Npower rant

I found British Gas were equally poor when it came to customer service. Move to Dalgas and so far absolutely problem free and cheaper.
 
I've been waiting for Scottish power to set me up since July, still waiting.... I'll put a complaint in next week, while they're keeping us in limbo I've no way of scouting around for the better deals and providers, disgrace of a company.
 
I was actually thinking of switching to NPower as I figured they'd have sorted their issues by now.

Unfortunately their fixed gas tariff seems to be the cheapest around. Compared to British Gas I'd save about £168.72 per year (with cashback) which is obviously worth it. The next best is Zog but I'd only be saving £91 with them.

Decisions..
 
Goodie said:
I've been waiting for Scottish power to set me up since July, still waiting.... I'll put a complaint in next week, while they're keeping us in limbo I've no way of scouting around for the better deals and providers, disgrace of a company.
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The last time I looked, I was ~£1050 in credit with Scottish Power. I've had messages saying that the DD amount will be reduced, but it isn't. No idea what's going on there and after waiting on hold for 48 minutes I gave up.

That's not the silliest thing, though. In March, I was £340 in credit so I asked for £240 back. OK, no problem. My Scottish Power account details online showed £340 in credit, £240 returned, balance -£140. It actually had on the screen that 340-240 = -140. How can a large company have a computerised system for billing that's set up to get simple maths wrong? Don't they check even the most basic stuff? After escalating to level 3 customer support (the people in the 1st two levels didn't understand me, picked out random words and provided an answer to two different questions - no surprises there) and supplying multiple screenshots with big red rings and explanatory text added to show and explain the problem, I got a reply saying that Scottish Power knew there was a problem and had didn't know how to fix it. Seriously, they really said that. The problem still exists. The balance apparently shows correctly at Scottish Power, but only on their internal system. The website, i.e. what customers can see, shows the wrong balance.
 
matdom said:
lol why do you have a direct debt, i have opened another account and each month i transfer money to it when the bill comes i pay in in full, none of this direct debt crap. Never had any problems.
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Because you get big discounts for being on direct debit.

Pho said:
I was actually thinking of switching to NPower as I figured they'd have sorted their issues by now.

Unfortunately their fixed gas tariff seems to be the cheapest around. Compared to British Gas I'd save about £168.72 per year (with cashback) which is obviously worth it. The next best is Zog but I'd only be saving £91 with them.

Decisions..
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We have sorted our problems out, its just old/recent customers are feeling the pains of system updating, new customers have little to no issues.

To be fair though 98% of customers don't have any issues, same as the other "big 6" just a very vocal minority, shout about it and with the media and news lately its gotten blown out of proportion from what it truly is.
Most of the "issues" are either:

1. DD's not working correctly due to some error
2. On a complex meter (Economy 10, 4 meter readings), we can't bill those properly, system doesn't support it anymore, and non of the big 6 do them anymore because of this reason.
3. Customers credit (money) stuck in account unable to refund because of some error
4. MFDD's changing drastically (its all explained on the bill why its happened) but people don't read it and just complain. Sometimes its unjustified but its rare.
5. Switch over to npower/another company. With this its both npower and the other company, so dont just blame npower for it. If you are in debt with npower and trying to switch, nope you can't do it. If you are trying to switch to npower and its not happening, its an issue with your other provider not LETTING US take it, not our issue.

And a few other problems.
Again, the issues only effect a small percentage, EXACTLY like every single other energy company.
 
Ditto move away from them, i have and theres been nothing but trouble with online bills dispite a year of phone calls. Sent me a debt collection letter from their fake company so i decided enough was enough. My move should be complete around 5th Jan.
 
Can sympathise entirely. British gas were a special kind of useless when I dealt with them recently. They've referred me to a debt collectors twice despite confirming that I don't and have never owed them a penny since I've never been a customer of theirs...morons.
 
I've never had any problems with British Gas for gas or electricity. They bill based on accurate submitted readings. I pay on my credit card so never a hassle with wrong direct debits and collect air points from paying with my credit card and nectar points too. All good.
 
MatsyLR said:
We have sorted our problems out, its just old/recent customers are feeling the pains of system updating, new customers have little to no issues.

To be fair though 98% of customers don't have any issues, same as the other "big 6" just a very vocal minority, shout about it and with the media and news lately its gotten blown out of proportion from what it truly is.
Most of the "issues" are either:

1. DD's not working correctly due to some error
2. On a complex meter (Economy 10, 4 meter readings), we can't bill those properly, system doesn't support it anymore, and non of the big 6 do them anymore because of this reason.
3. Customers credit (money) stuck in account unable to refund because of some error
4. MFDD's changing drastically (its all explained on the bill why its happened) but people don't read it and just complain. Sometimes its unjustified but its rare.
5. Switch over to npower/another company. With this its both npower and the other company, so dont just blame npower for it. If you are in debt with npower and trying to switch, nope you can't do it. If you are trying to switch to npower and its not happening, its an issue with your other provider not LETTING US take it, not our issue.

And a few other problems.
Again, the issues only effect a small percentage, EXACTLY like every single other energy company.
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Cool, thanks for the heads up, a lot of those sound like pretty non-issues to me. I'll have another look in a week or two to see about switching then. :)

I don't even use that much gas (probably around 7,000 kWh/year after averaging a few readings over the course of a few days). I have mostly avoided the central heating so far this year too :eek: so I'm surprised how much cheaper it works out switching still.
 
Npower are woefully incompetent. Was owed £100 with them for over a year, people kept telling me it would be sorted but it never seemed to happen. Eventaully got through to a different person who totally understood my problem despite it being relatively simple and was baffled the 5+ people I'd spoken to before could not work it out. Morons.
 
2. On a complex meter (Economy 10, 4 meter readings), we can't bill those properly, system doesn't support it anymore, and non of the big 6 do them anymore because of this reason.

I feel the pain of this.
 
Terminal_Boy said:
Npower are an utter shower. Horribly inaccurate estimates and rubbish CS.

Moved to EdF who, so far, have proved far easier to deal with so far.
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Give readings like you are supposed to and you wont get estimates.
I have to deal with "YOUR ESTIMATES ARE TOO HIGH!" daily, it gets old quickly, give readings and you wont have that problem, simple.
Most the "issues" people have are caused by themselves being lazy.
Its estimated higher than it should be to keep you out of debt and then complaining about it later, blaming us. If you get a high bill on estimates, just give a reading and it can be updated on the phone straight away.

I also have to deal with multiple of these per day, it gets the point I where we have a room we go to chill for a few mins after a stressful call:

Me : "Hi how can I help today?
Cust: "I GOT A LETTER SAYING I OW MONEY TO YOU? WHY?"
Me : "erm....ok, you have to pay your bills"
Cust: "BUT ITS ON ESTIMATES ITS NOT RIGHT ITS TOO HIGH"
Me : "well you havn't given any readings for over a year now"
Cust: "WELL THATS NOT MY FAULT YOUR ESTIMATES ARE TOO HIGH"
Me : "You dont understand do you? You have to read your meter to have accurate bills"
Cust: "YOU SHOULD READ MY METER FOR ME ITS NOT MY FAULT"
Me : "you are responsible for reading your meter, not us"
Cust : "SO WHAT, I AM NOT PAYING THIS
Me : "If you have correct readings from today I can re-bill you"
Cust "OK MY READNGS FROM TODAY ARE xxx xxx"
Me : "Ok I've re-billed you, those readings are higher than our estimates, so the bill is more"
Cust "#£$% you THATS CANT BE RIGHT"
Me: "Well...these are your readings"
Cust "I WANT TO SPEAK TO YOUR MANAGER RIGHT NOW!!!!! *foaming at mouth*
ME : "Why? I've told you, your bill, it is correct you will get a copy within 10 days"
Cust "PUT MY ONTO YOUR MANAGER NOW YOU ARE INCOMPETENT"
Me: "I repeat why, what I have told you is correct"
Cust "BECAUSE YOU ARE WRONG"
Me: "No I'm not. You can speak to a manager if you want, but they will say the same thing"
Cust "I DONT CARE PUT THEM ON
Me: "Ok I'll go get a manager for you, please hold for a few minites"
*5min later*
Manager: "Hello"
Cust "OMG I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOREVER ON HOLD WHAT HAS BEEN TAKING SO LONG????????!!"
Manager: "You have been waiting 5min while the adviser explained the situation to me..."
Cust: "I DONT CARE FIX IT MY BILL IS WRONG THIS #£$% IS SAYING LIES ABOUT HOW MUCH IT IS"
Manager: "I have checked, and it is correct"
Cust "YOU ARE A BUNCH OF CON ARTISTS I'M REPORTING YOU TO WATCHDOG or insert some other first party threat thing here"
Manager: "Thats fine, we are not changing the bill, its correct"
Cust "@£$% you" *hangs up*

That ladies and gents, happens multiple times a day to every single adviser in my department. That is also where a majority of the "complaints" come from. They are not legit complaints just people complaining about bills.

How about that? a rant within a rant thread! :D
 
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the difference between your company and my company is I would never make fun of genuine customer concerns. I essentially do your job for a much better company. I believe 100% in treating that customer with repect and understanding at a stressful time. Just because you understand bills and usage does not mean you can assume your customers do. There is something deeply ingrained in npower that is not right. You have not been trained properly to deal with customers in need.
 
If that's how you are taught to deal with customers I'm not surprised everyone complains and asks to speak to a manager.

You would think, if that many of those calls are received each day, someone would step back and work out the common factor. All of those independent customers getting irate on the phone; the common theme is the service provider.

How many other energy companies have been named in this thread alone as all being better? I can't wait to get away from npower because they haven't a clue what they are doing. I'm certain they have good individuals, but that's fluke.
 
Also, as experienced by many people in this thread, giving meter readings is far from a surefire way to get the crock that is npower's billing system to generate accurate bills.

I can't wait until we move away from this estimated nonsense and have smart meters across the board. npower will still screw up though and assign the wrong meter to people's accounts.
 
MatsyLR said:
Give readings like you are supposed to and you wont get estimates.
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Didn't work that way for us during the 2 years that Npower where the cheapest provider.

Readings provided as scheduled and our bills were incorrect almost every quarter with our being constantly charged against the wrong tarrif.
 
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