budge2:

Hmm... I fear this is a classic case of one person's word against another and the big guy is always going to be more convincing at saying no contact than the small guy at arguing the reverse.

For reasons unknown they appear to be arguing you never closed the account....

What to do? First of all obtain the NPower code of practice on complaints. If you feel you have a grievance make a complaint strictly in accordance with the procedure. They then have 8 weeks to resolve the issue to your satisfaction, failing which you are then free to ask the Energy Ombudsman to investigate the issue.

In cases like this I would always advise making a £10 Subject Access Request to obtain all the records NPower hold on you, including previous bills, correspondence, call logs and call recordings within the recording data retention period. While it is possible that the information will not demonstrate records of any contact with you it will show what NPower are basing their actions on, and just possibly they may shoot themselves in the foot.

Hello.

I have recently had a problem with NPower over an overdue payment from September 2008. Firstly, after trying to charge me over 1700 a year for a city centre 1 bed roomed flat, me and my girlfriend moved out, still owing approximately £800. I rang NPower to close the account, give a forwarding address and more importantly to pay £200 of the monies owed and to set up a direct debit for £100 a month for a further 6 months to pay the outstanding balance off.

Now, fast forward to the 23rd of December 2009 and my parents received a letter from NPower stating that I owed them £1600 and I had 1 week to pay or the bailiffs would be round. I was also charged for the admin fee for them coming to find me (even though this was the forwarding address that I had originally given). I rang them and told them that I had left the property in Sept 2008 and that I had set up a direct debit to pay off all the money owing. After going back and too, and proving to NPower when I’d moved out of the flat, I was told that I still owed £800+.

I, for one, could not believe that I still owed them money, so I spoke to a friend that works in my bank, and we have subsequently found that NPower had never started to take the £100 a month Direct Debit that was set up (this was probably not done when they decided not to close my account, and not to change my billing forwarding address). I would like to take this matter further with them but have no idea in how to do it, what to say and even who to speak to (I refuse to talk to the customer service agents!)

Any help would be appreciated!