Billing period is 82 days?

maxmiler

Hi Colin,

I do have internet access at home. I respond immediately whenever I am asked for my readings online. Never more than one day after the email requesting the current readings.

We rarely get a human meter reader, so the meter reader's rounds should not be affecting me. In fact, the "Actual Readings" do not appear to have any impact on the billing period.
I have also noted below which reading that the final bill was based on.

28/07/08 to 17/10/08 = 82 days Customer reading
18/10/08 to 05/01/09 = 80 days Customer reading - also interim readings Actual and Estimated
06/01/09 to 28/03/09 = 82 days Customer reading
29/03/09 to 16/06/09 = 80 days Customer reading
17/06/09 to 05/09/09 = 81 days Customer reading - superseded by the one below due to tariff change
17/06/09 to 09/12/09 = 176 days Customer reading - also interim Estimated reading
10/12/09 to 27/02/10 = 80 days Customer reading - also interim readings Actual and Estimated
28/02/10 to 18/05/10 = 80 days Customer reading
19/05/10 to 08/08/10 = 82 days Customer reading
Meter reader came week ending 15 Oct 2010

As you can see, each billing period above (that I have records for) show periods of about 81 days? NEVER 90 days. Are you suggesting that I should not enter my readings until 10 days has passed from the email requesting my readings?

I look forward to any comments.

Regards

Jeff (Max)

maxmiler

Well, I suppose it was too much factual info for Colin to reply.

Scottish Power have lost a customer as soon as my capped tariff is finished.

Scottish_Power

Hi maxmiler

Sorry for missing your reply. This has only been brought to my attention this morning.

I think I know what is happening here - as you are an online customer we will send you a request to read you meter before the 91 day period (the condition of the online account). As an online customer you do not need to generate a bill each quarter, you are only required to update a meter reading at least one every 91 days. We will generate an annual statement for you.

If you do want to create a quarterly statement for your information, then I would suggest waiting for the 91 day period and then update your meter reading and generate the bill. We will automatically send you a reminder email to let you know that a meter reading is required. If no reading is updated within 7 days, then we will send you a second email reminder. It will make no difference to your account if you hold back until the 90th or 91st day.

Hope this helps to clarify what has been happening and sorry again for the delay in replying.

Kind Regards

Colin @ ScottishPower

maxmiler

Colin,

I have waited for 90 days, and the website tells me that my readings are overdue. I now have an estimated bill.
I have entered my actual readings, so we'll see what happens when the new bill is generated.

Regards

Jeff (Max)

wakeupalarm

I've had similar experience as the OP with SP. It's always 80/81/82 days between statements. I provide the meter readings when requested. To be honest I didn't worry about it too much as at the end of the year it balances out, but thinking about it, I wonder if this is another ruse used by SP to increase direct debits when they do their annual review which always seems to happen after 2 DD per quarter rather then 3.

No matter, another unhappy customer leaving them soon.

maxmiler

Colin,

My new bill was available today. It is based on my readings, and therefore not estimated. It covers 89 days as even though I entered my readings on 07 Nov (90 days), the bill says it runs to 06 Nov.

I have read through the email asking for my readings and it says
"So that we don't have to estimate how much energy you use, please provide us with your meter reading(s) within the next seven days."

But I didn't do it within 7 days and my readings appear to have overridden the estimate that had not been fully processed, so the email is a bit misleading.

Also, looking at when my DD was increased it was as per the previous posting (i.e. after only 2 payments had been taken). This now means that my next bill (stated on my account as being 05/02/11) will show a credit of 434.79 before the charges are applied. Last year in this period my charges were £325.99 (a very very cold winter), and the year before £242.25. So even after this coming winter I expect that I will be well over £100 still in credit. Had my DD not been changed in July 2010, then I would have paid £104 less next Feb which would put me only slightly in credit.

I can only conclude that the increase of my DD was probably skewed by the amendment only being done after 2 payments were made.

I therefore agree with "wakeupalarm" above, and hope that I can maintain a 90 or 91 day charging period to keep things level until my capped tariff ends.

Regards

Jeff (Max)

maxmiler

The plot thickens.

Today (12Nov) I received an email at 09:22 with the subject "Bill Notification".

It went on "We recently asked you to give us your meter reading, but we have not received it yet so have had to create an estimated Bill/Statement for you."

I did enter my reading on 07Nov. Yet here we are 5 days later, still asking me for a meter reading even though the full bill based on my reading had been produced by 09Nov.

This indicates inefficiency. I am not impressed. Especially as the bottom of the email had 4 claims extolling the marvellous service provided by Scottish Power. All I can say about this is that SP are not as bad as my previous electricity provider, but they were so bad that I had to report them to Energywatch. Although they did only produce a bill every 90 days!!!

Jeff (Max)

maxmiler

And it gets worse.

Its now just before midnight, and I have just had another email.

Subject: You have not yet given us your meter reading.

Oh Dear. Do I really want to deal with a company with systems that don't even know that they have already had everything that they need, and already produced an accurate bill?

It even says "As you know, we check your account every 3 months to ensure that everything's running smoothly, and you're not paying too much or too little to cover the cost of your energy - we remain the only Energy Supplier in the UK to do this."

Shouldn't that be every 80 days, and not 3 months?

brewerdave

You couldn't make it up :rotfl:
re setting of DDs - see my reply earlier in the thread #9