To think that N-Power are a bunch of money grabbing, misleading, dishonest, vile bunch of twunts.

[imaynotbeperfectbutimokmummy]

Who prey on old age pensioners who might not have a complete handle on the ins and outs of the energy supply racket!

I am and - my mother exchanged her gas and electric to N-power at christmas. This was after a man knocked on her door and blinded her with savings. He even came to see me. It all seemed like a good enough package. I specifically asked if there was a standing charge for the pay as you go meter - he said that there was a small nominal charge for it. Fair enough i thought, i know i pay slightly more for my Gas from british gas because im pay as you go, but there is no standing charge so it is proportional to the amount of gas i use.

My mother uses very little gas - its just her, she seems to have an iron constitution and will not have the heating on and have open windows mid winter. She cooks with electric. She couldnt understand why when she topped up her meter she wasn't getting the full amoutn. I phoned n-power this morning and the woman said "well, that will be the standing charge" so i said "how much is it "3.60 a week" I couldnt BELIEVE IT. Thats nearly £16 a month for the privalige of the pay as you go meter.

Needless to say my mum is changing to British Gas.

I intend to complain, the woman on the phone has logged my complaint. There is an address for complaints but i actually feel that they have been misleading to the point of being unlawful. I looked at the introductory booklet, the standing charge is alluded to, but nowhere in this book is the amount reffered to.

So the question is, complain to N-power, or take it higher?

trub is he said 'there was a small nominal charge for it'

i can't see how you wil be able to claim that you didn't know about it, you just didn't ask how much it would be.

I know you are pised off, and they do turn on the charm, and it's very very annoying when you feel you are being duped. I loathe it. Write the letter, explaining this, and switch.

You know that if your mum has a low income (less then 13K) then she may be able to get money from NPower towards the cost of her gas and electricity (if she's still with them)? Have a look at their web site.

I think YAB (a bit) U.

You say he even came to see you about it, which presumably he didn't have to do. You asked if there was a charge and he told you there was, but you didn't ask how much then you're annoyed because it's more than you imagined/guessed/plucked out of the air .

sathercrying - i know what you are saying, but a small nominal charge is what he said, that means in my book, pennies, not £3.60. That should have been made crystal clear.

And actually, come to think of it - i DID ask how much it would cost - and that was his reply, something along the lines of "oh, im not sure off the top of my head, but its a small nominal charge, much the same as other companies charge".

Maybe you should have asked what he ment by a small charge.

Maybe they should have been more transparent in the first place. That information should be made available. He came to see me because my mum had already agreed to have it done, he certainly didn't tell HER about the charge. I was caught unawares, in the middle of dinner with a tetchy toddler. He only came because my mum had sent him.

It's not just NPower, they just want money, they are all the same. They'd hike the prices up at the drop of a hat, claiming the cost of wholesale gas have gone up, then when the cost of wholesale gas goes down the price charges we pay stays the same for ages then goes down only a small amount. They are all money grabbing bastards, especially the water companies. The profits they all make are obscene!

I have to agree with you there fluffy

he told you there was a charge.

you didn't check how much that charge was.

more fool you.

nice post ruddynorah! He told me there was a nominal charge, because i ASKED, he implied it was minimal - £3.60 is not minimal in my books. Yes, i agree i should have checked. Thing is, this information was not volunteered at any stage, my mother was not made aware of it even once she had the meter installed.

I feel that the salesman wass deliberately evasive about the charge, yes i should have checked but the information should be given. It certainly isn't written down anywhere on paperwork my mother has.

More fool her ! She is blatantly not the only one to be tripped up like this. If they can pull the wool over my eyes, then i guess there must be a lot of misled pensioners out ther - but hey, more fool them!!

It depends on your view of nominal. To some people on a tight income £3.60 is alot, a loaf of bread, milk, cheese maybe, to others it's not so much of a problem. It mounts up though, 16.00 times 12 = almost £200 a year for nothing!!

For a pensioner then, you would agree that actually, £3.60 every week is taking the piss!

npower are known to be total liars with their door to door salesmen trying to get you to switch over to them. We had one come round once and want to read the meter.. we let him in and a week or so later had a 'welcome to npower' letter in the mail. We had in no way agreed to switch over (the power was in our landlords name and diff company).

Now if I see them I tell them to piss off, but they still try and come in "to check the meter" etc etc

OP if you google search 'npower sales fraud' or similar you'll find loads of articles about these guys.

YANBU - and I haven't even red the OP.

They tried to tell DH that while he was away from home 1/2 of the time, and living on his won (when we were seperated that he had used something like £400 of gas in just under 2 months).

He questioned it, he asked for the meter to be checked - they refused.........

These door-to-door gas sales people are twats and they will lie and cheat to get their commission. Fuck em.

Well at the risk of being slain i would have to say i work for one of the energy companies and its NOT N power, in their call centre, have been there about 3 months now.

I would agree that the sales man should have told you exactly what the charge was and should NOT have been so allusive and £3.60 a week is taking the piss.
They should have told you about the complaints procedure when you called and how you can find out the details on how to complain and if they didnt then they werent being compliant and could get into trouble with OFGEM who regulate all the energy companies. you can also go to OFGEM direct with the complaint and they will charge N Power for the privilage its about £350 i believe.

I understand the comments about energy companies ripping people off and i thought the same before i worked there but on average they make around £2 of profit per customer per yr and yes that does add up to alot when you think of all the cust they have however businesses have to make a profit or they would go bust. Also the co i work for have around £64billion owing to them from people who just dont pay their bills.

I am being totaly honest here in saying that the company that will be the cheapest, all depends on the area in which you live, however BG have the cheapest standrd electricity in most areas as they decreased the prices by 10% last month.

Ray now goes off to hide in a corner and wait to be verbally beaten.