Has this happened to anyone else? my bill from NPower arrived and was approx 70% higher than normal, after checking I realised the billing period had been extended to 5 months without any notification. Best of all estimated usage for the first three months was 85% of total usage at the highest tariff, 15% at the new tariff. Rang customer services they dont know why.

I used to live in a flat that was eventually repossessed because the landlady didn't pay her mortgage while i paid the rent religiously. My agreement with landlady was to to pay my rent inclusive (utility bills + council tax) as i was living in a small studio flat using one radiator to warm the whole place but as soon as i paid the deposit for the flat and moved in i never met the landlady again and we usd to correspond through emails because she was living in Spain. I never open a letter thats not addressed to me and with good faith thiking the landlady is paying those bills as agreed (utility + council tax) but then i started to get final demands so i was concerned and when i failed to reach the landlady through emails i opened the letter to be surprised with a huge £800+ bill! What made things worse i couldn't find my tenancy agreement anywhere as i tried to communicate with Npower but they wouldn't talk to me due to data protection so they asked me for tenancy agreement and again i cant reach the landlady through email or phone calls. i had 2 choices 1- ignore it all then live in darkness with no electricity 2- try to call Npower and setup payment plan to pay in instalments then deduct the amount from the rent so i went for the 2nd choice but no one will talk to me, eventually someone who sounded helpful said the only way for me to be able to speak on that account is by adding my name to the account so i can be acknowledged,i thought i was trying to help and for someone who was 2 days away from losing his power supply i said ok and we agreed 12 months repayment plan. 2 months later i received a notice from solicitors giving me 11 days to leave the property because its being repossessed by the bank so i endedup leaving the flat. Few days ago i applied for credit bu for he first time ever i was refused credit! checked my credit file and to my surprise i found a a default entry from Npower!! How can they default me and i never signed any contract with them? went back to the old property since i still have the mail box key and got piles of letters from Npower and now they added my name next to the landlady! also found a letter from Buchanan Clark + Wells acting behalf of Npower chasing me for £627 i couldn't believe my eyes! called Npower immediately and they said You took responsibility of the account on a phone call allowing us to add your name! No i haven't as i was only old they're adding my name on their systems for Data Protection reasons not for liablity! I am shaking with anger and frustration as i am writing this and thats not all! i realised Council tax issued summons and the date for hearing was today in my name and i never even received a letter from them before. I am sorry for the lengthy thread but i really dontknow what to do!? can i send the CCA letter to Npower or is it only for credit companies ? I never signed a contract or agreed any liability with Npower yet they ruined my credit file with defaults.. Please help my fellow consumers Morgan

Just had a visit from a collections department from Npower about a bill for £1600. Admittedly this bill has not been paid for quite some time, due to both hubby and I on JSA and Npower, said tough can't/won't do anything to help you, when they were first notified. Hubby has literally just been offered a short term position, which may be longer. However, we called and explained the situation as the letter we were given states, "that even at this late stage we can make payment arrangement and help you". Npower said only accept 50%. I said well its too much for someone literally just starting work. SHe said, I appreciate that but its that or a meter. As you can imagine, a meter is going to be very expensive anyway, let alone paying this off on top. Is there any legal position, that if you are offering a payment arrangment they have to take it, or any other option than a meter? Just read on there site and they have a fund that they can offer to assist with your bill. They have never evenmentioned this fund to help us. SHould I ask to go down this avenue first? Thanks.

An npower sales person came to my doorstep on a Sarturday 6 months ago and after discussion, I decided to sign a contract to fix my gas and electricity for 6 months and direct debit of £40 has been taken from my account every month since then. Last weekend, I received a bill of over £1000 from npower. My question is that since I opted to fix my bill, why am I sent another bill. For over a year before I assigned with npower, I was with British gas with who I fixed my contract and I never not any extra gas. Please advise me on this.

Hi, I've been living in a new build flat for the past two years. When I bought it and moved in, my gas was supplied by EDF. I moved to nPower shortly afterwards as I had (previously) been happy with them. Everything was going smoothly until I'd signed the contract and they'd taken the first month's DD: they mysteriously decided that the address I'd provided was wrong and helpfully changed it for me. I rang nPower and they said that because the address on their system was wrong they'd have to cancel the account and start again. So the DD was cancelled and then... nothing. Until I received a letter saying that they'd had difficulties with my account and were sending me back to EDF. Except that EDF apparently didn't want me as I got another letter a month or so later from nPower asking me to call them. So skipping to a few months ago: nPower were still refusing to acknowledge that I live here and started sending bills addressed to a fictional couple (we'll call them the Jones). I duly sent these letters addressed to the Jones back unopened, along with the ones from Richburns, with 'not at this address' on the back. I then started calling nPower as I now had a name to look the account up with. Today, Richburns rocked up (I just happened to be at home) to say they were going to seek a warrant to switch my account over to a pre-pay so I rang them (they won't speak to me - I need to call nPower) and then nPower (again). Although today I seem to have had success (presumably because I've called during the day rather than in the evenings when they just want to go home). So the situation now is that nPower have lost my contract, so they can't prove that I signed up with them, but given the dates I gave them match up with the dates on the account, they're decided that the account is mine (and not the Jones') and are going to switch it over into my name and make me pay my debt. They can't call off Richburns until I have a payment plan in place but they can't put that in place until the account is in my name (which will take approx. two months). So questions: - given they've lost the contract/my details, is it legal for them to just switch the account/debt over to my name? - what can I do to get rid of Richburns? Although nPower have 'assured' me that because the debt isn't in my name nothing will happen, I'm concerned about credit ratings, them bashing the door down whilst I'm at work, etc. Thanks in advance.

Hi I would be very grateful for some advice. It concerns a letter from npower date 27th March 2009 stating an outstanding amount of £23.27. "When we checked this morning we found that you still owe us the above amount. Your payment is overdue." etc etc. Two further letters from Collections Direct. First to inform they had taken on the debt and second dated 15th April 2009 It says that they intend to get a court summons, and that they will seek enforcement of payment "Warrant of execution by bailiffs against goods owned Attachment of earnings order with your present employer charging order on any property you won or are purchasing under a mortgage" I need to know how to deal with this for the following reasons 1. These letters where received by my father and he is in ill health and 83 years old. 2. My father has not issued a power of attorney to anyone but ill health and deteriorating mental capacity makes it impossible for him to deal with this. He has severe speech problems and wouldn't understand. 3. He has not been with npower for over 3 years now. 4. His reasons for leaving them and going to another supplier was that they took large sums of money by direct debit every month and ultimately ended up owing him nearly £1000. He only received this after instructing a solicitor to act on his behalf and it took nearly a year for him to receive this money. They accepted that they owed him this money they just took forever to refund him. How can he ever owe them this small amount? Also the length of time they have taken to send this letter. If anyone turns up on his doorstep demanding money it would terrify him and he lives alone. I am afraid that this could quite easily kill him...no I am not being dramatic. I have experience of aggressive debt collectors trying to gain entry and intimidating behavior over a alleged debt that turned out to be wrong because someone had made a mistake and it is very scary. Please, please what shall I do??? I will experience difficulties as this is in my fathers name. I'm desperate and angry that they can do this. Thank you

I've been very annoyed with npower for over 6 months, today I finally contacted energywatch, but they said I had to refresh my complaint with them before they would take it on. This is the letter I sent. do you think they'll do much about it? Customer Relations PO Box 97 Peterlee SR8 9AP Account Number: ************** To whom it may concern, I am unfortunately writing again to complain about the conduct of the Npower company. I have been in contact with energy watch and have been advised to write you and up to date complaint. I have no complaints about the customer people I have spoken to as all have been courteous and understanding, the complaint I do have is that with every new person I spoke to, I would find out that the previous persons attempts to help me did nothing. I showed the so called new bill to the representative that you sent, to read my meter on 16th January 2009, and apparently it’s all wrong. Apparently you’ve put my day units as my night units and vice versa. Also the fact that one of my meter readings had been 16353 for over 3 months! He told me to tell you this, but I know I already have, and I was given various excuses including, I must not be using enough in the night to warrant charge. Now practically every night for the past 2 months, I’ve had oil heaters on in the night to heat my son’s bedroom, now if those don’t warrant the growth of the readings number, then I don’t know what does! My meter was exchanged on the 6th June 2008, not 9th May 2008 as put on the bill, I’ve no idea where you got that date from, because I’ve never said it, and the communication between your departments leaves a lot to be desired. The fact that the engineer, you sent to change my meter, couldn’t be bothered to send the information to your company, makes me very apprehensive that the system you have even works. Just to figure out that I wasn’t any longer on a pre payment meter took way longer that it should’ve had. I don’t like complaining, but the fact this has taken way too long to sort out, it was only supposed to be a meter exchange! I’m also annoyed at the fact that when I was on a pre-payment meter, I’d averagely need £26 a month to power my flat (I keep finance records), since it was changed, my billing has been a complete mess. First you send me a bill for £199.83, which was supposed to cover 3 months. Since also included £70 of which I still haven’t been told what it was for! After querying it, I was told to disregard it as all my meter readings are estimated. I was then sent a bill for £231.04 on 12/12/2008 that was still including the £199.83 previous bill, and still no explanation for the extra £70. At this point, I’d started to pay online for the bills as I didn’t want it to get out of hand. I paid over £200 between august 2008 and December 2008 and just when I thought it was getting sorted, I had requests a letter for all my meter readings as I didn’t believe some to be quite right. At the end it said you owed me £16.93. The letter was full of gargon about readings and cancelled bills with amounts of which I’d never seen before. I rang up the complaints department to clarify what was going on and spoke to Sue in complaints. She was fantastic at talking me through it, but still there was things that just weren’t quite right, and I still went away confused. She told me that from May to November, I’d only used around £145 of electric, which confused me because if I’d only used that amount why was I getting billed so much, and where was the rest of my over £200 that I’d sent through your website. I asked her to calculate all my usage right from the beginning, when I joined, which was July 2007 to present date. When that came through I apparently owed you £67. Even though this included two new extra months of November 2008 to January 2009, it also included £30 compensation, this I am grateful for, but that means I’d used over £100 of electric in 2 months. I know rates have gone up, and going to a credit meter can also put the average usage up. It just seems a bit excessive from the average £26 I used to put on my pre-payment meter. I’m sorry if I’m sounding like the stupid customer, but with all the paperwork I’ve been sent, it still doesn’t make sense. The change over to a credit meter feels like a complete mistake because of the nightmare that it has caused, it’s supposed to be cheaper with a credit meter, so why isn’t it. Why is my meter not making the correct readings? And what was the extra £70 for? I’m generally fed up with Npower and have already decided that if you cannot sort this out quickly, I will be forced to go ahead with energywatch’s investigation against you. I will also be changing of companies as this, in my opinion has been a complete bulls up of something that shouldn’t have been hard. When will the nightmare end? Yours Faithfully, etc etc I don't know how long it'll take them to reply, but as you can see, I'm just fed up with them. It's not my best complaints letter, but it's the best I could do in the time I had. Any other adivse welcome. Heather

I'm new to these sort of sites, and this is my first post. Sorry it's quite long. I have lived in my current flat for 11 months. As soon as I moved in I rung npower and they then became my electricity supplier. It's my first flat, and I didn't really know how much I was meant to be paying each month for electricity. Therefore when a bill came for about £60 after a month, I paid it. My friend then told me that was too much. I rung npower, explained the situation, and they refunded the money. A few months down the line I didn't receive a bill, so I left it, and thought maybe I'd get a bill after 6 months. Still nothing. A few more months went by, and I thought I'd better contact them and tell them I owed them money, but hadn't received a bill. I was shocked when I got a bill saying that they weren't my supplier. I didn't really know what to so, so I waitied for a bill to come from the new supplier. I never received one. I got a letter from collections direct on 13th (dated 6th) addressed to 'the occupier' saying they/I owed £270.63 and had 7 days to contact npower to pay the debt. If I didn't contact them my details will be passed onto Debt and Litigation Recovery Officers, who will contact me, possibly visit me and I'll be expected to pay for these..!? So I rung npower and told them everything. He said that they were in fact my supplier, and it looks like I do owe them £270.63. He said that npower had been the supplier for the flat since 2001, but I'm not sure these flats have even been here that long! I went onto the internet and did a bit of research on this 'collections direct'. It turns out that its part of npower! The letter makes the reader think that its a different company. I'm moving out in less than 2 weeks. I'm quite willing to pay as long as there is a definate amount that hasn't just been estimated. I have no access to the electricity meter, so i know that any meter readers that have been round wouldn't be able to either.

Hello, I bought a new build flat around February last year, and moved in around July, on my first day of moving in I received a bill for £300 for electricity, which seemed odd as we had only been in once or twice!! I called nPower and informed them this could not be correct, and they took my details (including meter readings of move in and current), told me things did not match up with there records. I was told they would be in touch to rectify the problem. I heard nothing for over a month, until a new bill arrived for £600. Upon checking this I found that the meter number was incorrect. Checking with the building firm, I discovered I was receiving bills for a different flat in my block. I called nPower and they told me to ignore the bill, and I would hear from them regarding an engineer coming to verify my claim the meter was incorrect, to his credit, the man I spoke to was very apologetic and told me not to worry. Between then and December I received no less than 5 letters explaining that an engineer was coming, and that I needed to be in the flat at a given time. On all five occasions, no engineer arrived and I was sent a new letter within a couple of days arranging the next visit. At this point, I recieved a letter telling me that dispite "attempts to contact by telephone" (which I know to be a lie...I have no missed calls or answer machine messages from nPower), that I had been uncontactable and I was requested to call a Customer Direct contact to sort the issue. Having done this, I was told that the issue may have been my failure to inform nPower that my building had a concierge service so they might not have been able to gain access. This is *bull* as all they would have to do is buzz my flat and I could let them in. I was told they would try again and my issue would be resolved by the 30th December. No surpise to me, on the 30th December I recieved a letter from nPowers "Customer Services Director" acknowledging that the issue was not resolved. The letter ended: I then received another letter telling me about yet another appointment. Again a no-show. Imagine my surprise, given that I had been told it was under control, to receive a letter addressed to "Customer" today, informing me of initiation of debt collection proceedings if I do not pay £800 in 7 days. The letter I have received, from "Collections Direct - Pre Court Division" essentially accuses ME of being the issue, and threatens legal procedings for a Warrent of Entry. It also warns I may be disconnected. Interestingly, if nPower HAVE changed the meter number as I requested, I might genuinely owe £800, however they have never billed me for it, nor proved/shown any change in meter number records. Upon investigation I have found "Collections Direct" to seemingly be part of a company called "Rebyl Ltd.", which conveniently shares an industrial estate with nPower. I am contacting both Collections Direct and nPower tomorrow, but would like some advice on how best to continue. Any advice appreciated. Adam_

I have received a red letter from Npower regarding gas supplied to a property which I lived in from jul 2007 to jul 2008. This was a shared house while I was a student at university. During this time I had an electricity account with Npower in my name for the property which I had to complain about on numerous ocassions due to their general incompetence. This account was finally closed approx 6 months after i'd left the property. When I originally changed the elec account into my name, I used a bill which had been left in the house from the previous tenant. There wasn't a gas bill so I wasn't sure who the gas had been supplied by. I had queried with Npower whether they had a gas account for the address when I called regarding the elec account and was advised they did not. Basically what has now happened is that Npower have realised that no one has paid for gas for that year, and have now sent a bill to me. They cliaim to have used a third party tracing agency to find my details, though I find it a little too much of a coincidence that they have only managed to trace the one person living at the property which had an electricity account with them! I've tried to reason with Npower, as I never received a bill (they state they sent 2 bills addressed to 'the occupier') Within that time they made no attempt to read the meter as this was inside the property. They have also told me that in Oct 07 someone rang up to advise them they had moved into the property (there was no new tenants at this time). When I asked if the person had claimed to be me I was told that they didn't give a name. I find it rather worrying that a person can ring up a utilities company claiming to have moved into a property give a meter reading and state a new account should be set up, but Npower do not request any personal details from this person!! I would appreciate on any advise as to whether firstly they are legally allowed to just put the bill into my name after this length of time and also if I can provide them with the names of the other tentants whether they must them attempt to find them also for their share of the payment?

I've recently moved into a shop - phoned Npower to set up an electric a/c and they "re-energised" (plugged in a fuse) on 14th July. Received first bill (for £70) mid september - there's only 4 fluorescent bulbs and a till in use. I then received a bill for electricity going back 2 years for c.£1000 - previous tenants I suppose. It's obvious that the bill isn't mine - I didn't open the account until 10th July, and I have signed tenancy agreement from this date. I've put the account into dispute, but received a letter today threatening disconnection ("Warrant of Entry") I read around on here that this is done via Magistrates Court, and I will be sent an invite to attend. Assuming it goes that far (and they'd be bloody stupid if they did) - will this be done at MY local magistrates or theirs (I believe Npower are in Hull, I'm in Leeds). When the magistrate kicks out their case, can I reclaim my costs? Is it like small claims where I have to make a counter claim and post it 24hrs before court date?

I am writing this on behalf of a friend. He was a customer of NPower on a pre-payment meter. He recently changed his supplier to British Gas. NPower have written to him demanding a debt of £49.50 & threatning him with DCA's. How can he owe money when he had a meter and is there any advice for him?

Hi all, I moved in to this property on the 17th of October last year. When I did nPower were given accurate readings for my gas and electric. On the 28th of Jan I phoned up to give accurate readings and awaited an accurate bill for the period. When it came through today I was more than a little shocked. I have (apparently) used 585 units of gas which works out to 19047 kWh and has come in at a whopping £644.26. I work that out to be over £6 a day on gas alone. My girlfriend is at home during the day with a child, so yes, the heating is on a fair bit, and we live in a reasonably large 3 bedroom bungalow... but still it seems obscene. Having spoken to my brother who lives in a similar size house, his combined bill comes out to around £120/month, whereas mine is closer to £300. Then there is my £396.74 electricity bill. I spoke to my electricity supplier for my previous property (Southern Electric) and they advised me that my electricity bill for the 3 months I was there was around £130. I can tell you now that I haven't bought anything else since I was in that property that would increase my bill, and I also behave no differently with regards to how much electricity I use. Initially I queried whether the correct numbers were given when I moved in to the property, and I believe they were in light of the fact that in the last 6 days I have used 38units of gas, which even if all charged at the lower rate comes out to £34.37. I have phoned nPower who have advised me to take meter readings every day at the same time for a week and then phone them back, but the problem now is I'm terrified to turn on the heating because of the cost so the readings won't be accurate. I really have no idea what to do, can anyone help? On the advice of some people from another site I have confirmed that my bill and meter for gas both read in cubic feet. Apologies for the length of the post, but this has really rocked me and I wonder if there is anything else I can do. TIA, Gaskie.

Hi there, have just joined the site and have read other threads with great interest, people on this site seem to give good information and advice so I would appreciate some thoughts on my present predicament!! Since the 1st January 2006, my partner and I have been using an Npower pre-payment card to purchase the white £5 pre-payment tokens, from the post office or the local shop, to go in our electicity meter. Last Friday I went to the post office to buy some more to top up the electricity meter and was told that the post office would not be selling them any more as all card meters were being changed to key meters and was surprised that I had not been contacted by my present supplier to make arrangements for the meter to be changed. I went to the local shop straight after, who informed me of the same thing. I came straight home and rang Npower to ask them a) why they had not arranged to change the meter and b) when they were coming to do it. They informed me that they did not supply this property with electricity, that it was supplied by British Gas and had been since 13th April 2006 and I had better phone them. I argued that we had been using an Npower payment card since Jan 2006 and at no time had we ever requested that our supplier be changed, but the "customer service" person said it was not Npoweres problem. So, and I know this is long winded but please stay with me, I rang British Gas, who told me that they did not, and have never, supplied this property with electricity. So, i then rang YEDL to find out who the supplier actually is only for them to tell me that according to their records there is NO existing supplier for this property and there has not been one for over three years! I gave then the serial number of the meter (which says on it property of Yorkshire electricity!) to see if that would help and the helpful lady said that no motches were found. So, what I want to know is, where has all my money been going? If it has been going to Npower for electricity they admit they dont supply, surely that is illegal in some way? Who then is responsible for the meter and how on earth do I get it changed? I have been given a brand new MPAN number and I assume that I am free to choose whoever I want to provide power to my property but this whole thing just does not seem right to me. Any comments, advice or information on what should be my next move would be greatly appreciated or I would be interested to hear from anyone in a similar situation. Many thanks.

Hey Guys, I've had a good read of the forums and know that obviously this is not the first nor the last case of harrassment by BCW but i just wanted to know how i can proceed as I've tried and failed to sort this out myself. About 2 months ago I received a letter from BCW saying I owed about £500 to Npower for my previosu address, for a time period of around 15months, of which i was present at the address no more than 2 months. I called Npower, and explained that I'd not been living at the address, they said their records showed that I'd spoken to them and that I'd told them I was moving and gave them a meter reading. However apparently because the acount was about 12p in credit, they didn't close it. New tenants moved in, rung up the bill and now a year later I've received it at my new address. I've spoken to them, explained everything,t hey think i owe them about a months worth of gas an electric, have spent 2 months sending me a corrected bill (not recieved yet) and ahve apparently called off BCW. Except I'm now up to the visit by a debt investigation officer stage of letters, I refuse to call and am not sure what i should write to them, as Npower have so far failed to confirm for me in writing what the situation is. I know I'm not about to get vistis from bailiffs and that it is just intimidation, but I'm wary that it may be affecting my credit rating, and as I'm in the process of finishing my last year at UNI it's annoyingly distracting. Any advice will be much appreciated. Sincerely N.

Hi guys, Can anyone advise, i recently changed from Npower to British Gas and have a prepayment meter (boooo) anyway... i've now recieved a bill from Npower stating that i have a final bill of £254.45 because my TOKEN meter was undercharging me since it was last reset. However 'they' have reduced this by £151.83 which has left a balance of £102.63 - this as per the letter i've recieved. We had a token meter when we first moved into the property in 2006, October and Npower came out in April to change it to a key meter. I've just rang Npower and she told me that this debt was not from the Key Meter but from our original token meter. When we first moved in the meter was -£50 and we had no electric, upon phoning Npower they said we'd have to put £50 worth of tokens into the meter to bring it back to £0 then credit on top to get the electric back on. We refused to do this so they agreed to send an engineer out to 'reset' it for us, which they did, a guy came out and sorted it and we had the electric back on....this actually took around a week, i remember because we couldnt move in at the time. However Npower now say it was on the wrong rate and hence this bill in the few short months we had it before it got changed!! Erm, why wasnt it changed when Mr engineer came then to sort it out originally or checked...?? I'm fuming to say the least. What can i do now? Any ideas people?

hi just wondered if anyone else has had problems with being mis-sold service from nPower? i have lived at my address for 3 1/2 years now and have been with british gas on pre-payment meters the whole time. however, i have been approached by nPower many times to change 1) about 3 months after i moved in an nPower rep called to get me to sign up and i did so just to get rid of him - but the day after i had a fit of guilt and cancelled the contract (it was for pre-payment) and a good job i did cos a week later their prices nearly doubled!! 2) had about 1 or 2 visits a year since from a rep and each time i said no, then a couple of times, a few weeks later their prices went up...! 3) had a visit about 6 weeks ago from a rep (and a very nice, genuine-seeming one at that) who "guaranteed" to save me money and even showed me the tariff and price i would recieve - about 2p cheaper an hour for the electric, 2-3p cheaper gas (a lot for me and my partner as only me working at the moment) and lower standing charges for both. grudgingly signed up for both, but had a nagging feeling since that it was too good to be true... recieved a letter to say nPower was taking over electric supply from 13/12 (and as of today 16/12 still no key for the meter, which i don't need now anyway - see below) recieved a letter yesterday saying along the lines of "sorry but we are unable to put you on the tariff requested we will put you on this one..." which was nearly twice what i was quoted, so i telephoned british gas to say i wanted to stay / return to them, all went well and then i was told nPower wasn't even taking over the gas... has anyone else had a similar experience? all i can say is next time an nPower rep knocks on the door (and thats "guaranteed" cos they are always in our area) they will get a definite two finger salute...!

Around 10 months ago I was living in a flat (while my stately home was being refurbished) with a pre-payment metre for gas and electric. In November I started getting letters from Npower at my new address (I'm not with them at my new place) saying I owed them 300 pounds in outstanding debt. Obviously this is impossible on a pre-payment metre. I phoned them, they agreed it was a mistake, and said my account would be frozen (so I wouldn't received any more letters) while they looked into it. By December I was still receiving the letters, along with demands from 'Debt Managers Ltd' (the usual threat about taking me to court etc. Again I phoned Npower, and got the same response (agreeing it was a mistake, freezing my account). More letters in January from Debt Managers Ltd, so this time I wrote to npower (3rd Jan) asking them to confirm in writing that they: a) agreed the debt was incorrect and would be removed from my account, and b) they had contacted Debt Managers Ltd and instructed them not to pursue me. Well, I'm still getting the final demand letters from Debt Managers. How should I proceed next? I wonder if my credit rating has been affected (seems wrong that I should have to pay to check)

Hi Can anyone give me some advice please, I would really appreciate it. My story is as follows: In 2006-2007 I ran up a debt of £1700 in gas and electric with Npower. After discussions with them, I agreed to get repayment meters fitted into my home. They were fitted over a year ago and I have been paying approx £80 per month on my electricity meter and £60 on my gas meter. When entering my key and card into the meter it takes off my set amount of £5 per week off each meter then credits the rest to the meter for my future usage. Once this runs out I once again top it up. I was informed my Npower I would not receive any bills as I was paying a pay as you go scheme now and my debt was been reduced by the weekly fees of £5. However, and this is where it gets interesting! Npower have started to send me bills and on these it details how much I have been paying on my meter and also the quarter charge they are charging me for my usage. So, basically they are making me pay for my usage through the meter and ALSO charging me £200 approx each quarter. My bills are going up not down and I now owe more. How?? I have a man out from EDF yesterday and he said £374 was recorded as debt on my gas meter, but I owed nothing on my electricity bill. I have contacted Npower who said they would do an investigation into the account but this could take up to 4 December. I have contacted Consumer Direct who contacted them while I was on the phone. They told them they had 5 days to answer me. I have to contct them again once Npower respond. Has anyone had this and what happened? What do you think will happen here?

NPower keep sending Bills to someone I know, even though they are not responsible for them and have been repeatedly informed NPower of this. Can anyone suggest what course of action they should take now. Regards

Some of you may be aware of this issue and others not. This problem concerns npower gas customers only. It only affects credit meter customers and not all tariffs e.g Tracker and Sign Online v8. The problem centres upon systematic overcharging of the high rate units on the two tier tariff. The two rates are known as the Primary Block rate and the Follow-On rate. The Primary block is the more expensive and consists of the first 4572kWh per year. Over that amount the remainder of gas is charged at the lower follow-on rate. The Primary Block is not charged at an even rate each month or quarter but is 'seasonally weighted'. This means that a different percentage of the 4572kWh is allocated to each month of the year. This is done in such a way that the bulk of the 4572kWh are charged over the winter months. there is nothing actually wrong or illegal in this and in itself does not cause overcharging. The overcharging is caused by npower changing from one weighting profile to another causing an imbalance of the proportion of units charged over a year. For example the year 1st April, 2007 - 31st March, 2008 there were two changes to this 'weighting' as follows. 1st April 2007 was the start of a new 4572 Primary Block and 448kWh were allowed for this month under the weighting profile. The following summer months were much less and then increasing over the coming winter to give a final total of 4572 by 31st March 2008. On May 1st npower changed the weighting to a 'flat' profile for the next 6 months. That is 381kWh each month from May to Oct. incl and was more than if they had not changed it. This gives a total for the year so far of 2734kWh Primary Block units which could have been charged. On 1st November, 2007, the profile was changed again. An even more aggressive 'winter weighting' was applied and 882kWh were allocated for each of the months Nov 07.-Feb 08 incl. and 272 for March 08. Total for the remainder of the year was 3800kWh. Total for April 2007 - March 2008 = 6534kWh Overcharge = 1962kWh (theoretically bills need to be checked) The amount you have overpaid is 1962*your high price minus 1962*low price plus VAT @5%. For me this worked out at around £85.00. Multiply this by 2 million or so customers. The first occasion this happened was for the year 1st April 2004 -31st March 2005. the overcharge, though significant was not as severe as the one just described. I initiated County Court proceedings against npower on two counts: 1. Overcharging 2. Breach of contract. Three days before the hearing npower capitulated and paid my claim in full. The total of the claim came to £1375 including court fees and expenses. You can download the Statement of claim and npowers defence here if you so wish: http://savefile.com/projects/808698866 Check the Times Money Section this Saturday (18th Oct.) There may well be an article on this issue. There has been much work by many people done on this matter and the purpose of this post it to draw as many peoples attention to it as possible. There is a npower 'gas sculpting' thread on Martin Lewis' website moneysavingexpert.com. Virtually all the information you are going to need is posted on there (including the secret npower bill calculating formulae). Well not a secret now. It would be good if any of you reading this could pass this information on in other sites forums if you use them. I am sure that the bulk of victims are unaware of what has happened and do not even know they have been overcharged. If you have any questions or need someone to check your bills for you please post to the MSE site to try to keep it 'under one roof'. Thank you.

Hi I had been with Npower for Gas & Elec up until Feb this year before I transferred over to Swalec. I had the final bill at the start of Febuary from meter readings that I had taken, £98 for Elec which I paid and £29 for Gas which I disputed as I was £72 in credit it meant my final bill was £101 for 5 weeks gas. When i looked at my final gas bill Npower had charged 104 units (1145Kwh) at the higher rate and 100 units (1100Kwh) at the lower rate. When i spoke to Npower about this the guy on the phone agreed that 5 weeks gas with 1145kw at the higher rate was wrong and said he would raise it with the billing dept, I heard nothing more until today and a final reminder from Npower stating I have 10 days to pay or the debt will be past to an agency. I hear nothing for 7 months and suddenly its my fault the account has not been cleared, even tho Npower sent no letters informing me of the progress on the investigation of my final bill. Anyhow I speaks to the billing dept today and explains it all over again and the guy says I am right and he will raise the issue but asks if I want to pay the debt now, which I did just to clear my name now I have nothing more to do with Npower. I have gone and looked over the last 2 years worth of bills from Npower and being on a 2 tier tariff it is clear that they have charged me too much at the higher rate. My tariff states that I pay a higher charge for the first approx 4600kw per annum which is split into quarters (approx 1150kw per quarter at the higher rate) then i drop to a lower rate for the remainder, this is what I have been seeing on recent bills. However the last year I was charged 4900kw (300kw over) at the higher rate and before I switched over to Swalec I was only 5 weeks into the quarter and Npower hit me with the higher rate upfront rather than spread it over the quarter which would of meant me only being charged approx 400kw at the higher rate and the remaining 1700kw at the lower rate. Am I right in thinking that they should be spreading the 1200kw per quarter over the quarter, i.e 1200/90 = 13kw per day, so if i was with them for 5 weeks of the quarter I should only be charged 13x35= 455kw at the higher rate instead of the 1145kw they have charged me at. I know it sounds a bit confusing, but it basically seems they changed the way they calculated the last bill compared to previous ones so that they manage to charge me at the higher rate within the first 5 weeks of the quarter as they knew i would not be with them for the complete quarter. Anyone else come across this.........

I am living in a property since last year and received bills not addressed to me for the supply of gas. I contacted Npower to register and was told that they do not supply this address. Have been receiving letters addressed to someone else and the occupier asking that the gas account is registered and that they need to change/check the meter. I have called customer services but keep on getting told that they do not supply this address. Have written to the Chief Executive of npower twice but no response. Now have a letter sdaying that Npower are getting a warrant to enter my property and I just do not know how to sort this out. Can anyone offer some help?

hi all advice appreciated, moved out of a flat around one month ago, a letter has arrived stating i have been undercharged due to the pre-payment meter not being on the correct rate since last reset and i now owe them £140+ my question is do i have to pay i dont believe its my liability ensure its the correct rate, i thought it was all automated!

I think through all the bad press this German owned company has finally got it's act together. I had several problems through moving house and most staff you speak to at Npower call centres just don't want to know. The dedicated help team can! I posted the following on several forums as I was that impressed with the quick service I got. I had had several estimated bills and Npower wrongly had over £100 of my money and despite promises never ever read my meters correctly, I got married moved house and the same thing happened, estimated readings. I was so sick and tired of speaking to numpties in the call centres that I was directed to a new team who deal direct with these issues. I received a cheque within 5 days of speaking to Teresa Walsh. Credit where credit's due, it worked for me. IF YOU HAVE AN ISSUE -READ BELOW! Did you know that Npower has a dedicated team to look into this type of thing and issue refunds where appropriate? the Lady I dealt with is (Edit) and her mobile is (Edit) or (Edit) she credited me with £450. Nice lady. Hope that helps. By credit I mean a cheque to me from them for £450. You can write to her at:- Npower Oak House Bridgewater Road Worcester WR4 9FP