@npowerhelp nPower - Mismanaged account, County Court claim issued aganst Npower

[Eversir]

The fun never stops eh? Although this is on behalf of a relative, not me this time.

 

As succinct as I can keep it:

 

1) Relative joins nPower January 2013 shortly after moving to a new property

 

2) Meter readings provided - nPower setup a monthly direct debit for £65 (dual fuel)

 

3) Relative became aware in June '13 that account had been setup incorrectly. Relative was only being billed for electric.

 

4) Took a couple of days to sort and more than one phone call, but a new direct debit of £90 was setup. This included the arrears as a result of nPower's mistake.

 

5) In September '13, relative had some maintenance work carried out on electricity supply. Discovered during this that they were still only being billed for electricity (although direct debit of £90.00 was being sent every month).

 

6) Relative was eventually told by nPower that there was a serious error with their account and the issue would be escalated. Was promised a return call - this did not happen.

 

7) Relative called nPower in December '13 as had still not heard anything. Was advised account issue still remained unresolved, and also that the account itself was showing as circa £300 in credit, plus a direct debit/dual fuel discount on top of this.

 

8) No return call from nPower. Relative phoned again - was advised complaints team were handling it and would get in touch the same day. This never happened.

 

9) Towards the end of December '13, relative phoned nPower to inform they would be switching to another provided because she was unhappy with their poor service.

 

10) Relative switched to another provider in January 2014, more or less 12 months after joining nPower.

 

11) Relative heard nothing more from nPower until April '14; they received two reminder letters from nPower for a combined total of circa £800. One letter was for gas, one for electric.

 

12) Relative spoke to nPower; disputed the sum and was advised that a full breakdown of charges, payments and usage would be sent in post (they initially refused to send this unless a letter was sent in, although they eventually changed their tune).

 

13) Relative contacted nPower again (need to check date but think June '14). Was advised this issue would be escalated to the executive complaints team. Was also advised more reminders would be generated automatically and that they could safely be ignored until the complaint was resolved.

 

14) Relative began to receive (what they presumed to be) nuisance calls that were essentially just prerecorded messages. As it turned out, these two companies (Westcot and Pastdue) were actually two separate debt collection agencies instructed by nPower; each sent a letter in September '14. Interestingly, some of the information printed on one of the letters was also incorrect (e.g. account number)

 

15) Realising now the earlier advice of nPower to ignore payment reminders was false/incorrect, a letter was sent to each of these DCA's stating the account was in dispute. A statement was also made regarding OFT debt collection guidance (unfair to pursue when in dispute). For good measure, Westcot had their implied right of access to the property withdrawn (as they had stated they would visit the property to collect payment). Relative also filed a complaint with the ombudsman around this time.

 

16) Pastdue wrote back to relative confirming they had received letter. Stated that account had been placed on hold and they would try and obtain invoice showing full breakdown of balance. No further correspondence received from these guys.

 

17) Westcot also wrote back. Merely stated the balance, that it related to the electricity supply and provided a billing period (which was seriously incorrect!). Stated they looked forward to receiving payment within 14 days. They have started phoning relative daily once again.

 

18) Ombudsman rejected complaint, stating that the date from the original issue was too far back for them to investigate. However, did advise that if relative obtained a deadlock letter from nPower they can then investigate.

 

19) Relative wrote to nPower towards the end of October '14. This outlined the dispute, a summary of the (in)action so far and a request for a deadlock letter. Sent recorded delivery, confirmed delivered, no response so far.

 

20) Relative wrote another letter to nPower last week (similar to above). Sent recorded, not showing as delivered yet. Considering resending later today if not arrived.

 

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Other misc. information:

 

- Relative has log burning stoves and only uses anywhere from £6-10 a month in gas for hot water. No heating of any kind (excluding hot water of course) is necessary from ~March to ~September due to property being extremely well-insulated.

 

- Current electricity consumption averages about £45.00 a month.

 

- nPower is instructing two separate debt collection agencies to collect a portion of the "debt" even though the account was dual fuel. As per Citizen's Advice regarding harassment from creditors: "Using more than one debt collector at a time to chase you for payment" - so does this count?

 

- Relative has been diagnosed with depression and anxiety. Self representation is unlikely to go down well.

 

- Relative has sadly not recorded all phone calls. They have however, kept detailed notes, dates and times of each phone call with nPower - including the person they spoke to.

 

---

 

Next steps:

 

Should relative:

 

a) Just keep sending letters to nPower at £1.72 a pop until they hopefully provide the information?

 

b) Send a final LBA to nPower detailing the harassment (if applicable), filing a small claim if ignored?

 

c) Wait for nPower to take relative to court (if ever) and potentially claim on legal cover provided by house insurance for representation?

 

d) Something else?

 

 

Personally, given the chain of events, problems with the account and overall billing issues nPower has had recently, it would sound like they are physically unable to account for the money they are demanding. Who knows.

[Eversir]

Not yet, can get that off in the post today. What happens if they fail to respond in 40 days?

[Eversir]

Thanks!

 

One question: the topic with the SAR template mentions "Send this request including the £10 fee to the address which your data holder has registered with the Data Protection Commissioner as the address of the Data Controller".

 

This address is different to the one nPower states in their privacy policy, so which one should it be sent to? The privacy policy version also states that you should wait until nPower send a form by return post before making the £10 payment.

[Eversir]

They are seriously in breach of debt collection guidelines if they had instructed TWO DCAs to act at the same time.

 

Is this worth highlighting in a seperate letter of complaint? i.e. demand that they cease DCA activity via two DCA's as per guidelines

Obviously the SAR is going out today but was thinking about sending them another request for a deadlock letter, since the latest one hasn't arrived yet.

[Eversir]

As always Bankfodder, thank you for your sound advice.

 

Will get this SAR off ASAP and post back when we hear something. Annoying then can hide stuff if they want though, although I suppose they might trip themselves up if they do that (i.e. call records & recordings).

[Eversir]

Thanks citizenB, will keep an eye out for any discrepancies when they come back. Also sent one to Wescot, seeing as though the account information they quoted was completely wrong anyway.

 

Additional info regarding harassment from creditors:

 

Seem to be discussed in the Administration of Justice Act 1970, Section 40:

 

40 Punishment for unlawful harassment of debtors.

 

(1)A person commits an offence if, with the object of coercing another person to pay money claimed from the other as a debt due under a contract, he—

(a)harasses the other with demands for payment which, in respect of their frequency or the manner or occasion of making any such demand, or of any threat or publicity by which any demand is accompanied, are calculated to subject him or members of his family or household to alarm, distress or humiliation;

There is also some stuff in the Protection from Harassment Act 1997:

 

1 Prohibition of harassment.

 

(1)A person must not pursue a course of conduct—

(a)which amounts to harassment of another, and

(b)which he knows or ought to know amounts to harassment of the other.

 

(2)For the purposes of this section, the person whose course of conduct is in question ought to know that it amounts to harassment of another if a reasonable person in possession of the same information would think the course of conduct amounted to harassment of the other.

 

(3)Subsection (1) does not apply to a course of conduct if the person who pursued it shows—

(a)that it was pursued for the purpose of preventing or detecting crime,

(b)that it was pursued under any enactment or rule of law or to comply with any condition or requirement imposed by any person under any enactment, or

©that in the particular circumstances the pursuit of the course of conduct was reasonable.

Although from this I think it's really the judge's call as to what is reasonable and what is not (i.e. no specific mention of multiple DCAs instructed simultaneously). There may be some stuff from the OFT (now closed) and the FCA, although it would appear these rules might only apply to regulated consumer credit (which I'm not certain this is).

[Eversir]

Received a letter today from Wescot. Very generic looking, but the gist:

 

- Conducted additional checks to ensure they have the correct address details on file (confirmed)

- Threatening a doorstep visit to the property

 

This is despite previous letter to Wescot informing them of a dispute, and also that their implied access rights to the property have been withdrawn.

No statement of account has yet been provided by either nPower or Wescot.

 

Send them a letter or ignore? (or make a complaint to the FCA?)

 

Edit:

 

FCA was a waste of time (for the most part). According to them, the account with nPower doesn't fall under a regulated credit agreement and hence the activity relating to it isn't within their remit. Merely refered me to The Ministry of Justice. They did log the information though; apparently they use it to build up a profile of debt collection agencies?

[Eversir]

Brief update:

 

nPower today provided a statement of account for the property (finally in response to the numerous letters). It does not detail a breakdown of the charges/usage but it does highlight some very startling errors. Take a look:

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]54392[/ATTACH]

 

1. Relative did not move into the property until October 2012

2. Relative did not change to nPower until mid-December 2012 (earlier post said January '12 - my mistake)

3. Previous occupant was with British Gas and not nPower

 

Opening balance is showing as 27th April 2012 (impossible). Note also the numerous "payment received" up until November 2012, followed by generated bills (and subsequently cancelled bills) through to June 2013. A similar thing seems to happen from July 2013 to statement end.

 

Confusing? We can't make heads or tails of what has been going on either. Think we might just wait for the SAR response before taking this any further with nPower, but it doesn't take a genius to see something is very wrong with how they have handled the account.

 

Edit: Also, Wescot will not cease their phone calls despite them receiving a second letter on Friday last week. This one quoted all the FCA code of conduct they were in breach of, for what it was worth.

[Eversir]

Response from Wescot regarding SAR:

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]54418[/ATTACH]

 

Are they allowed to do this and is what they are saying correct?

[Eversir]

Taken from Daisy's thread the other day:

 

---------

 

Will be sending a letter before action today, giving Npower one final opportunity to make a sensible offer that takes into account the stress/anxiety caused, breach of contract and regulatory code of conduct, plus expenses and inconvenience incurred trying to resolve issue over a number of months.

 

The complaint to ICO was sent last week. Not heard anything back yet.

 

Wescot Credit Services Ltd is still hounding on a daily basis despite multiple letters informing there is a dispute - totally flouting FCA code of conduct. Unbelievable.

 

-----

 

Today:

 

Response from ICO:

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]54608[/ATTACH]

[Eversir]

Thanks Bankfodder, that letter threw me a bit. We've got a response off to the ICO as per the above.

 

Probably preaching to the choir, but it's so wrong that these so called regulatory authorities can exist and fail to do what they were created for. At the tax payer's expense too, I presume.

[Eversir]

Brief update. Npower have written to say:

 

"We're sorry we weren't able to resolve your issue straightaway. We've now assigned it to one of the advisers in our Complaints Team, who will ensure it is resolved and keep you informed of progress."

 

You have to ask what they've been doing these past 18 months if they're only just "now" assigning it to their Complaints Team. Again.

[Eversir]

Another response from the ICO:

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]54750[/ATTACH]

 

Don't know enough about the DPA to know whether this is correct or not.

[Eversir]

Wescot is registered with the ICO. I can't post the whole register entry due to Copyright, but their registeration number is Z5661196. I suppose a small extract could be considered fair use under the circumstances, so here is a tidbit:

 

Nature of work - Debt administration and factoring

 

Description of processing

The following is a broad description of the way this organisation/data controller processes personal information. To understand how your own personal information is processed you may need to refer to any personal communications you have received, check any privacy notices the organisation has provided or contact the organisation to ask about your personal circumstances.

 

Reasons/purposes for processing information

We process personal information to enable us to trace debtors, to purchase debts and to collect on behalf of creditors. We also process personal data to support and manage our employees and to maintain our own accounts and records.

 

 

Type/classes of information processed

We process information relevant to the above reasons/purposes. This may include:

 

• personal details
  
• family, lifestyle and social circumstances
  
• goods and services
  
• financial details
  
• education and employment details
  

 

 

We also process sensitive classes of information that may include:

 

• physical or mental health details
  
• racial or ethnic origin
  
• religious or other beliefs of a similar nature
  
• trade union membership
  
• offences including alleged offences
  
• criminal proceedings, outcomes and sentences
  

Who the information may be shared with

We sometimes need to share the personal information we process with the individual themself and also with other organisations. Where this is necessary we are required to comply with all aspects of the Data Protection Act (DPA). What follows is a description of the types of organisations we may need to share some of the personal information we process with for one or more reasons.

 

 

 

 

There's quite a bit more, but the general language used throughout is "processor".

[Eversir]

OK, nothing back from the SAR request yet. They have until Monday to be within the 40-day headline.

 

More stuff though - Npower phoned my relative in relation to her latest letter. Recorded the phone call, but the gist of it was they said they were going to send out (for the millionth time) another statement of account. My relative stated that she wanted all information relating to the account, specifically how this seemingly random bill has been calculated, and that futher correspondance be carried out in writing due to the previous incompetance of Npower. They weren't particularly happy about doing this, but eventually agreed. They also said to wait for the SAR to get the other stuff relating to her account.

 

Statement of account arrived 2 days later, different to the last one. It would appear Npower hasn't used the gas readings that were supplied on numerous occasions (at the same time as the electric readings). This means that they have gone on an estimated reading only - which is much, much higher than actual usage. With standing charges and taking into account all the payments that have been made thus far, we've calculated that the sum that should have been billed stands at around £250. I noticed that Npower have also added a £90 charge for a "Budget Billing Payment Scheme". I suppose this is because they consider that the account is in debt.

 

Npower have today confirmed by email that they have not sent my relative an accurate statement since 17/12/2012:

 

Your npower gas and electricity account

 

Our records show that we have not sent you an accurate statement since 17/12/2012; I would like to apologise and assure you that I have corrected the issue that caused the delay.

We’ve signed up to the Code of Practice for Accurate Bills to help us give you a better standard of service. It’s a requirement of the Code of Practice that we will not send a bill which includes unbilled energy consumed more than 12 months previous to the bill being issued.

What this means to you

I have reviewed the energy that you were not billed for, between the period of 17/12/2012 and 10/12/2013. Your Gas energy usage for this period is £713.32 and we have written off £360.82 (taking into account any payments you have made and any debt balances). This will show as a credit on your bill.

You may have already received your bill, but if not you will receive this shortly showing your account balance of £437.87 outstanding.

 

Your personal account review

 

Account balance gas £77.58 debit

Account balance electric £360.29 debit

Total account balance £437.87 debit

Divide by 12 (this is the monthly amount you’ll pay to clear your balance over the next 12 months) £36.49

Total monthly amount £36.49

New payment amount (rounded) £36.00

I understand that the balance may be larger than you expected so to help make your payments more affordable, we could certainly look into a 24 or 36 monthly arrangement.

I hope that my response to you has covered all aspects of your query with npower. However, if you would like to accept the proposed payment option or if you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact me on 0800 9808414 or 0330 1008843 from a mobile using extension 1198273. We are here to help you 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday.

If I have not received any contact from you by 02/01/2015 I will assume that you are happy for your complaint to be closed and normal collections activity will resume.

 

Still not happy with this obviously, although it's at least a step in the right direction.

[Eversir]

No SAR documentation from nPower at all.

 

Going to file a complaint to the ICO, but in the meantime what shall we do about nPower? They've freely admitted they have been unable to send an accurate bill since December 2012, and "written off" a sum of money which was never owed in the first place anyway (see above).

[Eversir]

Perfect, thank you! Not very clued-up on DPA stuff so this is a great help.

 

Do you think a response is necessary to their email of the 18th December, or just ignore until this SAR stuff is out the way?

[Eversir]

Originally Npower provided no paperwork to show how the bill had been generated. It's taken almost a year to get that information despite repeated requests.

 

They finally sent through a breakdown about a week ago; they have been using estimated readings for gas despite many readings been given for both electric and gas (both readings were given at the same time).

 

The actual gas consumption whilst with Npower was a lot less than they are claiming with their estimated reads. From what we have calculated, there is actually about £250 to pay (not the £800 or so they are billing for). Most of that is just standing charges; not actual energy use.

 

So yes, this is what we need clarification on. From what they are saying, they have failed to provide an accurate bill since almost 2 years ago (so backbilling rules should come into play here), but technically an amount is owed - just not the one Npower was claiming.

[Eversir]

Thank you

[Eversir]

Letter was sent but no further written contact from NPower has been received. This letter also re-iterated an earlier request that all correspondance be in writing via return post, not email nor telephone.

 

My relative discovered a voicemail on her phone today, apparently left on Friday from Npower's executive complaints team. It stated that as they had heard nothing more from her, they have closed the complaint. This is despite having received the previous letter (recorded post) several days before this voicemail was left. Presumablely they will resume collection tactics for what is still an unowed sum.

 

Bit exasperated here. Feeling as if there is no other choice but to take them to court. They have had more than enough opportunities to sort this out.

[Eversir]

Just giving this a bump. Could do to know whether taking Npower to court is the right thing to do in these circumstances:

 

1) Letter to Npower towards the end of November was effectively LBA. Npower took it upon themselves to respond to the letter via email, even though no email address was provided in this correspondance (post #30 of this thread).

 

2) Letter sent on 24th December to Npower Data Controller as no SAR response given. Gave additional 7 days to respond otherwise would apply to court for damages and enforcement. No response as of today.

 

3) Another letter sent on 29th December to Npower in response to their email (post #30). Stated that it was unacceptable of them to reply to a letter via email, particularly as it had previously been requested that all correspondance be made in writing. Re-iterated a response should be sent via return mail. Quoted backbilling rules, stated that they should not bill for this period as it falls outside the 12 months and that the offered "discount" is meaningless. Also stated the amount is still incorrect anyway. Gave them 14 days to resolve the issue with a sensible offer (i.e. cease collection activity immediately and permanently - reduce the balance to zero) otherwise court proceedings would be issued. That gives them until Monday 12th.

[Eversir]

Anyone?

[Eversir]

Pastdue Credit Solutions are now threatening legal action. Letter received this morning, although dated 30th December 2014.

 

They are recommending their client, Npower, issue a claim. The letter "strongly urges" to pay by 9th January 2015.

 

The dates above don't even make sense. Npower said they would continue collection activity after 2nd January 2015, but the letter is dated 30th December 2014?

 

Can't see any alternative but to issue a claim against Npower, but would like a second opinion please.

[Eversir]

As of yet, nothing has been issued - they are just recommending to their client that they should issue a claim.

 

Tons of evidence, especially the written kind. Notes from phone calls circa 2013, call recordings from 2014 onwards. Not to mention they have failed to respond to SAR and subsequent reminder.

 

Relative is going to be out of the country shortly, so might be prudent to wait before issuing a claim herself if, as you have pointed out, it makes it easier for her to defend a claim.

[Eversir]

1) All in a folder in chronalogical order (except phone recordings)

2) Just shy of two weeks

3) I'm not 100% sure because they keep changing the figures. £437 seems likely as per latest email.

4) Breach of contract, months of hounding, letters, time on the phone... I think a figure in the region of £400 is likely