We do have an online account but it is not set to recieve bills, when we try to view bills online it says their is no bills available. When we rang them they said it was set to send us bills by post. The bills were on their system. So they were produced just seems never sent by email, put online or posted to us. They gave no explanation why we would not be getting bills and said they would make sure we would get them from now on. Obviously they did not as we still get no bills.. All I want now is to be rid of this debt and change to another company, but this debt they have made us aquire is making me feel stuck with Npower and they are one of the most expensive in the area.

Well the debt was aquired because of being on an estimated rate and then when they checked our meter they found they had estimated wrong. Now as far as I am aware if they had been sending me bills this is fine for them to then ask for the money owed. However we never recieved a bill or any written notice of this at all, and no notice of the debt until 1-2 years after the fact. It seems what they have then done is incorperate a debt repayment scheme into our fortnightly payments without our permission and without even telling us that we had a debt, this repayment scheme caused our fortnightley payments to gradually get higher and higher which at first we thought was just due to the prices going up and us using more but it eventually hit a point where we questioned it over the phone, and they then told us of the debt. From my own workings out since I have no bill to go on, I think they are now charging us about £100 a month to go towards the debt. As far as I am aware though in circumstances where you aquire a debt they are supposed to make you aware of the debt and arrange a repayment scheme with the customer, not just automatically force a repayment scheme of their choosing on the customer and not even tell them they are paying a debt. Their excuse was always 'it is on the bill' and they refuse to accept the fact that we never recieved a bill.

It was not 'free' we had always been paying every 2 weeks. What happened is we paid a set amount every 2 weeks. They sent us notifcations of when this amount went up or down based on our readings. Basically every 6 months we got a letter which was set out in this way : 'Based on your most recent meter readings we have adjusted your fortnightley payments to the following for the next 6 months' 1/01/2011 - £96 15/01/2011 - £96 28/01/2011 - £96 and basically listed the next 6 months in 2 week segmants with the amount we had to pay for each, always the same standerd set amount for every 2 week period, each 6 months this would go up or down between £70 and £96. We paid for the full 3 years exactly the amount they were telling us we needed to pay. Then one day we got a letter through saying something like 'Thank you for paying your energy by regular payments. We need to remind you that your fortnightly payment is £96 and to let you know you have fallen behind by £300' I then rang them and asked them how I had fallen behind by £300. It turned out the letter I had recieved was sent after I had paid them and I had apparently 'not' fallen behind, however they then told me we had a £1500 debt and this was why our regular payment had gradually been going up. Which is when I queried why on earth I had never been told of such a debt and then the bills got sent which were from over a year ago. We were never NOT paying , we always paid regularly every 2 weeks, just seems they were not charging us enough for the first year then when they got a better reading the debt appeared, however this debt was never told to us, never sent in a bill, never came in written form what so ever. It was not untill 2 years later when we rang them up that they informed us of the debt and then sent us bills over a year old to proove the debt. What also gets me, is the fact we got letters about how much we had to pay, we got letters when we missed a payment, yet they do not send us our bills. They cannot possibly claim they do not have our address or the wrong address as they are sending us letters, just not sending us our bills, and we have already queried it before and they are still not sending us them.

Maybe because of the fact they never once made us aware of the fact we had a debt? If I was made aware of the fact I had a £1500 debt or less I would have started to be more careful , however they did NOT make me aware, they did not send me a bill, they did NOT inform me I had a debt until over a year AFTER the fact. We from the start of our contract paid EXACTLY what they asked for. The only letters we got were updates on how much we had to pay them, e.g you should pay us £96 every 2 weeks. And we paid every single month off at the price they asked. Why should I have a debt if I am paying what they are asking of me and have never informed me of a debt until 2 years later? Why should that be fair in the slightest? And maybe if you actually looked at what the practice entails. How about before you start throwing insults you actually do your research? I MADE them aware of the fact I was not recieiving bills and had no idea of any debt because of this, and they still are NOT sending me bills. They are chasing me for a debt that is over 2 years old and I did not know about because they did NOT send me a bill or any letter stating I had any sort of debt. The first time I heard about the debt was on the phone 2 years after the debt was apparently acquired. And the bill they finally sent us with the debt is 2 years old. Forget it, can a mod delete this thread? I came here for advice, obviously was not a good idea. I will sort it myself.

Hi, I am currently having the same problem. A link that might help is here ht tp://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=1684407. There is something called ' Code of Practice for Accurate Billing' which states they cannot claim back debt from over a year ago if it was their fault. In this case this seems to be the case. I only just found out about this myself and have been paying off a debt I really should not be paying. I will be attempting to rectify my own situation this week.

Hi, I am wondering if anyone could give me some advice. What has happened is, about 9-10 months ago we got a letter from Eletric/gas compony (NPower) saying we had underpaid by about £300, rang them up and then they tell us we actually had a £1500 debt that was unpaid and we were supposed to be paying it off and that is how the £300 underpayment came about. However this was the FIRST time we had heard about any 'debt'. After arguing with them on the phone for a while they said we would have been told in our 'Bill' however since moving in to this house we have never once had a 'Bill' from them however we do get letters now and again stating how much we should be paying every 2 weeks ( we pay in 2 week installments) and if we miss a payment, in all the time we have been with NPower we have paid exactly what they asked in these letters, we have missed a payment now and again but paid double the next fortnight to make up for it. They then informed us we were supposed to be getting Bills by post and on the system it says we are, we informed them we had 'not' got any bills at all just notifcations on payments. They never sent us a bill or any notice of a debt, they only told us of the debt which was OVER a year old when we rang up to query a completley different matter based on an underpayment. After further discussion they agreed to send every bill we should have had the past 3 years to us, after looking at the bills the debt was aquired in the first two years of living at this house, basically what happened is they had us on estimated billing for over a year and when they finally took a reading it was massivley over their estimate, however nothing was sent to us to tell us this. During the first year we had managed to missed the gas/electric reader a few times due to being out of the house and had given a few readings ourselves using the card instead. I was outraged that we could aquire a debt and have our payments increased without ever even being told we had a debt, when our monthley fee had gradually increased we had just assumed it was due to increased usage or increase in gas/electric costs. We are now paying £96 every fortnight to cover this debt, and for the past 9-10 months we have put up with it. After telling them we did not get any bills and having 3 years of bills sent to use and them telling us we would now get bills we are STILL not ever recieving any bills. I have just found out about a policy called ' Code of Practice for Accurate Billing' which states that they cannot reclaim debt from over a year ago if it is their fault and most of this debt is from 2+ years ago. Can anyone tell me if I am entitled to get this debt wiped due to the fact they never sent us any Bills and still are not sending us them after our phone call last year? Also am I entitled to ask to be refunded for the money we have paid towards this debt the past year? We have been paying almost £200 a month for electric and gas this year when we have been very frugal and not using much at all.

I paid with a Visa Debit card and none of this unholds my money without me having to wait 10 working days. Also my question was is it legal and is there anything I can do against them for it if it is not legal? Also this order I would prefer not to cancel, I can not find this product any cheaper and I would like to know if I have a right to this product given they have already dispatched half of the item and I orderd it all the way back on the 27/12/2010 when it said it was in stock and then changed it to 8-10 days wait for stock about 16 days ago.

Hi, I made on order on 27/12/2010 on Pixmania.com for a graphics card + Adapter for £153. Item was shown as 'In Stock' and was listed on their website as one item, a bundle. Within a week they dispatched the adapter and not the graphics card, on my order it said there was one awaiting dispatch. Later this changed to 0 awaiting dispatch and the stock changed to awaiting stock 8-10 days. I was charged a fee of about £3.50 for the adapter and the remaining money was 'held' from my account. What happened next is my major problem. Every week since then another £150 has been held, constantly building up untill finally i have ended up with my entire bank balence held by this company, I did not realise until they had the entire £600 held and I could no longer withdraw any money. Now I am in a situation where I have NO money thanks to this company holding £600 for an order of £149.50. I rang the bank to dispute the hold and ask them to cancel it, and they told me because there is no proof it is a duplicate hold since they can not see the company holding 3 of the charges, even theough the amount held is identicle for each hold, they imply I have orderd 4 things for the exact same price! and refuse to do anything about it and tell me to ring the company. I then rang Pixmania, they admitted they had done it, said it was a mistake and it would be fixed and they would ring me back in an hour or two, this was on Thursday, still no call back. My question is what are my rights here? Is this legal that they have held my entire bank balence when I only made an order of £150? I am having major problems with the lack of money and the bank tells me i have to wait 10 Business days for the first hold to wear off. Also another problem is as soon as a hold wears off they hold another £150! £150 of the hold wore off yesterday and now they have held another £150, and this is AFTER the phone call I made to them and after i made them aware and they said it would be fixed. Another question I have is my legal right to this order, they have dispatched part of the item and not the rest, they have held the money, and charged me for the adapter at an indidual price when it was not listed individually it was part of a bundle that was sold for £153 all as one item, so in theory they have reached the dispatch stage and so are they now obligated to complete this order?, and if so what do I do if they keep telling me they have no stock when it said it was in stock when I orderd and then chaged to 8-10 days and then still after 8-10 days still is apparently not in stock? They have similar products but of different brands I would be willing to accept in place of the one I ordered, however cost slightly more, would they be legally obliged to provide me with an alterantive now they have dispatched part of the item? Thank you for any help.