Knowing your rights can do you a power of good

We are in dispute with our energy supplier npower just now.  Are they the most complained about utility company ever?

What happened was this. We went back to a business that had previously saved us considerable amounts on our gas and electric bills. After speaing to them, we agreed to change suppliers. We gave them a mandate to inform both old and new suppliers but - possibly due to their staff changes - they can't prove that npower was notified.

npower has refused to agree to the change of supplier, and say we are stuck with them and their newly-hiked rates for another year. We may be, but we are not happy about it and we are telling everyone so!  We can't recommend anyone ever enters a contract with npower.  If you are already in such a contract, be aware of your rights.

There has been a bit of publicity recently about energy companies back-billing customers, and sorry to say that is not a new problem.  Some of the Telegraph's stories, for example. can be found by following these links.

Energy firms flaunt billing rules

Ofcom tells npower to fix billing errors

npower took £25,000 from our account

As you can read there, energy firms can only backdate bills 6 years for businesses and a year for private individuals. If they have agreed to a voluntary code, it can be 3 years for businesses. That doesn't sstop them behaving in an inexcusable way, but it can help to persuade them fix their mistakes. So don't accept what they say without checking it out.

And who sits at the bottom of the Citizens Advice Bureau league table for energy suppliers? Yes, you guessed.

Energy complaints league table