Has anybody else received a ridiculous npower bill??

Question

Moved into my modest 1 bedroom apartment with my boyfriend on Nov 1st 2007-received first bill on 10 Dec 2007 for £226.14, so for 5 weeks my electricity cost me £226.14. Thought this was very high but as I’d only just moved in, assumed it must be correct. Received second bill March 14th 2008 for £289.54, so how can 3 months worth of electricity only cost £63.40 more than 5 weeks worth of electricity? Thought this seemed about right at the time so I continued to pay my monthly instalments of £50. Received the third bill today for 14 March to 20 June 2008 for £789.73!!!!! How can we have used £500 more electricity in the last 3 months than the previous 3 months???!!!!! Absolutely ridiculous. I called NPower and was told that all my bills have been based on accurate meter readings. I don’t have access to my meter in my apartment complex so I now have to wait until Monday to gain access. Does anybody else think this is completely unbelievable? I know I’m now going to have to go through weeks of engineers coming back and forth to try and fix this but I am not paying an extra £500!!! The unbelievable thing is that my partner and I have both been working full-time over this period as well so we have been using less energy than ever before!

Answer 1

Power has a BAD reputation for getting bills wrong and never bother to get correct starting or ending or interim readings and often guess your bill.

but also check your meter to see that you're not paying for power someone else is using (2 flats on same meter) or stealing (odd wires going to your meter/fuse)

beware if you pay monthly and leave when you are in CREDIT - you can't get the credit back from them as apparently "because you have changed address we can no longer confirm you are the customer from x account and are unable to meet your request"

that was 14 days after moving and they owed me £300 which I NEVER GOT!

Beware of n-Power!!

Answer 2

Every month!!! But then I have a 5 bedroomed house... & even my bills arent that high (believe me i dont scrimp on heating!)  

Get it checked out!  Its not uncommon for flats to have shared systems.

Answer 3

Hello

          I'm sure I only pay £50 a month via British Gas.They need to check your meter. Has someone piped into your supply?.

Regards FatMan

Answer 4

was persuaded to join Npower

made a hash of tranferring me

man round the corner with similar address had his gas supplier moved too and dd cancelled at bank by Npower - very embarrassing

I was assured that although the dd was set for the year for a duel fuel bill it would be reviewed and I would not receive a nasty surprise at end of year

SURPRISE!!!!!

underpaid  by £600 in a lump sum so dd has nearly tripled to cover what bill will be and shortfall

would move but cant afford to pay £600 and seriously cannot face the upheaval again

Answer 5

NPower always used to give us bills based on estimated meter readings even when I supplied them or someone came to read the meter.

For our end terrace house, which only uses gas for heating water, we pay around 70-100 pounds... I think.  

The T.V. is usually on all the time, I have several networking devices, laptops and PCs running pretty much 24/7 and the cooker is electric.  

It sounds to me like your modest apartment might be wired in to someone elses modest apartment who has a few electric heaters running 24/7 off your supply to me.

That amount is too much in my opinion, it is either a big mistake or someone is stealing electric and it's showing up on your bill...

Answer 6

I saw a report on watchdog about this in March, many people seem to be having the same problem, as the figures on their bills just don't make sense. Here are the links:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/consumer/tv_and_rad...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/consumer/tv_and_rad...