@npowerhelp Help for my daughter please.

[phatram]

I'll try to keep this concise;

 

I pay for dual fuel with NPower via direct debit.

 

They set the amount at £65 a month total, which THEY were splitting £60 electric and £5 gas (unknown to us!)

This has obviously accumulated a debt on the gas primarily as £5 a month is nowhere near enough for them to be taking.

 

When recently moving house, we discovered their error and a payment plan was set up to pay off the debt.

 

Approximately four-five months after moving house, we received a letter stating our payment plan had now been cancelled. We have no idea why this happened.

We did not communicate this to NPower in any way whatsoever.

It was very out of the blue.

 

We got back in touch to re-instate a payment plan, which we were told was possible and awaited further instruction.

This was late September / early October.

 

I did eventually receive a payment plan card which I should use to make payments off the debt via a Payzone outlet.

The first payment they want from us (as detailed in THEIR payment breakdown confirmation) is 03/12/2012.

 

Despite having this payment plan set up and ready to go,

I have been receiving debt collection letters from Telemessage and Collections Direct threatening me with court action, bailiffs visiting etc...

 

We have literally spent hours on the phone,

being passed from one representative to another,

having to explain each time why I'm phoning.

 

Both myself and my Husband have spoke to different departments to be told,

"there is a payment plan in place, don't worry, ignore any debt collection correspondence".

 

The only problem is..

. these threatening letters keep coming!

It seems if I take NPower's advice and "ignore" these letters,

I'm going to end up in court to pay off a debt I have already arranged to pay off!

 

 

My Husband has now got to the point where (bear in mind, we have been desperately trying to arrange some format to pay off a debt NPower allowed to build up)

he believes they should write off the debt as it was their error at charging only £5 a month!

 

He has spoken to them today and they have verbally admitted the debt was caused by the fact they were under charging for gas consumption.

He asked for this acknowledgment in writing and they refused!

 

He asked why they had cancelled the original payment plan and they claim they have no record of this happening

(I have letters from them however, stating they have cancelled it!)

He asked if they will write off the debt and they say it's impossible as we have to pay for the services we have received.

 

Any advice is appreciated,

I feel I want some sort of apology / good will gesture from them.

 

Do you think we have any rights to demand this?

 

Thanks.

[dx100uk]

yes!

 

write to the CEO or the regulator

 

dx

[Climate]

I have never worked for the company in question but have worked for another 'major 6' supplier.

 

It seems fairly simple to me;

 

Your Daughter didn't inform her energy provider that she had left the property and did not supply final readings for her usage.

 

A new tenant/owner moved in and the provider in question had to set up an account for them. By virtue of the fact that someone else is admitting responsibility for the supply your Daughters account will have been nuked.

 

She is still responsible for what was owed. (P.S. £65 a month for both is massively below the national average!)

[stu007]

Hi

 

@ Climate you are jumping to conclusions with the OP as it may not be a simple as you hav e stated without the full facts from start till now of what has happened.

 

Yes I agree they will still be responsible for the energy usage during their time at the property and the OP had setup a payment plan to pay this off and was doing until they with no reason stopped the payment plan.

 

This therefore forced the OP to setup a new payment plan but during this and even now the OP is having DCAs/Baliffs contacting threatening court action for this debt which has a valid payment plan in place.

 

So please do tell how is this simple?

[Climate]

Hi

 

@ Climate you are jumping to conclusions with the OP as it may not be a simple as you hav e stated without the full facts from start till now of what has happened.

 

Yes I agree they will still be responsible for the energy usage during their time at the property and the OP had setup a payment plan to pay this off and was doing until they with no reason stopped the payment plan.

 

This therefore forced the OP to setup a new payment plan but during this and even now the OP is having DCAs/Baliffs contacting threatening court action for this debt which has a valid payment plan in place.

 

So please do tell how is this simple?

 

I acknowledge that I may be oversimplifying the issue.

 

As I state, I have not worked for the company in question but have worked for another 'big 6'. I would wager that it has gone down as a 'forced move out' on her account because someone else has taken on responsibility for the usage at the property and they haven't been informed that she has left. It would hardly be fair to keep a direct debit etc in place for someone elses usage would it?

 

I suspect the reason it has taken 4/5 months for that to catch up is because they have had to trace her new whereabouts by other means.

 

I say it from having worked for another 'Big 6'. The OP has stated that an agreement has been set up to start at a later date. If this had been a British Gas debt on a final account (one that is no longer active as she has left) then they would be told to deal with the debt collection agency as it cannot be recalled on a 'dead' account. Obviously, I do not know another companies policies but as the OP had stated that 'Any advice is appreciated' I thought I would post on the basis of having worked within the industry.

 

I'm not a gambling man but I will bet that is the gist of it.

[stu007]

Hi

 

@ Climate can see what your saying but we would need the full facts of this from the OP from start to finish to reach a valid conculsion to give the best advice to the OP.

 

If it is as you suggest not being a gambling man then I would have to agree but we need the facts to establish that.

[phatram]

I have never worked for the company in question but have worked for another 'major 6' supplier.

 

It seems fairly simple to me;

 

Your Daughter didn't inform her energy provider that she had left the property and did not supply final readings for her usage.

 

A new tenant/owner moved in and the provider in question had to set up an account for them. By virtue of the fact that someone else is admitting responsibility for the supply your Daughters account will have been nuked.

 

She is still responsible for what was owed. (P.S. £65 a month for both is massively below the national average!)

 

She did provide the info asked for.

[phatram]

I have never worked for the company in question but have worked for another 'major 6' supplier.

 

It seems fairly simple to me;

 

Your Daughter didn't inform her energy provider that she had left the property and did not supply final readings for her usage.

 

A new tenant/owner moved in and the provider in question had to set up an account for them. By virtue of the fact that someone else is admitting responsibility for the supply your Daughters account will have been nuked.

 

She is still responsible for what was owed. (P.S. £65 a month for both is massively below the national average!)

 

Npower cancelled the payment plan not my daughter.

Npower set the original amount she was to pay @ £65 which Npower were splitting between Gas and Electric, So that to me is their fault.

 

My daughter knows she owes them money and was paying it but THEY cancelled the plan and she is now getting letters from a DCA.She has NEVER missed a payment !

[phatram]

"She is still responsible for what was owed. (P.S. £65 a month for both is massively below the national average!)"

 

Maybe so but THEY set it NOT my daughter !

[phatram]

"I suspect the reason it has taken 4/5 months for that to catch up is because they have had to trace her new whereabouts by other means."

 

Npower were notified of change of address and my daughter is still a customer of Npower at her new home.

 

Maybe THEY are just crap at doing what THEY should do eh ?

[Climate]

Npower cancelled the payment plan not my daughter.

Npower set the original amount she was to pay @ £65 which Npower were splitting between Gas and Electric, So that to me is their fault.

 

My daughter knows she owes them money and was paying it but THEY cancelled the plan and she is now getting letters from a DCA.She has NEVER missed a payment !

 

As I say, it will have cancelled because it is effectively a payment towards a credit scheme, as she is no longer in the property it should be stopped to prevent her potentially paying for someone elses usage.

 

"I suspect the reason it has taken 4/5 months for that to catch up is because they have had to trace her new whereabouts by other means."

 

Npower were notified of change of address and my daughter is still a customer of Npower at her new home.

 

Maybe THEY are just crap at doing what THEY should do eh ?

 

So did she move straight from the address in question and into another N-Power supplied address? If so it is a clear company error. If she provided a forwarding address, again it is company error.

 

I do not believe that N-Power perform a credit check for new customers but if you are getting letters from debt collection I would say it is prudent for her to check her credit file through experian as she may well have had late payment markers placed on her account. The service is free for the first 28 days or so I think but she must remember to cancel it. If anything has been placed on her file it is easier to deal with it now because they can stay on the file for 6 years but it certainly sounds like company error so if anything has been placed on there and there are no other circumstances then they should remove it.