Npower customer diservice is driving me mad!

MJA · Post by **MJA** » Sat Jan 10, 2009 10:17 pm

As some of you may have read in another thread, I had to have a new prepay gas meter fitted on Thursday because the old one had died.

Anyways, I was pretty pissed off about having to wait 19 hours for a meter man to come and sort it, especially with my 6 and 3 year old boys in the house freezing thier nads off. But I was chuffed to get it back on atleast - only there was one problem, our old card doesn't work in the new meter so the fitter had to put the emergency credit on (which costs more) until npower sent out a new card (which I called up straight away and ordered for saturday delivery).

Ok, so there's £10 emergency credit on the meter and the card is on its way right? Wrong! We got up this morning to the last 50p of gas and there was no sign of the card so the wifes on the phone to npower again and discovers that they never ordered the replacement - Bastards!

So what do we do about that then? Wait till monday for the topup card and wait in today (again) for another meter man to come out and put on some more emergency credit, grrrr. He came about 2pm and added the max credit he could which was £5.00. Thats a fiver to last us untill Monday's post shows up and then a trip to get the card topped up (lunch time'ish?)- now if we're to continue using the gas as normal we'll have run out by Sunday (tomorrow) evening.

So am I gonna end up on the phone to npower yet again? Probably, but I'm sure I'll have to freeze my moobs off yet again before anyone gets here to add yet more EMERGENCY credit. b*llocks!

Then to add insult to injury the tarrif in use whilst on emergency credit is considerably higher than normal so I'm getting sticthed up all roads for something totally out of my hands, and come to think about it, seeing as the gas is on a higher tarrif it aint gonna last us as long as usual so lets turn the run out of gas time from tomorrow evening to tomorrow afternoon!

Npower can stick their gas back up thier arses, I'm off to another supplier. They've done well to keep me for this long after trying to send me to court over someone elses bill - Toss Pots!

I don't know whats happened to customer service in this country. Trying to deal with any service provider is like pulling lions teeth with a fillet stake strapped to your face. I'd tell you about something that happened today with Tiscali but that's another thread.

Laters. I'm off to find my blood pressure pills.
Matt

big-all · Post by **big-all** » Sat Jan 10, 2009 11:48 pm

i know its never easy but if you could get your self organised you could save around 30 percent on your power by going duel fuel on line and pay by monthly direct debit

i can never understand why the government dosnt act as garentor for people on benefits or tax credits to allow people to come off payment meters

and probably save £200 a year

IDontBelieveIt · Post by **IDontBelieveIt** » Sun Jan 11, 2009 12:07 am

I can save more that 30% on my lecky by bypassing the meter

Trick is not to over-do it let a wee current trickle along as if you are cutting back.

MJA · Post by **MJA** » Sun Jan 11, 2009 12:12 am

We're not keeping the meter through financial need, we can afford the gas bills no probs but since moving in here and no longer having DD's we're using loads less gas & electric because we've got a realtime cost staring us in the face and we're trying to do our bit for the trees n stuff.

Tbh in our case I don't think we'd save anywhere near £200 a year, I did speak to another gas supplier about ditching the prepay and the difference in cost is minimal, we only use £5-£7(MAX) per week through summer and only since it's been in the -C's over the last few weeks we've been using £25-£30 per week with the heating on full wack for 16 hours a day. Infact we've only spend just over £300 on gas since April so I'm pretty happy with that but at the same time it leaves less of a saving and I like to see how much we're using. The only problem is when the meter fecks up.

However, there are many, many people that NEEEEED to be on a prepay meter and if the government were gaurentee their bill payment there'd be trouble and a lot of grumbling from us tax payers.

MJA · Post by **MJA** » Sun Jan 11, 2009 12:14 am

Damn, my long posts even annoy me

Gadget · Post by **Gadget** » Sun Jan 11, 2009 12:15 am

MJA wrote:Damn, my long posts even annoy me

We know how you feel!...

big-all · Post by **big-all** » Sun Jan 11, 2009 1:24 am

ok if you dont belive you will save !!
how much a year in kw do you use for gas and electric!!!!!

i pay £52 a month or £625 a year for 4505kw lecky and 5450kw[491 cum] of gas

Steve the Gas · Post by **Steve the Gas** » Sun Jan 11, 2009 6:09 am

Matt,

Sorry for your strife, but a Meterworker (MW) could come back and reset the meter.
The set up values with BG is £10 em. credit on the meter.
When the batt failed, a good MW would have put in a used batt to transfer your details/data on to the new meter. You then could have used your existing card or the MW can issue one in this circumstance.

MJA · Post by **MJA** » Sun Jan 11, 2009 9:09 am

big-all wrote:ok if you dont belive you will save !!
how much a year in kw do you use for gas and electric!!!!!

i pay £52 a month or £625 a year for 4505kw lecky and 5450kw[491 cum] of gas

Sorry big-all, you're not getting my point mate. I'm not disputing that it is more expensive on prepay - it's a well known fact. I'm trying to point out that we use less fuel on the meter as we're less flipent about the usage - hence saving money that way. If we went back to DD we would certainly use more fuel and the bill would be higher.
Our energy bills are lower in this largish 1920's flat roofed semi than they were in a more modern 2 bed flat purely because we never bothered what the bill would be before.

MJA · Post by **MJA** » Sun Jan 11, 2009 9:11 am

Steve the Gas wrote:Matt,

Sorry for your strife, but a Meterworker (MW) could come back and reset the meter.
The set up values with BG is £10 em. credit on the meter.
When the batt failed, a good MW would have put in a used batt to transfer your details/data on to the new meter. You then could have used your existing card or the MW can issue one in this circumstance.

A MW, is that the new PC version of the MM Steve?

Hitch · Post by **Hitch** » Sun Jan 11, 2009 9:23 am

N-power, one of the companies on my blacklist... never to be used agin, no matter how much cheaper.

thescruff · Post by **thescruff** » Sun Jan 11, 2009 9:31 am

Looking to swop over to Npower early next week.

Over £500.00 cheaper than BG

handyman · Post by **handyman** » Sun Jan 11, 2009 9:32 am

in %, how much more does paying by card cost compaired to DD?

According to above, its about 30%

I cant see you 'being flippant' with more than 30% of your usage.

I dont get this logic, in the same way i dont get those christmas saving clubs

Foggy · Post by **Foggy** » Sun Jan 11, 2009 9:41 am

big-all wrote:ok if you dont belive you will save !!
how much a year in kw do you use for gas and electric!!!!!

i pay £52 a month or £625 a year for 4505kw lecky and 5450kw[491 cum] of gas

christ do you live on your own ? wish mine was that cheap

Hitch · Post by **Hitch** » Sun Jan 11, 2009 10:00 am

I think out energy (all electric) is about £45-50 a month, for a 2 bed link detached.