Another Scottish Power and LCS....

AndyFurnival

Good day to you all,

I've taken a look through previous threads here relating to either LCS or Scottish Power and like me, many people have had frustrating encounters with them.

Here's my story, and advice would be much appreciated.

I got the standard letter.

Outstanding balance £762.45 + £188.10 admin costs

I write with reference to the above mentioned case number and outstanding Scottish Power invoice.

We have recently undertaken an investigation into the utility supply to BLAH between 31/03/2009 and 18/02/2010. Our investigation has lead us to believe that you have moved from the supply address to the the above address and are the person(s) responsible for the consumption of this supply. and so on...

I gave them an call and spoke a very stern unhelpful woman. I checked some email records and realised that LCS had tried the same thing on 2 years previous.

Their letter in 2008

We have been instructed to act on behalf of the above named client to recover the sum of £373.63 for electricity between 11/02/2005 and 22/08/2007.

Blah blah blah

In 2008 I sent them tenancy statements showing that I had in fact lived there between June and November 2005, although the tenancy wasn't in my name I was merely living there. The tenancy holder also wrote to confirm this and any money outstanding would be for these periods only and they would have to supply accurate statements... They never did so I'm assuming we had paid the account in full during our tenancy. I do not have records since it's not something I imagine I would need to keep for so many years

Todays letter is now for different dates, different amounts and the genius response from the unhelpful stern woman from LCS was that they suspected that I'd moved back into the apartment 3-4 years later and hadn't paid the bills... again???

First time, I was very cooperative with LCS and gave them all the proof that I wasn't liable. Today I feel that unless they can prove I was living there, why should I continually have to prove to them where I lived over many years? If I do it again, what's to stop them coming back next year or the year after with more ludicrous dates and charges for an apartment I lived in for 5 months in 2005?

It's crazy! Can anyone offer advice as what I should do. I don't want to pay for solicitors as this is just expense to me for a debt that isn't my own.

Thanks for listening (reading)

Andy

spiro

Write a letter of complaint to Scottish Power (clearly label envelope COMPLAINT) detailing what you have put in your post. Tell them that having resolved the matter once for one set of dates you now consider this to be harrassment by themselves and LCS.

dogshome

Hi AndyFurnival - Whilst you don't have the documentation from 2005 for residence BLAH, what you probably do have is your proof of residence documents for Mar 09 - Feb 10.

However LCS's latest demand is a try on, as was the first, so don't make life easy for them

WRITE to LCS listing the detail & dates of your previous encounter, and say that you are quite willing send them documentry evidence of your Mar 09 - Feb 10 residence, but the cost of your time in collating, photo copying and the covering letter for this paperwork, will be £28 and on reciept of thier cheque, you will supply it within the following 30 days.

It's a fair bet that they won't reply and there will not be a "next time"
Good Luck

Scottish_Power

Hi Andy

Sorry to hear about your situation.

The best advise I can give you is to contact ScottishPower (not LCS) and ask if we can confirm whether your name is on any gas/electricity account for a property that you have lived at. Your better to try and get this information from us rather than LCS as they will not have access to all the account details.

I assume that you were not the responsible party for the gas/elec used when you were occupying the property and that someone else had an account with ScottishPower?

If your name is on an account in error, make sure that you dispute this with ScottishPower confirming your reasons why and ask what action needs to be taken to rectify this error. If you have already sent in the tenancy agreement for the relevant period, we should be able to obtain this and amend the account details accordingly.

Let me know how you get on and if you need any further assistance.

Kind Regards

Colin @ ScottishPower

AndyFurnival

Thank you to everyone who posted their suggestions.

So I tried asking telling LCS again to go away. Seems they are pretty ignorant people.

Thanks dogshome, I was amused at asking for a cheque to pay for time and postage, but I didn't try that but I may yet.

To Colin @ ScottishPower I have been in contact with Scottish Power and faxed previous evidence I had and explained everything and still LCS are still on my case. We've just about come full circle. What else can you suggest I do? Should I just complain to Scottish Power as spiro suggests, complain to energy regulators?

I refuse to talk or deal with LCS much more since this is a Scottish Power mess that they have gotten me into. I refuse to hand over my personal information. I don't quite understand why they don't find who the registered owner is and get tenancy records for the periods in question. They certainly wouldn't find my name on that list.

Thanks

Scottish_Power

Hi Andy

What did SP tell you when you contacted us? Did we confirm to you that we did have an account in your name? This is information that we can confirm to you.

Send me the relevant information if you want me to investigate for you.

Kind Regards

Colin @ ScottishPower