NPower Rant Alert!!!

candlestick

candlestick

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The King Of Prestwich
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Morning all,

Right! Basically, due to NPowers inadaquecies as a business, they have not taken a meter reading off me for about 18 months. They called round on the 11th March (my birthday as it happens!!) and took a reading. My revised bill now shows that I am £398 in credit, as I'm paying nearly £115 a month on direct debit which is obviously way over the odds (they've even had the cheek to bump it up by £35 in the last couple of months!!)!!! :eek:

I phoned a geordie call centre type last night, and was told they couldn't refund me the money, as there is a direct debit due out this Friday for another £115!!?? So I'm supposed to phone back up on Saturday once the payment has gone through and then try and get my money back, plus the extra £115 they've just had off me!!?? :nono:

Should they be able to stop this payment if they really wanted to and refund me some money?? Should I threaten to cancel the direct debit now myself?? I'm not inclined to wait even 5 days for these clowns given the previous threatening letters I've had off them in the past (where they claimed on 4 occasions to have tried to take a reading and that I'd not allowed them access to the property, even though I'd been in all day - £30 compensation for being stupid, thankyou very much).

Thoughts please?? :nuts:
 
If the payment goes out on Friday it probably gets requested on Monday or Tuesday.

Your lucky if they will refund you that easily, most companies send out masses of forms to be filled in so they can get another couple of weeks interest before giving it back to you.

My Nan is on a fixed rate gas/electric combo until 2015, she is currently over £500 in credit but they keep sending letters saying she needs to increase her Direct Debit, try and explain that one?!?
 
Fair do's on the outbound payment, but why should an outbound payment stop them from making an inbound payment to me for what they owe???
 
candlestick said:
Fair do's on the outbound payment, but why should an outbound payment stop them from making an inbound payment to me for what they owe???
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Only reason I can think of is to give you the £398 + £100 ish in one go, rather than two seperate transactions.... or lasiness to put it another way
 
They may offer to reduce your monthly payments down to like £15 a month, dont let them. Tell them you want the cash refunded to you and your payments adjusted to around £90 a month as you are paying far to much.

If i was you, i'd cancel and either go to EDF or E'on, then they will just refund you everything.

We were with npower, was mis-sold our policy (Was told we pay too much with EDF and that we should only pay £55 a month. Got a call from them after it was all set up and told that we would need to actually pay £98 per month as £55 wouldnt be enough) so we jacked them in, got a £200 refund and moved to E'on who have been great so far :)
 
OK, it was some years back but NPower tried to scam me out of about £250 quid when I moved into a house and the n changed supplier to E.On (Was Powergen then).

They wanted to use a reading that was still a goo couple of throusand kWh beyond my current reading - and then had the cheek to insist they were correct! If I didn't have a strong knowledge of the retail energy industry (ON account of workin in it) then it would have been very difficult to get them to drop it.
Especially as it had gone to debt collection 2nd leve by the time I managed to speak to someone who had a clue.
 
I think I'll take a meter reading tonight, cancel and move to somebody else, along with the leccy! Do you have to give em 30 days notice or owt??
 
Dont think so. Ring up the new supplier and speak to them about how you change. Some times companies sort it all out for you, so you might have to do much except call them and say "now i have moved energy suppliers, give me my ********* money you theiving gits!" :lol:
 
candlestick said:
I think I'll take a meter reading tonight, cancel and move to somebody else, along with the leccy! Do you have to give em 30 days notice or owt??
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You don't even need to tell them, just sort it out with your new supplier!
 
Although be careful, it can take a while for the supply to change. You may have to wait 2 -3 weeks to get the supply moved over so you may still end up oweing Npower money so I wouldn't antagonise them!
 
With £400 credit in hios account, dont think he needs to worry too much! :lol:
 
Amythyst said:
Although be careful, it can take a while for the supply to change. You may have to wait 2 -3 weeks to get the supply moved over so you may still end up oweing Npower money so I wouldn't antagonise them!
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It should not matter if you antagonise them or not, they have a responsibility to produce accurate bills regardless of your attitude as a customer.
 
The timing of a future direct debit payment has got nothing to do with your request for a refund of overpayment. You've been sold a bucket of baloney.

Call them and demand a refund of overpayment AND and adjustment of the monthly budget scheme amount.
 
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Amythyst said:
Although be careful, it can take a while for the supply to change. You may have to wait 2 -3 weeks to get the supply moved over so you may still end up oweing Npower money so I wouldn't antagonise them!
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It takes, typically, five and a half to six and a half weeks. Nothing happens for 30 days due to the government imposed 'cooling off period'.
 
2blue4u said:
It takes, typically, five and a half to six and a half weeks. Nothing happens for 30 days due to the government imposed 'cooling off period'.
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The general period is 14 days - and correct - nothing can happen in this time.
However it is not government imposed as british gas operate a 7 day cooling off.

EDIT, the regulators require a 7 day coling off period - although this can depend on circumstances.
 
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2blue4u said:
The timing of a future direct debit payment has got nothing to do with your request for a refund of overpayment. You've been sold a bucket of baloney.

Call them and demand a refund of overpayment AND and adjustment of the monthly budget scheme amount.

Then PM me concerning you're next supplier ;)
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Who do you work for??
 
My bad. The Statutory Cooling Off Period is just 7 days. The regulator tried to extend this to 14 days but some suppliers cried.

Different suppliers impose differing cooling off periods. Some stick to the minimum of 7 days. Some have a best practice policy of 14 day periods. I've no idea where I got the 30 days from. But it still takes about five and a half weeks to complete the process - when a 14 day cooling off period is involved.
 
Right, just had an another argument with them - they claim that their super BACS system will not let them adjust any payment within 7 days of the direct debit date (strange, ours at work does) and that my payment will not clear until Saturday, so I should phone them then. I said 'what if I cancel the direct debit', he said that will take 48hrs to reach the and then I could sign up for a new one and ask for my money to be refunded.

Would my cancelling of a DD cost them money in charges or owt? - If so I'm massively going to do it now!!
 
careful. Strictly speaking, you can't cancel a direct debit instruction with your bank. The instruction is provided to the supplier. (you can cancel Standing Orders). Banks will generally accept DDR cancellations if you state there is a dispute. It could get all tangled and messy if you do so best avoided. IMHO.
 
2blue4u said:
careful. Strictly speaking, you can't cancel a direct debit instruction with your bank.
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'fraid you're wrong there Mr bloo

The Direct Debit Guarantee said:
You can cancel a Direct Debit at any time by contacting your bank or building society. We also recommend you notify the organisation concerned.
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My bank cancels DD's immediately if there is no hold on the funds (which is evident by a drop in available balance) when I cancel them.

That's the FIRST thing I would do. Cancel the Direct Debit. They owe you money and they want to take more, just to satisfy their 'procedures'? Tough.
 
2blue4u said:
My bad. The Statutory Cooling Off Period is just 7 days. The regulator tried to extend this to 14 days but some suppliers cried.

Different suppliers impose differing cooling off periods. Some stick to the minimum of 7 days. Some have a best practice policy of 14 day periods. I've no idea where I got the 30 days from. But it still takes about five and a half weeks to complete the process - when a 14 day cooling off period is involved.
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Most energy suppliers used to have a full 30 days, this has been slowly reduced by each supplier over recent years to the regulatory minimum. If it weren't for a recent project around supplier transfers I would still have believed 30 was the norm!

candlestick said:
Right, just had an another argument with them - they claim that their super BACS system will not let them adjust any payment within 7 days of the direct debit date (strange, ours at work does) and that my payment will not clear until Saturday, so I should phone them then. I said 'what if I cancel the direct debit', he said that will take 48hrs to reach the and then I could sign up for a new one and ask for my money to be refunded.

Would my cancelling of a DD cost them money in charges or owt? - If so I'm massively going to do it now!!
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The direct debit guarantee states you can cancel at any time with no penalty, so you could either phone your bank or go online and and cancel it and all that will happen is the money will not get taken.

However this means they will then not be able to put the money straight back in your account, instead you will have to wait for a cheque.

As for how long it takes - while it may be possible to amend a DD claim often the systems that a supplier use lock the DD for editing by the front line staff within a certain windo of the claim date. It would, however, be a very poorly designed system/process if a claim could not be amended either manually by fiance or by a different level of system access. More likely the front line staff are told how the system work and this part is omitted.
 
DO NOT CANCEL the Direct Debit. It will cause more problems than it is worth. For a start, they may well then treat your account as 'in dispute' and use that as a reason to block your future transfer to another supplier. Secondly, you want the DDR mechanism in place to pay the final, settlement, bill you will get from your current (ha!) supplier following the transfer to the new. In your case, unless you receive the surplus sooner, the final settlement transaction should see funds paid into your account.
 
2blue4u said:
DO NOT CANCEL the Direct Debit. It will cause more problems than it is worth. For a start, they may well then treat your account as 'in dispute' and use that as a reason to block your future transfer to another supplier.
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Not allowed to do that unless there is a debt (And then they are on thin ICE) or you are in a fixed term contract, considered very naughty and the ombudsman take rather a dim view of it :nono:
Secondly, you want the DDR mechanism in place to pay the final, settlement, bill you will get from your current (ha!) supplier following the transfer to the new. In your case, unless you receive the surplus sooner, the final settlement transaction should see funds paid into your account.
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But a very valid point here.
Really it is a toss up between stopping the payment and recieving a cheque for the outstanding balance (And subsequently paying the final bill by cheque card) or loosing the payment just to get it back in a few days.

I still agree with 2Blue that you were fed a load of bull about not being able to put the refund through - they are basically saying that for 24% of the time your account is frozed due to montly DD. Rubbish!
 
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They must run a different programe to my suppliers (EDF), i get refunds a fair bit no hassle at all, proves very hard to ever get my useage worked out due to my job. Deffo better to get a refund then lower payments as at some point your going to have to pay a higher amount again and as you used to the payment sick to it albeit slightly lower (if that makes sence) then you have a nice addition to the camera fund to spend.

In future id take and submit you own meter readings quarterly, some suppliers actually offer discounts if you do your own meter readings. Although they will do them at some point, and deffo at change of address, so if you try and con them evidentailly they will catch you out.
 
I find it all to be more complicated than it needs to be - even moreso when mine switched supplier due to a silly housemate changing it from Southern Electric to EDF, then I switched it back straight away and now SE have demanded £300 in ten days! There's a Direct Debit set up for the electricity at the moment but not the gas, heck knows why - hopefully that'll be sorted now but I don't understand most of this. I wish we just had one bill for everything! I kinda miss University halls..
 
Had a similar problem with Powergen. Was £200 in credit & rang them up to be told they could not refund.

After I became *Insistent* they took my meter readings over the phone there & then .

Got refunded a week later.
 
gus607 said:
Had a similar problem with Powergen. Was £200 in credit & rang them up to be told they could not refund.

After I became *Insistent* they took my meter readings over the phone there & then .

Got refunded a week later.
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That sound like responsible account management tbh.

If you have either not been billed recently or have been billed to estimated readings then any supplier has a responsibility to make sure direct debit customers are billed up to date and to actual readings before issuing a refund. :shrug:
 
I had an issue many years ago with TXU in that they insisted on estimating our bill based on previous usage. As we had only recently moved in (and there is only the two of us) and the previous occupants were a family of five, the estimations were extremely high. I tried giving them the actual meter reading but their system wouldn't accept it as it was so much lower than the estimations. In the end we decided to change suppliers, to npower as it happens. At this point, TXU claimed we owed them over £200 and they still hadn't come out to read the meters. It was actually npower who sorted it out for us as they had read the meters when we signed up to them. They contacted TXU on our behalf and set everything straight.

Also, there have been a couple of occasions when we have ended up over £200 in credit with npower. Both times I rang and I received the payments within a week.
 
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