Scottish power - are they rogues?

ankyspon

My BG fixed price tarrif came to an end in April 2010. I did a USwitch comparison exercise on this site for best combined rates. Scottish Power were the most competitive at that time. My DD was set up for £32/m for both electric and gas for 1st payment 12 July. I sent a meter reading on 27 Aug. To my horror, today, I got an email from Scottish Power advising me that my current payments are not in line with usage and that the DD amount will increase to £69/m from Oct 2010.

Over the last quarter, my kwh usage is about the same within 10% as over same quarter in 2009.

Have Scottish Power grossly under-estimated current and future energy rates and made a genuine mistake or have they knowingly used low rates on the USwitch site in order to get customers. I await their response to my email sent earlier.

Has anyone else had a similar problem?

Mike

brewerdave

The increase in DD will be to ensure that you are NOT in debt to SP at the end of the (expensive high usage) Winter period next April.They work it so that you build up credit during the Summer months to (more than) cover Winter usage. To be fair most Utility suppliers have moved onto this model for DD plans. Unfortunately for you, SP carry out reviews every 3 months or so, whereas some other Utility suppliers eg EON carry out the review in the Spring, so you have been caught before you have built up any debt!!

JasX

you should also confirm you put in accurate useage information in ANNUAL KWh for each fuel you use into the comparison site, otherwise its essentailly a case of garbage information in >----> garbage information out and you'll likely end up paying extra by being on an inappropriate tariff for the amount you use.

assuming you used accurate figures you might have been caught by delays setting up your DD etc etc but it'll work out in your favour eventually and if an excess builds up you can reclaim it quite easily.

...not to mention the £120 cashback you'll have got using a cashback site when you switched to SP -am going thru the same thing myself with them at the moment (dd up from £24 to £54) because they were slow setting it up but my useage is staying low so after 2-3 months at this level I'll be calling them up for a lower dd and refund... 4 months in and I've only just handed over to them more money than they gave me for switching

sece11

going through this right now - yet to decide how to proceed from here - see recent email traffic....it goes on a bit i'm afraid, but youre not alone....if you think like me then they have completely overestimated the gas? and still dont undertsnad the elec disparity???



> Dear Mr E
>
> I have looked into your account using the figures you have suggested and I have checked your annual consumption based on the actual meter readings we have had from your property. Below is how I have worked out your annual consumption.
>
> Electricity.
>
> Meter reading 1 - 16/07/2009 - 07493
> Meter reading 2 - 26/08/2010 - 13213
>
> This is a difference of 5720 kwh over 406 days, so 14.09 kwh per day.
>
> 14.09 X 365 = 5143 kwh per year.
>
> This brings your monthly direct debit to £49.00
>
>
> Gas,
>
> Meter reading 1 - 16/07/2010 - 14182
> Meter reading 2 - 26/08/2010 - 15679
>
> This is a difference of 1497 cubic meters of gas over 406 days, so 3.69 cubic meters of gas per day.
>
> 3.69 X 365 = 1347 cubic meters of gas per year.
>
> We then convert this into kwh using the below calculation.
>
> 1347 X 39.3 X 1.022640 ÷ 3.6 = 15038kwh gas per year.
>
> This brings your monthly direct debit to £44.00.
>
>
> I have therefore corrected the annual consumption on your account to the above figures and amended your direct debits accordingly. A total of £93.00 will be taken by direct debit from 15/09/2010.
>
> I hope this clears things up for you however if you do have any further questions please feel free to reply to this e-mail.
>
> Kind regards
>
> John Greenhalgh,
>
> E-Contact Centre
> ScottishPower

>
>
> Did You Know..?
>
> ScottishPower - voted 'Best Online Service' for 5th consecutive year*
> *as voted in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 & 2009, uSwitch customer satisfaction survey.
>
> Scottish Power - rated No. 1 Energy Supplier in the National Customer Satisfaction Index, 2010.
>
> Scottish Power - selected as a finalist for 'Best Centre for Customer Service' in the European Contact Centre Awards, 2010.
>
> Scottish Power - selected as a finalist for 'Best Customer Experience Programme' in the North West Contact Centre Awards, 2010.
>
>

From Me -


I am really concerned with the figures you have presented below regarding my forecasted figures for the next 12 months. You are quoting the forecast electricity usage I will consume 5440 Kwh, and for gas it will be 17561 Kwh. From my account I have analysed my usage as far back as May 2008 and my Electricity usage for any 4 bill periods does not exceed 4826 Kwh. (it goes as low as 4294 Kwh for one set of readings) you are quoting that I can expect to use 5440 Kwh ? with the gas it is a similar story - any 4 billing periods since 2008, the range has been 10773 to 16088, with your forecast being 17561. If I use the top readings I have calculated your estimates are approximately 12% for Elec and 9% for Gas overestimated. If you then refer to my billing schedules, it has only been 2 occasions this year that I have ended in debit. This being totally attributed to the very harsh winter and the elevated gas usage for this period.  In this current Economic and Environmentally concious period I am doing all I can to use as little energy as possible for a family of 4. The figures I have analysed also show a downward trend, year on year for both gas and electricity usage. This reflects in the decreased payments I have managed since moving to Scottish Power.Please can you retain the credit I have on my account and revert my direct debit to the amount I was previously paying - this being £91.00. I believe this will be the correct amount I will need to pay.If you disagree or are unwilling to correct my direct debit to my desired amount I will seek to move suppliers.Thank You.


From Scottish Power -

The account balance after billing the account is £78.79 in credit.> > Your Monthly Direct Debit amount has been recalculated to £97.00 payable from 15th September 2010. > When calculating your new Direct Debit instalment value the following factors are taken into consideration: - > · Current unit price > · Service package discounts > · Current account balance > · Forecast energy usage over the next 12 months > > The breakdown of your forecasted energy over the next 12 months is as follows: > > Current Service Package: Online Energy Saver 4 > > Electricity 959 kWh x Unit price 17.056p £163.57 > Electricity 4481 kWh x Unit price 9.061p £406.02 > Discounts £22.38 > VAT £27.36> Total £574.57> > Gas 4897 kWh x Unit price 4.097p £200.63 > Gas 12664 kWh x Unit price 3.524p £446.28 > Discounts £10.72 > VAT £31.81> Total £668.00> > Total Electricity and Gas Charges £1,242.57 > Current Credit Balance £78.79 > Total Cost £1,163.78 > > Dividing this total by 12 months shows your Direct Debit should be set at £96.98. > > Your direct debit has been set to £97.00 per month to reflect the above calculations. > > Please be advised that if we refund £78.79, your Monthly Direct Debit amount will calculate to £107.00.> >

Robert2009

I am with another company and after taking into account online discounts and direct debit discounts

5143 kWh of electricity would cost me £494.56 and 15038 kWh of gas would cost me £427.27 giving a monthly DD of £76.82 in total.

However my tariff is no longer available from Eon.

If you decide to go elsewhere put in the figures 5143 and 15038 for your yearly usage and see how much you would pay from someone else.

Putting these figures into uswitch gives a cost of £927.95 from Sainsbury. However as you don't live where I live there might be a slight difference from that.

ricky9

Have you factored in the price rises that are due into your calcalations.
EDF IS THE FIRST TO SHOW THERE HANDS.
the rest will follow like sheep

Robert2009

Have you factored in the price rises that are due into your calcalations

No, why should I, I was only pointing out that there were alternatives and how easy it was to find them. If anyone wants to get cheaper gas and electricity they can do their own research.

It seems that most of the posters on here who want to spend less haven't a clue and need a gentle nudge.

My price is fixed until July 2011

Scottish_Power

Hi ankyspon

I believe that the USwitch website will provide a quote based on the consumption details that you update yourself. Did you update a monthly amount in £'s or did you provide an accurate annual consumption in kWh?

sece11 - Our billing system reviews your annual consumption everytime we receive an accurate meter reading. It is therefore looking at your consumption over the past 12-months or as close to that as possible. The consumption details that have been provided to you are based (I presume) on accurate meter readings recorded on 16/07/09 and 26/08/10. This is a good period to use to work out roughly what you will be using over a 12-month period. The agent has worked out your average daily consumption during this time and then calculated what this level of consumption would be over a 12-month period.

Do you disagree with the accuracy of the meter readings being used? If not, then the consumption quoted is correct. If you are looking at invoices going back to 2008 that show a lower consumption then that may have been the case during 2008 and 2009. We cannot charge you for what you were using 2 years ago and rather what you are using now which is why we have looked at the recent 12-months meter readings. If you have checked all invoices from May 2008 and none of the 12-month periods come to more than 4826 kWh for electricity then the meter readings provided for July 2009 and August 2010 must be incorrect as this is clearly over 4826 kWh.

Have a look at the statements that have been issued to you over the last 12-months and see if the consumption matches what you have been provided above.

What do you think your annual consumption is for gas and electricity and what meter readings are you using to base this on?

I'll be happy to review any figures you provide.

If you have any questions please let me know and I will be happy to help.

Kind Regards

Colin @ ScottishPower

SwanJon

ricky9 wrote: »

Have you factored in the price rises that are due into your calcalations.
EDF IS THE FIRST TO SHOW THERE HANDS.
the rest will follow like sheep

It may suprise you that energy suppiers don't release any price changes to switching sites (or their employees) in advance of informing (in the case of BG & SSE at least) the stock exchange. (I assume Eon, npower, & SP do similar things for their stock exchanges. EDF - anyone's guess).

I'm not convinced (and would love to be right) that any price rises are due.

sece11

sorry for hijacking this thread, but as the scottish power rep asked for info, and hence the reason i am so upset at the +10% increase due to their calcs / estimate - i cant see how their figures are worked out...

PS meter readings are provided by myself - and confirmed by their own meter reader (who incidently didnt bother knocking, just climbed over a secured fence to get access to the meter and frightened my wife and dog to death!)

¹
²

---

Electricity (kWh)----Gas (kWh)
Bill period

---

days-Total-Ave-Total-Daily Average
21/08/10 - 25/08/10 5 71 14 33 7
03/06/10 - 20/08/10 79 1058 13 525 7
14/03/10 - 02/06/10 81 1063 13 2394 30
24/12/09 - 13/03/10 80 1224 15 7906 99
04/10/09 - 23/12/09 81 1216 15 5185 64
16/07/09 - 03/10/09 80 1088 14 603 8
26/04/09 - 15/07/09 81 953 12 1010 12
05/02/09 - 25/04/09 80 1037 13 3975 50
16/11/08 - 04/02/09 81 1283 16 7272 90
19/08/08 - 15/11/08 89 1352 15 3159 35
23/05/08 - 18/08/08 88 1154 13 633 7

please help me to explain !

neil9313

ankyspon wrote: »

My BG fixed price tarrif came to an end in April 2010. I did a USwitch comparison exercise on this site for best combined rates. Scottish Power were the most competitive at that time. My DD was set up for £32/m for both electric and gas for 1st payment 12 July. I sent a meter reading on 27 Aug. To my horror, today, I got an email from Scottish Power advising me that my current payments are not in line with usage and that the DD amount will increase to £69/m from Oct 2010.

Over the last quarter, my kwh usage is about the same within 10% as over same quarter in 2009.

Have Scottish Power grossly under-estimated current and future energy rates and made a genuine mistake or have they knowingly used low rates on the USwitch site in order to get customers. I await their response to my email sent earlier.



Has anyone else had a similar problem?

Mike

Interesting first post, however not enough information given Jim! ..........................