ScottishPower payment systems down but still the threatening legal letter comes

digitaltoast

Here's how ScottishPower does things:

I closed my account when I moved. They sent me my final bill - which hadn't arrived (this is genuinely true - only this morning (9th Jan) I received a properly addressed, printed 1st class standard sized envelope from Wokingham postmarked 15th Dec so God knows what else is in a pile somewhere).

I now have a letter which arrived this morning (dated the 7th Jan) which says:
"Court proceedings are now being instigated against you".

Just been speaking to them, here's the timeline:
On the night of the 31st December, the first reminder was sent out.
This run is generated AFTER the post has been sent out that day.
The 1st Jan was a bank holiday, so post would not have been collected until Friday the 2nd. Then there was Sat/Sun, and the letter arrived on the morning of the 7th. Meanwhile, at 01:39am on the morning of the 7th, the threatening letter was being printed. I tried to pay online as soon as I got the letter, but as others have found here, the payment system was down both on the web and automated phone system, so I had to phone ANOTHER number and hold to make a manual payment:
08453003949 07/01/2009 09:21:46 00:16:00 £0.36*

This means that they allowed THREE WORKING DAYS between generating the first reminder and the letter from a collections company.

Their defence? "We use calendar days not working days when sending letters".

We also had an argument about "local rate" - I also said that I had to wait a long time in queue while they made money off me. He insisted 0845 was "local rate" in spite of an ASA adjudication over three years ago that stated companies should not refer to NGN (non-geographic numbers) as local rate (they aren't).
http://www.asa.org.uk/asa/adjudications/non_broadcast/Adjudication+Details.htm?Adjudication_id=40724

But that's another matter. The only saving grace is that they were polite and apologetic (even in the face of some significant ranting from me!) and are going to send out a letter of explanation, apology, and confirmation of receipt of payment.

*As a footnote, I LOVE plusnet - having real-time call data and being able to say to companies "actually, I spoke to this person on this number at that time" is invaluable and has got me a few vouchers and credits after they deny ever having heard from me - love ya, Virgin Money - thanks for the wine, very generous and more than I was expecting!

KevinG

Off-topic I know, but i hope you checked https://www.saynoto0870.com before calling them - there are lots of geographic alternative numbers (all Glasgow numbers starting 0141 568) listed there for Scottish Power. I've just switched to SP so hopefully they will be nice to me.

digitaltoast

Yeah, I did check (I always do!) but that particular payment line had no alternative.

And yes, this is the first problem I had with them, and they were much cheaper than anyone else - it's not all bad, and at least their call centre isn't in India which is a huge bonus. I just think their "chasing up" procedures need looking at!

MothballsWallet

Most companies in this country need to look at their chasing up procedures. And most of them use working days, not calendar days - any company who states "x days" in letters should state which system they use as a matter of good etiquette, which should be reinforced by law with the penalty being severe enough to make them think twice about disobeying it in future.

Woby_Tide

Had something similar, final bill dated 17th December, received on 20th, debt collection letter issued on 30th December.

Looks like they now have a 2 week settlement period before handing over your debts

Fire_Fox

My final bill from NPower was incorrect with two numbers transposed. I wrote a correction, then got threatening letters (several) from debt collection companies. Upon contacting NPower they admitted the collections department was running to schedule, whereas complaints/ customer service was running a six week turnaround time.

WhistleBlower

Right now debt collection are actually exactly on target with no backlogs. Correspondance, complaints, accont queries and several other departments on the other hand have gigantic backlogs, whcih causes everyone massive headaches.

Some of us have been pulled off collections to help out other departments where we have the skill base to do so.

KimYeovil

WhistleBlower wrote: »

Some of us have been pulled off collections to help out other departments where we have the skill base to do so.

Only some of you have this ability? So that means many don't need that much of a skill base to work in collections? That figures. (Yes, I know that's not really what you said, but I'm happy to go with that mischievous interpretation.)

WhistleBlower

KimYeovil wrote: »

Only some of you have this ability? So that means many don't need that much of a skill base to work in collections? That figures. (Yes, I know that's not really what you said, but I'm happy to go with that mischievous interpretation.)

Bah, ya cheeky sod you :P

Quite a lot of us in collections have come from other departments so we have multiple skill sets, in my case it's mostly billing issues, some prepayment and a tiny bit of our stay-warm stuff so they shunt us off to Complaints in the hope that we'll muddle through well enough to help with the backlogs.