Need some help/advice. Npower has been overcharging my friend. in 3 months she got a bill for £642 for gas alone, she had the meters re-read by an engineer and the next bill was £512. She's not sure if its £642 bill AND a £512 bill or if the new bill of £512 was a recalculated bill. Either way there both wrong. Heres why, she has been staying away the whole time due to neighbours being burgled. Therefore no heating or gas was used in approx 5 months AT ALL. Npower are not budging on the bill and shes started to get the debt collectors letters. So we need some advice on how we can prove to npower or take further action for a in depth investigation to take place to make this fair and not daylight robbery. Advice welcomed...

Hi guys, wondering if you experts on here can help and advise. We got the keys today to our new property from our landlords. We have 7 days left on the current property to vacate. Currently the address we are leaving is southern electric and the new property is Npower. The problem is the new property has key meters for the gas and electric. So i called npower to discuss with them about the removal of these meters, and have normal ones installed. however they informed me there would be a 60 pound per unit. so 120 to swap them all in all i was on the phone for about 25 minutes!!!. I explained the reason for wanting them removed. And that was we have a 8 week old baby, and the last thing i ever want is the electric to run out and gas before we actually get paid again. i explained this, and the guy on the phone advised me of current direct debit plans that would suit us, and said that due to the fact we got a 8 week old baby, we may get help. As some people can get them changed under certain circumstances and criteria. so it led me to believe there was some hope. He transferred me to a lovely lady who took details and tried to help, she also advised that metering services may help us. I did explain as well that not only is there a 8 week baby, the meters are in the cellar and my partner is terrified of them ( no idea why). So therefore if it did run out of money and it cut off, my partner wouldnt do it and would be forced to sit there till i got back. She understood and was very sympathetic and helpful. she transferred me to metering services who would be able to give me a yes or no right away. When i spoke to the guy, he said sorry its 60 per unit. and there was no leighway. I went through it all again but this time with this guy, but unforutnatley he couldnt help, i even asked if i paid for 1 to be done cuz they do the other free, and he refused. i advised i would be coming on consumer action group for some advise, and at this point he became a little paniccy, and thought i was going to issue a complaint and report him, i advised its not him his hands are tied and that i would be coming here to see if anyone has any ideas. He said if i wanted to make a complaint he would put me through, again i advised i got no complaint with him, in the end he spoke to his manager but yet again they said they couldnt help me. and spent 10 minutes explaining the benefits of key meters. at the end of the day im just concerned for my little lad. if the power goes out or the gas and its cold. has anyone got any ideas? i dont mind paying for the one to be done but i cant afford the two! cheers guys

Over the past few weeks I have been monitoring my electricity meter with an "Owl" monitor which I have tested against three other meters and monitors to check its accuracy. It appears that my Npower (CEG) meter is over reading by about 40% As this meter has been in place for nearly 18 years, what are my chances of claiming a refund for this period, which I guess will be quite substantial ? Npower has been on at me for a few months to arrange the replacement of the old meter. Naturally I am reluctant to agree to this until the meter has been independently checked . I have written to them this week re the meter's apparent inaccuracy and await their reply. I also have written to the Ombudsman who have now allocated a case number. My question is, have I done all I should have, or is there any other course of action ? Any advice most gratefully received

So, basically over the last 6-7 years i have accumulated a debt of nearly £900 with nPower for my gas. I am currently supposed to be paying this off at a rate of £3.00 per week taken by them taking £1.50 off a £5.00 topup, £3.00 off a £10.00 topup etc...... But i haven't topped up in over 3 months and probably only 2 or 3 times last year because as soon as i do it is swallowed by what i owe them. What i'd like to do is ideally switch suppliers then make set payments to nPower per month to reduce the debt whilst still being able to use everything i pay for with my new supplier but for obvious reasons nPower refuse to let me switch. I'm probably wrong but i'm sure i remember reading somewhere a while back that a supplier cannot hold you hostage due to monies owed. They have to let you move/switch suppliers then collect the debt by other means (i think this was about telecoms providers but maybe the same applys here?) Any advice or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

I had similar problem a few years back with my gas meter. Unfortunately I was not aware of consequences of meter changes. A different company insisted by threatening me with Court action to change my meter. So they did and I had many problems like yours. However, I am having similar problems with npower insisting on changing my electricity meter - it was inspected just a few months back and the inspector assured me that meter was in perfect order. despite that I have received 15 letters,so far, to let them in to change it! I may sound mad, but I've come to believe there must be an agenda behind the persistence. I have a number of friends who are having very similar problems which are nothing to do with their usage. After the meter was changed, they have received huge unjustified bills. I keep looking on Cag to find what the real story is, where can I find info? regards

I am about to give you a chronological order of my exceptional experience with npower: exceptional in their failure to provide a decent level of customer service. Npower failed to provide me in 3 different occasions the service I have asked for. They failed to issue me refunds that I was entitled to. They have failed to keep track of my meter readings and have disregarded them constantly asking me for new meter readings. They have ignored my complaint letter. My flat has been refurbished in Nov 2011, I have replaced the electric storage heaters with a more efficient gas central heating. Because of electric heaters I used to have an Economy 7 tariff and this meant that the electric meter had to be different and a special tariff (lower rate in the night, higher during the day). After the refurbishment work I have requested npower to change my tariff so that it would be more convenient for me... and this is where the story starts. March 2011 I call Npower to request the tariff change. They fixed me an appointment for an engineer to come and replace the meter. The engineer never turns up. April 2011 I call Npower, they fix me a second appointment and promise me a refund cheque of £ 20. The engineer doesn't turn up at the appointment I receive the cheque for the 1st missed appointment September 2011 After some time spent abroad I call Npower to complain about the 2nd missed appointment and they fix me a third appointment and promise me a cheque. The engineer doesn't turn up at the appointment I don't receive the cheque for 2nd missed appointment Later in September 2011 I call Npower to complain and they fix me a forth appointment and promise me a cheque. I don't receive the cheque for the 3rd missed appointment... but... surprise... the engineer finally comes to my flat to undertake the meter change And that's all? No, that's not all, that's just the start. My last energy bill is dated the 15/4/2011 and I was supposed to receive a bill the 10/10/2011. Not being able to read my energy bill I have no idea of how much I am spending. It is now 7 months that I have no clue of how much I am spending. September - October - November - Meter readings problem I generally send my meter readings using their website however the website doesn't allow me to enter meter readings as it still asks for 2 values (for the economy 7 meter) and now having only 1 value it does not allow me to submit it. I have then decided to call Npower's customer service team to give the readings to a human being. Just as the website, they have asked me for 2 values. I had to explain that I had only 1 value, and just as the website they refused to accept the reading (I wonder if there is any difference between employees in npower's customer service team and their automated software). After that I had to explain the whole story to the support person he took my meter readings and assured me I would have received the bill shortly (this was middle of October). A few days later (middle of October) an npower person comes in person to my door to take another meter reading. Complaint By the end of October I still didn't receive my electricity bill so I have sent an official complaint. The complaint has been accepted and automated message confirmed it had been received and that it "might take up to 5 days..." Almost 3 weeks have passed and today I received a letter from npower. My first thought was that they were answering to my complaint, apologizing for the disservice. Naive me. It was just another letter saying "we don't have a recent meter reading, or those we have appear to be incorrect.... please call our meter reading service or send us your meter reads online". It's an infinite loop!

NPower have charged me for a visit to my house by one of their agents, apparently for a chat . It wasn't arranged and I wasn't informed that they were coming. Can they do this?

Hi Guys, I am having a ongoing dispute with NPOWER and am beginning to feel that I have a serious problem and I don't really know who to turn to for help. It is a long complicated story so I will do my best to be clear and concise. In 2007 I moved from Australia into a flat that had already established a system of paying bills. One of the girls there was looking after the payment of all household bills so I simply paid her the council/utilities bills. When she moved out at the end of 2007, she passed on all details of water and council tax but neglected to give us information about electricity or gas. In all the commotion of her moving and moving in my Australian friend we assumed we must pay the electricity/gas in with the rent payment. As we heard nothing from npower- (no letters, emails or bills), and since we had a regular person come to check the metre, we assumed that this bill was taken care of. We continued this way for 3 years with no contact with npower. Until December 2010. In December 2010 we received a letter from npower saying welcome to the neighbourhood and that we should contact them with a current reading. You can imagine our distress on receiving this and discovering we had not been paying this bill. My flatmates and I are honest and we accept that we are partly to blame for not being more proactive in finding out exactly what was happening with the bill. When we were in contact with npower they bullied my flatmate into giving details and admitting to debt that I don't believe we were entitled to pay. As we are from Australia and were quite eagar to settle this we did not fully look into our rights as consumers. To cut a long story short, they ended up charging us over £3000 pounds for the 3 years use and automatically put us on a payment plan of £273 a month to cover the debt and current usage (they estimated this would be £1688 for electricity for jan 2011 til feb 2012). Herein lies the problem. We have since moved out of the property and I am trying to sort out the final bill. Based on the payment plan and my flatmates caculations, the debt npower believed we owed is as follows: Combined debt for gas was £1557.05 (we paid a lump sum of £677.96 in july) reducing the payment to £879. 09. Included in this is our final bill which they calculated at £123.14 and then the remainer of the 3 year debt at £755.95. For electricity our debt was £622.04. On July 12th we made a payment of £864.42 which brought us into a credit with electricity of £125. (Here comes the confusing part) According to NPOWER our final bill totals : £1081.50 for our usage of electricity. I do not understand how this can be possible as we were making regular monthly payments for the current usage. This is more than a years usage in one month! I am starting to become quite distressed as I have made regular attempts to contact npower and on each occassion they have been unable to explain my bills and they have not returned phone calls as promised as they say they need to refer it to another department. I also have not received an itemised bill. The only thing they have suggested to account for the discrepancy is an incorrect metre reading. The last reading we gave them was 85883 0n the 25/10/10. They suggested that the reading we gave them 99329 is incorrect and should possibly be 89329 but as i have been unable to access my old flat, I can not confirm this. I am of course trying to gain access. I guess this is a plea for help. I do not believe we should have been accountable for the debt in the first place as I read on Directgov website that 'If you haven’t had a bill for more than two years, your supplier can only charge you for the energy you’ve used in the last year.' But now I am just quite distressed as the company is not cooperating and a final bill of £2258.61 just seems extortionate! And to put it simply, with so many numbers being thrown at me, I am getting very confused as to what exactly they have charged us for and how it was calculated. If any one could help me or give suggestions as to who we can contact to help us deal with this situation, it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time

Hi everyone, When I moved into my flat about 4 years ago, I phoned npower, the electricity providers at the address, to register with them under my boyfriend's name (he was living with me at the time.) They said he would have to phone them himself, so I let him know and left it with him. He never phoned them back (out of slackness!), but we never received any correspondence (no bills, no reminders) from them until now. Someone has been round this morning to see if the property is occupied. I missed them and they left a letter asking the occupier to contact them or they may cut off the electricity. My boyfriend has moved out this month, and I'm hoping to move out in the next month or so. I'm not really sure where I stand with any of this, or what I should say to them when I call. I'm aware that if they don't send you a bill for a long period of time, and they're at fault, then they can only back-charge you for up to a year, but I'm not so sure if this falls under the heading of 'not their fault'! Obviously though, I can't afford to pay 4 years' worth of bills. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

i have got a £1600 debt with npower and they say they want £1200 payment now then i can go onto dd. They will be sending somone to fit a prepayment meter they say and have had a letter from a dent collector las week. now i do think the prepayment thing would be good as it would stop me getting further in debt (4 bed house). Is there anything else i can do?

Hi there We always use alot of gas and electricity. My last bill was £600 so Npower have added that to a predicted usage of £987.59 for elcetricty and £709.50 for gas. They did ask for over £200 a month but have now split it over 12 months and say that they want £155. They say I can do nothing until my next 6 month bill. My last 6 month bill was for £600 as well. Can I do anything to reduce the direct debit?

Hi, Is anyone else having trouble getting npower to bill them correctly? Despite my reading the gas and electritiy meters regularly and supply the information on line they 'estimate' my bill. Last year I ended owing them a lot of money which they clawed back. This year they firstly told me I had a credit of nearly £300 and now I am awaiting a new bill and it looks as if they think I owe them money again. I used to be with another provided and never had any problems. I'd love to know if anyone else is having difficulty.

Ive copied below a letter of complaint ive drafted. In short i switched to npower, despite providing hand over meter readings they didn't bill me for three months, then set the bill what i think now was artificially low. Today I get a letter and my bill have more than doubled, they say to repay the debit. If any one could take the time to read my letter and offer any suggestions or advice id really appreciate it. Thanks Steve I am writing to make a complaint about what I consider to be a failure in your levels of service resulting in me being issued with an increased direct debit payment. When I switched to yourselves I provided a meter reading for the handover from my previous utility provider. I provided another reading further to this but didn’t receive a bill from npower for around three months. I was eventually provided with a direct debit of £34 per month. This seemed low to me but in view of the fact that I am a single man and am only at home for around half the week I just assumed it was accurate for my energy consumption. I was shocked to receive a bill dated 27th July informing me of my new payment of £80 per month which would reduce my account debit over 6 months. I immediately called npower to speak to an advisor who extended the repayment period thus reducing the bill to £64 per month. I consider this to be an excessive increase which is in no part attributable to myself. The reasons it has increased are clearly due to my account being in debit but I attribute this failure to the substandard service levels provided by you. Put simply I would like you to address the following issues which have caused this situation: • Why did it take so long to create my first bill? • Why was the first bill set so low? I would like to understand why your inefficiencies in effectively processing my account has so dramatically increased my bill and as I can not afford to pay the debit off I am effectively compelled to remain with npower until I’ve repaid. If I do not receive a satisfactory response I will be taking my complaint to the relevant ombudsman and further if necessary.

My niece has a debt of £350 to npower hich she acknowledges. its for a utility bill which she fell behind on. She had an arrangement to pay at x amount per month but simply could not afford it and now npower has had BCW send a letter and add charges to her account. They are threatening more charges and the installation of a pre-pay meter which is not possible as her gas meter is in a cupboard owned by a neighbour who would kill anyone who touched her property. I advised my niece that she should contact npower (not BCW) and tell them that she will pay all future bills on time, but the arrears must be reduced to a more agreeable amount (currently £50 per month) I was thinking more along the lines of £5 seeing as though she is on benefits and has a small child. Either that or allow npower to take her to court, who will no doubt agree to her paying £1 a month. They are also threatening doorstep visits, but I have already printed off the template letter regarding this, and thats ready to be sent. However, I also wanted to seek advice here before she does or sends anything. Thanks UKD.

Dear CAGers This for a friends relative who is 76 and lives in a flat. Following the death of her husband this lady has gone into arrears to a moderate amount (I think around £1,000). As she only receives a state pension and housing benefits she has limited means. A gas meter reader visited the property on the previous Friday and merely read the meter with no other comment or documentation. A man has previously visited the property (around Feb/Mar) and for want of a better description 'bullied and intimidated' a small payment from the lady in question, in addition to her regular amounts. He intimidated her to speak to an unknown person to make a payment using his mobile phone. This action really distressed this old lady and has made her more than a little scared. Last Monday, 3 men turned up at her flat. The first the lady was aware of it was when she heard her front door open and saw a man standing there. She told him to get out and he did so - after some fuss. He did not ring the door bell nor make any attempt to alert the resident he was there before he entered. There has been no warning letter, nor personal visit as I believe is required in this instance. Whilst they were there my friend had a pre-arranged call on her mobile to gather family tree information where they record the call and use this lady's knowledge to progress their family tree. A recording of a lot of the events exists and is actually quite distressing even for a non-interested third party. The main man (same as Feb/Mar) claimed to have a warrant, but the piece of paper flashed in front of the lady did not look like a warrant (she has seen some before). He also did not give her a copy, nor allow her any time to gather reading glasses, let alone actually read it. It appears they claimed to be there to change the GAS meter to a pre-payment type. Whilst the call was on, the lady so terrified by this man that she said she was going to call the Police. Almost immediately following this (and hearing the lady was speaking to someone on the phone) the ELECTRICAL power to the property was turned off, the mains supply switch being located outside the front door. One can only assume that the man in question believed the lady was on a cordless phone and wanted to stop her from communicating with the Police. I received a call from my friend and jumped to the CAG board and discovered the Police will consider this a civil matter, but procedures must be followed to have the right to enter a property. The call continued and it appears three men were there, considerably taller and bigger than this 76 year old lady. The main man then tried to claim they had the right to enter and HE would call the Police. A stand off ensued lasting a few hours. During this stand off, various attempts were made by (what sounded like) the main man to poke metal devices through the letter box, fiddling with the door lock and loud voices. As another method of intimidation what sounded like a power drill was brought up and whirred near the door. The lady in question was getting really distressed and does keep her correspondence and payments fairly well organised. She had no advance notice of these people CLAIMING to be from npower GAS turning up. The mains electricity switch was returned to the ON position before they eventually departed. The police did not attend. No documentation was left identifying who was there or why. This has left the lady quite shaken and does not know what to do about this. On Wednesday a letter arrived from (I think United Utilities) stating they would be visiting the property on the PREVIOUS Monday. What exactly would be the procedures they have not followed? As this three-man team claimed to be there for gas, did they behave correctly in switching off the electricity supply? If they have not followed procedures, would the man's entry into the property be considered burglary? What legal avenues are available? What documentation should be present and left to read and refer to? How can this lady prevent that particular man from turning up again as he frightens her? As always, any help on these matters is greatly appreciated. Thanks

This is my story with npower. To see all the bills please visit: Mr Magpie1's photostream in flickr.com From: Mr Magpie1 To: npower Cc: Sent: Tue, 21 June, 2011 11:05:29 Subject: Fw: charged twice and misleading bill Dear npower I have received your email (Tue, 17 May, 20119:38:55) where you write: “Dear Mr Magpie1,there is no bill to replace the billwhich was issued to you 1 March 2011(5th bill). This bill is correct” I am really sorry but it is absolutely clear that I have been charged twice between the units 4752 and 4917 on the Electricity summary (please see 1st and 2nd bills attached). I contacted you straight away and after a very long formal complaint you agreed to pay back the amount of money I had been charged twice. I accepted this only because I did not want to cause you any problems. After a while you sent the 5th bill (issued on 1 March2011). This is a misleading bill. I have not received any comment about this from theOmbudsman but I do not need the Ombudsman to recognize that this is not a proper bill nor to acknowledge that I was billed twice between the 1st and 2nd bills and take this matter before a court. What are your intentions? What do you want to do to solve this situation? Please find attached: . 1st bill .2nd bill .3rd bill .4th bill .5th bill .6th bill Regards Mr Magpie1 ----- ForwardedMessage ---- From: Mr Magpie1 To: npower Cc: Sent: Sat, 14 May, 2011 22:10:01 Subject: Fw: bill Dear npower Following the email I sent you on Mon, 28 March,2011 15:58:17 (please see forwarded message here below) I am still waitingfor a proper bill to replace the misleading bill you issued on 1st March2011. On 30 March, 2011 18:32:49 you wrote: “I haveissued you with a proper bill today (5th Bill) and this will be withyou within the next 7-14 working days.” I am sorry but I have not received anything yet. Should we take legal proceeding? What do you want to do to solve these issues? What are your intentions? Please let me know. Regards Mr Magpie1 ----- ForwardedMessage ---- From: Mr Magpie1 To: npower Cc: Sent: Mon, 28 March, 2011 15:58:17 Subject: Fw: bill Dear npower I know my rights. You have to send a proper bill torequest a payment. This is the law. Your billing is not clear. Furthermore it hasmissing parts. The bill has to be clear enough to allow everybodyto read it. I would like to point out that your bill should be understood bythe majority of the population even by people with a low level of education.Besides I showed your bill to people with more than one degree and even a PhDbut they were not able to understand it either. After what has just happened I cannot believe youare still behaving in this way. If you wish we could take this matter beforea judge. Please let me know. Otherwise please send me a proper bill. ******************* In addition to what I wrote in my previous email(please see forwarded message below) I still do not understand the followingquotations on the 5th bill (the last one): 1) “Electricity summary-Cancelled bill 03/02/11(inc. VAT of £2.35) -£49.39” 2) “Gas summary- Cancelled bill 03/02/11 (inc. VATof £1.93) -£40.61 What happened on 03/02/11? 3) Why does the gas summary start from 31/12/10instead of starting from 21/10/10? 4) Why do you write: “Payment received with thanks-£65.00”? I did not pay you any amount of money between 31/12/10 and 27/02/11.Is this maybe the amount of money you are paying me to settle theprevious matter? If so, please put this quotation were it should be in theelectricity summary. 5) What happened between the 4th and5th bills? Regards Mr Magpie1 ----- ForwardedMessage ---- From: Mr Magpie1 To: npower Cc: Sent: Tue, 22 March, 2011 9:22:19 Subject: bill Dear npower I have just received your letter and your 5thbill. In order to accept your request of payment I need to receive all thecorrect information. I apologise but I do not understand the following points: 1) I need to know why on the 5th bill itis written: “Electricity summary-your previous bill £172.58” “Gas summary-your previous bill £473.79” I would like you to notice that on the previousbill (the 4th bill) we can find different amounts: “Electricity summary-amount to pay £112.69” “Gas summary-amount to pay £263.21” 2) I need to know why on the 5th bill itis written: “Gas summary-Payment received with thanks (ortransfer) -£65” Is this the amount of money that you are paying meto settle the matter on the current case ref: 615431? I would like you tonotice that the issue is on the Electricity summary. Please find attached: Your letter The 5th bill The 4th bill Regards Mr Magpie1

Hi there. I currently owe npower about £250 for gas/elec, which I'm having trouble paying (due to being unemployed and in receipt of Job Seeker's Allowance). I have every intention of paying, but would like to explore every possible solution available in getting help. I received a letter notifying npower's right to enter my home and, most likely, fit a prepayment meter. I spoke to the collections dept and I had only two options: 1) Pay half of the debt up front (approx £125), then make small payments, or; 2) Have prepayment meters installed and have about £5 (a figure that I proposed), per week taken off the credit + a daily standing charge of 38p(!) I've noticed that npower has an Energy Trust, for those who've got into debt with their fuel bills (plus other debts). I'm going to apply for this and see what happens. Can anyone help out with some advice regarding this debt? Thanks.

This issue has just been resolved but I want to bring it to CAGs attention. I'm with Npower dual fuel on Direct Debit, and about a year ago got quite a shock when a letter from them informed me that my electricity payment was being increased from £115 per month to ...£400 + per month after the recent reading by Meter Plus produced an outstanding balance of £1000 +. It was stated on the bill as an actual reading. Now, taking it as read that I'm not running a car production factory in my back garden, this sent me straight to the meter, which is easily accessible on an outside wall. It's an fortunate reflection of my imperfect external housekeeping diligence that the cobwebs spread across the door indicated it hadn't been opened recently. The meter showed a dramatically lower reading. I took pics. A phone call thankfully sorted this out, my payments were adjusted down again and no harm done as they hadn't deducted the large debit. Fast forward to a few weeks ago, and you all know the sinking feeling when you check your account before deciding whether to buy something (you DO do that, don't you? ) and realise you've far less money than you thought... £150 less, to be precise. Checking the account, I saw NPower had increased the electricity DD by £150. To be fair, they had written to notify me of this but, secure in my imaginary world of fairness, I had assumed it was just the standard statement and not opened it. (I know!) Back to the meter, armed with camera. Again, the electricity reading on the bill was vastly increased, again stated as "ACTUAL". Took pics. This time I wanted an audit trail, so I made a complaint via the website form. It took 5 days to get a response. A couple of days before I got this response, we came home to find a Meter Plus agent parked in front of our house. He stayed there a few minutes, clearly saw us, but as we got out of the car he drove off. Their reply to my complaint was to say that due to the number of conflicting readings would I please photograph the meter and send by return email. They said that the Meter Reader had amended the reading: still way over the actual one and, coincidentally exactly 1000 Kw more than MY original reading taken a week or so before. His figure bore no resemblence to the actual reading on the day he came. About as similar as my usual lottery numbers to the winning ticket. The new reading I'd submitted made the account approx £70 in credit, and they offered to refund this to my account, subject to photographs confirming my reading. I emailed back, told them about the errant Meter reader, enclosed ALL the pics including last years and demanded to know WHY this guy was submitting blatantly wrong readings. I also pointed out that, had their employee not done this, the normal payment would have been taken out of my account, and I would have been £150 better off. I therefore insisted that the full £150 be refunded to put me back in the position I would have been in had they not - yet again- made these errors. Furthermore I demanded to know why, after checking their website, I was on a tariff costing almost twice as much as their online deals (even though I manage it online) and why I hadn't been informed of these options. A week later (their "next working day response" isn't quite up to speed) they informed me that my account has been corrected, the full £150 has been sent back to my account, and should I wish to switch to the other tariff online my payments for electricity would be just £60 per month. That's quite a drop from £115. So, result, but still no explanation of why/how their reader could have got my reading so wrong. Should have gone to Specsavers??? I didn't notice a guide dog in his van. I think not, because the first time he never even opened the meter cupboard..he just made a figure up, then presumably tried to cover his tracks. I can't see much point in pursuing this any further though. So, the moral of this story is - ALWAYS open the letters and check the usage and DD amount. ALWAYS double check by taking your own readings, and take photos if there's any discrepancy. Be persistant and stick to your guns on any overpayments Regularly check that you're on the lowest possible tariff Elsa x

Moved into my home 2 years ago, originally got a huge first bill from npower, but not untill being here for 9 months. I contaced them to say the bill was unusually high and after several months of trying to convince them it was wrong they finally reduced it as it seems my night and day readings were the wrong way round, i have night storage heaters. They were then demanding payment from me which i could not make, the bill has got higher and higher, in april they agreed i could pay £200 per month but i cannot manage this, but they will accept no lower, help, im worried they will be here to cut me off soon

Since living in this property I have changed suppliers a few times to get the best deals. For some strange reason a couple of years ago I moved from Southern Electric to Npower and immediately they said I was £300 in arrears! I must have been drunk when I changed to them! I had never been in arrears with SE. While I was with Npower they kept increasing my direct debits until I was eventually paying £230/month and I was still in debt with them! This for a normal 3 bed semi dual fuel contract. Eventually I came to my senses and am now with Age Uk as I am over 60. They immediately dropped my dd to £175/month and said that would probably even be too much. I recently received a £400 refund from them and they have now re-assessed my dd to £86/month. I am now wondering if I was being grossly overcharged by Npower and is there any way I can check if they were overcharging me? And more to the point can I get some of it back? Thanks.

Hello, I am a small business owner. Until recently, the landlord of our premises paid the utility bills. In December 2010, my landlord wrote to me advising that under the terms of my lease, I was supposed to be paying for the electricity. He then sent a letter to NPower informing them this, and subsequently I received rather a large bill from NPower - about £1,800.00 - for electricity usage dating back some 18 months. On enquiring with NPower, it appears they have refunded these invoices to the landlord, and re-charged them to our new account. My immediate problem is that I just cannot pay the charges, which are now £2,300.00 after a further quarterly bill. On the plus side, while I have not budgeted for the electricity, I could probably manage a direct debit going forward without too much difficulty - the problem, of course, is the arrears that have accrued. I notified NPower of the problem in January, and they were reasonably sympathetic and agreed to give me some time to get my head together, find the money, and perhaps also make enquiries about the metering and so on. The problem is (and I realise this is my fault), I just do not have time for this sort of thing, as I am bogged-down just trying to cope running my business, and so I took no further action. As a result, I today received a visit from one of MeterPlus's debt recovery officers. I won't go into details, but the fellow was creepy, dishonest and rude. He made it clear that unless I settle the account in full, I will be cut-off - which will basically mean the end of my business. I asked if I could agree a payment plan, but he wouldn't listen. He just wanted the full amount there and then, or he would have me cut-off next week. I then telephoned NPower's debt collection department. The first person I spoke with, again, was extremely rude. I was offering to agree a payment schedule, but he was obtuse and obstructive and made the whole situation personal. I rang back and spoke with someone else, who was actually much more helpful, but unfortunately the payment plan proposed is unrealistic - they want half (about £1,150.00) by next Thursday. It's possible I could do it, but I doubt it. Overall, the amount outstanding isn't huge, but the general situation is far from satisfactory. I know that I cannot be cut-off without a Magistrates' warrant, but this could still happen if my cashflow isn't right over, say, the next 2-4 weeks. Is there anything I can do? Can NPower charge me for electricity use dating back 18 months? Can they refuse to accept a payment proposal? I was offering £400.00 a month, payable in instalments of £200.00 a week, which would repay the arrears within about five months, while keeping up with future bills. I should stress I don't have a problem with paying my bills, but I do feel slightly aggrieved at this situation and I don't appreciate the high and mighty attitude of the people at NPower. Does anyone have any thoughts? This is a real threat to my business - and my workers' jobs - so a response would be appreciated. Thanks.

I have been browsing this board and I see that a lot of posts here relate to Npower. I've been fighting with that institution since June last year and recently sent a complaint to Energy Ombudsman. The complaint originally refers to the amount that was charged in error for utilities used in a property that I have vacated roughly 9 months ago. The amount was then refunded to me and then added again to another bill. In a word, Npower claimed back its own refund. As I know that some people here have experience in dealing with Energy Ombudsman I wanted to ask how their complaints procedure usually works. Following the advice that I received from Consumer Direct employee, I have sent formal complaint form and dozens of documents and letters that I have exchanged with Npower to Energy Ombudsman enquiry email address. Energy Ombudsman accepted my complaint and sent me a form to sign in order to start the investigation. Today, I have received a phone call from a member of Npower Executive Complaints Team. The lady stated that they have issued the refund in error made some other mistakes concerning my bills from my previous property and the outcome is that I owe them £300 pounds Funny. I would like to ask two questions: Is it a normal procedure? The Energy Ombudsman's website says that they will let me know about the outcome of investigation. I was expected to be contacted by the Energy Ombudsman not by Npower employee? I have really bad experience with that company and I feel that they are trying to do something behind my back, again. Shall let the Energy Ombudsman that I was contacted by Npower? Due to professional reasons I'll be moving to another city soon. I'm going to close my dual fuel account with Npower and sign up for some decent supplier. What could be the outcome if I just leave it like that? From Your experience, is it possible that they will be chasing after me? If so how and when?

Hi,I have seen a thread here about Cashback problems with NOTW Captaincash, just thought I would ask if this advice would apply to the likes of Topcashback and Quidco. I changed my power supplier to Npower using Topcashback. I had first cleared all my cookies but my cashback did not track. I sent in a query to Topcashback and the money then appeared as tracked but at a zero ammount. After a couple of weeks Topcashback declined my cashback, saying that Npower had given the money to another cashback site but would not say which one. There seems to be a big problem with Npower/Topcashback as there seems to be an awful lot of people having their cashback track then go to zero then cashback declined. My choice to go with Npower was based on the cashback I would receive. I know that cashback is not guaranteed but it would seem that if something is offered and you enter into a contract based on that offer, you should get what was promised. Companies could and do offer large cashbacks but if the system is not transparent, (Npower and Topcashback seem to be as clear as mud) it then is open to abuse. If you google Npower/topcashback there seems to be a lot of people getting ripped off by these cashback offers.

Hi all, I have requested British Gas to take over my electric and gas meters as i'm currently paying in excess of £50 a week alone in electric to NPower for our small 2 bedroom house. I'm a single mum of two teenagers and self-employed. Business is dead at the moment so our sole income is tax/child tax credits. I can't afford gas, in fact I only put money on my gas card when the cold is unbearable as we only use the gas for heating purposes, a couple of weeks ago I put £15.00 on the gas card that only gave us around £4.50 of gas. The bill for my gas is currently at £300.00 because i'm not putting money on the card weekly, just when we need it desperately. I'm livid that I have a bill so high for something we seldom use. There is apparantly a daily fee for having the pre-payment meter in the first place. I only requested it in the first place so I didnt have yet another large bill to pay out for and wanted to remain in charge of what we spend. As you can imagine with all of our other daily living expenses we are on an extremely tight budget and I'm finding it more and more difficult to survive. British Gas sounded very good and said they were cheaper than NPower but will they allow me to change suppliers if there's a £300 bill on my gas pre-payment meter? I'm becoming desperate! I did call NPower and said something must be wrong but they said the meter reading sound right, we dont have anything running longer than it should and I have become very strict on leaving lights on/standby etc but it's making no difference.

I received my recent bill from Npower for elec and gas this morning to be sickened by the fact i apparently owe them £318 even though i pay by d/d every month! Sadly i'm not at home so can't check their meter readings from last week until tonight but on closer scrutiny I noticed that the elec meter was measuring 13.5 times more kwh each night than the old meter had! Yes power prices have gone up but nothing has changed in my home to justify a new meter measuring that much more electricity being used each night (I have night/day measurements on my meter and did on the old one too). Has anybody else experienced this? I have emailed them to highlight this issue and will await their reply before I take it any further of course. I can foresee no way of them justifying this happening though! Anyway any thoughts let me know. Thanks! Krys