Will i ever be rid of Scottish Power?
seanwebb68
Posts: 8 Forumite
in Energy
In Oct 2015 my partner applied for a "warm home discount" with Scottish power, She was sent a very small discount under £20 addressed to her ex. She spoke to Scottish power who had failed to close the joint account back in Nov 13 as requested by herself when her ex left. They advised to close those accounts and start new ones for both electric and gas under her sole name: She agreed. Within weeks of the new accounts opening, she was sent a bill for each account even though she had only been on prepaid meters since Sep 13 and was sure that you was not billed as will.
For the last year and 6 months, she has received numerous bills (at least 2 a month) with different amounts ranging from £50 - £800 on both Elec and gas. This resulted in a lot of stress. From Nov 2015 to Feb 2016, she repeatedly battled with them over the outstanding bills but got nowhere, so she took it to the Ombudsmen, In June 2016 they concluded that the Gas account was clear and she had been rewarded £75 goodwill gesture for the stress caused and then a further £150. So believing her Gas account was now clear she could concentrate on the electric. However, the bills kept coming for the Gas account of new amounts and the money that she was promised had been apparently eaten up by an outstanding gas bill. To this day, it is still ongoing even though on numerous occasions she has been told the bill is £0 or a cheque in her favour. Throughout this ordeal, there has also been times where she has been contacted by debt collectors demanding money. The only way to resolve these debt-collecting issues was to contact Scottish power and ask them to freeze the account for further investigation. And it all starts again with the gas and electricity bills!
All we have ever asked of Scottish power is that they prove where the outstanding balance is coming from as she has always paid for her gas and electric via pre-payment meter. And as you all know it’s like a pay as you go phone... you top up the amount you want and do not pay a monthly bill.
She would like an itemized bill showing when the outstanding balance is owed from. She has always told them if they prove the money is owed then she will pay the outstanding amount but refused to pay until this is done.
Since April 2015 she has been under the care of her Doctor for depression and stress caused by this, Myself and her mother have both tried to fight this on her behalf (with her written permission) as she was not able to and neither of us have got any further. This has resulted in her having to get involved again in April 2017.
For the last year and 6 months, she has received numerous bills (at least 2 a month) with different amounts ranging from £50 - £800 on both Elec and gas. This resulted in a lot of stress. From Nov 2015 to Feb 2016, she repeatedly battled with them over the outstanding bills but got nowhere, so she took it to the Ombudsmen, In June 2016 they concluded that the Gas account was clear and she had been rewarded £75 goodwill gesture for the stress caused and then a further £150. So believing her Gas account was now clear she could concentrate on the electric. However, the bills kept coming for the Gas account of new amounts and the money that she was promised had been apparently eaten up by an outstanding gas bill. To this day, it is still ongoing even though on numerous occasions she has been told the bill is £0 or a cheque in her favour. Throughout this ordeal, there has also been times where she has been contacted by debt collectors demanding money. The only way to resolve these debt-collecting issues was to contact Scottish power and ask them to freeze the account for further investigation. And it all starts again with the gas and electricity bills!
All we have ever asked of Scottish power is that they prove where the outstanding balance is coming from as she has always paid for her gas and electric via pre-payment meter. And as you all know it’s like a pay as you go phone... you top up the amount you want and do not pay a monthly bill.
She would like an itemized bill showing when the outstanding balance is owed from. She has always told them if they prove the money is owed then she will pay the outstanding amount but refused to pay until this is done.
Since April 2015 she has been under the care of her Doctor for depression and stress caused by this, Myself and her mother have both tried to fight this on her behalf (with her written permission) as she was not able to and neither of us have got any further. This has resulted in her having to get involved again in April 2017.
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seanwebb68 wrote: »In Oct 2015 my partner applied for a "warm home discount" with Scottish power, She was sent a very small discount under £20 addressed to her ex. She spoke to Scottish power who had failed to close the joint account back in Nov 13 as requested by herself when her ex left. They advised to close those accounts and start new ones for both electric and gas under her sole name: She agreed. Within weeks of the new accounts opening, she was sent a bill for each account even though she had only been on prepaid meters since Sep 13 and was sure that you was not billed as will.
For the last year and 6 months, she has received numerous bills (at least 2 a month) with different amounts ranging from £50 - £800 on both Elec and gas. This resulted in a lot of stress. From Nov 2015 to Feb 2016, she repeatedly battled with them over the outstanding bills but got nowhere, so she took it to the Ombudsmen, In June 2016 they concluded that the Gas account was clear and she had been rewarded £75 goodwill gesture for the stress caused and then a further £150. So believing her Gas account was now clear she could concentrate on the electric. However, the bills kept coming for the Gas account of new amounts and the money that she was promised had been apparently eaten up by an outstanding gas bill. To this day, it is still ongoing even though on numerous occasions she has been told the bill is £0 or a cheque in her favour. Throughout this ordeal, there has also been times where she has been contacted by debt collectors demanding money. The only way to resolve these debt-collecting issues was to contact Scottish power and ask them to freeze the account for further investigation. And it all starts again with the gas and electricity bills!
All we have ever asked of Scottish power is that they prove where the outstanding balance is coming from as she has always paid for her gas and electric via pre-payment meter. And as you all know it’s like a pay as you go phone... you top up the amount you want and do not pay a monthly bill.
She would like an itemized bill showing when the outstanding balance is owed from. She has always told them if they prove the money is owed then she will pay the outstanding amount but refused to pay until this is done.
Since April 2015 she has been under the care of her Doctor for depression and stress caused by this, Myself and her mother have both tried to fight this on her behalf (with her written permission) as she was not able to and neither of us have got any further. This has resulted in her having to get involved again in April 2017.
Was there any debt left on the prepayment meters?Be happy, it's the greatest wealth
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No debt was ever on the meter.0
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seanwebb68 wrote: »In Oct 2015 my partner applied for a "warm home discount" with Scottish power, She was sent a very small discount under £20 addressed to her ex. She spoke to Scottish power who had failed to close the joint account back in Nov 13 as requested by herself when her ex left. They advised to close those accounts and start new ones for both electric and gas under her sole name: She agreed. Within weeks of the new accounts opening, she was sent a bill for each account even though she had only been on prepaid meters since Sep 13 and was sure that you was not billed as will.
For the last year and 6 months, she has received numerous bills (at least 2 a month) with different amounts ranging from £50 - £800 on both Elec and gas. This resulted in a lot of stress. From Nov 2015 to Feb 2016, she repeatedly battled with them over the outstanding bills but got nowhere, so she took it to the Ombudsmen, In June 2016 they concluded that the Gas account was clear and she had been rewarded £75 goodwill gesture for the stress caused and then a further £150. So believing her Gas account was now clear she could concentrate on the electric. However, the bills kept coming for the Gas account of new amounts and the money that she was promised had been apparently eaten up by an outstanding gas bill. To this day, it is still ongoing even though on numerous occasions she has been told the bill is £0 or a cheque in her favour. Throughout this ordeal, there has also been times where she has been contacted by debt collectors demanding money. The only way to resolve these debt-collecting issues was to contact Scottish power and ask them to freeze the account for further investigation. And it all starts again with the gas and electricity bills!
All we have ever asked of Scottish power is that they prove where the outstanding balance is coming from as she has always paid for her gas and electric via pre-payment meter. And as you all know it’s like a pay as you go phone... you top up the amount you want and do not pay a monthly bill.
She would like an itemized bill showing when the outstanding balance is owed from. She has always told them if they prove the money is owed then she will pay the outstanding amount but refused to pay until this is done.
Since April 2015 she has been under the care of her Doctor for depression and stress caused by this, Myself and her mother have both tried to fight this on her behalf (with her written permission) as she was not able to and neither of us have got any further. This has resulted in her having to get involved again in April 2017.
If you have received full, detailed bills, they should explain why you owe the money.
If you do mot understand the bills you have received, contact the CAB who will explain them to you ... or post a legible image here (removing perosnal info) and hopefully someone will be able to assist you further.
If you have not received a detailed bill, but just a demand or reminder for payment, then foillow the suppliers complaint procedure to obtain a detailed bill - you are entitled to one.:)
If a creditor believes (even if they are incorrect) that you owe them money, no you will not get rid of them by ignoring them. Would you if you were the creditor?
You need to work with them and try to get them to agree that no money is owed.
If you follow the suppliers complaint procedure, if after 8 weeks a mutually agreeable resolkution has not been reached, you can ask the independent Energy Ombudsman Service to help you. This is all described within the suppliers complaint procedure. You will be able to find the Suppliers Complaint procedure on the suppliers website if you are unsure of it.0 -
PaschalFun wrote: »If you have received full, detailed bills, they should explain why you owe the money.
If you do mot understand the bills you have received, contact the CAB who will explain them to you ... or post a legible image here (removing perosnal info) and hopefully someone will be able to assist you further.
If you have not received a detailed bill, but just a demand or reminder for payment, then foillow the suppliers complaint procedure to obtain a detailed bill - you are entitled to one.:)
If a creditor believes (even if they are incorrect) that you owe them money, no you will not get rid of them by ignoring them. Would you if you were the creditor?
You need to work with them and try to get them to agree that no money is owed.
If you follow the suppliers complaint procedure, if after 8 weeks a mutually agreeable resolkution has not been reached, you can ask the independent Energy Ombudsman Service to help you. This is all described within the suppliers complaint procedure. You will be able to find the Suppliers Complaint procedure on the suppliers website if you are unsure of it.
Thanks for taking the time to reply to my post.
The issue here is the bills are always different values and she was never give a breakdown on where they believe the money is owed.
The other weird thing is she has been on a prepaid meter during the time that they are requesting money for and if this meter didn't have cash on then there was no gas or electric.
To top it off when you call Scottish power they will tell you that there accounts are clear one minute then the next you owe a different amount to what been requested on the bill.
Something really doesn't add up here, we have tried following the correct process to get this issue resolved and every time we believe its sorted and the accounts are cleared the whole process starts again.
At no point have we ever ignored it and at no point will we ever ignore it but i alone have spent over 4 working weeks of my time on the phone to Scottish power and the ombudsman and we are still no further forward.
We have also passed this issue to watchdog and will be forward all the details to anyone that would like to see how badly this has been dealt with and would possibly be able to help us come to a solution. At no point have we ever said we wouldn't pay a bill if Scottish power can show us how we can owe money on top of what was used on the prepaid meter.0 -
seanwebb68 wrote: »Thanks for taking the time to reply to my post.
The issue here is the bills are always different values and she was never give a breakdown on where they believe the money is owed.
The other weird thing is she has been on a prepaid meter during the time that they are requesting money for and if this meter didn't have cash on then there was no gas or electric.
To top it off when you call Scottish power they will tell you that there accounts are clear one minute then the next you owe a different amount to what been requested on the bill.
Something really doesn't add up here, we have tried following the correct process to get this issue resolved and every time we believe its sorted and the accounts are cleared the whole process starts again.
At no point have we ever ignored it and at no point will we ever ignore it but i alone have spent over 4 working weeks of my time on the phone to Scottish power and the ombudsman and we are still no further forward.
We have also passed this issue to watchdog and will be forward all the details to anyone that would like to see how badly this has been dealt with and would possibly be able to help us come to a solution. At no point have we ever said we wouldn't pay a bill if Scottish power can show us how we can owe money on top of what was used on the prepaid meter.
The ombudsman service will not assist you until you have first made efforts to resolve the issue directly with the supplier.
That means allowing the supplier at least 8 weeks from complaint, unless the supplier agrees to foreshorten events by issuing a deadlock letter.
I'm not even sure you have a complaint at present. I fear you just do not understand the bills you have received.
Please follow the advice I provided earlier. 0 -
I don't mean to be rude but either we have not provided enough details here for you to understand the situation or you're not understanding.
This has been going on for over a year and a half. The ombudsman were involved for well over 4 months regarding the gas bill and they asked Scottish power to provide us with a breakdown of what was owed. Which Scottish power never did. Then the ombudsman said as this wasn't provided by Scottish power they will need to provide us with a good will. Then ombudsman and Scottish power agreed no money was owed on the gas account.
At this point we were happy we were finally getting somewhere. However a month later more bills followed. We tried to take this up with Scottish power again as we had issues with the ombudsman due to the person dealing with our case being let go or going on long term sick so something that was meant to be a 12 week process took over 4 months.
After a month or so of not getting anywhere with Scottish power we went back to the ombudsman for help to find that they had closed the case and if we wanted there help we had to start the whole process again.
Can I ask you a question. If you were on a prepaid meter would you expect to owe extra on top of what you top up on the card?
My partner moved at the end of last year to a new supplier and hasn't any any issues with them. They also didn't understand how she could owe extra as they said if she doesn't top up then she just doesn't have gas or electricity and there would be no extra bills sent out0 -
One possible option is to turn the tables and serve them papers suing them for harrassment.0
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seanwebb68 wrote: »I don't mean to be rude but either we have not provided enough details here for you to understand the situation or you're not understanding.
This has been going on for over a year and a half. The ombudsman were involved for well over 4 months regarding the gas bill and they asked Scottish power to provide us with a breakdown of what was owed. Which Scottish power never did. Then the ombudsman said as this wasn't provided by Scottish power they will need to provide us with a good will. Then ombudsman and Scottish power agreed no money was owed on the gas account.
At this point we were happy we were finally getting somewhere. However a month later more bills followed. We tried to take this up with Scottish power again as we had issues with the ombudsman due to the person dealing with our case being let go or going on long term sick so something that was meant to be a 12 week process took over 4 months.
After a month or so of not getting anywhere with Scottish power we went back to the ombudsman for help to find that they had closed the case and if we wanted there help we had to start the whole process again.
Can I ask you a question. If you were on a prepaid meter would you expect to owe extra on top of what you top up on the card?
My partner moved at the end of last year to a new supplier and hasn't any any issues with them. They also didn't understand how she could owe extra as they said if she doesn't top up then she just doesn't have gas or electricity and there would be no extra bills sent out
With respect, the ombudsman does not order a supplier to do anything to assist you unless and until you accept the proposed resolution it puts forward as a final resolution to the complaint you raised..
As that appears to be the case, there indeed does appear to be much information you have not disclosed here.
If, as you allege, the supplier has not conformed with the ombudsman's directions in line with the final resolution you would have agreed to, then follow the instructions the ombudsman would have provided in the rare event such a situation occurs.0 -
PaschalFun wrote: »With respect, the ombudsman does not order a supplier to do anything to assist you unless and until you accept the proposed resolution it puts forward as a final resolution to the complaint you raised..
As that appears to be the case, there indeed does appear to be much information you have not disclosed here.
If, as you allege, the supplier has not conformed with the ombudsman's directions in line with the final resolution you would have agreed to, then follow the instructions the ombudsman would have provided in the rare event such a situation occurs.
If we had put everything that had happened from start to finish in the first post it would have taken up about 6+ sheets of A4 paper as watchdog found out when we sent them all the information.
I understand how the osbudsman works now, I didn't before contacting them.
As you have stated we both had to agree to a resolution we agreed in the time frame the ombudsman set out however Scottish power failed to do so and took another two weeks to agree.
We did question why we never got a break down of what was owed and the osbudsman did chase this to start with but as Scottish power advise them there was no outstanding balance it was agreed that it wasn't needed anymore.
After getting another bill and finally going back to the ombudsman they advised that as the case had been closed all we could do was start another case which mean starting the whole 8 week process again as you have stated above.
Not that I will be sharing them here but if this does ever go as far as court we do have a lot of the calls made between us Scottish power and us and the ombudsman record. For legal reason we did advised them this was happening at the beginning of each call.
I appreciate your trying to help but I feel we are going around in circles at the minute.
As for the question to you in my last post are you able to answer that?0
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