I have been reading through the Npower section and see that there is interest in anyone who has been in litigation with them. I would like to share my 3 year battle with you. In Feb 2007 Npower were my provider and continued to be until Jan 2013. Silly I know but all my readings had been estimated until March 2012 when I submitted a reading. I then received a letter in December stating that the bill was £3502.22 and that my monthly DD would go from £110 per month to £318.00. I called them to query the bill that there must be a mistake with the bill or a fault with the meter, they said there was no problem with the bill but said I should carry out a loadtest. They told me to take a reading, boil the kettle, take another reading then phone them back with the readings and they would be processed for analysis. I have done this 3 times and am still waiting for the results of the analysis! The house is a small 2 bedroom, end terrace, with 3 storage heaters, well insulated, 2 adults at work all day, no change in usage and no hot tub or any other energy sapping device. I had been paying between £50 and £110 per month, over the years I had paid total £4664, which gives an annual payment of £799 even based on todays rates (and I checked on U-Switch) this is adequate to cover the supply. We moved out of the house with a view to letting it (I own the property) but didn’t feel able due to the situation with Npower and if I am honest let things slip with chasing Npower, head and sand, ostrich syndrome. They were still billing me, until July 2013, £318 per month based on estimated readings even though I told them the house was empty. In March 2013 I received a threat from a well known DCA, knowing that I would be told to ‘just pay’, I went back to Npower to ask why they had sent the account to a DCA when they know it is in dispute. They said it isn’t in dispute and you will need to talk to the DCA! But they continued to bill me until July 2013!! The bill was £3462.14 In Dec 2013 I received a letter from Npower’s solicitor telling me that unless I paid £3768.57 within 14 days they would take me to court, which they did. The letter had several typos and one of the dates was incorrect In May 2014 the solicitor sent me a letter requesting £3392.22 but would accept £1,188.06 as payment, There were additional errors within the letter relating to dates and also stated there had been no dispute with the bill. We were scheduled to have a mediation session and to be honest I had had enough and wanted it to go away so would use the £1,188.06 as a figure to work with at the mediation. I would concur that over 7 years supply I could have underpaid by £100 per year and so offered £700 as a settlement fee. The mediator then confirmed that the solicitor conceded that there had been an error, no settlement figure should have been offered and they would be seeking the full amount of £4128.51. Further to the mediation I received a letter to confirm ‘due to an error the amount stated on the second page of the said letter is incorrect and for the avoidance of doubt the total balance outstanding is £4128.51.’ Yet another error!! The directions date was set for October at which the Judge ordered that a joint single expert be appointed to test the meter to determine if there was a fault. The letter of instruction to be sent by 3rd November 2014, inspection by 24thNovember and a report filed with the court 28th December 2014. The solicitor called me around 20th October to say they had an expert who could perform the test, but I wasn’t convinced that this expert would be totally unbiased! I asked them to call back in a week, when I had chance to look into this and they did not get back to me. They submitted an ‘extremely urgent’ request to the court on 27th October to state that as Npower no longer supplied the property they would not be able to inspect the meter and ask that this direction be amended. I then received a statement of issues from the solicitor, and wrongly assumed that this was the bundle, it contained bills dating back to2007, a witness statement and an account statement , stating that this had also been filed with the court. On closer inspection of this pack there were even more mistakes; electric meter ending in 8567, mine ends in 7927; shows a meter for gas, there is no supply or meter for gas at the property; the statement dated 2012 shows an opening reading of 24239 for day units and 33979 for night units, the bill dated 2007 showed 6722 and 4878 respectively; stated the last payment received was Jan 2012 but in fact it was Jan 2013; shows a manual adjustment of £5,100 but nothing to substantiate this figure. Using all of these mistakes I started to build my case around the fact that there were a catalogue of errors and how could we consider that any of these figures / values were correct. As the court date loomed I was terrified, didn’t really know if I had a case just an awful time. Then I received another bundle from Npower's solicitor, also filed with the court, the witness was now a senior advisor to litigation and along with additional mistakes, there were 9 contradictions to the first litigation advisors statement; an account statement so badly printed that it missed the credit and balance column. I was absolutely staggered that there could be so many errors (not surpised though!). Feeling more confident as I now had more mistakes to use I practiced my questions for the witness and prepared as much as I could for court. The day before the court I received a letter from the solicitor outlining a statement of costs and very fortunately for me they sent it to my old address (another mistake!), had I received it as intended I probably would have crumbled. It was for an astonishing £2,028.00, namely 42 letters @£8 or £10, 15 phone calls @£8, £10 and 1 at £80, rates of pay for the litigation advisors as £80 and £100 / hour. 4th February 2015, I arrive at court, they have a solicitor, the senior litigation advisor as a witness and someone who was an expert – I was terrified. Later when the expert did speak he was told to be quiet or be in contempt of court, this did help to relax me a bit. The Judge started the questioning by asking the witness what qualification she had as alitigation advisor and she said it was just the experience she had during her employment with Npower. So I started to question the witness about the meter numbers, she said it was a mistake; I asked about the conflict in meter readings between the statement and the bill and she said that they adjust the reading to help lower the bill; I asked about the manual entry of £5,100 and she said if she had a calculator she could work it out, the Judge gave her a calculator and she couldn’t! My head was spinning so much that I cant remember a lot more detail the solicitor asked me if I thought Npower had just plucked a figure from thin air……………..! two hours later, the Judge tore into the Npower witness saying she had presented her case badly, she didn’t know what she was talking about, she couldn’t give a straight answer or give accurate figures, her statement was just her opinion and as she was not an expert could not be considered and that he was appalled by the way she had carried out her work. He then dismissed the case and awarded me the full £90 costs to be paid in 14 days! These people are utter jokers, they have no procedures in place, they are sloppy, their billing methods are seriously flawed – looking at the countless errors in my one case I am sure that if anyone looks into their own dealings with Npower they will find just as many. Good luck