Add your feedback on energy supplier Scottish Power

Stargirl29 wrote: »

I've just found this thread when looking to see if anyone else is having issues with SP. Apparently, it's not just me!

I moved house in November last year - and had no idea who was our supplier, no one seemed to be able to tell me. In the chaos of the move and no letters coming through, I lost track so obviously built up a debt. They eventually sent a *final warning* letter through saying that I needed to phone to be set up or it would be cut off. A bit odd considering it was the first communication from them, but I rang and set it up and explained and it was all polite and courteous.

Fast forward a bit and our DD suddenly increases without, apparently, any warning. I logged on to my account (which was obviously freshly set up previously) and I found out that there had been letters sent out detailing changes etc - but to an address about 200 miles away!! It's not an address I've ever been in, or associated with so I have no idea why it was there and why they were getting my correspondence. This issue was dealt with quickly, but it's very disconcerting thinking that someone else was getting the bills sent to them!

I then get an email one day saying that as I haven't been inputting my meter readings, they have estimated what I use - and changed the DD accordingly. I put them in myself every month without fail, sometimes even more than once a month just to make sure so I was baffled what happened. Apparently it was ANOTHER of their mistakes and it would be rectified. It was, but it was another tally mark of the countless issues I've had.

Finally, I had a DD of £150 which was a struggle and too much, I feel but I wanted to pay off the debt we were building up so was keeping it the same. I get an email on the 24th Oct stating that after calculations, the DD 'would be remaining the same' - except they were upping it for no reason to £241 a month, we weren't using any more gas or electricity than usual, and hadn't had the heating on at all up to that point so I didn't see why they increased it so much. The front of the letter said it wouldn't be taken until 1st December, and when I tried to change it - I couldn't as it was pending. They've taken it today, which will leave us short for the rest of the month. I managed to get online and try to change it but, and this is where it gets borderline illegal, I'm sure, I found out that if I kept paying the amount they put me on, by the annual review next November, I would be £1.2k in CREDIT to them - and the lowest they'd let me go to was £193, which left me £600+ in CREDIT. I tweeted my frustrations, including the graph which showed how massively I would be over-paying them and they replied saying they'll need meter readings to keep on top of it and there's nothing they can do. I managed to get round it by logging back in and changing the DD down to £150 a month by paying £9 as a one off. This would leave me slightly in credit, which seems perfectly acceptable.

I just don't understand how they can get away with charging us that much per month, leaving us that much in credit! I'll be putting in a complaint and hoping they get it sorted - it'll be a struggle this month but hopefully my changing the DD for next month will help, I'll just be looking every week!

As soon as our account is back in credit I'll be switching!