A major UK energy firm is overcharging as much as 2.2 million customers, it is claimed.
Errors in the billing system of a leading UK energy provider might have led to millions of customers being overcharged, the Times reports.
According to watchdog Energywatch, which was contacted by the newspaper with customer complaints over npower's billing, as many as 2.2 million customers might have been affected. A formal investigation from industry regulator Ofgem has also been launched on the issue.
The alleged flaws centre on a promise, contained on npower's website, not to sell more than 4,572 kilowatt hours of gas to each consumer at the higher of its two selling rates: a promise which has apparently been broken by the firm.
However, npower says that the annual figure refers to "tariff years", separate and distinct from calendar years as they are counted from whenever the firm changes its tariffs and can therefore be shorter than 12 months. For example, one of npower's tariff years lasted just seven months from April to November 2007.
This means that noticeably higher bills have resulted for some customers. Speaking to the Times, Berkshire resident David White commented: "My contract, which I took out in January last year, stated that I would be charged 4,572kWh units at the higher price and the rest at the lower rate. But after 11 months I had been charged for 5,939 units at the higher rate, meaning that I was overcharged by £41."
An npower spokesman explained: "What we promise is that we won't charge more than 4,572 units at the higher rate in a tariff year. Normally a tariff and a calendar year are the same - 12 months - but every time we make changes to the tariff system we start a new tariff year.
"In our short tariff year of seven months (April to November 2007) we didn't charge anyone more than 4,572 units at the higher price, but over a full 12 months we did."
Compare Gas & Electricity Suppliers via money.co.uk
