Backdated energy bill?

So…

Left the uk a year ago, roughly. Had previously been in a flat with npower supplying ‘leccy only. The entire time we were there we provided meter readings from the dual rate meter every few months, either online or by phone. I am not sure how i decided which reading was which, i think we followed-on from the first readings on the system. Certainly it was accepted, and we continued to provide readings regularly.

Before we left, we rang ahead to check how to end the contract, the advice was to call the day we left and give a last reading, which we did. This triggered a £20 refund a month or so later (there were a couple of estimated bills generated).

Now, a year later i receive a £350 backdated bill! Apparantly, over the last 6 months or so there has been an investigation, and they have concluded the figures were entered incorrectly and therefore for the whole time and now they want to charge us to make up.

The thing is, i dont believe them. The figures followed on from the previous readings, they never questioned them, there is no actual way to check which figure (R1/2) is which tariff (the woman on the phone got it wrong herself several times). I also haven’t been given any notice of the investigation, chance to see for myself any proof of which rate is used at which time or…well anything that makes me think i should suddenly pay them all this money. For all i know it’s something from the new tenants.

They have also taken all the other readings, which appear (contrary to what we thought, and discussed several times) now show we were clearly on the wrong tariff, as we are now told we were using more power in the day than the night, dispite being on dual rate explicitly as we ran all appliances, hot water etc at “night”. Again, if our readings were the wrong way around, i find this troubling as the figure i used for ” night” always climbed *much* faster than the “day” reading.

Apparantly this is due today, and the first warning was the bill via email, and then i called for clarification….

Last info – i have video or photo evidence of most readings, including a video of the last one when we left.

Whut do, STW?

They can’t back bill for anything over 12 months old. If this is the case tell them to do one!

Have a read here https://www.uswitch.com/gas-electricity/guides/energy-back-billing/

Its about 11 months :/

Seems really vague, I wouldn’t pay that without having a full explanation of why I owe that amount, which seems a hell of a lot. Maybe its the new tenants who have them the wrong way around. R1 is usually normal / day rate

Yeah, that’s how i was doing it. Now told that day R2 is day…. I don’t understand what is not really really clear which is which!

It is nPower.

Expect nothing but lies, broken promises, disorganisation and incompetence for the next couple of years. Nothing will bear any resemblence to what actually happened or reading you gave – in fact if they do not like your readings, they actively change them to estimated (much higher, of course).
It will only be resolved when ofgem get involved – and even then they keep trying it on….

Sorry, but that is my experience of nPower.

E7 here, our top meter is night/low rate and lower meter is day/normal rate, an arrow points to which rate is currently in use. Even during the winter, when we have our electric guzzling storage heaters in use, the night rate is no more than ~50% of our total consumption.

If there was an issue with your provided readings, it should have been obvious at npower right from the start if the previous home occupier used them too.

Did you ever have a reading done by someone paid to read meters on their behalf during your stay at the home?

Yes. The landlord, but we just got the figures, not the meaning.

Edit – you mean an employee of npower. No.

Just send them the video – if that’s your last day it’s incontrovertible evidence. End of?

The video shows only R1 and R2, not which is which.

Are you with that supplier now,if not tell em to go away politely or charge the new tenant for their power n not send you the bill.

No, I live in NL now 😀 Different supplier.

The video shows only R1 and R2, not which is which.

Even if it’s wrong, I’d be tempted to tell them to shove it. It’s their mistake and your usage was based on their erroneous information.

Its about 11 months :/

So… unless I’m misunderstanding this “12 months” limitation, assuming they can legally back-bill in this case it’d only be for the other month and not for the entire duration of the billing?

MissStripes agrees with you Cougar.

We have notified them of our intention to dispute it, and emailed them exactly why.

Thanks for the advice so far.

…not that they have even replied :/

Hmmm.

No, I live in NL now Different supplier.

So it wont be a big deal if they turn the power off will it?
Anyway I’d be inclined to tell them the account has been terminated.

The problem is credit history etc – just because we’ve heard nothing from the customer service arm doesn’t mean the other arm isn’t holding the rogering stick. Hmmm.

Newspaper consumer columns seem to have some success solving these issues, if you have no joy sorting it yourself.

Do some googling re: Npower and their utter incompetence regarding randomly generated backdated bills.

Argue backbilling and complain formally straight away, then -> ombudsman in 8 weeks.

You will get the run around otherwise*, their systems are awful and some staff no better.

*you will get the run around anyway, just for less time.

@gofasterstripes

RE: credit history. It’s worth checking your report with Noddle etc, not all utilities record on CRAs, few do. If it’s not there, then nothing will ever turn up there unless it goes to court.

I’ve been in a similar situation with other suppliers, and years ago worked for British Gas dealing with house moves usually what happens is:
Customer 1 (you) leaves.
LL take possession of their property, something get left on – heating in an electricity only flat is expensive in my experience for several months.
Customer 2 (new tenant) moves in gives meter reading to supplier which is obviously higher than the one you gave.
Bill for intervening period gets sent to LL, they NEVER want to pay them “No, no no, everything was off, I didn’t use anything, I wasn’t living there, tenant did a runner, blah blah blah”
So someone in the call centre adjusts the reading on your last bill because they want paying either way – customer 1 gets a big bill, argues, they shift it back and forth between LL, Customer 1 and Customer 2 until either someone pays (usually customer 2 as it only adds a few £ to their monthly cost). It’s not always the LL, sometimes customer 2 doesn’t fess up to moving in for 6-12 months until they threaten to cut them off and then have a little panic when they see the bill and try it on.

Energy suppliers used to suck up big losses to unpaid “to the occupier” bills in the past, but they won’t doing it willingly anymore, I suggest you send them the photos / videos, tell them you consider your account closed and they’ll shift the balance to someone else until it finds the right home or someone gets so pissed off they pay it.

Thanks guys 🙂

I will write to the ombudsman and let you know if I hear anything interesting 🙂

NL? North London, North Lanarkshire, Noddy Land?

Schmoke and a pancake?

[One of these is not actually that popular here, and [hint] it’s not the pannenkoeken]

The Energy Ombudsman sorted it in a couple of days. They had no proof that the bill was for us, or that it was actually an error in the figures. Thus – nothing to pay.

Thanks STW.

Result! 😀

Big result. And another reason why no-one should ever use the lying, disorganised waste of space that is nPower.