NPower are totally USELESS !!!

[Gemby]

I have had a long on-going battle with NPower over a meter change from commercial to residential.
I wont bore you with the details but part of my complaint was being dealt with by NPower residential. After several months they eventually resolved the issues.
When I asked for compensation for my time and troubles, I was told the most they could offer was £50.
In desperation to end matters I agreed to their offer and was told that I would receive a cheque within 15 days.
That was over two months ago now!!!
I have contacted the complaints department on several occasions chasing for this cheque, only to be given more excuses each time.
Today I requested their final response letter, telling them that I intend to take this matter to the ombudsman. NPower then told me that as the old complaint had been closed down, I would have to open up a new complaint and then wait 56 days before I could take it to the ombudsman.
I kind of blew my top at this.
They are telling me that as I had accepted their offer of £50, that they have closed the complaint and they cannot re-open it. (Even though I have never received the cheque they promised and I consider it still on-going)

I am just wondering, is there anything stopping me from sending NPower an invoice for my time and trouble?
I'm sure they would refuse to pay the invoice, but then I could put them in small claims court for a £25 fee.
Chances are they would just pay the invoice than have the hassle of court proceedings.

Does anyone have any experience with this??

Gemby

[Miss Muddled]

Re: NPower are totally USELESS !!!

Hi Gemby

We had problems with npower since october last year on snd off to complaints dept. Eventually got reslly fed up being passed pillar to post. Last month (March 2014) we sent an email to their CEO sorry cant remember his name but can find it for you.

Snyway approx 1week after sending email to CEO we hot things resolved also credited our account with £240 then few days later they sent me the biggest bouquet of flowers i have every seen.

Just a thought might help to contact him i found his email address in google but if you want it i can find it for you.

Good luck....

[pompeyfaith]

Re: NPower are totally USELESS !!!

NPower
Mr Paul Massara	Chief Executive
Email	paul.massara@rwenpower.com
Telephone	01793 877777
Fax	01793 892525
Website	http://www.npower.com
Social Media
Address	SN5 6PB
Company Number	03653277

http://www.ceoemail.com/s.php?id=9563

[Gemby]

Re: NPower are totally USELESS !!!

Thanks Miss Muddled, it doesn't surprise me that I am the only one facing problems with Npower.
Thanks for the info Pompeyfaith.

I have got the complaints department sending me a letter explaining their side of the story. When I get this I think I will email the CEO and explain what a farce his complaints department really are. I will then include an invoice for my time and trouble and see what happens.

I wonder how much the CEO earns an hour? Perhaps I should charge the same hourly rate for my time!!

[Miss Muddled]

Re: NPower are totally USELESS !!!

NPower
Mr Paul Massara	Chief Executive
Email	paul.massara@rwenpower.com
Telephone	01793 877777
Fax	01793 892525
Website	http://www.npower.com
Social Media
Address	SN5 6PB
Company Number	03653277

http://www.ceoemail.com/s.php?id=9563

Thanks Pompeyfaith for finding info for Genmby.

Thanks Miss Muddled, it doesn't surprise me that I am the only one facing problems with Npower.
Thanks for the info Pompeyfaith.

I have got the complaints department sending me a letter explaining their side of the story. When I get this I think I will email the CEO and explain what a farce his complaints department really are. I will then include an invoice for my time and trouble and see what happens.

I wonder how much the CEO earns an hour? Perhaps I should charge the same hourly rate for my time!!

Good Luck, Let us know how you get on.

[Gemby]

Re: NPower are totally USELESS !!!

I have received an email explanation from npower regarding my complaint. They have admitted failings in their processes.

Does anybody know how much npower would pay to the ombudsman if the complaint went through them??

[pompeyfaith]

Re: NPower are totally USELESS !!!

I have received an email explanation from npower regarding my complaint. They have admitted failings in their processes.

Does anybody know how much npower would pay to the ombudsman if the complaint went through them??

So what have they said they will do to put these failings right?

[Gemby]

Re: NPower are totally USELESS !!!

They have offered me an additional £20 on top of the £50 they offered me two months ago that never materialised.

For the hassle I've been through and the stress it has caused I really think £70 is a slap in the face

[SA Gold]

Re: NPower are totally USELESS !!!

I have had a long on-going battle with NPower over a meter change from commercial to residential.
I wont bore you with the details but part of my complaint was being dealt with by NPower residential.

Hi Gemby,
Do you mind boring me with the details? I would be interested to hear what happened here.
Thanks

[TibetanMonk]

Re: NPower are totally USELESS !!!

They have offered me an additional £20 on top of the £50 they offered me two months ago that never materialised.

For the hassle I've been through and the stress it has caused I really think £70 is a slap in the face

Highly recommend complaining to the CEO. £70 is a slap in the face. I got more than that when I complained to my bank regarding a customer service issue.

[Miss Muddled]

Re: NPower are totally USELESS !!!

They have offered me an additional £20 on top of the £50 they offered me two months ago that never materialised.

For the hassle I've been through and the stress it has caused I really think £70 is a slap in the face

Hi Genby

Read your post #2 they gave me £240 which I just credited to my account and a huge bouquet of flowers. I would defo hold out for more.

Mind you that was after I contacted thier CEO before that they offered me £20.

[Gemby]

Re: NPower are totally USELESS !!!

Hi Gemby,
Do you mind boring me with the details? I would be interested to hear what happened here.
Thanks

OK you asked for it,

Going back last year I converted a commercial office into two residential flats for a family member. The electrical wiring was all replaced and a new meter fitted for the second flat.
I had tenant's moving in on 1st February 2013 and so called npower to get the billing changed from business to residential and to get the tenants registered as the bill payers. I was told at this point that it would take in the region of 10 weeks for the change of tariff. At this point I elected to keep the account in my name so that I could monitor the progress.
The original meter turned out to be faulty. It was not recording night units and was recording day units at an alarming rate.
The account transferred from business to residential on 8th July 2013 and a new meter was fitted on 23rd July 2013.
The tenants moved out at the end of August having not paid any electricity or knowing how much was owed.
Npower business have since come back to me with bills for the tenants based on faulty meter reads. We have negotiated at length and they agreed to half the bills as a good will gesture. I believed this to still be too much based on the new tenants usage.
This part of the complaint is now being dealt with by the old tenant so not sure of the outcome.

The new complaint continues with npower residential.
I had a new tenant move in, in September 2013. Not long after she moved in she tried to change electricity suppliers only to be told that the meter was still on a business tariff. I contacted npower and was told that there was a problem with the transfer from Bus to Res and that npower would look into it. When I had no real response I opened a complaint to get things moving. This was opened on 22 November.
I will try and attach npowers letter of explanation to update you with what has gone on since.

[Gemby]

Re: NPower are totally USELESS !!!

You asked us to look into your npower account

I am writing to you as requested when we spoke on 17 April 2014 to provide you with a summary of what has happened with your complaint to date. Your complaint reference is ######## and was raised on 22 November 2013. The complaint was opened as the supply had been transferred from business to domestic supply and the meter profile within our system was set incorrectly which was preventing you from changing supply. The second part of your complaint related to the tenant at the property and that the change of occupant needed to be completed and then for yourself to be contacted to confirm that this had been resolved.

You then contacted us again on 06 January 2014 as you had not received any updates regarding the current status of your complaint. This was then passed to a Team Manager in our Complaints Team to escalate further. On 08 January 2014 all flows were sent to the Electricity distributor to update the profile class of your meter on the national database. On 17 January 2014 the profile class had still not been updated, the situation was being monitored by one of our complaints advisors who then contacted the national database direct to query why this had not been updated. The national database had not received any information through as it appears there was a gateway issue, we were then advised to resend the information. Again on 27 January 2014 this was queried with the national database and again they stated no information had been received, we then investigated this internally to see if there were any issues with the flow process that is used to transfer data. On 03 February 2014 we had further contact with the national databse regarding the issues encountered and they then agreed to receive the information via email which was then sent by one of our team. On 06 February 2014 the change of occupancy was requested to setup the account for the tenant at the property. System issues prevented us from being able to setup the account straight away and when you called us on 13 February 2014 we explained the issue that we were having and advised we will attempt to update as soon as possible.

We contacted you on 26 February 2014 as we were now able to bill your account and requested readings to confirm that the billing was correct. On 27 February 2014 we spoke to you and advised that we have been able to setup the account for the tenant and that due to the errors on setting up the account we agreed to only bill your tenant from 13 February 2014 but we still needed to confirm the up to date reads to ensure our billing is correct, you advised that you would obtain these reads

and then call us back which you did on 03 March 2014. We confirmed the account appeared to be billing correctly and agreed a £50 goodwill gesture to be sent to you directly as a cheque. Based on this information you agreed to close your complaint. When I spoke to you on 17 April 2014 you confirmed that the £50 goodwill gesture had in fact been sent direct to your tenant and not to yourself in the form of a cheque. I had agreed to also send you the £50 and as a gesture for this not being received by yourself, to add a further £20 bringing the total goodwill for yourself to £70 however as yet you have not agreed to accept this offer and instead requested that I send you a letter summarising how we have got to where we are today with your complaint. Also as previously mentioned we agreed to only bill you tenant from 13 February 2014 from a read of 6686 instead of billing them from 26 October 2013 on a read of 485 which is effectively a write off of 6201 units, which at the current unit price of 14.08p equates to a value of £873.10.

You have requested for the complaint to be reopened however as explained we are unable to do so as you have already agreed to the closure of the complaint as the issues relating to the incorrect profile class and change of tenancy were rectified. We have however agreed to open a new complaint for you in relation to you not receiving your goodwill gesture of £50 in a cheque as requested. We have offered to send £70 to you directly as well as your tenant already receiving the £50 and only being billed from 13 February 2014, but I would appreciate if you could confirm what you see as reasonable resolution to this complaint so that we can resolve this for you?

I trust that this letter covers the main summary of your complaint, and we look forward to hearing from you soon.


Yours sincerely

[Gemby]

Re: NPower are totally USELESS !!!

I then sent back the following

Check out the parts in brackets.


You asked us to look into your npower account

I am writing to you as requested when we spoke on 17 April 2014 to provide you with a summary of what has happened with your complaint to date. Your complaint reference is ####### and was raised on 22 November 2013. The complaint was opened as the supply had been transferred from business to domestic supply and the meter profile within our system was set incorrectly {Why was this set incorrectly? Who was responsible for doing this?} which was preventing you from changing supply. The second part of your complaint related to the tenant at the property and that the change of occupant needed to be completed and then for yourself to be contacted to confirm that this had been resolved.

You then contacted us again on 06 January 2014{No mention of the email sent to complaints@npower.com sent on 18 December 2013 which went unanswered} as you had not received any updates regarding the current status of your complaint. This was then passed to a Team Manager in our Complaints Team to escalate further. On 08 January 2014 all flows were sent to the Electricity distributor to update the profile class of your meter on the national database.{Why had this not been done on 22 November 2013? And why did it take me contacting you before any action was taken?} On 17 January 2014 the profile class had still not been updated, the situation was being monitored by one of our complaints advisors who then contacted the national database direct to query why this had not been updated. The national database had not received any information through as it appears there was a gateway issue, {What was the issue?} we were then advised to resend the information. {Do npower have any safeguards in place to notify of any technical issues?} Again on 27 January 2014 this was queried with the national database and again they stated no information had been received, we then investigated this internally to see if there were any issues with the flow process that is used to transfer data. {What was the outcome of this investigation?} On 03 February 2014 we had further contact with the national databse regarding the issues encountered and they then agreed to receive the information via email which was then sent by one of our team. {What were the issues? Why couldn’t the information have been emailed before?} On 06 February 2014 the change of occupancy was requested to setup the account for the tenant at the property. System issues prevented us from being able to setup the account straight away {What were these system issues?} and when you called us on 13 February 2014 {Why did it take me calling you back before I was told of this?} we explained the issue that we were having and advised we will attempt to update as soon as possible.

We contacted you on 26 February 2014 as we were now able to bill your account and requested readings to confirm that the billing was correct. On 27 February 2014 we spoke to you and advised that we have been able to setup the account for the tenant and that due to the errors on setting up the account we agreed to only bill your tenant from 13 February 2014 but we still needed to confirm the up to date reads to ensure our billing is correct, you advised that you would obtain these reads

and then call us back which you did on 03 March 2014. We confirmed the account appeared to be billing correctly and agreed a £50 goodwill gesture {I was told that £50 was the maximum amount you could offer.}to be sent to you directly as a cheque. Based on this information you agreed to close your complaint. When I spoke to you on 17 April 2014 {I had previously contacted npower of four separate occasions before this date} you confirmed that the £50 goodwill gesture had in fact been sent direct to your tenant and not to yourself in the form of a cheque. {I did not confirm this, you told me that it had been sent to my tenant} I had agreed to also send you the £50 and as a gesture for this not being received by yourself, to add a further £20 bringing the total goodwill for yourself to £70 however as yet you have not agreed to accept this offer and instead requested that I send you a letter summarising how we have got to where we are today with your complaint. Also as previously mentioned we agreed to only bill you tenant from 13 February 2014 from a read of 6686 instead of billing them from 26 October 2013 on a read of 485 which is effectively a write off of 6201 units, which at the current unit price of 14.08p equates to a value of £873.10. {My tenant is extremely grateful for this, however it is not my tenant that has had to endure 14 months of npower complaints departments}

You have requested for the complaint to be reopened however as explained we are unable to do so as you have already agreed to the closure of the complaint as the issues relating to the incorrect profile class and change of tenancy were rectified. {I agreed to close the complaint on the basis that I received a cheque for £50, as this has not been received I still consider the complaint to be ongoing} We have however agreed to open a new complaint for you in relation to you not receiving your goodwill gesture of £50 in a cheque as requested. We have offered to send £70 to you directly as well as your tenant already receiving the £50 {Please explain how the cheque ended up being sent to my tenant in the first place} and only being billed from 13 February 2014, but I would appreciate if you could confirm what you see as reasonable resolution to this complaint so that we can resolve this for you?

I trust that this letter covers the main summary of your complaint, and we look forward to hearing from you soon.


Yours sincerely

[Gemby]

Re: NPower are totally USELESS !!!

And yesterday I received this

Thank you for replying regarding this correspondence that we sent you. I have answered the questions you have raised below:



Why was this set incorrectly? Who was responsible for doing this? - Domestic and Business supplies have different meter profile numbers. As part of a transfer over from a business supply it is usually the responsibility of the transferring supplier to update with the correct profile number.



No mention of the email sent to complaints@npower.com sent on 18 December 2013 which went unanswered - Please accept our apologies that this went unanswered however I cant speak for why this went unanswered due to this being sent to the npower complaints mailbox, however I can confirm that this was not attached to your complaint.



Why had this not been done on 22 November 2013? And why did it take me contacting you before any action was taken? - Looking at your account it seems as though there was some debate as to if this was a metering or a change of supplier issue. However once the complaint was passed back to metering it remained in a queue until you had contacted us at the beginning of January to chase this up. I fully appreciate that this was a failure in service to you.



What was the issue? - Unfortunately the cause of this issue could not be identified, which is why in the end it was agreed that the details could be emailed over to the third party agent.



Do npower have any safeguards in place to notify of any technical issues? - There is no safeguarding in place as this related to a national database for which we have no control over.



What was the outcome of this investigation? - See answer to question 4



What were the issues? Why couldn't the information have been emailed before? - See answer to question 4 - the information could not be emailed over as the industry standard process is that information is sent between suppliers and third parties via dataflows so that the process is uniform across the industry. This was only agreed to after multiple failures and because a cause for the issue could not be found.



What were these system issues? - The issues were relating to a process from our homemoves area. The issues were preventing us from billing the account, however as to the specifics of the issue I would be unable to clarify this for you as in this case this had to be raised to a process expert. We were then advised when we were able to bill the account once the issues had been fixed.
Why did it take me calling you back before I was told of this? - I appreciate that you had not been updated regarding this issue and can only apologise for this. Regular updates should have been provided, such as when the issue with the profile number had been rectified.



I was told that £50 was the maximum amount you could offer. - This is correct depending on who you speak with. All advisors have a limit on the amount of money that can be offered. If you have a higher offer in mind this would need to be passed to a manager at a higher level to review and either approve or reject. Was this discussed on the call?



I had previously contacted npower of four separate occasions before this date - I can only apologise for the number of times you have had to call, were all of these calls relating to the refund you were expecting?



I did not confirm this, you told me that it had been sent to my tenant - My apologies I could not remember if it was yourself who notified us or vice versa.



My tenant is extremely grateful for this, however it is not my tenant that has had to endure 14 months of npower complaints departments - I appreciate that you have been contacting us which was the reason why you were originally offered £50 however as we know this did not go to you. My manager has agreed to send £70 to you instead as a good will gesture.



I agreed to close the complaint on the basis that I received a cheque for £50, so this has not been received I still consider the complaint to be ongoing - I can understand where you are coming from however the original complaint was raised to have the profile number updated and for your tenant to be moved in so that ultimately the supply could be transferred elsewhere. Both of these issues were rectified and you had acknowledged this and accepted £50 as a gesture of goodwill. We had not envisaged any issues with the £50 reaching you, which we have since discussed, however this is now a separate complaint as you were advised you would receive £50 which has not been the case. As myself and my manager Julie have advised we can open a new complaint about this issue and link it to your previous complaint if you agree to this? However we would be unable to reopen your old complaint as the resolution was agreed to and also it is not possible for us to do this in our complaints system.



Please explain how the cheque ended up being sent to my tenant in the first place - Looking at this issue closer it appears the cheque never actually went out however the account balance was reduced by £50 instead and this was deducted from the bill your tenant received. This is not what we wanted to happen and have agreed to accept our mistake with that and leave the account as is, and to also re-send you the £50 plus a further £20 on top as an apology.



I hope that this clarifies the questions you have raised, however please contact me should you have any further questions.