A.K.A What To Do When Companies Screw You Over
So, today I was woken up early by a knock on the door. A man from a company I have never heard of was here to let me know I had to pay a bill I never received and to my knowledge, had already paid.
That is probably my least favourite way to wake up. The close second has to be face down on the cold tiles of a university student's bathroom, but at least that one is my own stupid fault. This was completely unexpected.
For a little context - I rent the place I am currently in, with two other independent adults. We split the bills between us, but I tend to handle them and the other two pay me their share. Our electricity and gas provider is the same company - Npower. The same Npower that had a massive problem with not sending bills or sending late/incorrect bills last year. Anyway, when we first moved in to the place, we did send an email to Npower, explaining that we didn't always receive bills before reminders to pay those bills we never received, the date we moved in and our names. We never got a reply, but we managed to fathom their online system to the point that we could pay bills and it wasn't a problem, even if those bills were under the name 'the Occupier'.
Fast forward a year, and to a knock on the door. We get an official sounding letter from a debt-collection company for a debt we had no idea even existed. My first thought was that we were being scammed.
First I googled the debt-collection company. Legit enough, but anyone can print a black and white letter with threats to take you to court and use a real company's name and logo. For the record, this is the least official looking letter I've seen in my life - anyone could open Word, copy/paste a logo and make this letter.
Then, not convinced, I phoned Npower to ask them. After a cheery message informing me I would be on hold for 3-5 minutes (lies, but the least concerning thing about this story, truth be told), I was subjected to the same tuneless 'on hold' music for a while, interspersed with 'We haven't forgotten about you' messages that actually frustrated me more than the music - the music you can ignore, but the more a pre-recorded voice insists you aren't being forgotten about, the more you wonder if you have been.
Eventually, I get through to an actual human, who insists that she can't do anything until the account is actually under a person's name. So I register the account and all it's details under my name (which I later find out has been misspelt). Then, I am told to phone a different department to investigate the matter further, as she doesn't have the legal or technical knowledge to sort this.
Fine. Another 30 minutes on hold later (for the curious: it is the same on hold music for all departments, and yes, it is only the one song), I discover the truly idiotic thing - the electricity is under a separate account to the gas. And they only sent one of those accounts' bills to us. Even worse, the online system only allows one account per person, so even if I had the other bill, my preferred way of managing the account would have to be changed.
So no, the debt-collectors aren't a scam. They were actually sent by Npower. Instead of...oh, I don't know, contacting us. Npower have my email, my physical address and after today, my phone number.
The kicker is: they sent out a guy to do a meter reading in December. An actual person from the company in question was in our house under 2 months ago...could've been really handy if he or anyone from the company could have actually informed us that the electricity hadn't been paid since we moved in. They sent me an email informing me that the guy would do the meter reading, after all!
The results of the second phone call - another attempt to spell my name (still incorrect, by the way. My name is even in the email address they ask me to confirm as a security detail...but that's a minor thing...) and a promise to merge the two accounts so we can pay our bills. However, I still need to call the debt-collecting company myself (another high-tariff number to put me on hold) to explain the situation.
It has been over 12 hours since my initial phone call. The two accounts still aren't merged. I spent an hour of my time before work trying to get this sorted, and I'm sure I'll do the same tomorrow with the debt-collection company. I've had to pay to be put on hold by my energy company for a ridiculous amount of time, for a mistake that they have made. I'm stressed and worried and wondering what will happen if, despite my best efforts, I can't get this sorted out. All I want is for this to be squared off and paid in full...and I actually can't pay this bill. I have money to pay it, but no way of getting the money into Npower's hands under the correct reference so they know that we have paid our bill.
In summery....this is less a 'how to' and more a written record for my own purposes, I suppose. I'll let you know how this develops, readers.
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