Should we seek legal advice

kelbobs

This is a very long story heres the short bit .... mydaughter is a single young mum who moved into her first independent home in Oct 2008. Since then she has had a dispute with Scottish Power (due it turns out to the way the property is numbered) who have treated her badly (rude, muddled paperwork, taking their time etc). We (I'm her mum who began to help out because my daughter was upset) have paid monies even though we understood the case was still in dispute because my daughter was threatened with court and a visit from a debt collector. The case is far from over Scottish Power will not reply to npower (who have treated us so well). I now want to complain about our problem and I sent a leter vis recorded delivery to SP - they got it 22/4/10 say the Royal Mail but they have not responded. If i told you the way this problem was handled you would be as alarmed and concerned as we were. And now they won't even reply to us. I believe we havegrounds for wanting their mamngers to review the way our case was handled. As they are ignoring us - Would seeking legal advice help?

spiro

Was the letter clearly labelled COMPLAINT at the top of the address? If it didn't then it may take some time for the letter to get to the correct department.

There are several supplier reps on this forum who may respond to this post.

Premier_2

You haven't provided us with much details of the actual complaint.

I doubt you'll get far with a complaint based on the fact you didn't like the way they have treated you. They may offer you a small goodwill gesture in this regard, but that won't resolve the underlying complaint that you presumably originally contacted them about.

Presumably you followed the SP complaint procedure and, having failed to get a satisfactory response from their call centre, you wrote to their Customer Care Team to escalate that complaint.

According to the SP complaint procedure, SP require up to 8 weeks to resolve that complaint. So far, they only appear to have had your complaint for just over 3 weeks.

If after another 5 weeks you fail to get a resolution (or you receive a final response), you can escalate the complaint to the independant Energy Supply Ombudsman on 0845 055 0760
http://www.energy-ombudsman.org.uk

Errata

I now want to complain about our problem and I sent a leter vis recorded delivery to SP - they got it 22/4/10 say the Royal Mail but they have not responded

Perhaps the difficulty is that you are not a customer with SP, your daughter is. Your daughter should lodge a complaint with SP, not you.

kelbobs

Thank you for your replies. I was allowed via consumer focus to take over handling my daughter's problem - the problem occurred due to the way apartments and flats can be numbered. I am given to understand via npower that this is a common problem.
However SP treated my daughter very badly prior to involving consumer focus. I have read their Complaints charter and we were not dealt with accordingly. My post would be very long and tedious if I went into all the details. This problem started October 2008. We are at the end of it now but do not have documentation from SP to say so.
I cannot believe that a company in 2010 can deal with a problem the way SP have. I believe I am within my rights to bring to the attention of the managers at SP - how badly this problem was dealt with.
Regarding this complaint dated 22/4/10 - the company have not even acknowledge the letter, have not answered emails either. It does say in their Complaints Charter that they will. As they are ignoring me - I just want to know if anyone has any experience or advice of taking legal action in such a situation. I have been reasonable throughout with SP.

Scottish_Power

Hi kelbobs

I am terribly sorry to hear about your daughters situation and also the poor service that you have received from us so far. This is not acceptable and on behalf of ScottishPower I would like to offer my sincere apologies.

If you write to ScottishPower by letter or email then we should be replying to you within 5 working days. If we have received your letter/email and not replied to you then we have failed a guaranteed standard and you will be due a payment of £20.00 from us.

Your situation sounds familiar and from the information you have given so far it would appear that there has been errors regarding the correct supply details for your daughters property (incorrectly addressed or incorrect meter details for the property).

If we are requesting money from you when we are holding the wrong details then a hold should be placed onto your account while it is investigated. The hold should remain on the account until the billing errors are corrected.

As I do not have any of your details I do not know what has been checked so far however in this situation the information to comfirm is:

1. Correct address for the property
2. Correct Gas/Electricity meter serial number relating to your address
3. Current meter readings

If we are billing you incorrectly then contact us as soon as possible to ensure that a hold is added to your account so that the matter can be investigated. If you want me to investigate the account for you then send me the relevant information. I will also be able to investigate why we have not responded to any of your previous correspondence.

Kind Regards

Colin @ ScottishPower