And So It Goes On

Posted By on 3rd January 2015

What better way to start the New Year than a good NPower story. I can already hear the collective sigh and the chorus of, “Oh no, not this again”, and I do sympathise, I’m even boring myself, but it’s a story that just won’t go away.

After my last rant on the subject, I decided to ring NPower again. The situation with the gas was beyond a joke and the bill was racking up.

I got through to a human being straight away who was very helpful and seemed to grasp the nub of the problem with ease. Let’s face it, why shouldn’t she, it’s hardly rocket science.

She took all the relevant details (again) and said she would ring me back at 9am the following Monday morning. I thought at the time that was a bit optimistic, but went along with it. She was very convincing.

But it came as no surprise when Monday came and went with no phone call. No phone call either on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, then on Friday I got 2 bills.

One a gas bill addressed correctly, but still using the wrong account number, and asking me for rather a large lump sum payment, no mention of my Direct Debit request.

The other an electricity bill informing me my next Direct Debit for electricity would be due in January, which is weird because it wasn’t due again until February, but I’ll gloss over that one in the circumstances.

Neither of the bills addressed my request for monthly Direct Debits covering both gas and electricity, but at least I felt I was making some progress albeit slowly.

I rang them, and, for the umpteenth time told my story to yet another operative. It might help if you could manage to talk to the same person each time.

Once again she appeared to grasp the problem and promised to ring me back the following Monday morning. Now where have I heard that one before?

The next day I got 2 letters, (why do NPower’s letters always travel in pairs, that’s not a riddle, just an observation) both addressed to me at ‘Grassy Bottom’, both computer generated and both completely meaningless in the scheme of things, also they were both pertaining to the energy supply at ‘Wold View’!

I really don’t think NPower have been paying attention, but if they carry on like this I’ll be able to paper the walls of 2 small rooms with their pointless correspondence.

Monday December 22nd dawned, I didn’t hold out much hope for the promised phone call, but at 3.30pm it came. Not only that, we seemed to be making progress.

I was given my estimated annual consumption for both gas and electric, plus an amount for monthly Direct Debit covering both, which also took into account the ‘arrears’ of gas (we haven’t paid a gas bill in 7 months). All of this and using the correct account number too.

One condition of the ‘tariff’ we had chosen required my account to be managed ‘online’, so any hopes I had of wallpapering a second small room with their pointless letters was dashed, but you can’t have everything.

All I had to do now was register on the NPower website and await written confirmation for the Direct Debit. What could possibly go wrong?

Things were looking up, weren’t they?

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