Npower want £1000 from me for something I haven't done

[nutcracker]

I moved into this house in July 2004 and the electric meter fitted was a pre payment card meter which was fine as i'd been on one already in my old property. Npower just sent me a new card and that was that. From then until April 2007 I put at least £10 a week on the meter, sometimes it would be two lots of £5 but it was still always a total of £10 a week.

In March I rang Npower about getting the meter switched back to a nrmal credit meter as I was sick of not being able to find a machin that worked to top up the card. They agreed and set a date for the meter to be changed.

On that day a bloke from them came out, knocked my door and said there was a problem and he couldn't change it, and that someone would be in touch. I thought no more about it until later that same day 2 blokes appear on the doorstep and start quizzing me as to how long I have lived her and then inform me that the meter has been tampered with, and so I haven't been paying what I should for my electric.

I immediatly said that I had never tampered with the machine, and wouldn't even know how to, but they said everyone says that. I said well surley i wouldn't invite you out to change the meter if i'd tampered with it.

They took pictures of the machine and said they had to take it away as evidence, and they would fit another pre payment meter and that they weren't allowed to give me a credit meter now under these circumstances. They gave me a number to ring to dsicuss it with Npower.

I rang Npower and explained the situation and the girl I spoke to checked my account and said that I had clearly kept the machine topped up since I had moved in and not to worry about it, and I heard nothing else. Npower also then agreed to change my meter to a credit meter.

Today I have recieved a letter from Npower stating that when they visited my property on 20/04/07 they found positive interference to metering equiptment and has a result had to replac e/repair the meter. As a result of the positive interference of equiptment they have decided to closley moniter my account and if they metering equiptment is interferred with again they will cut of my supply.

They have decided that I have to pay £460.59 for the cost of repairing/replacing the equiptment and £682.66 for unrecorded units of electricity they estimate I used between 21/06/05 and 20/04/07 (that date makes no sense to me).

I have rung them today and basically the guy I need to speak to isn't in until tommorow afternoon, but the girl I spoke to said tat they have no record of me ever paying any electric at all and when I said, I had never tampered with the machine, she said 'well they all say that'.

So basically they want over £1000 for something I didn't do to their machine and electric that I wasn't even aware I was using.

What do I do ??

Which is still alot given that my first bill for 3mths worth on the credit meter was £86.

Still high mind you. Do you have gas too or is it totally electric ?

nutcracker what type of property do you live in?

my auntie lives in a 3 bed detatched and pays 10 per week for electric

I have a seperate gas meter with powergen which I put £10 a week on also, so all together gas an electric according to them then should be £111 a month.

4 bed semi

it sounds right to me, £10 per week. mines about 20 a month but im on a first floor new built flat!

I am going to speak to the estates manager tommorow and see if I can give his number to Npower and ask them to ring him and explain exactly what the previous tennants were like, compared to me. I have been a tennant of theirs for 6 years and never been in one bit of trouble. I even got given this house over someone else because of that.

I am also going to start collecting the several letters a week that I get for the previous tennants from debt collectors, and show them to them aswell.

i have a 3 bed terrace and pay £19 per month for gas AND elec (tho im never really here during the day and dont often cook here) so £10 per week seems more than reasonable for a normal person to be paying IMO!

I think when they suspect that a meter has been tampered with that they have to send it to a third party for it to be examined - would be worth finding out when you speak to the right person tomorrow whether this has been done or not, it will mean you know what stage things have got to.

I don't think there is any doubt that it was tampered with though, just who did the tampering.

Shall I tell you something about NPower ?

They sent a guy in a taxi to our company offices to cut us off.

We did not owe the money.

The guy came in a taxi from Warrington. FFS. They are a pile of numpties.

Sounds like there are two issues that you need to challenge them on -

1. they think the meter has been tampered with and should pay for the repairs - but if the meter has not been checked when more than one occupier has been in the flat, then they cannot be sure it was you - and the meter is open access

2. they think you haven't paid enough and should pay for the arrears - it sounds like you've had conflicting information from them about their records, but the fact that the person today said they thought you hadn't paid anything is a good sign - it means there is some mix-up in their information. And from what others have said, what you have been paying sounds reasonable, so shouldn't be too far off

Good luck with the conversation tomorrow

LOL, just rang my dad to tell him, and he said 'well when you ring them, stay calm, cos we know how you like to screech when you get stressed', cheeky bugger.

As soon as this is over, I will be changing from Npower asap.

Have you made any progress yet ?

Sorry meant to update yesterday. I rang back but the bloke I need to speak to was off sick .

Going to try again today.

Hope you get on ok - NPower are shites. They claimed that I had sigend up an entire RAF Base to them once. Kept sending bills addressed to me at the station HQ.

Well thank god for that.

I rang again and they said they had gone through my account again yesterday and they are very sorry, the letter should never of been seent to me. They are training new staff and it was sent by mistake. I don't owe them a penny other than my normal electric usage bill.

I have asked for them to confrim that in writing.

God to say I am relived is an understatement.

and apology too I hope . What a relief though.

npower are a load of rubbish they once sent me a bill for £132 for 2 days's of gas. When I phoned and comlained they said they would send out the correct bill, 4 complaints and ridiculous bills later they finally sent out the correct one. I changed to British Gas after that.

Nutcracker, I used to work for npower [hangs head in shame]

with prepayment meters (especially the ones where you top the card up each week -known as smartpower if you were in the original npower area as opposed to token meters where you buy a paper token it gets punched and you bin it) the bill should always tally with the usage.

The meters are so sophisticated that each time you put your card into your meter it reads loads of info including meter readings, how much credit you have left, if you have used your emergency credit, and the meter also says if it thinks it is being tampered with!!!

When you get your letter of apology and confirmation of not tampering, I would write back and ask for compensation for the stress it caused you. It is called an ex gratia payment and I used to hand a lot out. We even sent a bunch of flowers once to apologise.

Hope you get that letter!