Scottish Power - another increase in my direct debit

DickyG

I have been conned by these cowboys twice now. In 2007 they tried to up my monthly DD from £75 to £155 over 100% increase. I refused and they said I could'nt stop them. There was no negotiation. My only way out was to cancel the DD they promptly put me on the dearer tarif.
I left went to EDF on a capped rate - excellent customer service- when it ended a price comparison site said SP were again better. I joined in November and yesterday got an e-mail demand for my rate to go from £80 to £133 a 66% rise. This is based purely on one winter quarter. I paid £100 a month to EDF and was nearly £70 in credit when i left them.
How do you contact SP the website has NO telephone numbers only emergency. The ones on the paper bills seem to go unaswered or cut you off after telling you they are overwhelmed. The e-mail telling me the rate had gone up is a no response one. You are left with contacting customer services by e-mail

Leave this company (I am) they are cowardly sending e-mails upping bills based on scanty evidence without discussing it. They are also cowardly by HIDING the telephone numbers so giving no physical customer service.
They were like this 2 years ago and from the other letters in the forum and my recent experience, they have not changed. Good riddance!!:T

Magentasue

DickyG wrote: »

I joined in November and yesterday got an e-mail demand for my rate to go from £80 to £133 a 66% rise. This is based purely on one winter quarter. I paid £100 a month to EDF and was nearly £70 in credit when i left them.

Only £70 in credit in November? You must have been underpaying because you would have needed a higher credit balance to get you through the winter. Now, paying less to SP, and without a credit balance from the summer, your DD has to increase. What's wrong with that?

MrB_2

claireac wrote: »

Mine's just gone up from £70 to £150 (see my post below)!! Another satisfied Scottish Power customer..............

They did very similar to me :mad:

lesley76

I am at the end of my tether with Scottish Power, by the way their number is 08452700700, good luck tho, u will need it to get ur call answered!

We were paying £80 a month dual fuel on their Pricefall Plan. Towards the end of the agreement they upped our monthly payment to £135 which I was horrified by. However they explained my fixed price had come to an end and I had been put onto their cheapest tariff, fix for free online. Anyway I provided them with meter readings in Jan and then got an email saying my payments are increasing to £175 a month! We live in a 3 bed house, 2 adults and 2 young girls, 3 & 6 - I contacted SP to say we simply cannot afford this and she told me to let my January DD come out and this may bring the monthly cost down, call them once this had happened. I have now done this on Monday and SP required meter readings as the last ones had been provided over 10 days ago which I done. Imagine my horror when she tells me we have used £101 on gas alone in 17 DAYS!! Do you think our gas meter is faulty. Here is a comparison, 31/07/08 - 02/11/08 (95 days) 1584 units of gas used - 23/01/09 - 08/02/09 (17 days) 2647 units of gas - surely this cannot be right. Electric used during the 95 days was 1301 units and for the 17 days 269 units - so no issue there. Our behaviour, regarding heating, has not changed at all since Oct last year, even through "the snow" etc our hearing went off at night! Do people think our meter could be dodge??

Magentasue

lesley76: Do you mean 2647kwh of gas in 17 days? That averages 155kwh of gas a day over a very cold period. High but not unbelievable.

You may not have altered your heating pattern, but because it's been so cold, it's probably been kicking in more and staying on longer than it would have done in milder weather. Well, no probably about it!

lesley76

Hi Magentasue, thanks for your response - I hadn't looked at it like that, it just seemed such a dramatic amount for such a short period of time

Magentasue

lesley76 wrote: »

Hi Magentasue, thanks for your response - I hadn't looked at it like that, it just seemed such a dramatic amount for such a short period of time

Yes, it gives a false picture. You really need to work out your annual use in kwh to get an accurate idea of how much you need to pay monthly. SP will probably want you to be at zero by April or thereabouts and then you can argue for a DD based on what you need to pay over a year.

AHAR

I've been with Scottish Power for a while and they've been pretty good at taking an appropriate DD. The bill I've just received put me only £2.58 over. They put the DD up by £6 at the same time though. With winter (hopefully) just about over and prices (hopefully) coming down this year I guess that might start to build up a bit of credit but I'll just keep an eye on it and put my meter readings in online now and then to keep things in check.

The new payment is £56.50 but it's only me living in a smallish house and I don't mind a cool house (or putting a jumper on!)

kerry32

We were with EDF (i think) about a year ago, and was paying around £60 a month DD for both, Scottish Power rang us and promised to under cut them to £55 which we agreed to. It was immediatly raised to £89, which really annoyed us as we had always only paid around £60 before. We have just swithched suppliers, and the meter reading has generated an invoice for £511!!!! Surely this cant be right? We pay more than anyone else, how can this be? Whats the point paying by DD if they can bill you for these sorts of amounts! I am very worried!

Magentasue

kerry32 wrote: »

We were with EDF (i think) about a year ago, and was paying around £60 a month DD for both, Scottish Power rang us and promised to under cut them to £55 which we agreed to. It was immediatly raised to £89, which really annoyed us as we had always only paid around £60 before. We have just swithched suppliers, and the meter reading has generated an invoice for £511!!!! Surely this cant be right? We pay more than anyone else, how can this be? Whats the point paying by DD if they can bill you for these sorts of amounts! I am very worried!

Electricity has gone up in price so DDs follow - it sounds as if you have not been paying enough if you have a debit balance. Maybe estimated readings?