@npowerhelp What are Npower playing at?

[mariefab]

13th October 2009.

My daughter moved.

She phoned EON with a final reading for her former property and a meter reading for the new place.

Before moving she confirmed with the former occupants that EON supplied the electricity.

Straightforward set-up to date- EON send her a monthly bill- she pays it.

12th February 2010.

EON sent her 'We're sorry you've decided to leave EON.....' letter.

She phoned EON to ask what was going on because she had neither approached or been approached by any other electricity supplier for any purpose.

EON told her that Npower had informed them that they were taking over her supply. She informed EON that she was not changing her supplier. EON said that they would sort out their end, told her to tell Npower that it was an 'Erroneous Transfer' and put her call directly through to Npower.

She told Npower she was not their customer, she had never been their customer, she will never be their customer, that this was an 'Erroneous Transfer' and asked them what they were playing at.

Npower said they'd look into it and phone her back. When they phoned back they said it was a mix up and that one of her neighbours at No. 3 had just transferred to Npower. She said that was strange as her neighbour at No. 3 had informed her that he'd been an Npower customer for ages. Npower stuck to their story about the neighbour transferring and said they'd be in touch.

11th March 2010

Npower sent her a note headed 'Your query with your npower account' expressing the hope she was happy with their efforts to help.

28th May 2010

Npower sent her (addressed to 'the occupier' ) a 'Welcome to energy from npower' letter. It stated, 'that npower supplies your home and through what's called a 'deemed contract' you've automatically become an power customer'.

She phoned npower and said the same as the last time she spoke to them. Told them that she'd already been through this nonsense with them a few months earlier. Said that if there was a 'deemed contract' with anyone one it was EON. The npower guy asked for the meter serial number and confirmed that it wasn't on their system. He then checked the national database and confirmed that she was an EON customer. He promised to sort it out immediately and said that she wouldn't hear from npower again.

11th June 2010

She received 3 separate electricity bills from npower again addressed to 'the occupier'.

1. 7th June - £2X.XX ( 25/08/09 - 15/09/09 )

2. 8th June - £1XX.XX ( 15/09/09 - 15/12/09 )

3. 9th June - £4XX.XX ( 15/12/09 - 16/03/10 )

She phoned again and 'went ballistic'.

This time the npower advisor said that according to the database he was looking at she was an npower customer. He said that the reason for sending the bills was that a recent meter reading had alerted them that the property was occupied. They agreed to put the requirement to pay the bills on hold until they'd carried out an investigation.

14th June 2010

They sent a note titled 'Your complaint'. Apparently one of their advisers will keep her informed of progress. And so she waits ......

 

Thank you for reading this far.

Any suggestions?

[Andrea1967]

I have been an Npower customer for years and find them truly awful and am currently transferring to Eon. I think you need to involve ofgen here and also have your daughter check her credit file if they start sending red letters for the so called bills.

 

Good luck

[nottslad]

The complaint should be back-dated to the date of the first contact from your daughter advising of the problem, this would put it over the 56 day period and therefore your daughter would have the right to complain to the Energy Supply Ombudsman.

 

Unfortunately, sometimes these mix-ups do happen, but when they do you need to be sure that someone competent is sorting the problem out. It sounds as if somewhere along the line someone has tinkered with an address on NPower's system causing your daughter to receive all this rubbish. If her supply with EON is still live, obviously make sure she keeps paying them. With an Erroneous Transfer it is normally the new supplier who has to sort the problem out.

[mariefab]

Thanks for the responses.

Nottslad, her supply with EON is live and continuous. They send her a bill each month and she pays it quickly to get a 3% discount.

 

As she hadn't received any contact from npower for a couple of weeks my daughter phoned npower a few days ago to ask if there had been any progress.

 

They said that they have put in a request for someone to come out and have a look at the meter; but couldn't give a timescale as to when this would be accomplished.

 

Unfortunately, sometimes these mix-ups do happen, but when they do you need to be sure that someone competent is sorting the problem out.

 

I think that this may be easier said than done.

 

My daughter spoke to the guy at No.3 last week. In the last few weeks he received a £200ish refund from npower who now claim that they are not his supplier.

He's lived there for a year and has been paying npower by direct debit.

Npower have told him that British Gas is his electricity supplier and they won't allow him to make any more payments.

British Gas denies that they are his supplier.

So he's now in the position of using electricity and having no-one to pay.