Scottish Power - Please sort yourselves out!

dewling

Scottish Power have really let me down an I can't believe how badly their customer service is operated.

I am what should be a valuable customer. Duel fuel, never missed a payment and a family household that uses energy and pays a fair amount for it.

However - When I recently moved, gave final readings and set up new account, I decided to remain with Scottish Power so changed from the house suppliers, EDF. All seemed ok, received the very friendly welcome letters, despite being a loyal customer already and all seemed fine.

However, in spite of being on the Online Energy account and submitting my readings when asked to, they have decided to estimate my bill anyway and suggest I have used £380 gas in the warm summer months of May to August. They have also estimated electricity.

As a result of my 'heavy' estimated gas usage thy have put up my direct debit which was already too high! Plus they have completely misread the original readings when I switched from EDF.

It is IMPOSSIBLE to get through on the phone to Scottish Power, I have waited for hours today and it says they are dealing with high call volumes, whats worse, is when you get the dialling tone to suggest you will finally speak to a human, they cut you off - try it, it happens all the time. You email them and you get an automated reply. As I did when I submitted my readings, another email that has been ignored. I have the email thanking me for supplying my readings online, but guess what, they estimnated the bill anyway.

Its completely impossible. You sign up for an online account which does not let you successfully post your readings, estimates your bill anyway and you cant reach them by phone or email. So i'm left with a huge gas bill, an increased direct debit and the only people who are being helpful are EDF who I am not even with anymore, over the mistakes by Scottish Power in taking on initial readings. EDF have emailed me 3 times to update me on the issue (Scottish Powers issue) and what have I heard from Scottish Power, nothing!

It's really terrible for the consumer.

JD

Premier_2

Is the meter reading on your final bill from EDF the same as your start reading from Scottish Power?

Scottish_Power

Hi there Dewling,

Sorry to hear of the frustrating time you are having at present. From your description it sounds as if the opening meter readings may have been keyed incorrectly and may be higher than your current readings.

If this is the case, it would then prevent you from being able to enter your current readings until the incorrect opening readings are changed.

If you would like me to get this resolved for you please PM your account details.

Craig @ ScottishPower

curly_cabbage

i have had the same problem with scottish power regarding meter redaing which went on for a year and each time i supplied the metre redaings they never replied to say ther was a issue until a year later when i e-mailed them 5 times. Which resulted in my d/d being too low and the resuklt was i ended up owing them nearly £400. Once my account is sorted i'll be looking to move else where.

CC

Premier_2

I really do struggle to comprehend how a moneysaving stalwart who goes to the trouble of submitting their own meter readings doesn't also calculate the actual cost of that consumption, especially when they have access to a computer which makes such calculation so easy.

If the amount was calculated and found to be more than the amount paid, surely a moneysaving stalwart would have ensured such difference would have been safely set aside for when the supplier would ultimately catch up with them.

dewling

It's not about the original readings posted, thats an easy scapegoat but has no relevance here and there was no mistake in the original readings which I have an audit trail of via email anyway. The issue is that the Scottish Power online system is inadequate and the admin team actively over-estimates and over inflates DD settings and we all know that this will yield higher returns in the long run.

I will happily PM the Scottish Power Rep but there are systemic failings here that must be addressed urgently. Especially online systems, queue handling and the telephony set up, i'd expect better systems from a high street travel agent.

I received an email from SP today saying I had not submitted any readings online. So I had to forward the email sent to me by SP itself thanking me for submitting the readings as proof, something not quite right there???

KimYeovil

dewling wrote: »

However, in spite of being on the Online Energy account and submitting my readings when asked to, they have decided to estimate my bill anyway and suggest I have used £380 gas in the warm summer months of May to August. They have also estimated electricity.

As a result of my 'heavy' estimated gas usage thy have put up my direct debit which was already too high!

What was your annual usage?

janninew

Premier wrote: »

I really do struggle to comprehend how a moneysaving stalwart who goes to the trouble of submitting their own meter readings doesn't also calculate the actual cost of that consumption, especially when they have access to a computer which makes such calculation so easy.

If the amount was calculated and found to be more than the amount paid, surely a moneysaving stalwart would have ensured such difference would have been safely set aside for when the supplier would ultimately catch up with them.

Hi
I read my meters every month and i've never worked out my consumption!! Why would i, is that not the energy companies job to do! I think by submitting your readings often, your doing your fair share and should expect an accurate bill! I do believe people need to take more responsibilty when it comes to bills, but i think submitting readings is adequate!

Premier_2

janninew wrote: »

Hi
I read my meters every month and i've never worked out my consumption!! Why would i, is that not the energy companies job to do! I think by submitting your readings often, your doing your fair share and should expect an accurate bill! I do believe people need to take more responsibilty when it comes to bills, but i think submitting readings is adequate!

Do you check that the readings you've supplied are the same ones that the bill is based upon?

If not, you may fall into a similar postion the OP currently finds themself in, but at least the OP was aware that the readings supplied were not the readings the supplier used when billing.

1carminestocky

Premier wrote: »

Do you check that the readings you've supplied are the same ones that the bill is based upon?

If not, you may fall into a similar postion the OP currently finds themself in, but at least the OP was aware that the readings supplied were not the readings the supplier used when billing.

janniew is with the same energy supplier as me and you get email confirmation of the reading you've input online. Which makes it a very easy job to cross-reference when the (monthly) bill (paper) arrives

janninew

1carminestocky wrote: »

janniew is with the same energy supplier as me and you get email confirmation of the reading you've input online. Which makes it a very easy job to cross-reference when the (monthly) bill (paper) arrives

Carmine is correct! I always cross reference my submitted meter readings (using the e-mail confirmation and my bill!) I don't work out my consumption though, i let my energy company do that!