First of all believe I tried and tried to reach an amicable settlement with them but they dragged me to the Magistrate court three times. I also served them with statutory notice regarding harassment. But they still did it again. I have been through small claim courts against BT and I know that corporate lawyers love to drag it on regardless because they make money out of it but it is a torture for the consumer. I also asked them to file a case against me through the county court so that I could defend rather than pay court fees but they didn't. The transcript was a lie by the Ombudsman, he never had a transcript but he said that in the transcript it says that they will send you the contract confirming that it was going to be tracking Tariff. He didn't know that I had a recording of the telephone conversation. when I sent it to him he changed his story. But then to prove that he was lying I asked for an SAR. Ombudsman are all biased and I would be the same if I was accountable to no-one and governed under no regulation. I agreed to their estimate of the Direct Debit in January but in February I got the first invoice and the notice saying that my DD debit was going up by 15%. How can that possibly be? I wasn't a new customer, they knew pretty well how much energy I use over the year so how could the have got the estimate so wrong and then only one month into the contract then readjusted it? When I complained they proposed direct debits ranging from £110.00 to £192.00, i.e. non-sense. I have been through their invoices with an accountant and asked for clarifications on some of the numbers. They never came back with explanations that made sense. The whole idea that consumer should built all this reserve over the summer months in their account is a total abuse. They can provide the consumer with smart meters but it doesn't suit them and ofgem is a joke as well. I asked them for npower's historical tariffs because neither Npower nor the Ombudsman would provide them, they said that they don't have them! Then they referred me to a private company and it turned out that they didn't have them either. If the regulators don't keep records of the tariffs or able to point the consumer to the right resource then what on earth are they doing and what do they keep in their library? I was paying them, until they started dragging me to the Magistrate which I think was abuse of legal process. Otherwise why did the Magistrate throw it out. The Magistrate even asked them to book 40 minutes of time and then they would hear it. But they didn't because they knew that they had no chance. How can I pay them? Their invoices are wrong. I am on a Tariff imposed on me and I don't even have access to the correct information to pick my own Tariff. I even asked for a copy of their terms and conditions and they send me terms and conditions for their website and they never got back to me when I emailed them saying that I think that they have sent me the wrong document. What else could I do? But since I don't even have the right terms and conditions I can't verify that these additional charges are part of the contract. So none of the additional charges are valid either because I have never had the opportunity to read the correct terms and conditions. I have asked them to allow me to move on to a new supplier but they won't answer. They don't say no. They just ignore my communications. I am keeping a record of all of it and I am going to add it to my witness statement to show that their behaviour has been unreasonable through out with the hope that I might get the cost of my time back but the judges too have been emasculated by the government and don't have the stomach for it anymore which was what made Common Law so effective but no longe. The problem is the implementation of #EU directives in UK that doesn't allow consumer to claim for time and stresses involved caused. If the payouts were large enough then they would have incentives to settle early when there has been a serious mistake by one of their representative. But they keep on doing this because the penalties are puny compared to the number of people who don't even have the time for drawing up a claim. It is the government's fault that OfGem is useless and it is their fault that the Ombudsman organisations can just about do anything and get away with it. The whole concept of Ombudsman has been destroyed by their conduct and the cuts in the public services means that the justice system is not accessible by most consumers and since small claim court doesn't payout costs (or caps it) there is no point to get a lawyer involved even if the Claimant could afford it. I never wanted to go through this again but the way they bullied me and dragged me before the Magistrate really got under my skin.

Hi, I know that you can't change supplier if there is an outstanding balance of over £50.00 and it is more than 28 days old. But I am in a huge dispute with Npower and I have been asking them to let me change suppliers and let the ongoing court action decide on how much is outstanding. They have missold their contract to me on two occasions. The first time, when it came to renewing the contract I told them I'll let it go as long as this sort of thing doesn't happen again. But within two months they increased my direct debit again and during the process of complaining about the issue I found out that I was not on a fixed tariff as I had negotiated with their representative. Fortunately I had a recording of that telephone conversation and sent it to the Ombudsman who claimed that it was different to the transcript NPower had given them. I asked for an SAR which matched my recording. But the Ombudsman still ruled in their favour, if that is even believable. They tried to install pre-paid meters by applying for a Warrant of Entry but I argued that this was a contractual dispute and should be dealt with in the County court. The Magistrate agreed with me and threw out their application and the other three applications they made. On the fourth occasion, I gave up and filed my own County court claim against them for mis-selling, harassment and abuse of legal process. This case has now been dragged for nine months without a hearing and all along I keep getting these invoices and added charges that I don't agree with specially that they moved me to their "standard tariff" so I have had no choice to choose a tariff. So I stopped paying them. I have been asking to be allowed to change supplier and let the court decide how much is outstanding to whom. But they won't answer, neither does their legal representative. In fact except for notifications of invoices and meter reading requests, I get nothing from Npower, no matter how many times I write to them and about any subject, not even the legal proceedings. Their Barrister is apparently famous for not writing things down. I am worried that they may cut me off and then I have to settle their ridiculous invoice and chase them for money for the rest of my life. Can some one help. I just want to get away from Npower and their dirty games. Thanks

Hi, I have been mis-sold energy contracts twice now by Npower, now. The energy Ombudsman have no legal training and don't even seem to have an obligation to adhere to Consumer Protection Act, Distance Selling regulations or even the Unfair Trading Regulations 2008. But more of that later. Unfortunately UK's implementation of the associated EU Directives does not provide for compensation to be paid out to the consumers. Npower has been applying for WoE twice now and failed but they are going for it for a third time. They won't make a claim for the so called out standing invoices because they know that I would defend it & force them to recalculate my invoice according to the offer and not the contract which I did not sign because it was fundamentally different to the offer I accepted on the phone. They have switched me back to their standard "tariff" instead of the low income tariff that I had initially negotiated for thereby denying me even warm home subsidies. I have asked for and they won't let me switch supplier until I pay the the extortionate invoices which include costs of the failed applications for WoE. Can some one tell me what remedy I can claim for through the county court because to be honest neither OFT or Ofgem have even bothered to come back and ask for my evidence: The transcription of my telephone conversation with Npower recorded by myself which seems different to the one the Ombudsman has based its ruling. However I have now managed to obtain a second transcription under SAR which confirms to my own recording and not the Ombudsman's claim. By the way if anyone thinks that any of the Ombudsman are impartial or independent then they my must be living some where different to me. I have had dealings with most of them either for my own cases or on behalf of members of my family. They are all corrupt to the core but are accountable to no one. Once I took BT to court for my sister for a bogus sale of £975.00 when the Ombudsman had ruled that my sister should pay it and we won loss of income of over £3,000.00 plus all the outstanding invoices that were written off. From what I have gathered the only thing I can claim is for the difference between what I should have paid and what I have been invoiced through the small claim court but calculating that is a tasks worthy of payment in itself. I have spent almost a year on this and I find the remedies totally inadequate. If I am going to go through a legal proceeding which took almost a year last time and hundreds of pager of witness statement then I want to get the cost of my time back at least but this is not possible in small claim courts. I can claim for damages but they are difficult to quantify. It seems that under Eu Directive I should be able to claim for my time and emotional distress caused by Npower's outrageous behaviour. But in UK that will only happen if OFT instigate proceeding. Well at least this is what I have understood so far. So does anyone know more and can help me? Thank you.