Please help with scottish power

BEL2901

I recently moved house and received a final bill from scottish power. I disputed the amount and was told that i have not paid any of my bills since august 2007!!!! they said that was when i changed over to paperless bills online. I did register online but still continued to receive my bill in the post. I continued paying the bills at paypoints or the post office.
I moved house on 1st June 2009 and as most people do I had a big clearout having lived at my old home for 21 years and so have no receipts or even the bills for the old house. Scottish power insist they have not sent any bills whatsover between august 2007 and June 2009 and asked if I was sure they were from Scottish power!! They are now demanding I pay over £350 (good price for the timespan?) as I can't prove I got any bills or that I paid them.Sorry for prattling on but does anyone know what else I can do and is the onus on me to prove this? Thanks for listening. BEL

gemmabe

When you paid by Paypoint/Post Office did you ALWAYS pay by cash or possibly you may have even just once paid by credit/debit card? If the latter then if you are able to prove just one payment I would have thought you would be able to get to the bottom of the problem here with Scottish Power.

BEL2901

I'm not sure as I have been ill for a while after having heart attack and my memory's a bit foggy. But i may have paid it online once so that would have been by debit or credit card. Good point, now I'll get in touch with my bank.Think I can see some light at the end of this tunnel. Thanks for that.

dogshome

Hi BEL 2901 - This is a really strange one and the only logical explanation would seem to be that the computer system that controls all the billing, has 'wiped' your billing records.

Interestingly the "No back billing beyond 12 months" rule became effective in July 2007and your problem began in August 07, which is 22 months before June 2009.
You comment that £350 seems cheap for 22 months, so SP may ineed only be going back 12 months

However you are entitled to a bill that gives full details of the meter readings, dates and any price changes in the period they are now billing you for - If you don't have this, write asking them for it

Keeping my fingers crossed that you can find a record of a card payment
Good Luck

Scottish_Power

Hi Bel2901

Sorry to hear about your situation. Please allow me to clarify a few matters for you.

Any invoice that is generated by ScottishPower is held on the billing system. A customer's account is never 'wiped'. If the account was opened in the first place and invoices have been issued, we can always refer back to this information (for at least 6 years).

If you registered online and the online account was created successfully for you, then all correspondence would have been sent to your email address. We would still be able to confirm details of any correspondence including invoices that were generated or not.

If we have not sent an invoice to you for a period of 22 months, then the £350 that we have charged you will be for a 12-month period only. This equates to a charge of approx £30 per month which I would say is an average consumption level.

It may also be that you have been making payments and these have been credited onto your account, however you may have been billed to estimated meter readings and when we obtained an accurate meter reading from you when you moved house, this resulted in a catch up bill showing an outstanding balance of £350.

ScottishPower will be able to confirm all payments that they have received from you. Just contact us and we will give you this information no problem.

ScottishPower are responsible for charging you for the electricity you consume within your property. Provided we have all your correct account details, i,e, address, meter details then you will be responsible for any outstanding balance. A payment arrangement can be set up for you if you are unable to pay the balance in full, so speak to us and we will come to an arrangement.

If you think you have paid ScottishPower and none of these payments are showing on your account then you can provide evidence of these payments and we will investigate where they have been applied to. If you are not able to provide or prove that you have made any payments to ScottishPower then we will not be able to carry out any investigation.

I hope that the information I have provided has been of use to you. If you would like me to investigate your account please send all relevant information to our email address which can be found in our profile page.

Kind Regards

Colin @ ScottishPower

BEL2901

thanks for your input but i have had all this over the phone and it doesn't resolve anything. i definately had paper bills for the time concerned and i know i paid them but just can't prove it yet. i am writing to my bank for statement copies and will see if anything turns up there. fingers crossed.
bel.