@npowerhelp Huge bill from Npower??? I'm on prepayment meter???

[shytalk123]

Hi folks.

 

Npower have just hit me with a bill for £1494. I don't understand how I can owe them anything as I pay my electricity in advance via a prepayment meter which is already a rip off. I pay nearly £10 per week for a very meagre amount of electricity usage. There's only me and partner and the place is tiny. We do all our washing at night during the cheap period and have energy efficient lightbulbs throughout the house. It's worse now as we're coming into winter as I need to heat the place also. There are storage heaters but I daren't use them as they would cost about £3-4 per day to run. I use oil-filled rads sparingly in the evenings but surely this isn't the way it should have to be.

 

I'm currently on Jobseeker's Allowance and only have roughly £12 per week to feed myself and put electric on after paying my rent etc. I think it's very unfair that people who are on low income are penalised so heavily by a tariff that is supposed to help them. I've heard of a social tariff...does such a tariff exist.

 

Thanks in advance for any advice or info anyone can give.

[389shell]

Ask them to check your payments on your account with the meter serial number, sometimes it happens where your payments may be hitting another account with a similar serial number, this will be a missing payments query.

 

The social tarrif is something that you have to ask them about, if you are on JS then I should think that you qualify. If the person that you speak to doesn't know what you are talking about, then ask to speak to someone who does.

 

Good luck.

Edited October 30, 2008 by 389shell
extra info

[ozzywizard]

As shell said it seems your payments are hitting somone elses account or even another suppliers. Are you on powercard, tokens or a key meter ?. Each type of prepayment have a differant tracing system so will advise better once you confirm. it needs to be dealt with by a prepayment team in missing or missdirected payments depending on were your money has been. Please do not worry and certainly do not agree or pay anything on this bill (although you will find it is a statement not a bill ) how long have you been with your current supplier.

[davethorp]

BBC watchdog ran a story this week about people getting huge bills despite being on pre payment meters. They may be interested in your story

[PGH7447]

BBC - The backdated bills for prepayment metres - Watchdog - Blog

 

here the link, states that some pre-payment metres were not adjusted to represent the price increases thereby leaving customers with huge bills

[gumbobriggs]

I had a similar problem, although not as much money!

 

If you push them enough they will transfer your account to the "recalibration team"

 

I had an apparent bill built upped to £200. they said that once it's with them, the most I would pay would be £70. They have now put a marker on for it to be wiped out....

 

Regards,

[dcdkpug]

im with british gas with both electric and gas on prepayment meter im on jsa and have been since being redundant november 2007 oh i also had minor whiplash in august 2008 which still not better from that either

 

i tend to for ever being feeding these meters theres no debt on them was told to write down on how much the meters use etc but took forever had letters in the past saying my account was in credit and im due refund but no money ever did come at all

 

i telephoned these wasters other week last week who tell me to check my meters if faulty would cost about £70 quid each

 

example i have 3 bed flat central heating sons at full time nursery mrs works most of time (yippee) lol 1 minute electric was on 5.33 then i looked at meter less than 2 minutes later had gone down 2 quid less

 

this was about midday if that puzzleing me

 

i turn all plugs off and lights we live in the dark when we can we only have our fridge on washing machine wasnt on as we didnt have one then well we did but it was broke

 

i just can not figure it out

 

to go on to a billed meter costs few hundred pound for deposit so they tell me

 

does this sound like a con ??

[verycatchy7939]

these bill have been generated from old card like PPM( prepayment meters).Basically the attitude in the industry is that you used u gotta pay for it. you have had many opportunities to update your tariffs but you chosen not to.Every time you get Price rise you need a reset, i bet not one of you contacted the company's to ask them to do this?? Take your pain you are as much to blame as the company's.It is a shared responsibility .Usually i can give loads of advice on bills but this really is for the customer to source and arrange access.If you were a credit customer you would be expected to pay for at least the last 12 months of consumption so why should PPM customers be different.

[gumbobriggs]

these bill have been generated from old card like PPM( prepayment meters).Basically the attitude in the industry is that you used u gotta pay for it. you have had many opportunities to update your tariffs but you chosen not to.Every time you get Price rise you need a reset, i bet not one of you contacted the company's to ask them to do this?? Take your pain you are as much to blame as the company's.It is a shared responsibility .Usually i can give loads of advice on bills but this really is for the customer to source and arrange access.If you were a credit customer you would be expected to pay for at least the last 12 months of consumption so why should PPM customers be different.

 

Actually, as in many things, it is up to the business to arrange for the latest price increases to be charged, not the customer.

 

If they can't be bothered, why should we?

 

When you're watching what you spend (as most, if not all, PPM customers are) then the last thing on your mind is to sort out a simple business premise for companies that make millions - and that premise is 'make sure you charge the right prices'

[verycatchy7939]

Actually, as in many things, it is up to the business to arrange for the latest price increases to be charged, not the customer.

 

If they can't be bothered, why should we?

 

When you're watching what you spend (as most, if not all, PPM customers are) then the last thing on your mind is to sort out a simple business premise for companies that make millions - and that premise is 'make sure you charge the right prices'

 

read your contract you have to provide access to let he utilities do a rate change>Mind this is a pointless argument as PPM card meters are being withdrawn in 2009, that will sort the problem.IN fact i think after April and your an npower customer and u got a card meter you wont be able to buy electric, so u need to get a meter change ASAP.

[gumbobriggs]

In my case, the access was there. All they had to do was send someone around to update it.

 

I'm no longer with npower and no longer on a ppm, so it doesn't affect me any more.

[fedup74]

We were with NPower( Not any more) and we received a bill for PPM electric. Basically we had estimated readings, no-one came to check the readings in 2 -3 years. I phoned energy watch and Npower reduced the bill to £70 as this is what Ofgem (?) recommended. Verycatchy7939, we cannot reduce the tariffs ourselves, would be seen as tampering with the meter:rolleyes:, so of course it is up to the company to arrange to increase the tariff on your meter. Npower have a dedicated dept for complaints so if you ring Energywatch they will put you through.

[verycatchy7939]

We were with NPower( Not any more) and we received a bill for PPM electric. Basically we had estimated readings, no-one came to check the readings in 2 -3 years. I phoned energy watch and Npower reduced the bill to £70 as this is what Ofgem (?) recommended. Verycatchy7939, we cannot reduce the tariffs ourselves, would be seen as tampering with the meter:rolleyes:, so of course it is up to the company to arrange to increase the tariff on your meter. Npower have a dedicated dept for complaints so if you ring Energywatch they will put you through.

 

 

i agree you can reduce tariff by your selves, if you on a token PPM you need to get the company to set your meter to the correct tariff setting.It is a shared responsibility you must allow access to the meter that the utility company owns when they request to do it ,If u cant u have to arrange an time when they can do it.Mostly token PPM customers use this as a way to get a way with murder and pay less than the going rate , but remember we all end up paying for this in higher unit rates.I glad u got away with £70 bill for your electric ,

[fedup74]

Excuse me "my negligence?" Do you agree that you cannot reduce your own tariff and your above post is wrong. Npower had ample opportunity to read the meter and in fact reset it. I had to ring them up with my readings and actually asked them to read the meter themselves. The bill I received was for £82 now I don't think you should be losing sleep, getting wound up or feeling hard done to over £12 or indeed be putting me down as a bad customer. In fact since changing suppliers my gas bill DD has more than halved and I am in credit with them and they can actually be bothered to get the meter read. Saying that you don't give access is cowpoo. They couldn't be ar**d to do their job properly and send someone to read the meter. What about the profits they make? How do they make these profits if as you say people get away with murder? BTW I am on a PPM as it was in the house when I moved in, just before you start assuming I am on one because I couldn't pay my bills. People come here for friendly advice, not for you to have a rant and go on at them because they are "bad" customers and trying to evade payments.

[fedup74]

Getting back onto the point of the thread:rolleyes: Shytalk123 have you thought about getting a grant from Warm Front for central heating, loft insulation etc they pay up to the value of £2700 if you are in receipt of certain benefits? Sorry about my rant on your thread but people like that who berate you when you are in genuine need of advice and help bug me. This is what these forums are for - genuine advice and support- not an earbashing from someone who works for an energy company. There are also other companies that can help with the cost of heating grants- will prob be cheaper than running storage heaters. About the social tariff- you would have to ring your energy supplier and ask about this but it does exist.

[breeze1996]

As everyone else said have a look at the bill again, i think it lists all the payments on the back if not send a letter asking for the breakdown.

 

That way you can checl all your payments have reached the account.

 

How long is the bill for? it will say what the dates are, and also check your meter readings to make sure there is no mistake on the figures.

 

At £10 per week thats £520 a year as a bill, I know you don't think this is cheap but i pay £60 per month so I pay £720 a year myself.

[verycatchy7939]

Troll on stage:rolleyes: how do you know I don't work? FYI I do. And if you CAN read you will see I never chose PPM. Tut tut take notice. As I said now saying no more cos you're boring me with you incoherant rants

 

 

You can change a ppm anytime u want free of charge as long as u not in debt.....It not your or your landlords property but the suppliers property Sorry infrastructure provider.so you could of had a normal credit meter

[42man]

Can we please keep on thread, and not judge, let's just try and find a solution rather than creating more problems....

[fedup74]

Well said 42man I was trying to give advice and got blasted!!!

And 2 visits from cagbot!!!!

Edited November 7, 2008 by fedup74

[Surfer01]

Npower have to be the most useless inept supplier in the country or maybe even in the EU. They are totally useless and cannot get bills right even when you supply them with reads on a monthly basis. My last bill from them when I changed supplier did not have a single customer read on it and was way out by nearly £200! I worked out my bill in about 10 minutes. For them to work out my bill is going to take them 6 weeks! Npower should not be in business and would have gone into receivership years ago except they got handed millions of customers on a plate and by overcharging customers they can cover up their errors.

There are a few other instances where I caught out Npower who were blatantly lying to me and I have proff of these lies even in writing that is how stupid they are and I am quite happy for them to try and charge me with libel as it is all true..

[sfuk]

If you are on a key meter all of your payments should be tracable. They use a system called talexus to track payments etc. Same for the smart card meter. If you are on a card meter it is a bit more difficult. If you have used the same card then across the card you will have a number 17 digits long. This is called a luhn number. Ask for a list of all payments made under this number.

 

SFUK

[hendrixwoman]

Hi guys and girls.

 

Thanx for all the info. Here is the story so far...There was a period where I was able to get electric without my account card. I had lost said card and for months was able to get my electric from my local co-op with no problems until one day a manager seen the cashier doing the transaction and informed both me and the cashier that this was incorrect procedure. I was told to get a new card from my electricity supplier.

 

After spending what felt like an eternity on the phone to various utility companies, I eventually managed to find who supplied me and a new card was issued.

 

In response to the member who said that that £10 per week isn't a lot to spend on electricity...I disagree...it wouldn't be a lot to spend if one wasn't taking much notice of their usage...but I go to great lengths to try and keep my usage to a minimum so I'm afraid that I do think this is a bit expensive considering how frugal my usage is. And remember this £10 per week turns into £15-20 per week in the winter.

 

To the utilities employee/sympathiser who was banging the drum earlier...I've always provided meter readings on request and in fact the last reading was taken by a meter reader on his rounds in this area. It is not up to me to do their admin for them...They can get f****d. I've gone from earning £450 per week to earning £120 per fortnight so my days are filled by trying to find work and trying to keep the wolf from the door and then there are the multitude of hoops that I must jump through for the DWP to secure my £120 a fortnight so please forgive me if I don't feel it's my responsibility to help another faceless fat cat rob me of what little money I don't have.

 

With regard to the Warmfront issue. I don't think I qualify as I'm just a single ex-working man on Jobseekers Allowance with no health problems or children which as far as this country is concerned makes me fair game for having to jump through hoops to get something back from the £135 per week I used to give this Government in Tax and National Robbery. Whilst a heroin addict or single mum who's never done a shift in her life (no offence, it is hard work bringing up kids) are considered to be vulnerable. It's always been the same. Government will bring in new Back to Work scheme...result is people like me who've paid in have to fight tooth and nail to get help. I've been in houses of single mum's I know and the nice carpets and general decor along with a widescreen tv would suggest they don't seem to be struggling as much as I am or as vulnerable as the goverment or Dwp would suggest.

 

I don't think it's very fair considering I've gone to great lengths in life to not be a drain on society. I know people's circumstances are different but I think in the majority of cases, we have choices in life. I choose not to have children until I was financially ready and I also choose not to go and get myself addicted to heroin either. Forgive me if I seem unsympathetic but this country seems to punish those who try whilst making it easier for others to not bother.

Edited November 14, 2008 by hendrixwoman
Forgot to proof read

[verycatchy7939]

Do you know the dates that you paid for your energy and money has not been allocated to you account?

If you do it will be simple enough for npower to track, as they will have been allocated to PPM account 6365/your account no/check digit 3 and this directs your payments to a suspense account.

 

I fell you need to

 

write down the dates

Where you bought then and in to the shop and ask for the Agent ID number.

once npower can tag few payments they can trace them all.

If you got any old receipts from your no card period that would be helpful.

Also when u speak to npower ask then to look in EPPS as they might have a record of the shop where you bough your energy from.

 

Cheers

a so called utility sympathiser

[hendrixwoman]

Sorry if I judged you harshly Verycatchy and thank you for your help.

[Mandy Lilygreen]

Npower worst company ever. After forcefully intruding themselves into my house at the kids dinnertime, just barged in and sat down without really being offered. Children were moaning in the background they wanted their food. So the person with their folders spread all over my table talked for 15 minutes which i wasnt listening too cause the kids were driving me nuts. I only signed the form to get her out, wish i hadnt now. Im on a prepayment meter and always have been after 3 month they sent me a bill for 144pounds and when i contacted them i thought they would say We are sorry we'll sort it out. First they told me cause me the prepayment was estimated this is how much you owe us, i lived with prepayment all my life and you never pay anymore and sometimes you get money back. Also the fact that i went from putting about 12 a week in my meter to nearly double 20 pound. I called back a couple of days later because i didnt want to pay the 144 so then they told me i was on the wrong plan and they couldnt not do anything about it, i argued with the thick women for about 20 minutes and hung up the phone in a temper, just one week later i had letters for debt collection through the door and ignored them but a couple of weeks later i had court dates and stuff so i ended up coughing up the money before costs were added, but i kinda think their was something i could have done if they hadnt sent me court letters so soon. Really awfull people, they had better not knock my door again. Lucky i switched quickly after a couple of months when i realised how much money i was putting in the meter, if i had been with them longer i would have had a bill worth thousands and there would be no way of me knowing in the meantime. I feel cheated and disguisted by them.