Npower sorry for bill blunders: Firm apologises to 3.4m customers for appalling service and donates £1m to help vulnerable households pay for heating

Npower to send apology letters to all its customers for shoddy service

Complaints of incorrect bills or no bill at all being sent

Some customers waited months to receive over-paid money back

Money Mail investigation highlighted the failings earlier this year

Paul Massara, CEO of Npower, is sending a letter to customer apologising for failings following a Money Mail investigation

Npower has been forced to make a grovelling apology to 3.4million customers for the appalling service they received this year.



The firm will also pay £1million to help vulnerable households with their heating bills.



A Money Mail investigation this year revealed that scores of Npower customers were sent wildly incorrect bills and had to put up with delays in having overpayments refunded.



The Mail sent a dossier of complaints to the firm and regulator Ofgem, sparking a major inquiry.



Sarah Harrison, senior partner at Ofgem, said: ‘The huge growth in complaints about Npower is wholly unacceptable and is why we intervened.’



Npower receives five times as many complaints as Scottish & Southern Energy – the Big Six energy firm with the best record for complaints, according to the watchdog Consumer Futures.



The number of problems involving Npower that are being dealt with by the independent Energy Ombudsman has also trebled in the past 12 months.



The three main areas of concern include problems setting up accounts, direct debit payments and billing.



Many customers have repeatedly been sent incorrect bills, despite supplying the firm with regular, accurate meter readings, while some have not been sent a bill at all.



Others have been forced to battle for months to claw back money they had overpaid because their monthly direct debit had been set too high.



On Sunday, customers saw their gas and electricity bills rise by an average of £139. The 10.4 per cent increase was the largest announced by the Big Six suppliers this winter.



Npower has five times as many complaints as Scottish and Southern Energy, the Big Six supplier with the best customer service record

Npower boss Paul Massara is sending apology letters to all customers this week.



He will tell customers: ‘We’ve let many of our domestic customers down and I wanted to write to each of them personally to say sorry.



'Although we’ve made good progress fixing many of the underlying issues, we still have a long way to go, and our customers deserve to get the best possible service. That is my commitment.’



The firm has promised no customer will be left out of pocket by its mistakes.



It is making a £1million payment to its Health Through Warmth scheme, a crisis fund that supports vulnerable homeowners with cold-related illnesses. Half of the money will go to Macmillan Cancer Support.



A team of 800 customer advisers will clear complaints. A spokesman said: ‘Earlier this year the Mail sent us a number of customer complaints from their readers.

