Attempted forced change of repayment amount

Incisor

Monkey1984 wrote: »

The DD discount is applied whilst you pay by DD. If the supplier cancels it your discount would stop from the day its cancelled. They do not revoke your past discount that is the same as if you cancelled it from your end.

I don't know who has been supplying your gas / electric but you have some very strange ideas about the ways DD works.

And your discount is applied on the Energy you use either via your unit rate you pay or by the discount applied on your qtr'ly statements.

A DD is not a god given right and its the preferred choice for people as its simple and they can make monthly payments towards bills - However don't think for one moment that a supplier will continue to allow payments at a rate which doesn't cover for your usage. If you guys are really that paranoid about payments just setup a qtr'ly direct debit instead. Some suppliers have a discount for paying your bill within 14 days.

That way you don't lose out by not paying by DD.

[Thanks was accidental]
My ideas strange?? If the DD discount is applied to the unit rate, as you say above, if the supplier rescinds the DD and takes away the DD discount from energy already billed, he is going to have to re bill. Changing the price on something like that is a distinct NoNo.

Monkey1984

Incisor wrote: »

[Thanks was accidental]
My ideas strange?? If the DD discount is applied to the unit rate, as you say above, if the supplier rescinds the DD and takes away the DD discount from energy already billed, he is going to have to re bill. Changing the price on something like that is a distinct NoNo.

Who said they were going to rebill though? This is where you keep falling down. I never said they would rebill what they would do is change the tariff to the Qtr'ly payment version from the date your DD stopped.

So the usage you had previously would keep the discount.

kissmeimposh

Following up on the earlier call to the energy providor, where I was told that the increased direct debit cannot be altered other than by way of a lesser increase which I refused to pay on the grounds that they had not substantiated to me that I would indeed be using more energy and in fact they refused to take into consideration the enourmous liklihood that I will be using less due to a change in household circumstances, I phoned back and told them that the bank had clarifed that in fact a direct debit is processed the night before it is sent to be taken from the consumer's account and that the information they had given me previously about the inability to change the direct debit unless there's at least 10 days before the due date was not accurate.
Now they admitted that the 10-day rule is merely a matter of company procedure and not a fact of banking life, and in fact said that they can keep my payments the same (in contrast to what I was told before) by undertaking this technicality: they have to change the date of the direct debit so the system thinks that a new payment scheme is being created and then they can slate the 'new' payments to be the same amount as the existing payments. I pointed out the misleading aspect of this and the man tried to claim this is possible becuase the higher payments were only scheduled to be taken next month (which is false - and the letter from them says so in black and white - as in fact the higher payments were to be taken this month and that is also the reason the first customer service person claimed there wasn't enough time to make the change). When I pointed out that the explanation I was being given about the sudden ability to keep the payments the same was in contradiction to what was stated on their letter, the customer service man got angry and tried to speak very fast in order to end the call.
So my first-hand conclusion is that they are full of contradictions and misinformation and are hoping people will just pay the increases they stipulate based on ignorance and without any specific explanation as to the methods of their estimates or even any indication as to specifics of the forecasted increase in use that they say you are going to sustain.
Office of Fair Trading and Energy Ombudsman, here I come!

irvine

Hi there. I'd like to add something you might find useful. At the end of May I was advised (in exactly the same way that you were) that my monthly D/D payment was being increased from £61.50 to £78. I was aghast and didn't believe that I would be using anywhere near this amount. I did phone Scottish Power to discuss with them but the outcome was I moved over to their Fixed Price till 2011 tariff and agreed the D/D increase to £78. Last night I went onto my online Scottish Power account and put in meter readings - from start of June till yesterdays date my £78 just covered the amount of gas/electricity used (and my account was completely paid up to date as at end of May)!!!!!!!!! And, this is us in the "summer" months when we don't use as much fuels.

I can only say that I have found Scottish Power to be correct with their predictions (much as I hate to admit it ) I'm glad I left the increase in place as I would hate to find myself with a big underpaid bill around December/January. (It starts getting cold early up here in Scotland :rolleyes: )

kissmeimposh

irvine wrote: »

I can only say that I have found Scottish Power to be correct with their predictions (much as I hate to admit it ) I'm glad I left the increase in place as I would hate to find myself with a big underpaid bill around December/January. (It starts getting cold early up here in Scotland :rolleyes: )

Well if it works for you then wonderful but the fact that Scottish power might have provided a guestimate in your favour that turned out good for you does not make the methods and handling of by my supplier in my situation to be reasonable at all. Here we had distinct documented reasons to predict substantially LOWER use and they refused to take it into account but they preferred to rely on their vague purported estimate and then backed down about their earlier information relating to the prospect of keeping the payments the same. Deception (however intentional or negligent) was recurrent in their handling throughout.

tobykim

can only say that I have found Scottish Power to be correct with their predictions

Exact opposite for me, they put mine up from £73 to £98.50 I rang and explained that my 2 children had now moved out so my energy usage would be less, they were having none of it. I decided to read the meter every month so I could keep tabs on it so I would have something to show them when I phone back and try to get it reduced. I am on scottish power fixed rate and read the meter on 23rd June this was for a full month and my usage was £34 for gas and electricity, I'll read it on 23rd of this month to see how it's going, also a meter reader came round last week so maybe they doubted my readings as I haven't seen one of them for months