Npower

[dashho256]

Hi All

 

I am wondering if anyone can help this is a long story but please bear with me... I have been an npower customer for around 10 years, 3 years ago I moved house and npower stopped taking my payments for around 6 months before i noticed and contacted them to arrange new payment terms and set up a direct debit. I have now 3 years later set up no less than 10 direct debits each time they either take initial payment then it stops or take no payment at all. I have contacted the ombudsman who are quite frankly useless and advise me to set up another payment plan. I have now refused to set up another plan as I am £6,000 in debt due to the fact that they cannot take payment .... I am very stressed and have spent hours if not days on the phone to them and the ombudsman.

I have received a letter yesterday saying they will be taking me to court to issue a warrant to put meters in my home unless i contact them to make payment, should I just go to court and take all my proof (email log of all complaints) with me... any advice appreciated

Dan

[honeybee13]

Hello and welcome to CAG, Dan.

 

I'll move your thread to the Utilities forum and leave you a link, the people there will be able to help.

 

My best, HB

[dashho256]

Sorry, thankyou

much appreciated

[honeybee13]

Don't worry, it's fine. And you found the thread again.

 

Now we just need advisers to see your thread, they shouldn't be too long.

 

HB

[fkofilee]

Id like to see how this will go with Court... If you have lots of proof that its not your fault then this could be a real blow to NoPower...

 

Can i ask if the payment keeps bouncing due to insufficent funds in the account? Not trying to say anything but could be a cause.

 

Here at CAG we know exactly what NoPower are like... They are like an AYCE Restaurant which failed its Council Health & Safety check... They make you ill dealing with them.

 

So explain in full whats heppened with them? If its due to their fault then I think that they can only bill you 12 months backwards buts that not always the case.

[dashho256]

Hi no there is always funds in for payment they just do not take the money, initially they said it was system problems but now each time i speak with the advisers on the phone they say the service i have received is disgusting.. however the complaints team just brush it off and get me to set up another payment plan. However after the last one i said if you fail to take the money again you will have to take me to court.. Will i get my say though if it does go to court or will it just be to allow them to make the decision ?

[fkofilee]

Due to the nature of the issue, and as NO legal intervention has come in just yet... Time to escalate.

 

[email protected]

 

Email that man with a full and formal complaint about the treatment, lets see what happens. They might wake up.

Also if you inform them you intend to fully defend and action that is taken against you, they may wake up.

[dashho256]

I have already emailed him and got a reply from a senior adviser who was asked personally to look after my complaint,all she could come up with was lets set up another plan and if I do not there is nothing else she can help with..

[fkofilee]

I have already emailed him and got a reply from a senior adviser who was asked personally to look after my complaint,all she could come up with was lets set up another plan and if I do not there is nothing else she can help with..

 

Go back to them and tell them that is unacceptable, tell them you want a full review again...

At least after a full complaint again, it should stop any further action as you are formally disputing the amount owed as being incorrect due to NoPowers negligence...

[dashho256]

Ok will try that , thanks will keep you updated

[fkofilee]

Some of the more experienced site team maybe able to give you some better info. But id like to try and see if you can get a second opinion from NoPower on the issue.

[BankFodder]

I think the first place to start is to get evidence of all these direct debits. This means that you should send an SAR to Npower to obtain all of the personal data they hold on you in any form and in relation to any matter. You may well be surprised what turns up. Do this now as a matter of urgency.

 

Secondly, you need to find out what direct debits your bank has on record in relation to Npower. If you are able to access your bank account online then you may well find a list of all the direct debits in place even if they are not currently active or even if they are unused. If there are a number of Npower direct debits then get screenshots. If you don't see them online or if you don't have access to your online account then it may be necessary to send an SAR to your bank in order to get all the information. Whatever it takes, start getting the information now.

 

Secondly, and I'm sorry that this will worry you, but we often hear stories of utilities companies obtaining warrants and for some reason rather the customer doesn't find out about it until they are knocking at the door. I don't know why this happens but I suppose that it is to do with the utility company not serving the papers correctly. Keep a close eye on your mail.

 

Have you been dealing with Npower on the telephone? Or in writing? If you deal with on the telephone then you should be recording all of your calls. This is essential – especially with outfits like Npower which are incompetent and only seem to show any kind of energy when it comes to hassling their customers. Their legal department has managed to be especially incompetent on some occasions.

 

Can you tell us more about the complaint that you made to the ombudsman and about the ombudsman's reply. You're quite right that the ombudsman is useless but I'm a bit surprised that you have simply been told to set up another payment plan.

 

Write to Npower and send your letter by special delivery and log a formal complaint that they have not been taking payments correctly. Set out briefly exactly what has been happening and tell them that if they take you to court for any reason including to get a warrant, that you will bring all of this to the attention of the court. Let me warn you, that this letter may not have any effect – but at least you are laying down a paper trail.

 

The short way to sort this out of course is to start your own legal action against Npower for breach of contract because they have a contractual duty to bill you correctly and to take the money correctly and to manage your account correctly. It looks as if they are in breach of these obligations.

 

However, I'm trying to understand how come it's come to £6000 over a period of three years when they have actually been taking some money. This is to be a lot of money. Although they haven't been taken the money from your bank account, have they actually been sending you bills?

 

By the way, if you want further advice on sending an SAR and keeping track of it, then you could have a look at our new Consumer Survival Handbook which is available on Amazon (shameless plug).

[dashho256]

Hi thankyou for all the advice it is really appreciated I already feel better just getting advice from you guys.. ok so I sent the complaint to npower who investigated it and produced a deadlock letter we basically put it down to a system error, the ombudsman then got involved and asked me what outcome I would like , I said I wanted to be able to make payments .

 

The ombudsman spoke with npower and we set another direct debit up which npower took the first payment and then stopped again so I contacted the ombudsman and they again investigated and came back and said I need to contact the payment team and they will set up another payment plan I argued that this had already be done and I was getting further in to debt but they were not interested...

I did send a complaint to the ombudsman as well but never got a reply!

 

I have copies of all my bank statements and have emails of all complaints and replies although I have set up the payment plans over the phone... in regards to the £6,000 although they have taken a few initial payments this only adds up to around £500 and the bills are estimated as they haven't had metre readings..

I will do the sar and see what I get back.. thanks again .... I just want to pay my bill!

[ericsbrother]

look into the back billing rules as well.

[Heckler]

I thought that they had to by law take actual meter readings at least once every 24 months and that if they've been wrongly billing you estimates for 3yrs... then would the 12 month limit on backdated bills be a possible route to take?

[dashho256]

Hi All, Just a quick update I requested the SAR at the beginning of October and got a letter last week saying that it will arrive by the 28th December, on the same day a got a letter advising that they are applying for a warranty of entry and that I can attend the hearing if I want or contact them. I have decided to attend and hopefully give my side of the story...Any advice?

[Good Sister]

Hi dashho256,

 

I noticed from your post that you sent off your SAR early October and N-Power say it will arrive by 28th Dec. The statutory time limit for a SAR to be processed is 40 calendar days - this would be double the statutory time limit. Has there been any communication explaining the hold-up?

 

Have you actually been given a date for the hearing regarding the warrant for entry? If so, is it before or after your expected SAR arrival date? I ask because I don't want to take you off on different tangents - whilst the late SAR is very notable and will be worth pulling them up on once you have it, if the hearing for the warrant is sooner, then dealing with that is your priority for the time being.

 

I don't really know the process for getting a warrant so I don't have any advice or such for that, but if you plan to attend, then as long as you are as prepared as can be, that is a good thing.