreement.

 

I know a TA is more of a legal document, but surely if that was what was requiered they could've advised u of that over the phone?

 

Good luck with this I'll keep on eye on your progress.

[Nickshaw11]

Good afternoon,

 

It has been a while since my previous emails however the situation is still unresolved.

 

I heard nothing from NPower on 7th August 2009 with regards to my query. After chasing them today they advised me that they decided i was not eligible to any discount. Although they did admit they forgot to inform me of this! The first i heard of it was when i received a further bill yesterday giving me 7 days to pay.

 

They have stated i am not eligible because i made no attempt to inform them of the billing problem in the first year. This has annoyed me greatly as i made every attempt. They have now asked me to send in all my documentation to prove this. I have the original letter sent to them from my estate agents so will send them that. I hope i can dig out letters and details of phone calls but worry i don't have them after such time.

 

If after all that they refuse me do you think i am left with any other options. If as they hacve advised me they have rejected my reduction because of the reasons given but i can prove otherwise then surely their arguement doesn't work.

 

Many thanks

 

Nick

[nottslad]

if they still won't budge, ask for the complaint to be deadlocked and complain to the Energy Supply Ombudsman as you can prove you at least attempted to contact them... the very threat of this will probably cause them to reconsider, as the cost of a complaint being escalted to the ombudsman is considerable, and to resolve the issue without it getting this far would be in npowers best interests

[indebtstudent]

nottslad is right its a few hundred quid, and the fact it even goes to Ombudsmen (aside from the fact they may take NPower to task) means it will go the thier most senior people.

 

IE there is a team that only deals with complaints which have gone to the Obudsmen.

 

This is usually the biggest problem with any vast corporation - getting the issue in front of someone who actually has the authority to do something about it.

[nikibishop]

im having a very similar problem with N Power.... im not going to hijack this thread, I'll start my own, but could anyone tell me where i can find the Billing Code? id like to see if my problem falls under the remit of this code or not... thanks xx