The story so far is…….I pay by monthly d/d and back in June I received a statement saying I was nearly £250 in credit, then a few days later, another letter saying they were increasing payments to £54 a month. I rang them for a rebate and to stop the increase and when I took another meter reading they discovered the meter number was different to the one on their system. I’ve been with them 22 months with no meter change and so far have had to give them a reading and confirm the serial number every call in the past 3 months!

Anyway, after twice being told it’ll be sorted in 28 days, they have given me another 28 days, which will make 3 months from when I first called. Today they discovered that “it’s Scottish Power meter change mistake and ‘my’ meter number is actually at the house 2 doors down from me.

They apologised but then ‘advised’ me to keep paying my d/d. I pointed out that I was almost certainly in credit and that if they were unable to prove what my usage actually is, why should I give them any more money. I also made the point that if it was the other way round and I owed them £250, they would probably starting proceedings to get their money.

Apart from cancelling my d/d any ideas on how to get things moving quicker? I was thinking about writing direct to the guy who was on Undercover Boss telling him how shit his service still is!

go straight to the energy ombudsman and lodge a complaint, i did the same to Scottish Power and suddenly they start to get the problem solved

+1 mrmo

Just mentioning the word ‘ombudsman’ to these jokers can have a startling effect.

I can’t be bothered to read the OP but simply, their complete ****holes. Pursued my g/f (we both worked for them @ the time) for months, with baliff’s calling. They eventually said it was sorted (helped that we worked for them, so could contact ppl internally), even had letter from director saying so, baliff’s were on the phone again a couple of weeks later…
Eventually they coughed up £200 they owed her.. bunch of useless muppets, get on the phone to the ombudsman.

npower are scum of the earth. I won’t go into detail but they charged be a huge amount, i complained, they fixed it after weeks of ringing. They then did it again, i told ofgem, they sorted it in under a week.

They are implementing SAP at the moment and the training for the staff is shite, so I dont think youll get sorted very soon

When I changed to them many years ago they got the first meter reading wrong (even though I had entered it via the net and yes I DID get it right) so immediately I owed them over £400 before I even used a Watt of “their” leccy. It took over 2 years to sort and then only because when I moved house a new meter was installed for another reason and so the final reading given by Meter Services tallied with the reading that I hade been giving every 3 months for the whole period. I simply providied them with a meter reading every quarter and paid for the electric I used, rather than what the Bill stated (this was when you got a paper bill AND it told you how much you were being charged per kW). They kept threatening me with debt recovery action but never did (probably because I kept paying the right amount). I must admit to having been a muppet and wonder why the hell I didn’t contact the regulator.

no point complaing to ofgem until you have put your complaint in writing to Npower.

Grrr.. feking Npower a right old bunch of noobs..

I’m still waiting for my refund for that “lets overcharge everyone and see if they notice” debacle they did 24mths ago..

If you life in Swindon, stick your finger up at their main office as you drive past for me yeah..

Never known such a bunch of to*sers.

Easy to solve….

Give up the will to live…. Npower are a complete shower of …. I moved providers, its the only way………

The old homeowner used to be with Scottish Power. We moved to NPower/continued on from our old address and the bill was massive.

Argued (very politely) with examples to back us up and the bill came right down (massively).

You need to go through their complaints email addy on the Npower website. Please dont treat them like thick idiots. They are not. Politeness and courtesy won our corner.

I’d blame Scottish Power for the issue, simply because they’ve been truly useless every time I’ve had any contact with them. They handled the gas at my new flat and had the wrong meter serial number registered there. It’s taken 10 months to sort out, and every time I chase it up I’m subject to an angry Scottish woman shouting at me down the phone to find out why I’m daring to leave them for another energy provider.

Ah, the good old efficient private sector 😉

I moved house 2 months ago and was in credit with EDF Energy by a not inconsiderable amount. Since then I have been trying to get them to pay back what they owe me.

This seems to involve sitting on hold for hours while one of the 3 people they employ gets round to answering the phone. I am then assured it will be in my account within a week. Guess what? It still isn’t!

As far as I’m concerned this is nothing short of theft

Power companies are dreadful at sorting things out. Moving house and getting the decks levelled was a mission in itself.

That nightmare aside, I had the annual statement which, based on my previous years consumption, estimated by bill for the next year then rather usefully broke that down to 12 monthly payments.

Didn’t take much to do the maths but 12 monthly payments would have been 150% their estimated yearly cost. Took a while to get it into their thick skulls that I wasn’t going to be overpaying to that degree. Money grabbing shysters, the lot of them.

Binners – Going through the same issue as you, changed from EDF (unfortunately it sounds to Npower)and they have my account in credit (£500 +) and trying to chase them to pay it back, im sure they wouldnt be so shy if i owed them that amount.

I won’t be holding my breath for a rebate by the sounds of it and to cancel the d/d would cause hassle as my gas is also included with discounts for dual fuel etc. so that would probably cause even more hassle.

I have the direct line to a someone in ‘Customer Management’ and so far she appears to be making the right noises, so I think I’ll harass her directly until I get sorted. Cheers

“they’re not all noobs”

hmmmm..

You are so wrong.

Privitise the whole debacle methinks.

As an update to trying to get a refund from these robbers, I’ve finally managed to speak to EDF Energy again*. I asked them why they hadn’t refunded the wedge of MY CASH that they’d overcharged me.

The guy replied that even though its on the system that I’ve spoken to them repeatedly about the refund (each call logged on their system, apparently), none of the people I spoke to has actually ‘actioned’ it. I believe the efficiency of the private sector has already been mentioned 🙄

*the trick is to phone them when they open at 8. Leave it til after nine and you better enjoy the sound of hold music for extremely long periods of time

Charge them interest..

When we completed on the house the first thing I did was apply to switch from Scottish Power.

Today they have rung me up because I’m leaving and asked me if I’d seen BBC Watchdog?

Update

Just had a call from the woman in customer service (only a week after Scot power checked the meters) who must have apologised at least 8 times in the first 3 minutes of conversation……..yada sorry yada I must apologise yada Scottish power yada sorry yada duplicate meter numbers yada sorry etc etc.

They now have to send out an NP person to check my meter number again. When I pointed out that I really don’t give a monkeys about their meter number and all I wanted was my money they are holding, she said they had only ever had estimates. Blue touch paper lit as I have given them at least 6 readings over the past 22 months (verbally and via website) and I know that they have been read at least twice by their own guys as I’ve had to stay at home to let them in. She eventually found them but they hadn’t been ‘actioned’ whatever that means, followed by yet another flurry of apologies 👿

They are now sending someone round on 18th Oct to confirm that I can actually read a serial number and I’ve told them that if the refund isn’t in my a/c by end of October I’ll be taking my custom elsewhere.

I’m going over to the neighbours today to check the serial numbers before I write something extremely uncomplimentary to Ofgem and to the geezer who was stupid enough to appear on Undercover Boss.

If you’re looking for an alternative, First Utility seem fine to me. I put my meter readings in thru the net, they email what they will charge, direct debit goes shortly after. Now and again a bloke turns up to read the meter. And I get discount for gas + leccy.

I’ll check on one of the cost comparison sites if they continue to balls it up and bear First Utility in mind. Cheers