Under fire npower is ‘most complained about’ energy firm

Customers turn up heat on power giant’s blunders

Angry customers of energy giant npower are demanding that its bosses give up their bonuses while thousands are caught in a billing ‘shambles’.

The Sunday Post’s Raw Deal team has received a stream of complaints from exasperated customers who have been billed too much, seen dramatic changes in their direct debits or have not been charged at all.

Among them is a 77-year-old great grandmother suffering from asbestosis, who has been left terrified a huge electricity bill will come through her door, after not being charged for a year.

Hundreds of angry customers have also taken to online message boards to complain about the company.

Andrew Allen, from Cheshire, said he waited more than a year to get a correct bill.

He blasted: “Still awaiting a bill that should have been sent to me in September. I’m getting weekly letters from them apologising for not sorting my complaint out. I received £20 in vouchers in the post the other day as compensation. All I want is a bill.”

Another furious customer told how they plan to leave the company this month due to problems with billing.

They said: “Despite asking repeatedly, I’ve had no billing information from them in more than a year, and I couldn’t even guess what my final bill will be or what my usage is.”

One irate woman claimed the company estimated she used twice the amount of energy than she did and continued to charge her when she switched to another supplier.

She said: “When I rang them up to complain I was told my account was still ‘live’ on their system even though I had already received their ‘sorry you are leaving us’ letter and I previously rung them to confirm this was the case.”

The revelations come after npower was forced to apologise for its poor performance by industry regulator Ofgem and donate £1m to charity to help the poorest customers pay their bills.

The firm, which recently put bills up by 10.4%, was found to be the “most complained about” in a damning study by analysts.

Bosses at npower, which made an operating profit of £176 million in 2013, blamed teething problems with a new IT system for the blunders and said chief executive Paul Massara would take a reduced bonus. But industry experts claim handing out any of Mr Massara’s £150,000 bonus on top of his £450,000 wage while customers face problems is a bad move.

Mark Todd, of Energy Helpline, said: “They do appear to be struggling to provide good quality customer services.

“Their boss Paul Massara has blamed the implementation of an IT system and they are saying it is going to get better. But at the moment all independent studies show them struggling. If they are performing worse than other UK companies in terms of customer service, a bonus doesn’t seem appropriate.”

Fergus Ewing, the Scottish Government’s energy minister, said: “I am acutely aware of the pressures households face due to rising bills and have written to npower to highlight concerns around the accuracy of information provided to consumers. We take complaints against energy companies who treat customers unfairly very seriously and look to Ofgem to investigate and take the strongest action to compensate customers.

“We will continue to engage with consumer bodies and the public, monitoring the actions of energy companies to ensure they are making improvements and meeting their obligations.”

Tom Greatrex, Scottish Labour’s Shadow Energy Minister in Westminster and MP for Rutherglen and Hamilton West, said: “For too long, the big energy companies have been treating their customers with brazen contempt. Npower are one of the prime culprits. They were recently fined £3.5m for shoddy customer service but there’s no sign its caused any change.

“From overcharging loyal customers to illegal doorstep selling, it is clear that the current energy market is not working in the interests of consumers. The energy market is in desperate need of reform.

“The next Labour Government will undertake the biggest overhaul of our energy market since privatisation. Our plans will break up the big energy companies, put an end to their secret deals and make tariffs simpler and fairer.

“And until these reforms kick-in, we will put a stop to unfair price rises by freezing energy bills until 2017, saving Scotland £500m.”

A spokesman for Ofgem said: “Customer service is extremely important and npower’s performance is of deep concern to Ofgem and that is why we intervened.

“We are monitoring their progress and will keep the need for any further action under review.”

A spokesman for npower said: “Right now, our priority is to put right these issues. “While we still have a long way to go, we are making progress. Our customers deserve to get the best service possible and this is our commitment to them.

“Our CEO’s bonus is linked to business and service performance and is reviewed at the end of every year. Customer Service is one of the elements of Paul’s bonus and it is clear that this element will be reduced for this year. “his will impact his overall bonus.”

An elderly couple have been left fearing an “enormous bill” after npower failed to send one for a whole year.

Marguerite Brook, 77, and her husband Gary, 79, have tried to contact the company repeatedly to get a bill for their home which is powered solely by electricity. But since their last bill in February 2013 nothing has arrived.

Mrs Brook, a great grandmother of five, from Wakefield, West Yorkshire, was left disabled after inhaling asbestos while working in a factory. She uses an electric stair lift every time she goes up and down stairs and fears it may have built up an enormous bill in the region of £2,000, which they will struggle to pay in one go.

She said: “We are worried. We are having to make sure we have got money for when it comes. We are sick of it, especially when you consider everything is electric, we have no gas.

“I have plural plaque asbestosis because I got dust in my lungs. I have a stair lift which I use all the time. It uses a lot of electricity and it is switched on all the time.” A spokesman for npower said there had been a delay because they use an Economy 7 heating system and the new technology had problems billing their account.

The bill was being produced manually and the firm vowed to give them a reduction to make up for the delay.