My Ongoing Battle With Npower, who do i turn to now? Options

[suzie]

This is how it goes: me and my partner moved to a new town in 2005 and found a small flat to rent. The flat had 2 pre-payment meters - one for gas and one for electricity. Both utilities were provided by npower. We've been paying all our bills on time. In February 2007 we bought our own house and on 2 April 2007 moved out of our rented property and moved into our own house. The same day I contacted npower to ask them to become our utility providers at our new property. Soon after we received our final npower bill for the rented property and a new bill for the new property. All was fine until about two months ago. First we received npower bill demanding £110 in respect of the gas used between April 2007 and September 2008 at our former rented property (we have not lived there during that period!). I rang pre-payment department and was told on the phone that we had no amount outstanding on our account. Few weeks later we received a letter from buchananclark with money demands and more recently from scottcall. Everytime i ring npower, they cannot find the bill relating to outstanding amount, but keep hassling us via more written demands! I am concerned that one of those two agencies will try to sue us for the amount we dont owe!!! What should we do? Sorry for such a long and perhaps not very interesting post, but i'm at the end of my tether and would appreciate your advice.

[cat]

This is how it goes: me and my partner moved to a new town in 2005 and found a small flat to rent. The flat had 2 pre-payment meters - one for gas and one for electricity. Both utilities were provided by npower. We've been paying all our bills on time. In February 2007 we bought our own house and on 2 April 2007 moved out of our rented property and moved into our own house. The same day I contacted npower to ask them to become our utility providers at our new property. Soon after we received our final npower bill for the rented property and a new bill for the new property. All was fine until about two months ago. First we received npower bill demanding £110 in respect of the gas used between April 2007 and September 2008 at our former rented property (we have not lived there during that period!). I rang pre-payment department and was told on the phone that we had no amount outstanding on our account. Few weeks later we received a letter from buchananclark with money demands and more recently from scottcall. Everytime i ring npower, they cannot find the bill relating to outstanding amount, but keep hassling us via more written demands! I am concerned that one of those two agencies will try to sue us for the amount we dont owe!!! What should we do? Sorry for such a long and perhaps not very interesting post, but i'm at the end of my tether and would appreciate your advice.

Hi Suzie
I can imagine how frustrating that can be, especially if you don’t owe them anything. Did you try to speak to these collectors? Surely if npower doesn’t have any record of your debt, why would they contact debt collectors? There must be some misunderstanding. Did you try to request a written confirmation from npower, that you don’t owe them any money? I would photocopy the bill and send it by recorded delivery to npower demanding explanation and also stating that: you did not live at the property at the time, it was a prepaid meter and that you were advised over the phone on such and such date that your account is up to date. I would not rely on telephone conversation as you can’t attach it to your file.

[harry stoughchra...]

What a carry on! Hope you can sort this out, suzie, sooner rather than later. cat's right in a way that, unfortunately, one can no longer rely on a spoken statement. You really need to insist on written confirmation that you don't owe them anything. The explanation may be quite simple: there was an outstanding debt before you moved in or after you moved out. npower, not being able to find the tenant responsible, decided to sue yourselves as they had your new address on their system. Good luck!

[suzie]

Hi again! buchananclark as well as scotcall have been pretty unco-operative. they've been instructed by npower to recover the debt fo £110 and that's what they are pursuing. the whole experience has totally shaken me! me and my partner work full time and find it difficult to ring round various npower department during the day. it's disgusting that you cannot rely on someone's word and have to always ask for their name and ask to confirm everything in writing. i get so stressed on the phone, that i often forget to ask the person's name. for me it was enough that the npower person i was speaking to, having checked the info, told me i didnt owe anything. oh, yeah, forgot to mention that we did send our final bill for the rented property and our first bill for the new property, council tax demands, completion statements clearly showing that we moved out on 2 april 2007. we could not find our pre-payment cards, but definitely did not leave them at our old property. i'm gonna speak to them again and request all the info to be confirmed in writing. will let you know of the progress.

[cat]

I would not even bother talking to them again. Communicate in writing and preferably send all your letters by recorded post, so you will have a proof should you need to take things any further. Good luck!

[frekenBok]

utility companies occasionally try to transfer previous occupiers debts onto the the new occupiers. Few years back i moved into a property in the north of england. All the utility companies were duly notified of the date, etc. For the first couple of months after i moved in yorkshire water used to send reminders to Mr So and So for the x amont of pounds. Then they had a cheek to send the same reminder in my name!!! Thankfully, one phone call was enough for them to stop. Don't give up suzie!

[suzie]

Cheers for all your advice! My partner spoke to them last Friday. Customer service department could not see any outstanding bills on our account. Pre-payment department could not find any reference either. Their explanation - once the debt is passed to the debt recovery firm, all the outstanding amounts are archived and dont show on the system?! Anyway, they agreed to pass our enquiry to their specialists team and to notify debt recovery agents to stop harrassing us. It would take them 28 working days! to investigate. They also agreed to confirm all the above in writing. Nothing in the post this morning and somehow i dont trust them anymore. We are seriously considering switching our provider...

[Mary Poppins]

Citizens Advice Bureau may be able to help and contact npower on your behalf if your problem does not get resolved soon.

[cat]

Hi Suzie
I just thought, did you try speaking to trading standards office, they should be able to help or otherwise Citizens Advice Bureau as Mary Poppins suggested.

[tellmemore...]

How is it going Suzie? Any developments on your 'electric' story? Problems with utility companies occur quite frequently and it useful to know how best to deal with these, what works, what doesn't...

[suzie]

Still waiting, I'm afraid but have not received any letters, so there is some progress at least! Thinking of going to CAB or a similar organisation as they might be able to put more pressure on those guys. Will keep you posted!

[Lisa]

Hope, your problem gets resolved soon! It's just sooo annoying that we often need third party's intervention for the respondent to to sort the problem out.

[suzie]

Am still waiting, but perhaps no news is a good news as we've received no reminders since then.

[suzie]

Yesterday decided to give them one last chance before taking them to the cleaners!!! As usual, was put through lots of diff dept and finally spoke to a guy from the debt-collectors (or smth) team. Apparently, as soon as they rec'd docs as per my first post above, they checked everything and put a note on their system that we do not owe them anything. Then some 'bright spark' from one of the depatments put a note that council tax demand was not sufficient evidence. As a consequence our a/c became active again and demand letters followed!!!! Finally, after months of telephone calls,letters and hundreds of grey hair (maybe not ), i was re-assured that there is no further action to be taken by npower. They agreed, of course, to confirm this in writing (yeah right, this sounds familiar). Should i be now considering an action against them, kind of injury to feeling compensation for the stress they have caused?

[IvoLets]

Hey, finally! So glad for you, suzie and hope they do confirm it in writing (just in case ). On the subject of claims, time and effort involved in the procedure may not be worth the effort...

[frekenBok]

You know what i'do? Change the provider if you are still with them that is and would write to them why? For their "excellent" customer service skills, of course.

[Lisa]

I'd do the same, frekenBok.

[harry stoughchra...]

Good to know its finally over, suzie!