Npower Ripping us off!

Artemic

Artemic

Artemic

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Joined
22 Jan 2004
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836
Location
Suffolk
Got a quick question for the vast experiance of the forums to help with! :D

Back in June 2006 we moved out of our old house. We did the usual of sending our meter readings to Npower, to let them know how much we owed them. It turned out we were in credit on our final bill, so they sent the extra money to us. All was fine and dandy!

Fast forward to the weekend, We got a letter put through our door by the new owners of the house from nPower.. slightly confused we opened it up. after having a read of the letter it seems that the new occupiers have JUST disputed the meter readings that we gave, but not by a small amount.

As this was so long ago from when we believed the account was closed we burned the old paperwork :(

but the new bill basically reads that

Jul - Nov 05 = 48 units used (actual reading)
Nov - Jan 06 = 27 units used (estimated reading)
Jan - April 06 = 10 units used (Estimated Reading)
April - June 06 = 905 units used!!!!!

Apparrently the new owners are stating that we misread the meter as 100 not 1000!! nPower have now reopened our account and have charged us £230+ 18 months after we moved out of the property.

I spoke to npower on the phone today, but as far as they can see we owe the money :eek:

Do we have a legal standpoint? Surely the new owners would have complianed before now... Im really wound up by this, so any sort of advice/reccomendation would be greatly appreciated.
 
It's very hard to prove without any previous bills showing rough usage.

In future, keep all paperwork for as long as you can :)

I scan my stuff before it's shredded :)

Burnsy
 
Did the landlord not take readings? when we moved from our old flat i took the readings and got him to sign it, we both took copys.
 
My last 13 quarterly bills have averaged around 1000 units (and we use less than average electric), so I fail to see how you could possibly be using so little electric. Are you sure that is right ? And how is 1000 units insane exactly?

Unless you were out a lot or away on hols. I can't honestly see how you could use 10 units from Jan - April (the coldest darkest months of the year)...... Leccy costs 10.25p a unit here, so it would be a little over £1 for your leccy bill in the first 3 months of the year. My March bill was £154.

And funnily enough, many people do read the meter wrong, forgetting the last digit is the point (with some even taking it to 2 decimal places)
 
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I was thinking that, about the only way to use 10 units of leccy over 3 months would be to just have a mobile phone charger or doorbell plugged in (you're averaging about 333.3 watts a day - about 14 watts continuously).
 
All I'll say is that the "Money Saving Expert" was on Radio 2 a week or two ago, and he commented on the price rise with the other gas company. He said, don't move companies because within a few months time, they'll all bump up their price, and eventually you'll be out with a better price in the end...
 
I've just spoken to my partner who works for billing query department for Scottish Gas.

I take it this is leccy?

If so, those estimated units would have been miles off. I live in a small house, and we use 10-15 units a day which I am told is the national average.

900+ after two estimated readings from your first low one does not suprise me.

You may well end up actually owing.
 
Sorry should have been a little more accurate, this isnt electric, its Gas.

For info we only had gas heating and had it on first thing in the morning for about half an hour and about 2 hours in the evening, about 5 days a week over the winter and barely during the summer.

As for a unit, that would be cubic meter. Therefore 1000 cubic meters of gas in a month and a half seems pretty insane to me :D
 
Thats not one month, but over nearly years.

The two readings before were estimates. Just that, made up, guess work, a random thought etc you get the idea.

If you want to pay for what you use you need to give up to date meter readings, every so often (three months she is saying). You eventially gave them your final reading before you left, so ignoring the two made up readings, it was worked out from your first reading before the estimates to the reading you gave as you left.
 
Biohazard said:
Thats not one month, but over nearly years.
Click to expand...

so is 1000 units in a year an normal average for people to use?

The actual reading for the 4 month period july - november was only 48 units. so times that by 4 and thats not 1000, ok so add a bit more maybe 3 times the amount for the winter period , thats still only 300 ish not the 1000 they are quoting.

Surely as the account was closed for over a year, we shouldnt be liable for anthing anymore, it should have all be sorted back then?!
 
You will not be liable for anything after the date you gave them your final reading.

I assume you have paper work to that accord; ie proof you moved away.

I have no idea how many units is average, neither does the partner as she does electricity and we have no gas in our street. You are also working things out on a couple of months during the summer. You will use hardly any gas compaired to a cold winter, and it is also very much dependent on your appliances.

Can you tell me the financial value to this, ie how much are they chasing? Just to see if the value would make sense for a year, as units do not.

How large is your house for example?
 
Gas

The information shown is the average kilowatt hour gas consumption of customers who have used this service.
Number of bedrooms at your property Avg. gas consumption (kWh)
1 10,000
2 15,000
3 25,000
4 29,000
5 or more

Add 2500 kWh per room
Electricity

The information shown is the average kilowatt hour electricity consumption of customers who have used this service.
Number of bedrooms at your property Avg. electricity consumption (kWh)
1 2,500
2 4,000
3 5,500
4 6,000
5 or more

Add 250 kWh per room
Click to expand...

Looks like you underpaid by a mile.
 
Tefal said:
but he says the units are cubic meters of gas not kwh.
Click to expand...

ah, whats that work out at?
a quick google says you need to multiply cubic meters by approximately 31.3 to get kwh.
So 900 units for 3 months is way way to much..
 
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