The revelation last month that between them energy companies are sitting on £400 million belonging to 3.5 million customers incensed me. How dare these companies sit on our money – earning interest on it – when we switch providers.

We pay our bill by monthly direct debit so our previous supplier npower could have paid the £135 we were in credit with them when we switched providers in back in November straight back to us. But this unbelievably inept company decided to send us a bill letter instead – DESPITE the fact we were in credit with them. There is no justification for them withholding our money or that of anyone else.

So I thought I’d play npower at their own game – and I sent them  a late payment charge bill, giving them seven days to pay…. here’s what happened next:

npower’s letter to me:

My email to npower:

The letters I attached:

My late payment fee bill:

Their reply:

My reply:

Following up a week later:

Final reminder:

npower’s response:

Later the same day…

And a week later we had our money back – and the Late Payment Charge PAID IN FULL.

You can download an editable version of my Late Payment Charge letter here. I haven’t included people’s personal email addresses on here, but Google is very easy to use!

Good luck – and do let me know how you get on.

Article (c) Steve Clark 2014. All rights reserved.

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