scottosh power and insight collections

alepulp

I am in the same boat - regular phone calls harassing us. I'm sure this can't be legal? Can we counter sue for harassment and intimidation?

I paid off our bill on the 10th of March by combining a small credit on my electricity bill with the debit for my gas - totalling just under £300. It is showing as paid on my bank account on the 14th of March but Insight "can't find it on their system". I've just tried calling them on their 0845 number and ended up holding for nearly 15 minutes (is this a money making scam?).

SP should drop this group of thugs and improve their systems quickly - I'll certainly think twice before returning to them if their tariff ever becomes competitive again.

cjp116

Google has directed me here and as there appears to be someone from the company reading things and replying (which is more than the customer service people have managed) I thought I'd post my disaster story from Scottish Power.

Up until recently I lived in a rented flat, however, I went on to buy a new flat nearby (I moved from number 29 to number 20). I moved into the new flat on 25th February 2011, however, because of the notice period I didn't move out of the old flat until 10th March 2011.

A couple of weeks ago I got a letter in the post from Scottish Power. The address was wrong (they didn't put a door number just the street), despite me giving them my correct new address. This letter was a reminder for an Electricity Bill of £127.39 for the old address.

I had never received any such bill so I contacted Scottish Power to request the original before I paid. I did this because the Electric meter at the old address was pre-payment so I only got billed for standing charges and that sum was far too high for such a bill. The reply said bascially 'yes you owe this please pay'. After a lot of hassle I final got them to understand my point and send me the original bill.

I received the original bill yesterday and, as I expected, it is wrong. They are billing me as if my pre-payment top ups were regular monthly payments and the electric was charged on top (this is not me misunderstanding as I have had previous bills on the same property and meter that were correct). I contacted them and they replied that I was not on a pre-payment meter and the bill is correct. So they have basically accused me of lying and clearly don't even know what meter serves this property. I naturally replied by email both correcting them and complaining at the farce this was becoming.

The icing on the cake is that I have arrived home tonight to a Legal Notice from debt collectors starting action against me for the unpaid bill. It was sent two days before I even received the bill!

I am now requesting numerous things from Scottish Power - not least the immediate end to legal action, an assurance my credit rating is not being affected and an unreserved apology and acknowledgement that the bill is wrong. I also want them to waive the standing charges as a good will gesture as this has been amazingly stressful and time intensive on my part.

I would be interested to hear from the Scottish Power rep what they make of this. It is totally unacceptable as far as I am concerned and I am going to stop using the company as soon as possible and have already told everyone I know never to use them. The salt in the wound is that the customer service is shocking. I prefer to contact by email so that I have a written record of what is said but it appears to be company policy to always make the initial response a 'fob off' from a quick skim reading (if that) and then only actually read it if the person continues to complain!

Scottish_Power

Hi cjp116,

I am sorry to hear about the problems you have been having with ScottishPower recently.

If you wish to e-mail me at [EMAIL="onlinecomplaints@scottishpower.com"]onlinecomplaints@scottishpower.com[/EMAIL] with your account details I will invetigate your concerns and get things sorted out.

Kind Regards

Graeme @ ScottishPower

cjp116

I have emailed as requested Graeme, however as my last two emails have gone completely unanswered I don't exactly hold out high hopes.

To say this has been a shambles would be an understatement, with every piece of correspondence your company makes matters worse. I have never dealt with more incompetent staff in any company, anywhere.

This bill is so obviously wrong and should have been so easy to deal with that I find it amazing that it is still dragging on. Nobody has even bothered to call off the debt collectors yet, which should surely be step one when a bill is under dispute? (And when they were instructed two days before the customer got the bill in the first place!!)

sussia

Hi, I have also had a letter sent out from insight collection. the thing in my case is that first of all i have had this house for a few years now secondly is that its always been a card meter in it...
does anyone have a answer to that..

Scottish_Power

Hi sussia,

Does seem very strange that you are getting this kind of follow up when paying throuhg a pre-payment meter, if you e-mail me your details to [EMAIL="onlinecomplaints@scottishpower.com"]onlinecomplaints@scottishpower.com[/EMAIL] I can see if we can get to the bottom of this.

Kind regards

Graeme @ ScottishPower

davemorton

Any chance you could throw a bucket of water on the telephone staff while you are at it please to wake em up, ive been on hold for twenty mins, and have to go back to work soon.
cheers :beer:

davemorton

Best make that on hold for 40 mins without speaking to anyone, just in case someone from SP is reading this.

Edit: Woohooo, spoke to someone now, pity they are from the business section (tranfered to them because I had been on hold for so long, makes sense) and cant help me, back in the queue again.
double edit: Got someone now, after 50 mins, bless they must be so busy today.

Now transfered again, as she is not able to help me (after ten mins) but to be fair, she was very nice, and was trying.

Now they are saying they want to charge me for leaving a tarif that I have been on since 2009, shocking serving!!!

Apfelsaft17

:mad: I have just arrived home from work to find a letter from Insight Collections addressed to me (along with incorrect spelling of my name) saying that I owe them some money in relation to non-payment of a Scottish Power gas bill and they are about to take legal action. Myself and my partner moved into rented accommodation a couple of months ago (the energy accounts are in my partner's name) and we immediately informed her supplier that we had moved house but wanted to retain the account with Eon. Eon said they would liaise with Scottish Power and do whatever they needed to do.

Since we moved in there has been numerous items of mail from Scottish Power addressed to the previous tennant, all of which we have forwarded to the letting agents. I must add that we have also had debt collection agents telephoning the house asking to speak to the previous tennant, but these calls have since stopped as I have informed them that he no longer lives here.

I have NEVER had an account with Scottish Power, (never even had any kind of energy account), we transferred from our old address to the new address before we even moved in, so why I have received this letter?!

We have never had any debt with SP whatsoever. I had been trying to get through to them on the phone for the last 30 mins before they closed at 7pm.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you.

Scottish_Power

Hi Apfelsaft17,

When you moved in to your new property ScottishPower would have been the supplier. When you aranged to switch to E-on this would have taken around 28 days so anything you used in this period would have been due to be paid to ScottishPower.

If you e-mail me your details to [EMAIL="onlinecomplaints@scottishpower.com"]onlinecomplaints@scottishpower.com[/EMAIL] I will give you some more specific details.

Kind regards

Graeme @ ScottishPower