Npower are definitely one of the worst power companies out there, it's only once you've tried a few that you realise the differences.

We have been through EDF, British Gas, Eon and now nPower. I had npower before and the worst thing about them was they pretend to be cheap then sting you with a massive bill after a year or when you leave (probably because their meter reading skills are about the equivalent of the painting skills of a bunch of colour blind hedgehogs in a paper bag). British gas are just dead pushy and not all that cheap either. Best combination of service/price experienced so far was Eon (used to be powergen). Never had any really unpleasant surprises with them. The only reason we switched to npower was because of a Mr Lewis ranting about capping. Wish we'd stayed put! Npower as usual are doing the same thing as they have many years before, stinging you with ridiculous backlogs of charges from miscalculated and non-existent meter readings.

I liked this site as it gave honest opinions as not every gas and electric company is fair, we all know this.

N-power, what a joke. Their call centres don't open till 8am, if you have a gas problem you have no chance of speaking to any body.

You need to know the enemy in order to win your battle.
I read my meters every month and send online. I keep a running account of my consumption and for gas I convert cubic meters into kWh because tariffs are applied to kWh and not cubic meters.
I know we, poor end users, should not be required to do Npower work for them but, trust me, it's the only way.
The unbelievable garble of their communications is designed to put us off. They are incompetent by design. It serves their purpose.
Beware that the advertised yearly "rebate" is in fact a refund of excessive monthly direct debit payments they have taken with or without our approval. Only after overpaying for a year well over the £80 or 90 or 100 will we get back part of it.
I have been keeping all meter readings and calculations including changes of tariff and it is not so difficult to prove that they routinely overestimate consumption and/or monthly payments.
I brought up the matter with Npower but the problem is that a direct debit contract authorizes greedy companies such as Npower to dip into our money at will. Even when it has been agreed that the monthly payment should be reduced (it has taken me months!), they stall and claim that the payment has already gone through - even if you give them 2 weeks notice.
I am totally appalled that such legalized theft is allowed and that no watchdog body is doing anything about it.
The other curious development is that, when paying by direct debit (and this is to THEIR advantage not ours) billing is only done twice yearly. In the 6 months between bills they constantly propose to raise the monthly payments and once again you must phone and prove that their calculations are way off the mark.
I know, I am retired and I have the time to do all this, it is an absolute shame that we can no longer pay just what we use but have to finance the national greed without any intervention on the part of the appointed bodies.
It would be so much easier and fairer if all utilities companies published their tariffs. Beware of "comparison sites" too. They get a commission for every switch from the company they recommend.
We are being fleeced from every side.
First it was only operators and call centres that provided the screen between provider and user, now the web has succeeded in speeding up what? Npower takes ages to reply (when they actually do reply) to emails and any tariff change requested online or by phone cannot come into effect for 28 days.
Forget the web, the Pony Express was more efficient.
Rating is way below the only possible number.

I have received a new monthly bill for regular payments for the winter, which have risen by nearly 40% on the basis where Npower assumes that will be cost of what I use, in other words a guess. Considering the cost to them has gone down, this, in my opinion amounts to fraud, npower can dress it up anyway they like but to me that`s the way I see it.

Having moved house a year ago, I rang npower and gave them my details and a meter reading. After 3 months had gone by and no bill had arrived I rang them to see what was going on, I was told that it was being dealt with, there was a backlog and I would have plenty of time to pay my bill when I eventually got it! I have called every month since, Finally 11 months after moving into my new house I have received a bill. The meter reading was an estimate (dated 03/12/07) and the bill is dated 31/01/08 - does this mean I have been charged retrospectively? I have never known such poor treatment (I can't bring myself to use the word service) of customers in my life. Npower and I will be battling this one out for a while but in the meantime I am most definitely switching to a company who know what customer service is!!

Being the first to announce a massive price increase all their existing customers should switch supplier immediately and then we might see how much they can reduce the price by. This is what the French would do.

This company has made bungling incompetence an art form, I am totally dismayed at the lack of service. I moved into a property and could not make sense of the meter readings. I found out that they had put a recycled meter on the property but had not zeroed the meter. Over the past four years I have explained this to them, but they totally ignore this fact and send bills for several thousand pounds based on estimates. The next bill showed they had cancelled the money owed and had put in a new meter, I checked, guess what, it's the same old meter, but with more cobwebs round it. I now have a new bill based on this so called, new meter. For the last quarter £700, estimated. They have sent several letters since, saying they will have to estimate bills because they cannot make sense of the readings on their NEW METER. Rating: Don't get me started.

Extremely poor service, incorrect billings for addresses I haven't lived at, monthly payments that have more than doubled, owing money and not being told only to be threatened by debt collectors. Absolutely ridiculous.

Customer services? You are joking! I have never had such poor service ever. I don't receive bills then get a reminder that takes over 3 weeks to arrive even though I haven't had the original bill. I received a bailiff letter giving me 7 days to pay 8 days after the date I was threatened with!! I called and was told that it wasn't their fault as it had gone out on time, I suggested that as they were the customer of TNT Mail services they might like to investigate how long their mail took to get to theri customers - they said it was nothing to do with them. I was prepared to give them a second chance but it's happened again so I am going to change suppliers. nPower? They just are not good enough.