Please read ,you will not believe!! Problems with Scottish Power.

hnm26

This is the most unbelievable story about an electricity supplier. It starts around 5 years ago we were living in leeds in a private rented house when scottish power knocked on the door. They were cheaper than what we were paying now so we switched although my girlfriend said she`d had trouble with them before but I didn`t think nothing of it I was glad to pay for cheaper electric. Shortly after we moved out and canceled the accounts etc and moved to a different part of Leeds and we were with NPower. Now the fun starts.About August 04 we got a letter from scottish power saying we owed them nearly £130.We phoned them up and complained and we were told we had to prove when we moved out of the property,which we did.Then it was all gone and forgotten, until today that is when i get a call from my bank saying my account is overdrawn and the last direct debit to go out of my account was from ???? you guessed it , scottish bleeding power.I had canceled all dd`s in that account over 2 months ago .This is all bearing in mind a lot has gone on since the last letter ,things like canceling all the dd`s in that account and changing to another current account with my girlfriend and then theres the moving OUT of Leeds to Wrexham over a hundred miles away.We phoned them up and they said that someone has moved into the first property and they assumed it was us again so they just reactivated our account.Now they is say we need to get an amenity order to get back our money that they`ve robbed of us and now i have to go to go to my nearest branch of my other account which is 20 miles away to put £4 in to stop me getting daily charges on my account. Anyone got any suggestions please?

Pagan98

The first thing you need to do is phone your bank and tell them to reverse the Direct Debit under the terms of the Direct Debit Guarantee. Don't let them fob you off with suggestions to contact Scottish Power. See here:

The Guarantee
If the amounts to be paid by Direct Debit or the payment dates change, the organisation collecting the payment will notify you normally 10 working days in advance of your account being debited or as otherwise agreed.

If an error is made by the organisation or your bank or building society, you are guaranteed a full and immediate refund from your branch of the amount paid.

If any payment is made in error, you should contact your bank or building society who are responsible for giving you a full and immediate refund - even if the original error was made by the organisation collecting the payment.

Secondly, once you have your money back, you should cancel any Direct Debit with Scottish Power to avoid the situation recurring.

Thirdly, I would write to Scottish Power outlining the problem and stating that you terminated your account on <insert date> with a final meter reading of <insert reading> and that you paid the final bill for <insert amount> in respect of this account on <insert date>. You therefore dispute that any monies are owed, object to their incompetence in handling this matter and will refer any further problems to Energywatch, the industry's independent watchdog.

HTH.

nenya

They certainly should not have reacdtivated your old accoun that is definatly in breech of the DPA

robwend

yeah and the YMCA:d

Anniek1969

Yeah I can believe how bad they are, been having ongoing problems with them myself but the best one i've heard in a while was with my brother. He's currently an npower customer and is moving house, the house he's moving to has a power card meter and is currently on scottish power. He contacted them to tell them he's moving into the house and asked for the power card meter to be removed only to be told that he would have to clear the arrears on the meter first (which is about £85) and then give them a deposit of £125 which he will get back in 1 years time if all his bills have been paid on time as the address he's moving to is blacklisted due to previous tenents. The arrears in the meter are from a previous tenent and have nothing to do with him and he doesn't want to be a scottish power customer as he wants npower to take over when he moves in, they've told him he has to move in first and then give scottish power 28 days notice and contact them to change over.

So basically they have told him he has 2 options pay £125 deposit and the £85 already owed in the meter and stay with them for a year so he can get his deposit back or pay the £85 owed on the power meter and give 28days notice and move to npower and get them to remove the power card meter. It's either one of the above or no electricity supply he's been told.

Surely they can't force him to pay for electricity someone else has used? I told him to contact his housing officer who is pushing the move as the house he's currently staying in is being demolished so they want him out as soon as possible and see if he can advise him or go to CAB and get them to deal with it.

hnm26

Yeah that is dam stupid. I forgot to mention where i live now we are on a meter with npower and they sent us a bill through the post when we moved in too

jonnyw_2

You need to cancel all unused direct debits with your bank, never assume the recipient will do so.
The banks will send a list of direct debits and standing orders FOC and its always worth checking them.