There is an alternative course of action prior to taking this to court (which should always be a last resort). As you have already tried their complaints procedure, and they have failed to sort it, you should contact Consumer Focus, who act on behalf of Ofgem (the industry regulator). They will take your case to NPower. They have more clout as they can log complaints against NPower.

Also, good luck with trying to charge them for phoning you. In 4 years of working within the complaints department of a power company, i never heard of one person getting paid for receiving phone calls.

I charge my paying clients for reciving phone calls, so I don't see why I shouldn't charge nPower for wasting my time whilst they demand money, and refuse to answer reasonable and pertinent questions.
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I charged my bank for wrting letters to them when they messed up, and they eventually paid up. Everything is chargeable in this life, and nPower should not be excempt in my view. Simply phoning up to demand money when there are unanswered letters is their system is a waste of time, and is tantamount to bullying in my view.
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I have tried Consumer Focus, but as this was technically a business supply they say they cannot help.

NN

Npower with undoubtedly not take you to court! It's simply not worth the time, effort and money in arranging proceedings for a sum of money which comparitively is so little, although I understand to you and me its a pretty hefty chunk of change. Unfortunately while good after from mrstella0 consumer direct/ofgem will be unable to provide any tangable support until you have completed a few things first.

You will need to have exhausted Npower's complaints procedure and recieved a "dead lock" letter, until such time as you have reached this stage at best all you will reiceve is general advice.

Call Npower on their complaints department number request a copy of their complaints procedure and follow it to the letter, keeping a record of names, dates, times and content of all your calls/letters to the company. Ultimately if allowed to progress through the various processes you will reach a dead-lock situation where you will be invited to contact Ofgem who will then be empowered provide you further assitance.

Now regarding the issue itself, it is highly unusual for a final bill to take so long in being presented. What we need to discover is how and why it took so long and to find out if it could have been avoided, we also need to discover why your previous usage was re-billed, although I do not think this is a real big problem (i'll epxlain below).

- When you moved out of the property did you supply a final meter reading and did you provide your forwarding address?

- Were your bills previously base don actual meter readings or estimations? (if estimated this would account for the re-billing, it maybe that an actual reading obtained to close your account or after you vacated the peoprty proved previous estimation to be incorrect - this would require your supplier to reverse all incorrect charges and re-charge at the correct usage).

It may be helpful to rquest a copy of all bills they sent originally to be sent to you again.

Naughty Nigel:

I charge my paying clients for reciving phone calls, so I don't see why I shouldn't charge nPower I charged my bank for wrting letters to them when they messed up, and they eventually paid up. Everything is chargeable in this life, and nPower should not be excempt in my view. Simply phoning up to demand money when there are unanswered letters is their system is a waste of time, and is tantamount to bullying in my view.

I have tried Consumer Focus, but as this was technically a business supply they say they cannot help.

I assume you have contractual terms with your customer's that expressly outline what you can and cannot do, I am certain there'll be no contract between yourself and Npower, of this nature. Although your cotnractual obligations and Npower's whould be include in the terms and conditions of your current tarriff.

Seciondly your bank probably paid your demands as it would have more than likely (not defiantely) been cheaper to meet your demands than offer whatever their complaint resolution processes would allow.

IF (and at this stage I admit its a big if) the balance is valid, then Npower are perfectly entitled to ask you to pay the balance, and they are equally entitled to employ whatever services and options available to them to help secure payment.

I understand its a difficult situation for you and you feel aggrieved but to get a solution we're going to have to stop thinking about what's fair and just, and looking at procedures and processes that Npower operate by.

This ultimately may include financial compensation for poor customer service as well distress and inconvenience payments.

I will have to dig around what support is available for business customers the rules and processes are different than what is available in the consumer market, although I seem to recall there being something in place to help business customers.

Naughty Nigel:

I have tried Consumer Focus, but as this was technically a business supply they say they cannot help.

Yes, you have come across a great difficulty. You quote "technically" a business supply. If it was a business supply there would be a contract. In the first instance you need to obtain a copy of the contract and ensure that there has been full compliance with the contract terms. Perhaps you are saying you were running a business but the supply was a "domestic" supply? Not sure how to deal with that but if it is a "business" supply in what sense do you have "personal" liability.

This is all very complex which is why the measures for domestic supply oversight don't apply.

As has been suggested it is unlikely that you (or your company) will be taken to court but it is virtually certain that you (or your company) will have its credit rating affected.

It may be that court is an option for you (or your company) but you need to get some legal advice or help from any small business federation you are affiliated to.

At this stage there is no place for bluster or threats to charge for incoming calls. You could claim outgoing calls but that's piffling. Focus on the main issue.

My problems (apart from the late and unexpected bill) are that I cannot be sure that the bill is correct, and there is now no way of checking the readings. In my view, £500 is a lot of electricity to use in a single room in six weeks or so during summertime.

I receive almost daily calls bombarding me with questions about when I will pay, and when I ask the caller questions about the validity of the bills, and the reasonableness of nPowers actions they just say 'I refuse to answer that question'.

I fully accept that I am responsible for the electricity I have used. My problem is that owing to nPower's incompetence, I am no longer able to check whether thir bills are correct, or even mine to pay! Had nPower submitted thier bills in a timeley manner, this problem would not have arisen. Still, the nPower representatves refuse to accept that their tardiness is unreasonable.

nPower say I had two electricity meters; I had only one. However, the nPower representatives who call me refuse to discuss this matter, and refuse to answer any questions that I ask. Instead they just ask me over and over again when I will pay, and won't stop talking long enough for me to finish asking a question. This seems to be a tactic they are trained in.

All I want to do is to speak to someone who can at least reasure me that the bill is correct; but they cannot and will not do that.

NN

Naughty Nigel:

I have written to nPower, but continue to receive threatening phone calls from representatives who have not even taken the time to read the correspondence before they call, and refuse to listen, or answer pertinent questions.

The last post from Mynewt contained a very helpful link to the NPower business section where the NPower complaints procedure can be found. I learned something that the NPower business complaints procedure includes the right to refer an unsatisfied issue to the Energy Ombudsman. I also managed to find the standard small business contract terms.

Reading your last post I see no indication that you have taken any note of the advice.

This is a fight over £250 (because you already consider £250 "fair"). My advice is to settle and put your lack of business record keeping down to experience.

Jalexa:

This is a fight over £250 (because you already consider £250 "fair"). My advice is to settle and put your lack of business record keeping down to experience.

Ouch! Pulling no punches there are we!! That said spot on.

Without any documentation to support your claims there's little that can be done.. However what can be done includes

A. Requesting for copies of all bills/statements being sent to you again.

B. Submitting a SAR (Subject Access Reqwuest) , paying the £10.00 admin cost and waiting the 40 working days to recieve it. Then trawling through every piece of infomation they have about you to see if Npower have (or have not) made a mistake.

Naughty Nigel:

I have tried Consumer Focus, but as this was technically a business supply they say they cannot help.

Whether or not it is correct that they cannot help (because it is a business supply) it is p*ss poor advice because "micro businesses" are now included in the Energy Ombudsman scheme. According to the Ofgem website a "micro business" is defined as follows....

* The Energy Ombudsman will settle disputes between energy companies and domestic and micro business consumers. Micro businesses are defined as a person supplied or requiring to be supplied at premises with an annual consumption of electricity of not more than 55,000 kWh; or gas of not more than 200,000 kWh; or fewer than 10 employees and an annual turnover not exceeding 2m.

Please follow up Mynewt's link and submit a proper complaint in accordance with the NPower procedure. After 8 weeks you will be able to invoke the Energy Ombudsman scheme. Depending on how "complaints" are defined its even possible that the Energy Ombudsman will consider that the 8 week clock started ticking at your first expression of concern and has already expired.

I suggest you give the Energy Ombudsman a call and explain, not so much the causal issue, but your allegations concerning the NPower customer service conduct when you try to address the issue.

More info here...

http://www.ofgem.gov.uk/Consumers/Pages/Consumer.aspx

Good luck.

Jalexa:Depending on how "complaints" are defined its even possible that the Energy Ombudsman will consider that the 8 week clock started ticking at your first expression of concern and has already expired.

If Npower have logged your complaint correctly as well as managing your complaint correctly, the clock as it were should start from when your complaint was first raised. If upon your dealings with Npower you are able to determine that they have not raised a complaint you can and should request that it be back-dated to the date you first raised this specific query.

Jalexa:

Naughty Nigel:

I have written to nPower, but continue to receive threatening phone calls from representatives who have not even taken the time to read the correspondence before they call, and refuse to listen, or answer pertinent questions.

The last post from Mynewt contained a very helpful link to the NPower business section where the NPower complaints procedure can be found. I learned something that the NPower business complaints procedure includes the right to refer an unsatisfied issue to the Energy Ombudsman. I also managed to find the standard small business contract terms.

Reading your last post I see no indication that you have taken any note of the advice.

This is a fight over £250 (because you already consider £250 "fair"). My advice is to settle and put your lack of business record keeping down to experience.

Thank you. I have taken note of the advice, and have completed and submitted the relevant form. However, I fail to see how my record keeping is at fault here?

I submitted final meter readings in Agust 2006, requesting a closing energy bill. nPower did not submit a bill until three years later, and it bore little resemblance to the electricity that I would have used in the period concerned. (£500 for a single room office in summertime?) The bill also included amounts going back to 2003; even though we have all bills from this period, each of which was paid in full, and on time.

As a paying customer, I believe I am entitled to reccive a reasonable level of service from nPower. In my view that level of service has not been delivered, but I am being expected to pay an incorrect energy bill becuae of it. How is that my fault?

NN

Naughty Nigel:

I submitted final meter readings in Agust 2006, requesting a closing energy bill. nPower did not submit a bill until three years later, and it bore little resemblance to the electricity that I would have used in the period concerned. (£500 for a single room office in summertime?) The bill also included amounts going back to 2003; even though we have all bills from this period, each of which was paid in full, and on time.

This is just speculation as I am not privy to the said bills or the applicable Contract or Terms and Conditions of supply, but its entirely possible for bills to be paid in full but following a final reading for there to be an unexpectedly large bill.

This would the case if the last paid bill was based on an estimated reading. You will be able to check (and eliminate) that possibility by checking the bill copy which I now know you have. Other speculatory reasons for a large subsequent bill may be NPower's assertion that you did not serve leaving notice strictly in accordance with the contract. I do not have that contract and you haven't mentioned it. The contract *may* have provision for disconnection or other termination charges.

Regarding the energy actually consumed, the "opening" reading (and date) on the closing bill now received should be the same as the "closing" reading (and date) on the last paid bill (which you have). The "closing" reading and reading date on the closing bill should be the same as the reading you passed in August 2006.

If this is not the case then on the face of it there is a serious issue with the NPower billing which I hope the Energy Ombudsman would have short shrift with.

The "amounts going back to 2003" is interesting. I have absolutely no speculatory explanation for that but I would hope that the bill itemises the reason.

A final point. You are adament that you only have one meter but you "submitted final meter readings in August 2006." Is that a typo, or did you also have an NPower gas supply which is not subject to the billing scr*w-up? Or two electric meters?

Jalexa:The "amounts going back to 2003" is interesting. I have absolutely no speculatory explanation for that but I would hope that the bill itemises the reason.

If looking for speculation, a possibe reason for this could include estimated meter readings for a long period with provision of an actual meter reading (your final reading perhaps) that proves previous meter readings were inaccurate. YOur supplier would re-bill the entire account from Day1 so to as farily as possible distribute any under-charge at the pricing levels where that usage would have occured. i.e. if you were on different (and probably) lower contracted rates at the star tof the account more usage may have been allocated to these rates than was previously.

But as I mentioned its pure speculation and have no basis in fact.