Energy firm apologises for billing former customer 14 months on

Ian Dewar, from Middleton on the Wolds, first complained to Npower last year after it took four payments over £650 from his account in a month.

Now more than 14 months after closing his account, he has received a demand for £20.30.

He said: “When I got the latest demand it made my Scottish blood boil. Remonstrating with the company with four different departments, they have finally admitted the same computer problems they encountered during their upgrade last year, is still causing many customers and ex-customers to receive erroneous bills. There is something fundamentally wrong if this upgrade over a year ago is still causing problems.”

The company invested £200m in the new billing system last year which involved transferring 5.4m customer accounts from old databases.

In December the company said they were “trying to make things better as soon as we can” after receiving hundreds of complaints. Yesterday it said: “We were disappointed to hear that Ian’s case wasn’t resolved. We’ve now cleared the remaining balance of £20.30 and sent him a gift to say sorry.”