Scottish Power - Sharp practice with cancellation charges

judosteffer

Hi all,

Have tried searching forums for reports of the below, but not found anything. I first switched to Scottish Power about 1.5 years ago, my cap ran out, and they sent me the below e-mail, automatically putting me on a new capped tariff. I missed the small print at the bottom mentioning cancellation charges. (the font is tiny!) Note I never signed anything or agreed to anything.

Now I've switched to EON, scottish power want to charge me 50 quid cancellation charges! Surely they cant do that? I didnt sign or agree to them? all I got was an e-mail telling me they would do it in the tiniest of small prints? I think this is "sharp practice" and wanted to warn everyone. I will be phoning them, I also can't believe that its legal. Any comments guys?


"We've capped your prices until September 2010
We recently sent you an email to let you know we'd be moving you to our new Capped Price Energy 2010 Offer*. This has been taken care of and your prices are now capped until 31st August 2010.

We hope you're happy with your new energy deal, knowing that it gives you peace of mind for another year. Just the way you like it.

At ScottishPower we're committed to trying to bring you our best deals. The new Capped Price Energy September 2010 Offer* gives you price security, so that you can relax, knowing that whatever happens to the market, you don't have to worry about your energy prices.

They will remain capped and could go down, but they definitely won't go above the capped rates. And, unlike other capped offers, there's no need to make an additional monthly payment to protect your price. What's more, it's the cheapest capped deal currently available on the market**.
................................................................................................................................
Thank you for choosing ScottishPower as your energy supplier


Why was I sent this email? As a valued online energy customer, you will occasionally receive messages about the service we provide you.This is just to keep you fully informed and to help you get the most from your online energy.



*ScottishPower's Capped Price Energy September 2010 Offer guarantees that prices will not rise above the capped rates until after 31st August 2010. We may apply cancellation charges inclusive of VAT of £30 for electricity and £20 for Gas if you switch to Capped Price Energy September 2010 but then cancel your supply contract or switch to another tariff between 15th October 2009 and 31st August 2010. These charges will not be applied if the supply contract is cancelled due to a home move.

spiro

a) Yes it is legal because they told you, and
b) the devil is in the detail, cancellation charges are always shown in the small print.

At the point you received the email you could have changed onto another tariff or to another supplier with no penalty.

This type of thing happens for numberous types of products, the suppliers in part rely on people not reading the T&Cs. You only need to look at the "I've been ripped off", "Airline X made me pay £y" threads were you find when you read it that they have not read the T&Cs and the complaint is about something that is clearly stated.

brewerdave

To further upset you, that capped deal you were moved onto, was terribly uncompetitive!! There were numerous threads last August/September about the SP "Offer" - Many thousands of customers left SP for EON or EDF at the time and there was an enormous amount of ill feeling!! For instance, if I'd accepted the offer it would have cost me ~ £168 per year extra over the previous SP deal - I actually saved ~ £100 per year by moving to EON. Overall a saving of ~ 20% on my bill.

RedSkywalker

spiro wrote: »

a) Yes it is legal because they told you, and
b) the devil is in the detail, cancellation charges are always shown in the small print.

At the point you received the email you could have changed onto another tariff or to another supplier with no penalty.

This type of thing happens for numberous types of products, the suppliers in part rely on people not reading the T&Cs. You only need to look at the "I've been ripped off", "Airline X made me pay £y" threads were you find when you read it that they have not read the T&Cs and the complaint is about something that is clearly stated.

I'm not convinced - this is negative selling i.e. the consumer is required to take some action to negate a contract they have not entered into - I don't think it would stand up in court.

JasX

I believe they're called "unsolicited lock in" contracts, MSE has an article that OFGEM have been mulling over banning them.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/utilities/2010/04/ban-on-energy-lock-ins-mulled-by-ofgem

This is the same OFGEM energy regulator that was looking to ban automatic rollover contracts for small businesses but backed down and proved to be somewhat toothlesss and lame when the big energy companies complained they'd make less money.

unfortunately its currently permitted, but you can help get it banned by generally making noise about it, complain to ofgem, perhaps your MP, OFT? if enough people do hopefully the regulator might prove less useless this time round.

Background:
http://www.bmmagazine.co.uk/Utility-companies-not-quite-in-order.493

KimYeovil

Well, the alternative is not liked any better by lazy consumers - c.f. the half-dozen EDF threads moaning about being transferred to the penalty-free standard tariffs.

Some people just enjoy a whinge and to blame others when they have not paid attention or taken control.

JasX

KimYeovil wrote: »

Well, the alternative is not liked any better by lazy consumers - c.f. the half-dozen EDF threads moaning about being transferred to the penalty-free standard tariffs.

Some people just enjoy a whinge and to blame others when they have not paid attention or taken control.

I'd say thats very much a step in the right direction

>Transfer to an expensive tariff with no lock in and exit penalties (which you were probably told would happen at the time of signing up)

vs

>Unsolicited transfer to an expensive tariff with extended lock in and penalty fees if you want to get off (which wasn't part of the Ts and Cs you signed up for and the company has just decided to do on grounds it sent you an email)

Doesn't seem to fit well with the 'traditional' offer/acceptance criteria I understood constituted a contract, developing this concept will they be able to tie you in by simply stuffing a flyer through your door in future?

judosteffer

Thats exactly it, I dont see any "offer" and "acceptance" to make it a contract.

If everyone just lies down and takes it, you could have all sorts of problems, where people missed it in the tiniest of small print.

I would have thought elderly people would be getting ripped off left, right and centre.

Like you say, I dont think it would stand up in court at all.

To be honest I'm surprised at the comments saying its my fault for not spotting it. I could understand if I had clicked some kind of button, or signed a new contract, but I didnt, it was just dictated to me in an e-mail, that they would be putting me on this new (expensive) fixed tariff, and that if I then tried to leave, I would have to pay £50. Thats outrageous.

What if it had ended up in my spam e-mails? How do they even know I read it?

Tregemred

judosteffer wrote: »

Hi all,

Have tried searching forums for reports of the below, but not found anything. I first switched to Scottish Power about 1.5 years ago, my cap ran out, and they sent me the below e-mail, automatically putting me on a new capped tariff. I missed the small print at the bottom mentioning cancellation charges. (the font is tiny!) Note I never signed anything or agreed to anything.

Now I've switched to EON, scottish power want to charge me 50 quid cancellation charges! Surely they cant do that? I didnt sign or agree to them? all I got was an e-mail telling me they would do it in the tiniest of small prints? I think this is "sharp practice" and wanted to warn everyone. I will be phoning them, I also can't believe that its legal. Any comments guys?


"We've capped your prices until September 2010
We recently sent you an email to let you know we'd be moving you to our new Capped Price Energy 2010 Offer*. This has been taken care of and your prices are now capped until 31st August 2010.

We hope you're happy with your new energy deal, knowing that it gives you peace of mind for another year. Just the way you like it.

At ScottishPower we're committed to trying to bring you our best deals. The new Capped Price Energy September 2010 Offer* gives you price security, so that you can relax, knowing that whatever happens to the market, you don't have to worry about your energy prices.

They will remain capped and could go down, but they definitely won't go above the capped rates. And, unlike other capped offers, there's no need to make an additional monthly payment to protect your price. What's more, it's the cheapest capped deal currently available on the market**.
................................................................................................................................
Thank you for choosing ScottishPower as your energy supplier


Why was I sent this email? As a valued online energy customer, you will occasionally receive messages about the service we provide you.This is just to keep you fully informed and to help you get the most from your online energy.



*ScottishPower's Capped Price Energy September 2010 Offer guarantees that prices will not rise above the capped rates until after 31st August 2010. We may apply cancellation charges inclusive of VAT of £30 for electricity and £20 for Gas if you switch to Capped Price Energy September 2010 but then cancel your supply contract or switch to another tariff between 15th October 2009 and 31st August 2010. These charges will not be applied if the supply contract is cancelled due to a home move.

Oh bother!

Just checked and I have fallen foul of this too. Think I will just bite the bullet and move anyway on principle as well as writing to the appropriate people. I did make a mistake but Scottish Power have taken liberties too.

Frankly I'm sick of this whole thing. It seems that everywhere you turn some company or other wants to squeeze the last penny out of you. I don't mind paying for a product or service but I seriously object to paying for not jumping through the right hoops.

TGR :mad:

judosteffer

Good news everyone, just got off the phone to them, after about a 5 minutes conversation, explaining the a bit about contract law and how "one cannot impose an obligation on another to reject one's offer".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felthouse_v._Bindley

I also mentioned about the ofgem complaint and "unsolicited contract lock ins"

I soon had the £50 pound cancellation charge dropped.

I recommend you phone and complain when they try and do it to you as well, very satisfying to stand up to a big company.

brewerdave

Good for you ..... but you have still paid a lot extra over the past year by not monitoring the best deals.