Scottish Power Arrears

makaze

Hello. I switched to Scottish Power in Sept 2008 and set up the direct debit. I received ongoing mail saying than thanks for your payments etc.
They have told me debits were collected from someone else's account and so I am now £3000 in arrears.

It is the first time anything has gone wrong like this and I just presumed payments were being made. I suppose I must accept some responsibility, how much I am not sure.

I can not afford this bill in a lump sum. What sort of repayment levels should I be looking to secure from the company? My budget is tight.

Many thanks for help in this timely nightmare.

macman

You are fully liable if you have used the £3000 of energy. Your budget is tight but you haven't checked your bank statements in over 2 years?

makaze

I didn't query "liability" in my post.

spiro

So in over 2 years you hadn't noticed that SPOW have taken no money from your bank account? :eek:
How much did you think they were taking (it was on the bills)? Wasn't it enough for to realise you had more money in your account that you expected?
As you have not paid then surely you have the £3000 still in your account?:rotfl:
The real question is 'Who got the DD wrong'? Did you give them the wrong details or did they put the wrong details in? The answer to this will effect how long you get to repay it, if its you fault you may get 6months-1year, if its their fault then I would argue for 2 years. But does mean you will be paying between double and three times per month what you should have been paying for some time and on top of that is any price increase.

macman

makaze wrote: »

I didn't query "liability" in my post.

Yes you did, you said 'how much?'
I would ask them for 2 years to pay it off, I think however that a year is the best you'll get. A large lump sum paid now will probably help your argument of course.
Bear in mind however that you've already had 2 years interest free credit from them (or rather from the poor s*d who has been happily paying your monthly DD without noticing!)

makaze

I have no idea what trip you are on and why the bad attitude. For what it's worth we have had lost parents to long drawn out cancer battles and reading through bank anything has been that far from our minds.

keep up the good work, not.

t0rt0ise

macman wrote: »

Bear in mind however that you've already had 2 years interest free credit from them (or rather from the poor s*d who has been happily paying your monthly DD without noticing!)

That guy is even dafter.. paying out a monthly bill that isn't theirs. And I expect they'll get a nice goodwill gesture to recompense them so we don't need to worry about them.

As for the OP. Offer them a monthly payment that you can afford and work from there. Speak to the complaints department, they tend to be the most sensible.

macman

makaze wrote: »

I have no idea what trip you are on and why the bad attitude. For what it's worth we have had lost parents to long drawn out cancer battles and reading through bank anything has been that far from our minds.

keep up the good work, not.

I don't have any 'attitude'. You asked if you have any responsibility and I pointed out that you did. Regardless of your personal circumstances, you and you alone are responsible for your financial affairs. SP had no reason to query the DD, as it was still coming in from the 3rd party, and presumably that would have continued had they not eventually noticed.
Since the debt has been built up over 2 years, you should start from the negotiating point of asking 2 years to pay it off. They will no doubt want it sooner, so you just need to find a compromise.

davidgmmafan

I can sort of see where the OP is coming from, some posters on here can be somewhat to the point. I don't think any offence is meant, well mostly, I think they are genuinly staggered by some of the things they read.

For example once spoke to a guy who had left a standing order running for an account he moved out of years ago. I won't give any amounts but it was a modest monthly amount which added up to a lot. He said I'm just checking my bank statements and blah blah blah.

Afterwards I thought you myself so you check your bank statements every eight years or so???

I don't think in this case the utility company has done anything wrong. If they were billing an account and getting payments not sure how they would've picked up on it.

Its not a law or anything but they will generally agree to spread a balance over the amount of time it took to run up. This is usually where they have made an error, this comes down to who gave or entered the wrong details. At best the blame for this is split, if they put the wrong details in you would've been sent the details and/or not checked the bank to ensure it was coming out.

Given that its going to take some time to clear probably not a bad idea to ensure you are on the cheapest ariff (this is usually an online tariff).