Scottish Power electricity prepay meter outrage - advice required

skibuddy

Hi,

My sister-in-law, who is on a prepay meter with Scottish Power for her electricity, today rang them to ask about converting to a normal meter as the tariff is cheaper and she can pay by direct debit.

To her horror they informed her that the meter hadn't been properly calibrated for some time and that she now had arrears of £380 and until that was cleared she cannot convert her meter to a normal one.

When she questioned why she hadn't been informed of the calibration error earlier, especially as they fitted a new prepay meter last January, they just stated that the arrears would need to be paid.

Has anyone got any experience of a similar case and is there any recourse in either getting the arrears written off or reduced as it appears that Scottish Power are completely at fault. The main reason for people having prepay meters is surely to avoid getting into debt

Any advice much appreciated

TIA

Cardew

There have been loads of posts on this if you do a search.

Unfortunately pre-pay meters do not pay for the energy in full, it is really just like putting away money in a 'piggy bank' to pay toward the bill.

It is not that the meter has not been 'calibrated' but 'adjusted' when there has been a price rise. Normally they claw back any sums outstanding by increasing the meter rate to above the actual tariff price.(say, £10 weekly)

Of course in some cases the company cannot gain access to the property to adjust the rate, but in many cases they just don't bother.

The system is a disgrace and questions were raised on this subject in Parliament. As a result some companies write off such debt(the much maligned BG being one) other don't.

If I were your sister-in-law I would make a big fuss in writing(not on the phone) contact Energywatch etc. The companies who do not write off this debt are very sensitive about their stance and they might do something.

However, sadly, they are within their rights to demand payment.