How can I owe a final bill on a pre payment meter?

[Elementalillusions]

I bought a house with a prepayment electricity meter installed, npower refused to remove it and were generally pretty awful with me so once we had started the work on the house that required using any electricity I put in for a switch to another company that would come and swap to a standard meter.

The meter definitely had no debt on it, we had someone come out and check it at the start, and we kept it in credit the whole time we had it with the supplier so definitely not in a negative balance.

The electricity supply was switched two months ago and the new supplier has been to change the meter and all is good, or I though it was until I received a letter from npower yesterday.

“We have written to you several times about the outstanding balance of £49.84 on your account but we still haven't received your payment.“

They go on to threaten sending debt collectors if the debt isn’t paid immediately.

This is the first letter I’ve received from them about any debt, I’m assuming it’s supposed to be a final bill.... but how can there be a final bill when it was a prepayment meter?!
Due to previous awful conversations with them I’m incredibly reluctant to call them, I’d rather email so I have a paper trail, but they don’t seem to make that an easy option as there is no email address on the letter or one that I can find on their website.

Can anyone offer any advice?

Phone them up. I moved into a place with a prepayment metre and they have been the biggest headache ever. I also got sent a final bill that said it was a repeat. I called up the supplier (not npower) and asked what’s going on, this is the first I’ve heard about having a debt and it’s not possible. They admitted it was a mistake but it took forever to get sorted. Be strong and challenge them.

I really don’t want to phone them, every single phone conversation I have had with them has been awful, it’s almost as if they are gaslighting, making promises and offers one minute then completely denying it the next, it drove me to despair on more than one occasion.

I just can’t work out how they could think I owe them any money, the online statement just says ‘for energy you’ve used’ but surely all the energy I used was paid for by the credit I topped up the meter with.

You can get apps that record calls, you'd have to tell them you were doing so though. But at least you'd have a record, and there'll be less false promises.

I had issues with a bank who mysteriously had no record of certain calls despite them all being recorded, and I wish I'd done this.

Send them a letter and keep a copy. State on the letter that you are raising a complaint and giving them eight weeks to resolve before you go to the Ombudsman. They will give you a CEAR number and you use that as your reference for the complaint.

Are you sure it's not a bill relating to your previous property?

If there is a pre pay meter in the property chances are a previous occupant has run up an unpaid debt. Which is what has led to the prepay meter being installed in the first place.

Like other PP have said, raise a formal complaint in writing. Send the letter recorded delivery. Then take to the ombudsman if not resolved.

i would email them

Thanks for the replies.

It’s definitely not related to my previous address, I still live there and I’m not with npower.

When I bought the house I had someone come out and check the meter had not debt on it, I wanted them to swap it for a new meter but they refused.

I’ve been trying to live chat with them (so that I have a record) since 8.26...... it’s now 9.41 and I am still on the live chat.
They are saying it is a “Final bill based on actual meter readings and your consumption which is more than the top ups received so there is a debt on the account“
I said “But if the meter is prepaid and consumption is deducted from the prepaid balance how can there be more use than is topped up?”
Which they can’t seem to answer, they just keep saying, when the account was closed they generate a final bill based on usage and my usage says I owe money so I have to pay it.
I said I’m happy to pay if they can explain how and what I owe for as it doesn’t make any sense to me.

I feel like I’m banging my head against a brick wall.

Write to them registered post complain that how do you owe on a payment meter, that was inspected etc & at 0 when you took over.
Tell them your off to the ombudsman

Thank you.

I managed to get an email address in the end and I’ve sent an email basically spelling out that I’m happy to pay any money I owe but I don’t understand how I can owe anything so would like them to show me how I owe this money before i pay anything.

Do you agree with the meter readings that they are using?

NPower did a similar thing to us when we moved into our current house.

It wasn't prepayment, but I switched straight away, and they sent us a final bill that was about £150 for 2 week's worth of electricity.

I wouldn't pay because I knew the bill was wrong and I just kept saying 'these are the readings, send me a correct bill and I will pay it' and they just got more and more agressive with their threats of court and debt collectors letters and I just kept asking for a correct bill.

And the final time I called, I managed to find an option that was 'to complain press X' so I did that and got through to a lovely man who was obviously well weary to his employer's incompetence and was totally sympathetic to the 'you're taking me to court for non payment but the reason I haven't paid is that the bills you keep sending me are wrong' situation and he sorted it all, arranged for a correct bill, for about fourteen pounds to be sent out, which I obviously paid straight away and they went away and that was about 15 years ago and I've been round just about every major energy supplier since then, but would never touch NPower with a barge pole, because I hear so many stories of their complete incompetence.

I had something similar a few years back. When I queried it I was told that the price per unit of gas has changed but that the meter hasn't been updated. I was then told that this was my fault for not keeping track of the change in gas prices via the news and then asking them to come and update the meter. I told them that this was rubbish, I'd been topping up my meter regularly in good faith and as required and that as the meter was their property as stated by them that the onus lay on them to sort it out. They wrote the bill off.

CAB have template letters to complain.
if you haven't resolved the issue after 8 weeks of first contact with them you can escalate it to the energy ombudsman.
I've found it helpful to do this through email so there are copies of all correspondence.
We currently have a complaint ongoing with npower they are without doubt the worst company I've ever dealt with.

Write a complaint letter stating the dates you owned the property and that it was a prepayment meter. Ask for an actual bill (not a letter advising of debt) which will state the dates they are wanting payment for and it will show a breakdown of the payment. It may be as a pp said they are collecting for a previous owner. I've rented for 10 years at various properties and have received bills that were for dates before I lived there. They don't care and will send bills to anyone they have listed at that address. If the response isn't correct then you can go to the ombudsman.

They sorted an ongoing bill issue for me with British Gas who were trying to bill me for a meter which no longer existed. ONE YEAR of phone calls hadn't resolved this and were still threatening to cut me off but one letter to the ombusdman worked. If you think Npower are bad they are nothing to the incompetence of BG

I’ve had a reply to my complaint with something of an explanation.

it is basically what a previous poster suggested and is to do with the meter readings.
they apparently read the meter in May, they have then had a meter reading from my new provider (I’m not sure of it is an actual meter reading someone has come and taken or not) as my final/start reading.
Npower have then worked out I have used x units of prepaid electricity (by how much the meter has been topped up and used) and the difference between how many units I used with my prepaid credit is less than the difference between the May meter reading and the end/start reading by x units, which with an added standing charge per unit comes to £49.84.

I still don’t get it, how can we have used that much electricity that the meter didn’t charge for from the prepaid credit.

I’ve emailed them back with this question so we will see if they can give an explanation of how this could happen.

Check the readings from your new supplier which n power will use as your final readings as well. You would have also had to pay a standing charge even if you weren’t using the electric.

Pre-payment meters have a standing charge per day even when not in use. Could it be this they're charging you for?

Also find out what your daily standing charge is and times it by the number of days as most of what they say you owe may be the standing charge. I you have the copy of your final bill I am happy to have a look at it for you as I used to work for an energy company

Sorry hadn't seen your update!

But wouldn’t the standing charge have been deducted from the prepaid credit on the meter?
Or is that paid separately? I was under the impression it was included in with the usage and charged to the prepaid credit.

I work for a rural estate and we have dozens of properties that we rent out. When they are empty we get the most ridiculous usage bills. £300 for a month of electricity. When you call with the correct reads they say it cant be right because it is unchanged. They wont accept the explanation that it is switched off, they think you are pulling a fast one. The worst ones I deal with are Npower and B gas. The better ones are EDF and Scottish power but of course this is my humble opinion but I deal with dozens of accounts each onth

NPower are scum. They did this to us earlier this year. We had them as our suppliers at a previous address and stopped using them in oct 2018 when we moved. Final meter readings given (not a pre-payment meter) account all paid off and showed balance paid in full. 10 months later a bill for £187 saying they had made a mistake. Tried to fight them but my father was dying at the time and I simply couldn't cope with their harassment and threats so paid. I will never use them as my supplier again.

Npower did this to me, and also for £49. But when I called to query it they cancelled the bill (and it was a few years ago, but I haven't heard anything further).

I’ve finally had another reply, although it hasn’t actually answered any of the questions I asked.

They are claiming someone came and read the meter in May, the ‘final’ meter reading was not a reading they took but what the new company sent them, so I need to contact the new company and see if someone actually read the meter of if it was an estimate.

They also failed to answer how there can be uncharged usage on a prepayment meter.

I wanted to update.

I didn’t have any more replies from npower, despite sending them a couple of emails.

I called them l couple of weeks ago and the person I spoke to told me it was obviously a computer error and she would mark a note on the bill for it to be investigated and I’d receive a correct ‘final statement’ in a couple of weeks.

Then on Monday of this week I received a letter dated 5/11 saying I had 7 days to pay the debt (which would be the Tuesday) or it would be transferred to debt collectors and significant charges would be added.

In a panic I went on live chat (I couldn’t call as I was working) and they had no record whatsoever of my call and completely denied someone would say what the person I spoke to said.

I was pissed off and demanded to speak to someone who could tell me what the bill was about and was eventually transferred to someone in ‘prepayment new and leaving customer service’
I went through everything and the person told me “the debt is due to the closing reading sent to us by the new supplier, we cannot tell you when or how the debt was incurred just that the bill was generated by our system based on the difference between the meter reading sent to us and the amount topped up”

They basically made it impossible for me to dispute the debt as they won’t tell me how it was incurred and the person I was speaking to said my only option, other than just paying it was to make an official complaint, so that’s what I did.

I then went and spoke to my new supplier who are amazing.
The man I am in contact with told me that the don’t do meter readings for prepayment meters as the reading is generated based on how much you top up, so it would be a waste of time keeping a record of both, he said the defiantly did not send npower a meter reading and this final bill nonsense is ridiculous and that all payments are done through the meter there shouldn’t be any billing at all.
He said he all he can think is somehow npower seem to have their wires crossed but he will look into things at his end and get back to me.

One thing he did say was that looking at the communications between myself and npower (I sent him screenshots of the emails and live chat) it really seems as though they are trying to send me on a wild goose chase and make it so that it’s too difficult to dispute the bill so that I’ll eventually just pay it to make it go away.

So after my conversation with him I went back to npower and emailed them again to tell them what I had been told by my new supplier and their reply was basically that the new supplier are completely wrong and “With prepayment meters, you can still build up a balance if you're not topping up enough to cover your usage, daily standing charges and any emergency/protected supply you may have used.”

When I told them I had the meter in credit the entire time I was with them they said “that doesn’t mean a balance was not still accumulated due to usage, daily standing charges and emergency/protected supply in addition to the credit used”

So I’m just going around in circles now it feels like.