Many years ago electricity and gas were supplied by semi-government agencies. Your gas came from the Gas Board, and your electricity from your regional Electricity Board. In our part of the country that was SEEB, or South East Electricity Board.

Your telephone came from British Telecom.

Then the government of the day decided that England (and the rest of the United Kingdom) were living in the dark ages. We poor citizens were suffering because we had no choice. We were paying high prices for gas and electricity and receiving poor service because there was no competition.

Our lives would be improved by returning electricity and gas to the private sector. We could all save money and enjoy improved service.

Now why am I thinking of that Dorothy Parker poem that begins "Life is a glorious cycle of song, a medley of extemporania. Love is a thing that can never go wrong, and I am Marie of Romania."?

I cannot remember who my supplier was when i decided to change to Southern Electric, but one winter day a nice young man came knocking on the door. He explained all the benefits that a package including both gas and electricity could offer, so I signed up.

The transfer went smoothly, and buying power from Southern entitled me to other money-saving opportunities through a voucher scheme.

I did take advantage of this, and purchased vouchers for my favourite supermarket at 5% off face value, so enjoyed a saving on my weekly food bill. This was genuinely helpful in saving money.

I had one little niggle with Southern Electric, which was that at the start of the contract they estimated my annual electricity and gas costs, and made me set up a monthly payment that would cover the estimate. This was fine in theory. The problem for me is that my house is large, and so the estimate was high. My house is very well insulated, so the actual cost was much lower than the estimate (hurrah) and they would not adjust the monthly payment. The result was that I accumulated a large credit, on which they were getting the interest.

In late summer 2008 a group of 3 nice young men arrived at my front door.

They were from a supplier called npower (no capitals in their name, so not a typing error on my part). They explained that their rates were cheaper than npower, especially if I signed up for both gas and electricity.

I signed up there and then, and filled in the necessary forms to have monthly sums deducted from my bank account so that I would never run up a large bill.

I received a letter on 8 October 2008 from npower, telling me how happy they were about supplying me with electricity. They said this would begin on 28 October.

Then they wrote me a letter on 9th December to confirm my bank deails, and that they would be taking a monthly payment of 100 pounds a month, which would include 50 for gas, and 50 for electricity.

The fact that the second letter took 2 months to produce should have rung alarm bells, and I really should have started examining my bank statements.

My first bill from npower arrived on 15^th December, and said that I had spent £98.24 on electricity from 28 October to 24 November, and had not paid any money, so I owed them that amount. I had spent £95.94 on gas, but had paid £100 for gas, so I was in credit by £4.06. My account balance was therefore £94.18.

Examining the small print on the back of the bill revealed that they had been using their direct debit authority to take 50 pounds a month for gas, but nothing for electricity.

I phoned to try to put this right, and was told not to make any payment as it would all be sorted.

I have mislaid the next electricity bill I received, but I do clearly recall that I was horrified. This covered a time when we had cold weather, had used more fuel, and worked out that I was actually paying a higher rate than if I had stayed with the previous supplier.

On 29 January 2009 a middle aged man appeared at my front door.  He was a salesman for an energy company called e.on.  After chatting on the doorstep for a few minutes, I worked out that actually lived locally.  When questioned, he told me that he had lived here all his life, and his wife knew the previous owners of my house.

So I decided to ask him in, and signed up to have both gas and electricity supplied by e.on.  He left me a copy of my contract, and included his name and sales ID. 

About a month later (23 February) I received a letter from npower telling me that they were sorry that I was leaving.  I rang them on 2March and explained that I was leaving because of their inefficiency.

Also on 2 March e.on wrote a letter to confirm my direct debit payments.  They said that payments of £119  would be taken starting on 31 March.

Then I received a communication from e.on telling me to supply meter readings by 9 March, and I did so on 7 March 2009.

Later on, when it became apparent that the change was not going smoothly, I found out that e.on  passed my meter readings to npower on 19 March 2009.

The next thing I received was a letter from npower to say ‘thank you for choosing to pay for your electricity by Direct Debit’.  This was in response to my call back in 2008 telling them that they were not taking money as I originally instructed.

I telephoned to tell them I was changing supplier.  Once again, I failed to keep an eagle eye on my bank statements.

In mid-April I received a letter from e.on with the opening line ‘Why not save on your electricity too?’ So I phoned and said that I thought I was already receiving electricity from them, and they said that I was. They offered me a chance to change to a more advantageous tariff so of course I said ‘yes’ even though I felt confused.

At the end of May I received an electricity bill from npower which said that I had spent £523.29 on electricity from 24 November 2008 to 12 May 2009, and that I owed them £371.53. This sum was calculated on the brought forward from my previous bill, the power I had used since, less the £250 that had been taken from my bank account. (Yes, I know I should have paid attention to my bank statements.)

But I thought that I had changed to e.on in the middle of March – so why did this bill go up to 12 May?

It took several phone calls (at my expense) to establish that e.on had passed the meter reading, that npower had received it, but that npower had ignored it.

I said that of course I was willing to pay what I really owed npower, but no more.

On 3 June I decided to file an official complaint. This is important if you feel you have a grievance against a power supplier (or many other organisations) because until you file an official complaint your niggle does not hit their statistics.

If you ever want to take up a complaint with the Ombudsman you need to offer proof that you have used all avenues for redress. This includes filing an official complaint.

I was amazed to receive a letter from npowerthe very next day (4 June) but when I opened it foundthat it was a letter that began ‘you recently asked us to change the way you pay your electricity, so from now on we’ll send you quarterly bills’. It then went on to tell me to pay them £321.53.

So I phoned their complaints department to request that they add this letter to my official complaint. In the process I discovered that the amount I owed had gone down because they had taken another 50 from my bank account. (I know, more attention to detail required.)

The next letter I received was to tell me that they were sorry they were not able to resolve my complaint straightaway. But it did not make me happy or confident because they had got my name wrong!

Then I received two letters to tell me that my new bill was being prepared.

On June 22 someone telephoned to tell me to pay only £140 when I received the bill. The balance would be wiped off as a good will gesture.

Nothing arrived, so I telephoned on 29 June to ask when I would be sent my new bill. Please note – this was 5 months after I first signed up with my new supplier.

Finally, on 2July my Final Bill arrived. It is dated 22^nd June so maybe the mail was just really slow. (And maybe I can see a pig flying past my window.)

The total due was £161.90 – due on 1 July – the day before I received the letter.

Once again, i phoned the complaints department. I also put a check in the mail for £140.

I have since received a telephone call and a letter to confirm that this sum was accepted as payment of my final electricity bill from npower.

 Some time ago we wrote a Hub called Teens and Money.  I think I would add as a post script that parents should warn their children to keep checking their bank statements.

If I had done that this might not have been so messy.