Southern Electric

SteveMK_2

Hi,

I switched to Scottish Power a few months ago and a couple of months after i switched my old supplier Southern electric tried to take a DD of £1300. it bounced as i didnt have the money in current account. I noticed it straight away, and phoned the customer service team.

She explained there had been a error on the account and over the next couple of days recalculated my account and said eventually said i was in credit by about £300 and sent me a cheque within a few days. Happy days. I questioned it at the time as it didn't seem right but she assured me it was correct.

anyway, 2 months later i start recieving emails and phone calls from southern electric asking me how i was planning to settle my £1300 debt. I promptly phoned back and explained that it was an error etc and was then told that the lady had made a mistake and had recalculated my account whilst their system thought they'd received £1300 from me so in fact i only owed £1000 and she then sent me the £300 difference. With me?

I don't dispute the bill itself, i stupidly bought a fishtank in the middle of last year not realising how much the bill would increase by (and have since got rid).

However, my problem comes with firstly how come i didnt receive any calls at all saying that i was paying £50-£60 PER MONTH too little for my electric (OVER 18 MONTHS!!). Also ebilling to an out of date email address didn't help either. (although they still managed to post me my gas bill so i never really noticed i wasn't getting it )

and secondly because of this womans !!!! up i was given £300 (actually £373 now i look) and told it was mine. Then a few months later they ask for it back saying it was a mistake. It just doesn't seem right to me.

Bottom line is, I don't have £1300 to give them so i've now had to go back to them, and add the 1300 to my bill, they've added £100 per month to my bill to claw it back which i cannot afford at all as my partners just lost her job.

I guess i'm just posting here with the feint hope that there might be any way I can get some sort of compensation for this blunder, but hold little hope,

any help appreciated

markharding557

unfortunatly i doubt you can get any compensation because legaly you are obliged to ensure that you are paying the right amount for your consumption.
it is your responsibilty to give correct contact details
the fish tank is not responsible for most of your usage,i have one which only uses about 60w and the heater is only on intermittantly you need to be looking at things like heaters,tumble dryers and the like.
If you explain your circumstances they may allow you longer to pay it off.

dogshome

Hi SteveMK - From your post it appears that due to a breakdown in E.billing, you were not recieving Electricity bills from Southern Electric, but you were paying them monthly D/D's

I find it surprising that SE did not block the transfer to Scot Power when there was app £1000 of debt on the account, and the fact that they then issued a cheque for £300 shows that SE were confused about your account, and maybe still are

Write to SE requesting a hard copy of every bill you have not had due to the Email foul up,
(They have to supply them ), then check them for estimated readings, and particularly the Final reading that should be the same as the Start reading used by Scot. Power.

You don't say how long you were with SE, but £1000 is a huge amount of electricity for a dwelling with Gas CH and as markharding557 has pointed out, it cannot be explained away by a fish tank heater & pump.

Hopefully by checking the bills you will be able to reduce the debt demand, and having found how long it took for the debt to build up, negotiate with SE to pay it off over the same amount of time
Good Luck

SteveMK_2

thanks for your replies, its a marine fishtank and the lights alone were 100w, (i think, cant check as i dont have it any more.) and there were 4 of them in it. plus the protein skimmer, heater, pump etc. it used a lot. added to the fact SE told me when my consumption shot up and it was around the same time i got it.

2 weeks ago they said they'd send me a consumption monitor thingie to monitor my usage, I'm yet to get it

I was with SE for about 5 years over 2 different properties.

Premier_2

SteveMK wrote: »

...Bottom line is, I don't have £1300 to give them so i've now had to go back to them, and add the 1300 to my bill, they've added £100 per month to my bill to claw it back which i cannot afford at all as my partners just lost her job. ...

Contact your creditor immediately.
The easisest way to annoy a creditor is to agree to repay at a sum you know you can't afford and then default.

How would you feel if someone promised you money every month (e.g. your employer or your partners benefit office) and then they decided to only pay you some, or none at all, because they were pushed for cash that month?

DVardysShadow

SteveMK wrote: »

....
I guess i'm just posting here with the feint hope that there might be any way I can get some sort of compensation for this blunder, but hold little hope,

any help appreciated

The meter. The blddy meter. Did your bills agree with the meter? Do you have a final bill and did it agree with either the meter or the start reading of your Scottish Power account?

Why do people come on here £300 this £1300 that £200/month the other not forgetting £X Direct debit. No meter. Storage heaters, fish tanks, showers cookers. But never ever the meter.

Why this rant? Because, Steve, whether your bills agree with your meter readings and the opening reading of your transfer to Scottish Power is the key to whether you actually owe the money or whether you have been overcharged. And depending on which of these it is, you will get different advice. Plainly if you have been overcharged, advice for what to do if you actually owe the money is not going to help you. And if you do owe the money, advice for being overcharged is just going to help you make your problems worse.