Scottish Power - my next step to complain?

Annouck

Hi. I wrote on here a little while ago about a complaint I made to Scottish Power. Cutting long stories short someone came to read the meter and I phoned afterwards as I had another estimated bill... they'd LOST the meter reading so I gave them my own. I owe £300. They did tell me, and I quote, 'your usage is quite normal' so, for what they consider normal usage they still under-estimated particularly badly.
I complained that I felt the underestimate was purposeful and that I am now tied to them as I cannot pay this off.
I got an answerphone message saying that they beileved it was solved as my debt had been spread over 2 years.
This was not my complaint in the first place.
I called back by pressing recall on my phone but the person wasn't there.
I deleted the message by accident so now have no number to call back again.
SINCE THEN I HAVEN'T HEARD A THING - no letter, no call, nothing.
My complaint has now grown to their shocking customer service!

Any ideas?

Premier_2

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=scottish+power+complaints+procedure

davidgmmafan

To be honest I can't see how they can resolve your complaint. They can't change what's gone before, they can try to accomodate you with a payment arrangement and maybe give you some sort of goodwill gesture for the percieved poor service.

I would've thought it is unlikely they deliberately under-estimated the billing as this would be a risk for any business. A sales person may have deliberately set the DD too low but that's not quite the same thing. That's mis-selling and is a different kind of complaint.

Scottish_Power

Hi Annouck

I fully appreciate your frustration and I am sorry that we have been unable to resolve this matter for you originally. Billing customers to underestimated meter readings is certainly not a ploy to keep customers with us due to them running up a debt. We do not want any customer to be in debt to us and this is often discussed on th forum when it comes to Direct Debit payments and how much payments should be set to.

Under our current licence conditions, we are required to read your meter at least once every 2 years. We will however try our very best to read all customers meters far more often than this. From what you have posted, your meter has been read yet the meter reading is not being transferred onto your billing system. If this is what has been happening, thus causing your account to be estimated, then that is a matter that needs addressed.

If we have been sending statements to you, they will be clearly identified as being estimated if we do not have an accurate meter reading for you. This allows you to check the meter reading we are using to bill your account against what is actually showing on your meter. If there is a large difference then we have a number of options available for you to update an accurate meter reading and have an amended statement sent out to you.

If we have made an error which has resulted in your account being underestimated, then that may be why we have allowed you to set up a payment arrangement over 2 years. Normally, accounts will be calculated to recover any debt over a period of 12-months.

Let me know if you have any further questions or whether you would like me to investigate the account for you.

Kind Regards

Colin @ ScottishPower