Npower Changer over billing confusion

I've been trying to help my father sort out his billing since the change over from npower. I have to say its been somewhat confused.

The main thing that hasn't helped with this is that I can find no letter where he was notified about his billing changing from quarterly to monthly and nothing on the new invoices states they have changed and are now monthly, they look identical to the old invoices, so it was only when 'yet another' bill arrived a few days after we'd just paid one that I started to look into it and found out!

He's found it not easy to make a payments either as the automated phone payment option has been removed and while the invoices state you can make a one off payment online - I was going to do this on his behalf as he doesn't use the internet, I find I can't do this unless I create an account which, I believe, will in turn, stop his paper billing.

- I've been going to the Post Office to make payments for him, not ideal in the current situation. And even more so now I find this is going to be a monthly event rather than it being quarterly. I will look into making bank payments from my account in future when we find out what he owes but again this is not an ideal solution.

We currently don't know how much he owes as none of the amounts on the bills don't quite match up, I guess as they were not updated with our payments before they were sent out. Have tried to telephone up a couple of times but could not get through and yes, he got a threatening letter about adding £20 to his bill too. Its not like we haven't been making payments of trying to pay its just that there seems to be no simple way to do it without him signing up for a direct debit.

Hi sophiejojones, thanks for the post. I'm sorry to hear that your father isn't having the easiest time since moving over to us.
There's a couple of points that I can answer here which might help others, and then to help get things sorted for you, if you send me a private message with the account number, I can see what's been happening and try and make things a bit clearer.

• your father should have received a letter from npower to inform of the move and that there would be some t's&c's that were changing - including monthly billing. Then there should've been two from E.ON Next. The first to say we've started the move of the account, this letter contained a reminder of the move to monthly billing. The second from us confirmed that the account was now live.
• You're right, we don't yet have the option to make a payment via an automated system over the phone yet. This is coming. At the moment our energy specialists can take a payment over the phone if that works for you. If you did want to set up an online account - you will be able to still get paper bills too. Totally understand that going to the post office at the moment might not be something that you or your father want to do at the moment. You're right though, you can make a payment via online banking
• More than happy to help with looking at the current balance etc, just pop me a DM over with account number, and we'll take a look.
  
  Hat

Hi,
Thank you for the reply. I've called and got all this sorted out over the phone this morning.

- Today he received a distressing letter threatening that his account would be passed to a 'debt collection agency'.

I could understand this if bills were not being paid but every bill sent has been paid though there has been some minor confusion over the amounts. due to three bills arriving so close together. Instead of the £90 the letter said he owed it turns out the amount is in fact 80 pence. It probably cost us more than this on hold to find this out but it is good to know his details will not be being passed on to a debt collection agency!

I was told there is a problem with the account balances being kept up to date and so some letters chasing paid bills are being sent out so hopefully this will be addressed so it doesn't happen again.

I've gone have through all letters received today whilst checking what has been paid. There are two letters, not dated but one titled "We're moving your npower to E.ON Next" and one "Welcome to E.On Next" Neither of these mention anything about his billing changing to monthly. This is quite a major change and no mention of that in either of those letters or on the new bills seems a rather poor way to communicate the change. In fact the first E.ON Next bill received a quarterly bill, but I suppose this was to catch up.

Its good news that the telephone payment may be reinstated as it is the best payment method for him and one he is happy to use himself.

Thank you for the response here, we will see how things go. It hasn't been the simplest change over and I'm not at all impressed with the two letters chasing bills which had already been dealt with.

Hi Sophie, thanks so much for sharing an update. You're spot on, we are currently looking at the balances and reminder letters to make sure they're in sync, I'm sorry about the problems it's caused you and your father.

Just to reassure you and anyone reading this - our number is a free phone number, so please don't worry about being charged if you need to call us.

In terms of the monthly billing notification. Absolutely agree - it is a big change. As it's a change to terms and conditions, npower wrote to everyone about this (a letter/email from Chris Thewlis) then in our first letter - we included a reminder. I've shared a snap shot for anyone reading this who is due to move over to us so you can see where it is. It's near the bottom.

I really hope that things get better for you now, if you need anything at all, feel free to post on here, or drop me a DM>

Hat


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