We received a letter from Npower recently, included was a "final" bill, saying we were £347 in credit. I have no idea why they have sent this now, considering we moved out of the propery 5 years ago ! I have also now received a cheque for the amount owed. Should i complain, do i have grounds for claiming for lost interest or any other reason. I remember they completely messed up our billing for about a year before we moved out, however i thought it had all been settled.

Hello All I made this SAR request to the Energy Ombudsman (E-O) as I wanted to see what Npower submitted to them as evidence to back up their response to my complaint with them. Npower are reknowned for saying they have done everything correctly but not substantiating anything with hard evidence. My questions are: 1) There are some emails between Npower and the E-O where the NPower's persons details (name number email etc) have been redacted. Is this permitted? Why? 2) The E-O hasn't sent me any evidence from Npower to substantiate their response to my complaint (but they did include the emails I sent them as evidence) . Should they withhold this from me in SAR request? As this was the purpose of me making the request in the first place. 3) Can I do anything about the above to get the info I was after in the first place? Many thanks in advance Jimbo

Hi All I am wondering if anyone can help this is a long story but please bear with me... I have been an npower customer for around 10 years, 3 years ago I moved house and npower stopped taking my payments for around 6 months before i noticed and contacted them to arrange new payment terms and set up a direct debit. I have now 3 years later set up no less than 10 direct debits each time they either take initial payment then it stops or take no payment at all. I have contacted the ombudsman who are quite frankly useless and advise me to set up another payment plan. I have now refused to set up another plan as I am £6,000 in debt due to the fact that they cannot take payment .... I am very stressed and have spent hours if not days on the phone to them and the ombudsman. I have received a letter yesterday saying they will be taking me to court to issue a warrant to put meters in my home unless i contact them to make payment, should I just go to court and take all my proof (email log of all complaints) with me... any advice appreciated Dan

I have received two letters over the past 3 weeks from Pastdue chasing a debt for Npower for ~£620 (£450 debt £170 fees) relating to my old address I left in Nov 2010 so 6 years ago. The first letter lists the product and supply period as not specified which is helpful. I have spent the intervening time digging through letters and my bank statements trying to figure out what this for and have found some letters from Wescot in 2014 with the same account number for Npower Gas but owing ~£650 but I do not recall ever entertaining these letters. On my bank statements it seems I last made a payment to Npower in Oct 2010 but I am not sure if it was for gas or electricity as it was a card payment. On first glance it seems that the debt maybe Statute Barred or at least nearing it as I do not know the exact default date. To complicate things I can see on my bank statements that I have made payments to Scotcall since then which I think were for my Npower electricity account not my gas account iirc, which I paid for a period of time until I was told to stop as it seemed Npower recalled the debt. Unfortunately I cannot put my hands on any letters to confirm this so I am not 100% confident that it is a separate account. The actual value of the gas debt should be over £2000 as although I had a direct debit in place for both fuels, npower didn't bill me for gas for over 2 years so I am not convinced this debt is actually mine unless npower wrote some of the debt off. I am unsure how to proceed, I am not in a position to pay so am reluctant to start engaging with the dca. Is it wise to engage with Npower to try and confirm if the account is mine and try to find out the default date and last payment amount/date to see if the debt is now SB? Kind regards

A couple of days ago, I moved over to another tariff with my existing provider nPower. The fuels are split and I'm on different tariffs for gas and electric. Gas ending in December 2017 and Electric ending in October 2018. As a result, my monthly direct debit has now dropped to £55 a month down from £69. I went on my nPower app today and noticed that they have reversed the last 8 bills and have left my in credit to the tune of over £900. Before I get knee deep in (recorded) phone calls to them, is there anything I need to know or am I on the cusp of what seems a typical nPower mishandled situation ? I want to be fully armed with as much information as possible before I make the first phone call. Hopefully it will be something or nothing but just in case...

The fun never stops eh? Although this is on behalf of a relative, not me this time. As succinct as I can keep it: 1) Relative joins nPower January 2013 shortly after moving to a new property 2) Meter readings provided - nPower setup a monthly direct debit for £65 (dual fuel) 3) Relative became aware in June '13 that account had been setup incorrectly. Relative was only being billed for electric. 4) Took a couple of days to sort and more than one phone call, but a new direct debit of £90 was setup. This included the arrears as a result of nPower's mistake. 5) In September '13, relative had some maintenance work carried out on electricity supply. Discovered during this that they were still only being billed for electricity (although direct debit of £90.00 was being sent every month). 6) Relative was eventually told by nPower that there was a serious error with their account and the issue would be escalated. Was promised a return call - this did not happen. 7) Relative called nPower in December '13 as had still not heard anything. Was advised account issue still remained unresolved, and also that the account itself was showing as circa £300 in credit, plus a direct debit/dual fuel discount on top of this. 8) No return call from nPower. Relative phoned again - was advised complaints team were handling it and would get in touch the same day. This never happened. 9) Towards the end of December '13, relative phoned nPower to inform they would be switching to another provided because she was unhappy with their poor service. 10) Relative switched to another provider in January 2014, more or less 12 months after joining nPower. 11) Relative heard nothing more from nPower until April '14; they received two reminder letters from nPower for a combined total of circa £800. One letter was for gas, one for electric. 12) Relative spoke to nPower; disputed the sum and was advised that a full breakdown of charges, payments and usage would be sent in post (they initially refused to send this unless a letter was sent in, although they eventually changed their tune). 13) Relative contacted nPower again (need to check date but think June '14). Was advised this issue would be escalated to the executive complaints team. Was also advised more reminders would be generated automatically and that they could safely be ignored until the complaint was resolved. 14) Relative began to receive (what they presumed to be) nuisance calls that were essentially just prerecorded messages. As it turned out, these two companies (Westcot and Pastdue) were actually two separate debt collection agencies instructed by nPower; each sent a letter in September '14. Interestingly, some of the information printed on one of the letters was also incorrect (e.g. account number) 15) Realising now the earlier advice of nPower to ignore payment reminders was false/incorrect, a letter was sent to each of these DCA's stating the account was in dispute. A statement was also made regarding OFT debt collection guidance (unfair to pursue when in dispute). For good measure, Westcot had their implied right of access to the property withdrawn (as they had stated they would visit the property to collect payment). Relative also filed a complaint with the ombudsman around this time. 16) Pastdue wrote back to relative confirming they had received letter. Stated that account had been placed on hold and they would try and obtain invoice showing full breakdown of balance. No further correspondence received from these guys. 17) Westcot also wrote back. Merely stated the balance, that it related to the electricity supply and provided a billing period (which was seriously incorrect!). Stated they looked forward to receiving payment within 14 days. They have started phoning relative daily once again. 18) Ombudsman rejected complaint, stating that the date from the original issue was too far back for them to investigate. However, did advise that if relative obtained a deadlock letter from nPower they can then investigate. 19) Relative wrote to nPower towards the end of October '14. This outlined the dispute, a summary of the (in)action so far and a request for a deadlock letter. Sent recorded delivery, confirmed delivered, no response so far. 20) Relative wrote another letter to nPower last week (similar to above). Sent recorded, not showing as delivered yet. Considering resending later today if not arrived. --- Other misc. information: - Relative has log burning stoves and only uses anywhere from £6-10 a month in gas for hot water. No heating of any kind (excluding hot water of course) is necessary from ~March to ~September due to property being extremely well-insulated. - Current electricity consumption averages about £45.00 a month. - nPower is instructing two separate debt collection agencies to collect a portion of the "debt" even though the account was dual fuel. As per Citizen's Advice regarding harassment from creditors: "Using more than one debt collector at a time to chase you for payment" - so does this count? - Relative has been diagnosed with depression and anxiety. Self representation is unlikely to go down well. - Relative has sadly not recorded all phone calls. They have however, kept detailed notes, dates and times of each phone call with nPower - including the person they spoke to. --- Next steps: Should relative: a) Just keep sending letters to nPower at £1.72 a pop until they hopefully provide the information? b) Send a final LBA to nPower detailing the harassment (if applicable), filing a small claim if ignored? c) Wait for nPower to take relative to court (if ever) and potentially claim on legal cover provided by house insurance for representation? d) Something else? Personally, given the chain of events, problems with the account and overall billing issues nPower has had recently, it would sound like they are physically unable to account for the money they are demanding. Who knows.

Does anyone know anything about these people Arvato? They are "offering" to come out to visit my daughter over her NPower debt. They are making it sound like a "helpful" service but i suspect they will strong arm her. PLEASE ADVISE

Hi, I was taken to Court by NPower about 2 years ago for a utilities debt of around £750.00, i was allowed to pay it off in 3 monthly payments which i did, a couple of months ago i got a letter and a refund of £282.00 and an apology for the delay in spotting that i had been overcharged. the annoying thing is, that if the original debt had been £282.00 less i could have borrowed the money to pay it off and avoid getting a CCJ. Can a CCJ be removed if the company later realises they made a mistake? thanks

Hi, NPower have sent me a letter headed "Your outstanding balance and Noticeof Intention to file a default on your credit file". I think this debt possibly goes back to 2014, when I moved into my current property and NPOWER were supplying the property at that time. Is there any way for me to find out why I owe them this money? They have given me till the 12th of october to make the full payment of £196.54 or agree to a payment arrangement. Please advise? Thank YOu!

Hello I am posted this enquiry on several forums to hopefully find people further along the line than me or legal representatives who have dealt with Npower. My story is briefly that I acted as executor for a friend of, mine when she died. I contacted Npower to advise of the death of the account holder. The Npower call centre rep said that she would make the account deceased that the service address would remain until the property sold when any final amounts would be due. It was noted to be addressed to my name as they advised they cannot write to a deceased person but the address remained the service address of my deceased friend (ie not my home address) (Npower complaints department advise they have confirmed the date and time of the call, details of which I supplied, but have however lost the recorded contents of the call. Npower claiming that account was put in my name but no letter has been received to confirm this and they are unable to supply any notification of this.and have lost the call content where the call centre rep discussed it. Npower & probate advisory service (I believe instructed by Npower) issued different invoice amounts and the solicitor queried by letter (April 15) before settling the pre death account with a cheque from probate funds and instructing Npower to close the account. Npower acknowledge receipt (July 15) Npower accepted payments of the final Pre death bill from the solicitor dealing with probate and deceased’s estate and noted the account on deceased status. (Npower have retrospectively in March 16, after they had taken the final payment in early March, updated my credit file to show that I am account holder at this time and that the account is in default – see below) They wrote to the service address to advise estimated meter readings and that there were amounts outstanding. Called Npower and they advised the bills were in error. The property sold in March 16 and they advised there was an outstanding amount due which was originally £419 – I advised the property was shut down on death so there could be very little usage. The call operator was very helpful and said she could see that there was an error and took of all the charges showing and came to a remaining bill of £180. (I have the letter showing the charges removed – addressed to the service address - )I paid this to zero the account and finalise my involvement. They took this payment of £180 in early March 16 and asked for a correspondence address for the confirmation to be sent to. As the property was due to sell imminently I gave them my home address specifically for the purposes of this one letter. Up until March they were writing to the property address that the electricity & gas were supplied to The did not close the account and have continued to charge to current time even though the property was sold in March. In April 16 a month after the final account had been paid they updated my credit file to show me as the accountholder at my home address from the previous year and update 14 months of account information showing the account in default. They are also still billing to my home address and I have received letters from Pastdue credit solutions. I have written to them to advise the property has been sold and that the billing is the new owners responsibility. Interestingly no default notices were issued to the service address at any time. I have spoken to the complaints team and made a complaint via Experian and they are forwarding my case this week for review to retract the entries on the credit file but the complaint case manager does not seem confident that they will retract it. They have apparently found the date and time of the phone conversation where I was advised that no further charges would be applied and that the account would remain at the service address ( I do have letters with all requests going to the service address not my home address) but however the content of the call is missing, So are unable to prove that the call operator advised that the no charges will be made, although along the way the call centre rep agreed that is how it was set up and removed the charges, I still have the letter showing the charges removed. The complaint manager said, he can see notes on file showing that the address was to remain the service address and not my home address and that there seemed to be a mix up on the account status. But Npower having lost the call content apparently does not help me as it is up to me to prove! The complaints case handler just mentions that I can go to the ombudsman – he seems quite keen to push this. I note that a couple of post say to avoid this route and wonder if there is some trap I am falling into, or if this in turn rules out any legal action (any suggestions on this route appreciated) I have read on a couple of posts that the cases referred to OFGEM are logged as dealt with on Npower’s listings and it prevents revisiting the complaint with Npower itself. I now think I need to engage a solicitor and was considering one that has previous experience with dealing with npower. Has anyone engaged or consulted with a solicitor had any previous experience with them? Reading the forums and post where people have had so many problems with npower is anyone aware of any collective action being taken against them. I did read the telegraphs journalist report on it and it seems that the major papers have run reports on their customer service skills and fines. Ok it would be great to see where people are up to with this frustrating company. My business relies heavily on my credit rating and I am also in the process of re mortgaging and now it looks like I will have to put it on hold as I do not want a refusal based on a £21 current default (updated on my credit file yesterday and it’s the June bill of the new occupants) Any pointers or experience gratefully received. Particularly interested in any details of legal representatives dealing with Npower cases Thanks for reading such a long rant

I have moved into my property 3 years ago and really should have moved to another supplier before now as I have had nothing but trouble. To cut a long story shirt, when I moved in I called up to notify them of my details and they wanted me to setup a direct debit of £150 / month. The previous owner had left copes of their old bills with references, they had only paid just over £300 for 3 months (and that was for winter months). So I asked them to continue billing on account which seems to be something that they either dont like or cant cope with. I have hardly ever received a bill, only red letters, I dont know why but I only have 2 bills from the last 3 years! At the start of this year I complained and the supervisor helped me setup online billing. Fast forward to two weeks ago, I got a knock at the door from a 'bill collector'. Again no bill, no red letter, just a rude man telling me I had missed the bill due to be paid in june. It seems that they have gotten my email wrong, but that is my fault. I asked them to look into my bills as I believe that I have been incorrectly charged previously and I was told that I needed to submit meeter readings before they could help me. They have now sent me a bill asking for me to pay for usage up to last week and added on even more charges. They say that they will break into my home if i dont pay by Friday. Im not sure what to do, I have a feeling that I am being taken for a ride but not sure where to start? I am happy to pay my bill but not happy to be paying charges, especially after I had taken steps to go online and avoid charges.

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Hiya Looking for some advice please. 3 years ago I had a pay as you go meter with NPOWER. I moved out of the house and 2 years later they sent a debt collection agency after me to collect £110 for a final bill. When I left the property there was about £3 in credit on the meter. I refused to pay the agency, called NPOWER who told me that the bill was in error and I would receive a letter confirming this, which never came. The agency continued to contact me, I continued to refuse to pay, I've called NPOWER several times but they are now saying I do owe the money - not sure how I can because it was pay as you go so I can't use it if there's no credit on the meter. They sent me the final bill that they told me was issued in October 2011 but when it came it was only issued in May 2015. I've emailed them 3/4 times but had no response at all. The original debt collection agency decided not to continue pursuing me (after about 5 months) and passed it back to NPOWER. I've just had a call from another agency, I refused to confirm personal details without knowing what they wanted and they wouldn't tell me, just said it was regarding NPOWER so I told them to send me a letter, which they said they can't do without confirming my personal details and that it would be noted i refused to co-operate. Where do I stand regarding this please. The final bill didn't break down any details of how I could owe them money. When I lived at the property I had nothing from them to say there was a debt and I don't see how I could owe them money on a pay as you go meter as they take all o/s daily charges etc from credit top ups. They won't respond to me on email. Who can I complain to about this as please??

Apologies that this is a long post. This is my first time on any kind of forum. I have tried to summarise but its been a complicated and very stressful process. I will be very grateful indeed for any advice... We moved into a flat in Sept 2013 when I called to give Npower the opening meter readings I asked to confirm what meter and tariff we were on. I was told it was an Economy 10 meter and noted down from the conversation that there were 3 cables which would give a Day rate, a Night rate and a Heating rate for the 3 night storage heaters with timings for when these rates would operate. You had to press a button on the meter several times to get the readings I gave the 3 readings as they appeared on the screens. Npower took Actual readings for these 3 rates in Nov 13 I gave more readings in May 14 at which point I started the complaints process because we had still not had a bill. I received letters with an account number from the complaints department finally a letter in July 2014 saying because they could not resolve my complaint about not receiving a bill I could go to the Ombudsman. At the end of July I receive a letter with the same account number but this time addressed to the occupier saying that because of problems closing the account the balance would be written off. Followed a week later by the First bill for £366, in my name but with a different account number. In Sept 14 I call to try and figure out what is going on am told that the first account number I’d received on complaint letters was actually the previous tennant’s but because of the confusion the balance (now £457) would be written off as per the write off letter. I give meter readings – this time 4 readings show on the meter instead of 3. That same day a bill is generated for the heat rate for £868. It is based on an estimated opening meter reading for heat. I am told again a week later on the telephone that my account would be credited to zero - clearing balance of £868 as per write off letter and to disregard any more bills/reminders and to wait during process. In Nov 14 I call again and am given apologies for distressing letters & assured case is with correct back office team. Promised that a correct bill should arrive soon showing the cleared balance of £868.72 and they had correct meter readings so a new bill would generated. I then receive a bill for £1,433, followed by ‘Our right to enter your home’ letter – with an outstanding balance £976. In December 2014 after numerous complaint calls I am given a new complaint reference number and assured collections will stop. In Jan 15 I receive a complaint deadlock letter refusing to remove the balance as promised and referring me to Ombudsman and I begin the Enquiry process. In Feb 15 I give new meter readings and receive a bill for £1481 - Tariff: Standard SC ROB Heatwise 1. I pay £505 for accurate energy usage calculated using my correct meter readings between Nov 14 and Feb 15 (leaving the disputed £976). At the end of Feb the Ombudsman says Npower incorrectly offered to write off the Sept 14 bill for £868 and that I should be given a £25 goodwill payment for the misinformation but that the outstanding balance remained. I did not agree with the Ombudsman proposal and it was reviewed in March 15. I complain that the meter reading Npower used to calculate the opening heat rate was an estimate because it had not been showing on the meter. As this was not part of the original complaint to the Ombudsman they advise me to contact Npower directly. I contacted Npower who agree to work out an accurate opening meter reading but I did not accept the Ombudsman proposal as I still hadn’t had an accurate bill and felt they had not helped resolve my issue with Npower. In April 15 we move out of the property and I give final meter readings and new address. On 1st May 15 they send: An amended bill to our old address for £1318. A letter saying because I’d rejected Ombudsman remedy my complaint has been closed thus exhausting the complaints process and balance is £1362. And a Final Bill for £1452 (the Tariff has now changed to Standard SC ROB 7 Hour Weekend Off-Peak) I call to complain about tariff changing and am told they've re-opened case though they believe bill is correct. Throughout May and June they send another Amended bill, numerous complaint reference letters, and Final demand and Act now to avoid court letters – all to the old address. I email the CEO disputing the Historic debt and Amended Bill and request again that our address be updated and debt recovery stopped. The complaint is logged and I’m given a new reference number. In July I start to get calls from Debt Managers Services attempting to recover a debt of £1,612. In August I receive 5 more amended bills each for a different amount. Throughout Sept and Oct I receive letters from Debt Managers saying my account is on hold while they await instruction from Npower. In January 16 I receive a letter from Npower with a ‘Notice of intention to file a default on your credit file’. Outstanding balance £1452. In February I email complaining that my complaints have not been handled properly and ask about the compensation arrangements Npower agreed with Ofgem. Executive Complaints reply to say I have exhausted thier complaints process and they will not look to raise a new complaint in relation to this query and refer me to their Legal Team. I point out that the Ombudsman instructed me to re-contact Npower to recalculate opening meter reading to which they had agreed. In March 16 Executive Complaints then reply with an incorrect opening meter recalculation (they use accurate winter heat readings to calculate an average daily usage and apply it to 497 days i.e saying we’d use the same heat in summer as in winter!) and advise me again to proceed legally. Moorcroft Debt Recovery begin pursuing the debt and in desperation to resolve this I contact the Citizens Advice Extra Help Unit, who help vulnerable consumers, they agree to mediate with Npower on my behalf. They challenge Npower throughout March and April but are told Npower's final position was that they would not be opening the case and referred me back to Ombudsman or to take legal action. The amended bills – Falsifying meter readings and placing us on the wrong tariff Having now examined the 5 amended bills of Aug 15 I can see that they have previously tried to ‘re-estimate the bill’ by falsifying meter readings - changing accurate readings into estimates to justify their original estimated opening reading. All these estimates are entirely inaccurate suggesting that I have used thousands of heat units in summer periods when the night storage heaters were switched off. I am suspicious that NPower have chosen to amend the bills with estimates from May 2014 (instead of the 2013-14 winter prior to that when the disputed energy was apparently used) in order to avoid the back billing regulations. I have also asked repeatedly why the Bill that I paid in Feb 15 was cancelled, amended and then re-calculated at a higher unit rate for heat (7p per unit became 12p). No one has addressed this concern. Our tariff appears to have changed from what I understood to be the Economy 10 tariff: Standard SC ROB Heatwise 1 to Standard SC ROB 7 Hour Weekend Off-Peak. At no point did we ever ask to switch tariff or were we offered any explanation as to why the unit price and tariff had been changed, despite me asking on numerous occasions for clarification. Harassment and marking my credit file I have been threatened with court proceedings multiple times, they refuse to put a hold on their collections process so I am still having to deal with debt collections agencies, NPower may have shared data which will impact my credit record and they say this cannot be amended because they claim the outstanding balance is correct and remains payable. They now say I need to proceed legally. My time, stress and worry I have spent innumerable hours dealing with all of this, trying to decipher what has gone on, examining 15 bills, complaining by telephone and email, going through an Ombudsman enquiry that did not help to reach a resolution, and working with Citizens Advice, all of which equates to weeks worth of my time. I have had countless sleepless nights and shed many a tear worrying about everything and feeling bullied by this huge corporation who seem to operate so recklessly with no regard for how peoples lives are affected by this level of stress that they cause. And throughout this period we have a chronically sick child with a rare blood disorder who has been in and out of hospital and Great Ormond St Hospital. Our now 3 year old daughter was first admitted to hospital in a life threatening condition in Oct 14 and has since been admitted 10 times, which Npower have been aware of. I have had to take my energy away from caring for my child to dedicate to unraveling all of this mess and that is extraordinarily painful for me. I am now fully prepared to take legal action, although I have no idea how to do this and do not have any access to financial support or legal advice. I feel completely daunted by the task and almost cannot bear the stress and time of pursuing it further but it seems to be my only route forward. I want to seek damages to be remunerated for this utter failure to handle my complaints and to bill me accurately. NPower’s conduct is far from fair or transparent and does not meet their standards of conduct by a long way. I refuse to be victimized. I realize that this has been a long read and I really appreciate any advice that others can give for me to take this forward legally. Thank you D

Hi, I am having a problem with my npower electricity account, which I first noticed in May last year. After receiving an unusually high bill with an apparent high energy usage, I did some tests and found out that the meter registered to my address is not actually my meter. I live in a block of appartments where all meters are in a communal cupboard under the stairs. Known as a "crossed meter", it appears that I have been billed incorrectly ever since living here, but only just noticed because of the excessively high recent bill. After reporting the problem to npower last May they said they would send someone round to check. An electrician did visit and agreed with my conclusion after performing a similar test. Npower told me they would put my account on hold until the matter was resolved, which would be around September 2015. I've been taking regular readings of both meters since making the discovery. I heard nothing for the rest of the year so contacted them again in February this year for an update. They told me that despite my observations being registered, nothing had actually been done. There were notes on their system saying "Account investigated and found to be genuine", and "Back bill processed" but the agent I spoke to was unable to explain these notes and said that the issue would have to be escalated to a complaint. Around a week later I was contacted by npower's complaints department acknowledging the complaint and advising they would be in touch again shortly. On 23rd Feb they called me again and arranged to send an engineer on 8th March to investigate. I waited in and nobody turned up. I've heard nothing from them since. It's now approaching a year since the initial complaint and I'm totally exasperated by their incompetence and failure to act. I really don't want to call them again. Could anyone offer any advice - what are my options? My account is still on hold and I've not paid a bill since last May. Thanks

In November 2011 I took out an online tariff with NPower but they have continued to fail to apply this tariff. I've repeatedly requested them to correct this and took it to the ombudsman who upheld the complaint however Npower have still not applied the correct rate despite telling me they would do so. They've started up various account numbers since then at much higher rates but I've told them I am holding back all payments until they apply the right tariff. I've written 3 times to their CEO which seems to have put them in a bit of a spin, and unsurprisingly they've now issued a court date to apply for a Warrant of Entry claiming I've failed to contact them and have applied adverse credit against me + have clearly placed me in deep debt given the time this has taken already. Can anyone advise where I stand over this, and what I can do about it. It's like groundhog day here!

If you are looking for an energy supplier, you would be a fool to choose Npower. If you are with Npower, you would be a fool to stay with them.

Npower, one of Britain's biggest energy suppliers, will outline plans this week to axe thousands of jobs ‎as its German owner attempts to revive the company's weak financial performance. Sky News has learned that Npower will tell staff in the coming days that approximately 2,500 roles at the company and its‎ partners are to be axed. Sources said the proposals were still being finalised, with some of Npower's directly employed workforce of 7,500 at risk and the remainder of the cuts taking place at internal suppliers elsewhere in the RWE group and at outsourcing partners. Including indirect employment, Npower's operations support about 11,500 jobs in the UK - meaning that its workforce is braced for a reduction of over 20%. The grim news will be delivered just days before competition regulators announce a series of measures aimed at making the UK's energy market more transparent. Npower, which is part of the German utility RWE, and rivals such as British Gas and SSE have announced a round of price cuts ‎in recent months, but have been criticised by ministers and consumer groups for failing to go further. The rapid decline in oil prices during the last year has prompted calls for much bigger cuts. Npower said last month that it would reduce gas prices for residential customers by just over 5% on 28 March, equating to a £32 annual bill cut for households using a standard domestic ‎tariff. Npower's plans to cut so many jobs will ignite concerns about its ability to improve a customer service record which is already judged to be among the worst in a tarnished industry. Insiders pointed, however, to the beginnings of a turnaround in its performance, with the number of complaints halving in 2015. Last year, RWE ousted Paul Massara, Npower's former boss, and installed‎ Paul Coffey, the British company's chief operating officer, in his place. The management changes followed a decline in Npower's customer base following a string of billing problems. In December, the company was ordered to pay a £26m settlement by the energy regulator, Ofgem, for "failing to treat customers fairly" - the second such fine it has had imposed on it. Npower now has roughly five million customers, making it the smallest of the "Big Six" suppliers. The company lost £48m in the nine months to the end of October, largely as a consequence of the billing system problems. The job cuts will be the latest piece of bad news affecting RWE in the UK, following last month's accident at the power station it owns in Didcot, Oxfordshire, which is thought to have left several people dead. The redundancies at Npower are unrelated to the Didcot tragedy. It is not only in Britain that RWE, Npower's German owner, has been experiencing challenges. It announced last month that it was scrapping its full-year dividend, blaming sliding earnings from its electricity generation business and the changing political sentiment towards nuclear power in its home market. The dividend move will save around €600m (£464m). RWE will announce annual results on Tuesday, and is expected to set out further details of its plans for Npower alongside them. Two days later, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) will unveil its final proposals arising from a two-year inquiry into the energy sector. Npower declined to comment on Sunday. SKY

All, long story short...It looks like npower having been charging me for cubic meters of gas instead of cubic feet, since I joined them in Oct/Nov 2010. They have admitted this to me via telephone and on 7th August I raised a complaint with them. I checked in with them this morning and although it's now over their 4 week turnaround for complaints, all they can tell me is it should be concluded in the next 2 - 3 weeks. How long does it take to recalculate a bill ??? Am I right in saying that I can go to ofgem after 8 weeks to complain about their service? However, what worries me most is the possibility of a big bill at the end of their re-calculations. As far as I can see, a cubic meter is much larger than a cubic foot. So, if my meter has clicked round 1000 digits in cubic feet and they have billed me for 1000 cubic meters, this then means that they have over charged me? Can anyone confirm my logic, or suggest what I should do now? thanks in advance, pandhandj

Hi, I'm looking for general advice and a heads up on what the outcome might be of my issues with nPower, based on the experience of people who know better! I've lived in my current (rented) property for almost 4 years in that time I've lived with 5 different flatmates; flatmate A from August 2013 to March 2014; flatmate B from March 2014 to September 2014; flatmate C from September 2014 to March 2015; flatmate D from March 2015 to February 2016 and flatmate E has been with me since February (2016). The gas/electric bills have always been in my flatmate's name and we'd been with nPower for both gas and electricity up 'til March 2015 when we tried to switch. The electricity switch went fine, but we were told that nPower were objecting to the gas account move. I phoned nPower and asked what was going on, knowing that flatmate D had submitted a final meter reading before moving out. nPower told me that they did not supply gas to the property and could not find any gas account linked to my address. They recommended I phoned the National Grid to find out who was supplying me, which I did and they too said it seemed that nobody was supplying me (which was odd because I was getting gas). I checked again with nPower who insisted it was not them and was unable to make any progress. We received no gas bills up until October 2015, when I received 13 months' worth of estimated gas bills from nPower, totalling more than £500, along with a letter 'welcoming' me to nPower. This was all in my name, for the first time, when I logged into the account online, there was a new account for me, as well as the old account which would have been in flatmate D's name both attributed to me. I made an initial payment of £155.32, knowing that we were liable for some of the money and set about speaking to nPower to clarify what was going on and to get accurate bills. Within a month of this, nPower has passed my details on Richburns debt collection agency who sent me a letter stating their intention to seek a warrant to enter my property. At this stage, I'd logged an official complaint to nPower and understood that my account was on hold and as such, the collections process should have been paused. I sent Richburns a letter stating this and highlighting the customer service and billing issues it was well publicised that nPower were guilty of, they replied to tell me that they'd passed the matter back to nPower. Following this, I received a letter from nPower again threatening to seek a warrant and also to place a default on my credit record. At this point (25/01/16) I phoned the customer service team who assured me there was a hold on the account and no further bills would be issued until we understood what was going on and that the threats would not be carried out as there was a complaint logged. After this I received a bill and I made a second phone call, seeking an update (01/02/16), where I was told that there was indeed a hold (until 31/05/16) and the bill shouldn't have been issued, as the matter had been passed to the 'specialist' billing team who could generate an accurate bill. I was told that everything would be investigated and I'd receive an email to confirm everything, and to disregard the bill. No such email materialised and the bill wasn't reversed, as promised. I heard nothing and chased with another phone call on 05/02/16 when I was told that the complaint had been closed on 25/01/16. At this point I discovered nPower had raised 3 different complaint numbers and muddled everything up - the one complaint was closed , that all issues were all consolidated into one. After being given the correct complaint number, I was asked why I was disputing the bill. Prior to this call I'd done some reading and come across the backbilling policy that nPower were signed up to and knew that some of the bill should not have been chased I raised this, and explained that I was seeking an accurate bill as opposed to ridiculous estimates (we had given a meter reading to bring everything up to date 02/02/16). The guy on the phone said as far as he could see, I'd been contacted to say everything had been investigated. This had not happened; no letter, no emails, no missed calls. He went on to say there was an accurate bill which had been recently generated, which I logged into my online account and saw, but I'd had no email to alert me to it before this phone call. At this point the bill had ballooned to £625 with costs from debt collection visits and calls. I again raised the fact that it was not accurate as they needed to remove the 'backbilled' amount and he said they'd investigate to write off that one month. I told him that I wanted to go away and check that this latest bill was indeed accurate, given that I'd only just seen it and that I wanted the charges removed because they should never have passed the account to collections, which he did actually do after the call; crediting that £57.50 to the account. He said he'd get the backbilling team to investigate the outstanding amount and come back to me with an up-to-date bill. During this phone call I said I'd be seeking compensation given their failing to bill me for over a yea r and then seeking 13 months' of bills in one go, as well as their abysmal customer service given that Id had to do so much chasing and been kept so misinformed. The guy said he'd note that I was seeking compensation but warned that I couldn't claim for phone calls/time; just the backbilling and the customer service. He asked if I had an amount in mind and I said I'd wait to see what they offered. I heard nothing from nPower for the next two weeks and having given the compensation some real thought, I sent an email to nPower informing them that I was seeking £400 compensation. The email was as follows: To whom it may concern, On Friday 5th February, having spent 40 minutes on hold, I spent 20 minutes speaking to Sam, one of you customer service advisors, seeking an update on billing issues with my gas account (ref. XYZ). Sam assured me that he'd add a 'miscellaneous credit' to my account to reimburse me for fees relating to debt collection agencies - who should never have been approached. This has now happened. He also said he'd pass my account onto the back-billing team to remove a bill from September 2014, which was only actually billed in October 2015, and that I'd receive a new bill taking this into account. I am still awaiting any update on this, some 15 days later. I also made Sam aware that I would be seeking compensation for the total lack of customer service I'd received and for the fact that I'd been billed 13 months' worth of bills in October 2015, having received nothing for over a year and despite me trying to make payments. Sam asked if I had a figure in mind and I said I would wait to hear from you. Having heard nothing, and having spent time over the past two weeks reflecting on the impact of this saga on me, I am now writing to inform you that I seek £400 total in compensation, for the reasons outlined below. I expect a prompt response outlining what is going on with my account and when and how I should expect to receive compensation from you. Yours faithfully, MY NAME 1. Billing delays Your website states: We will provide compensation to any customer who we incorrectly back billed from July 2010 to 31st December 2015, to a value not less than £100 per customer We will provide compensation to any customer currently affected by late invoice for 12 months or more as at 31st December 2015, to a value not less than £100 per customer I received 13 months' of bills (from September 2014 to October 2015) and an immediate demand for payment in October 2015 having received no bills, and even being told Npower didn't supply my gas, throughout that period. Given that I meet both your criteria for redress, I am seeking compensation from Npower for billing delays. TOTAL SOUGHT FOR BILLING DELAYS: £100 2. General customer service My issue was not resolved within 10 working days as per your complaints policy [here I included a link to their complaints policy page] to-date it has actually taken more than 90 days since first contact and I have not been informed of progress throughout; rather I’ve sent 2 letters, countless emails and made 3 phone calls (spending more than an hour on hold) to chase updates and unfulfilled promises Such chaos has there been around my account, that even when I've tried to make payments in the past year, I was told I was not on your system and had no gas account with you; I was not receiving bills and it was impossible to make any payment given there being no account according to your team You state [here I included a link to their page which details what they're doing as of the latest December 2015 issue] We will identify and repay any customer who we incorrectly back billed from July 2010 to 31st December 2015 and yet I had to point this issue out to you; you did not identify any issues with my account until I raised the back-bill in my phone call with Sam on 05/02/2016 - in fact you were still seeking payment for the out-of-date bill at that point, contravening the Energy UK guidelines which you signed up to You raised multiple complaints (X, Y and Z) and made no contact to let me know anything had been resolved (even if it your ‘resolution’ was just consolidating two complaints into one), leading to total confusion and delaying communication with customer services about my issues A pitiful level of care and attention has been given to my communications as is evident in your reply dated 20/01/2016 , when the copying and pasting of my email was blatant (you failed to replace ‘my’ with ‘your’) and you mis-spelled basic information such as the address [i copied and highlighted the errors here] All of the above suggests my issues have been handled with nowhere near the level of care and importance they should have been, especially given your repeated promises to the Ombudsman that you will handle and resolve complaints more effectively. TOTAL SOUGHT FOR ABYSMAL CUSTOMER SERVICE: £150 3. Inconvenience and stress Such was the stress of this episode, and particularly the threat of entry to my property from Richburns (acting on Npower’s behalf) to seek a disputed debt, I spent several months taking high value items including a MacBook computer and family heirlooms including jewellery to work everyday to avoid them being taken away in my absence I have experienced serious anxiety, triggering asthma which I have not suffered from since childhood, which has massively impacted by wellbeing and quality of day-to-day life TOTAL SOUGHT FOR INCONVENIENCE AND STRESS: £50 4. Failure to uphold the Data Protection Act and unnecessarily passing my details into Richburns Debt Collection agency The Data Protection Act of 1998 states that: Personal data shall be accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date In passing inaccurate data on me on to Richburns and wrongly seeking payment for a disputed debt, I believe you contravened this act and risked damage to my reputation I am aware that following intervention by The Guardian's Consumer Champions, [here I inserted a link to a Guardian Consumer Champion's article] you previously awarded £100 in compensation to a customer who wrongfully received a visit from a debt collection agency acting on your instruction and I expect the same in this instance TOTAL SOUGHT FOR MISHANDLING OF DATA: £100 TOTAL SOUGHT FOR ALL OF THE ABOVE: £400.​ The week after this, I logged into my online account and saw lots of 'transfers' and 'reversed bills' applied, making my balance £0. I submitted a meter reading and it became approx. £19. As expected, nPower failed to reply to my email within the 7 working days they state they will. I received a voicemail from a different customer service team member on 01/03/16 asking me to call back, which I did today, speaking to someone who had no idea what was going on. He informed me that the backbilling team had sent the query back to them because they weren't sure which account the questions were around; but I only have one (gas) account with nPower! He agreed this was odd but explained that they wanted to just credit the account with £60 to save the backbilling team investigating, but hadn't done so yet because of the 'goodwill gesture' of £400 that I was seeking. He explained he could do the £60 reversal for the backbilling and give me a goodwill gesture of £30, to which my response was 'Are you joking?!'. He claimed it was a reasonable amount. I told him that the nPower website states that in response to the latest (December 2015) issues with the Ombudsman, any customer still affected by backbilling would receive no less than £100 in compensation, and he told me he wasn't aware of it but could offer £40 to make it £100. I told him this would not do, because the backbilling is seperate to the compensation; as I understand it they CANNOT charge me for that month that they billed me for some 13 months later. Any compensation I seek should be seperate to this. I also highlighted the issues I'd experienced (he hadn't read the LONG email i sent) and explained why I was seeking £400; it not being some random amount I'd plucked out of thin air. He said he'd log that I wouldn't accept the £40 and that now the matter would be passed on to Stage 2 for the complaint to be reviewed and I stressed that they need to look at my email again. As I understand it, the bill is going back to the backilling team to figure out what needs to be written off and I have to wait to hear regarding my complaint. I also asked him why my account went back to £0 and he said it was because they'd credited payments from old accounts to the new account so it was up to date. I presume he refers to payments flatmate C and/or D made before they stopped billing us. Is it not ridiculous that they've just figured out we might not even owe them anything!? I'm still not clear whether we do or don't, because billing is still on hold given the lock from the complaint. I'm utterly exhausted with all this. All I want is some fair compensation, and the mess to be resolved so that I can switch suppliers. As I understand it, there's every chance that Stage 2 will involve another laughable offer and then it'll likely go to deadlock and I'll need to complain to the Ombudsman. I guess I'm looking for advice - have I done everything I need to? What else can I do at this point? Also should I expect to have to go to the Ombudsman? Any help very much appreciated. Thank you!

Has anyone else received a call from a Survey company - on behalf of Npower. It would have been nice to have chatted with them for the 20 minutes they reckoned the survey would take - they just always seem to telephone at the most inconvenient of times..!1

Hi all, I’m really hoping that one of you may be able to help me? I’m going to try and cut a very long story short so here we go with the salient points. Back in 2001 (yes, 2001!) my father who was over 60 applied for a TXU StayWarm account which I believe was government backed and enabled users electricity and gas for a flat fee of £53.20 per month. At this time he had an NPower (or their alias back then) account and notified them he would now be moving onto StayWarm and leaving NPower – I have a signed contract between him and StayWarm dated 2001. NPower, despite being told he was switching providers never released his account to StayWarm. The first he knew about a problem was correspondence that he wasn’t paying his gas bill and a demand for a sum of approximately £5,000*18months later. This is when their endless and relentless pursuit of him began for this ‘debt’. It appears that they failed to cancel his account and were misguidedly billing him for energy use. He has never received the money back that he was paying during this time to StayWarm and now, despite paying his monthly payments (StayWarm was stopped shortly after these problems began – hence back to NPower) there is a ‘debt’ hanging over him. *Since then there have been over 55 separate demands for a sum of money between about £5,000 and £8,000 although the number is never the same (ie Jan ’09 £8,182.63 and March ’10 £5,899.95) Numerous letters from the bailiff threatening a warrant to enter his home and he should attend the magistrates court on a certain date. I attended during this summer and it was made clear that these should never have been issued because it was a ‘dispute’ over a sum of money and there was no question that he wasn’t paying his bills. Recent claims that there were two gas metres in the house; I have checked and there is only one. Customer services are useless and at times aggressive He pursued the case with a solicitor in about 2011 but once the solicitor bill got to just over £1,000 couldn’t afford any more money to pay them. Despite the fact he pays monthly over the post office counter (with receipts to prove) they claim in correspondence that he isn’t paying his current bills, and then when challenged are forced to admit that infact he is... Unfortunately this is really affecting him and his levels of stress; and the whole family. How it has been going on for so long I just don’t know, but I am now having to deal with it because I am genuinely worried it will affect his health (as you can imagine he is of a certain age). He applied for an SAR during the Summer but the NPower records only go back to 2008 so they have no proof or evidence where or what this bill is for. In among the huge file of paperwork is however multiple references to *Please do not inform the customer of any potential writeoff* He has been to the ombudsman and despite the lack of evidence from NPower (no records before ’08) have sided with them and summarized that they should write him a letter of apology and give him £150! What do I do? How can I get them off our backs? Many thanks in advance. John.

Hi, I have received a letter today from Npower. "Your Payment scheme hasnt been set up correctly. We've tried to call you to explain an issue with your account setup. Unfortunately, due to a system issue, we were unable to set up your payment scheme correctly, so you've only been paying for usage on one fuel." I phoned the customer number, on hold for 30mins. She has said I have not payed for gas from 01/01/2014 - 25/01/16. I'm afraid I wasn't brilliant on the phone and wasn't sure what to ask. I am on a Price Protector December 2017 dual fuel setup which is paid via DD. They are currently going to increase my DD by £54 over the next 16 months? My bill has effectively trebled as now ill be paying the correct dual bill and the increase. Is there anything I can do? I'm assuming I have to pay for all the used gas? Many Thanks

Looking to send a DSAR to Npower after not being billed correctly for nearly 1.5 years after having a new electric meter installed in August 2014. Have made official complaints to Npower direct & the Ombudsman but still not any further forward with getting a correct bill as basic maths seems impossible for Npower staff. Am now dealing with Npower via letter/email only as fed up with being lied to/pasted from pillar to post/having the phone hung up on me. New development is that Npower haven't taken Jan 2016 direct debit payment, my bank states that Npower never put the request through! So now I want to view what records Npower has to compare them to mine, think should make for interesting reading. But am unsure which Npower department/address to I send the DSAR request & cheque to? Plus who do I make the cheque payable to? Planning on sending the request (using the fab template on this board) & the cheque recorded delivery but is there anything else I should do/be aware of?

Over the last few years, Npower always seemed to increase my DD around October time (the bill would likely show that my usage had left an underpayment of around £50.00). Npower would then have to refund me almost £100.00 around June of the following year. This because the increase in the DD was quite substantial between £20-30 increase. This year it would appear I am £29.60 in CREDIT - yet they have still increased the Direct Debit although for a much smaller sum of £6.00 per month ?