Description | Sorry this is going to be a saga, but I am trying to help my elderly/disabled brother-in-law with his electricity problems. He lives by himself in a small bungalow in a village with no gas – only an electricity supply. Until about 18 months ago, he had storage heating on a strange system from npower for many years. . It heated up overnight and also had an afternoon boost (Super Tariff it was called - it was not E7 or E10 but something in between apparently). This entailed him having a strange electric meter - one physical meter which has two mpan supply numbers – npower referred to it as a complex meter. The meter had 4 readings – Day, Night, Heat and another that was always zero. Because of this strange set up he was tied to npower and couldn’t switch companies due to it being a legacy 'electrciity board' system apparently. Anyway, last year, the council who own his bungalow removed the storage heating and put in air source heat pump heating. This is connected to the day and night (standard) side of his meter (one of the two supply numbers). The ‘heat’ and ‘zero’ supply number thus became unused and the readings for this have not moved since. I contacted npower on his behalf by e-mail and informed them of the situation and asked that the meter be changed for a standard economy 7 meter and to confirm that once it had been carried out, he could switch companies. npower responded (I have a copy of the e-mail) saying that they could not currently change the physical meter, but would de-register the former heat mapn supply number and that his meter would now act as a standard E-7 meter on the Day/Night mpan supply number. Also that he was now free to change companies if he wished (npower offered him an expensive E7 tariff). So, he switched suppliers to Peoples Energy on a cheap E7 deal for veterans (People’s Energy later became insolvent and were taken over by British Gas). As he was/is on the Priority Service Register he had meter readers coming round quarterly to read his meter and he paid his bills by direct debit. Anyway, after the year’s deal ended he switched to Utility Point on another cheap deal. Obviously Utility Point went bust in September and he was moved to EDF. EDF then wrote to my brother saying that Utility Point should never have taken him on as he is still classed as having a complex meter as it seems npower never de-registered the ‘heat’ mpan supply number. He was thus being returned to British Gas (who took over Peoples Energy). So, he was moved back to British Gas. British Gas last month wrote stating Peoples Energy should never have taken him on either due to the above reason and he was going to be transferred to Eon.next (who he had never been with). Eon.next have just sent him a bill at full variable rates for the whole period he was with (and paid) Utility Point, Peoples Energy, EDF and even British Gas. They have even charged him a large standing charge over the whole period for the meter supply that npower allegedly disconnected and which was not used at all. I have copies of all his bills and contracts going back 7 years. The contracts he had with Peoples and Utility Point were 'cheap' fixed deals. The bills even have all the meter readings taken by the meter readers and all his payments listed (He was actually in credit until this bill from eon). None of the bills have the ‘heat’ supply mpan reference number on, other than this latest very large bill from eon. As I said above, I even have the e-mail from npower confirming that the ‘heat’ mpan supply number had been disconnected and that his meter had become a standard E7 meter. If this is the case, why has he been transferred back through 4 companies? God only knows where his payments made over the past 19 months have gone? Unfortunately this all seems to be down to npower who do not exist anymore, so I am not sure where to go next? Oh, because he allegedly owes Eon such a large amount, they are saying he has to have a pre-payment meter fitted with a key to top it up (despite him being disabled and there being no public transport in his village to get to a shop/post office to put money on it). They cannot even supply a smart pre-payment meter which I could top up online for him. It seems a real mess but I just don’t know how to address all this? Any help to help unravel this mess would be appreciated. Many thanks. More in: Energy Support & Advice in UK |
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Username | MonicaMechling |
Topics Started | 0 |
Replies Created | 0 |
Topics Solved | 0 |
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