SCOTTISH POWER plc

J107

Just wondering if anyone else has experienced over estimated bills from SCOTTISH POWER? Just want to know if you have looked at a recent bill and you know your meters have been 'read' providing an accurate 'actual' reading and when you look at the bill SCOTTISH POWERnot only have the 'actual' meter reading but they have decided to 'estimate' it higher in order to get more on your bill. I just happened to notice this with my last bill and they nearly had an extra £30 odd off me until I told them I was not paying until they used the 'actuall' reading that they had got in the first place!

I think they must have thought they were being clever then they said they would have to get my meters read again. I asked 'Why?' they said they needed an accurate reading to provide an up to date bill lol! I said 'right then'. I knew they wanted to get another set of readings to justify the extra money they tried to 'estimate' on my bill. The problem for them, that I had been on holiday so they were lucky to get a couple of extra units. So they had to issue a 'new' bill which was cheaper for me. Total waste of money in their part as it would have cost them more than the £30 they over estimated by spending money on a meter reader to call, then the time used to sort out the bill and post it back to me. A very 'sharp' practice by this company, and it's not their only one when it comes to getting money from customers that have not used the consumption to justify the extra money.

I am raising this matter with ofgem and the other regulator for this industry and would like to hear from others that have had the same type of problem just to see how widespread this practice is.

Thanks in advance if you have taken the time to reply. I will be doing another post on their Direct Debit 'practice'.

Again thanks,

Ji.

J107

On from my last post is paying by Direct Debit with SCOTTISH POWER. I eventually caught on to another sharp practice again after having my meters read by a 'real' person. They would take one reading for say the electricity and then 'estimate' the gas although the gas meter had been read at the same time as the electricity meter. They would then 'over estimate' that reading and then they would follow it quickly up with a letter stating that they would have to increase how much I paid monthly to cover the 'estimated' charges. I would normally get a letter just in time BEFORE it was too late to allow them to 'increase' their payment. I stopped the Direct Debits and put them on a Standing Order payment. Funnily enough Scottish Power did not like this, so I eventually changed it to a 'whole bill payment' paying the bill on a quarterly basis then I thought they could not 'inflate' the bill because it would have to be based on 'actual' meter readings, guess what I was wrong (see post above)!

Now having been a loyal customer for 30 odd years, I am now changing my supplier. With Scottish Power they soon got 'heavy' if you did not pay them when they wanted (for whole bill) and what they got up to was unreal but when they owed me a £200 refund it was a right carry on to get the money from them, as I told then 'they did not like it when the shoe was on the other foot' meaning them owing me and not the other way round!

See my next post on the saga of 'Getting a Customer Refund from Scottish Power plc'.

davidgmmafan

Hmm I'd better weight in before the, how shall I put it, more direct posters turn up. Everyone should check thier reading. I can't see the point of a company estimating bills deliberately high as it causes complaints and repeat contact. Ditto for not using meter readings provided.

I'm not sure quite what you are getting at, and am wondering how you think your new supplier will be any diffierent?

J107

davidgmmafan wrote: »

Hmm I'd better weight in before the, how shall I put it, more direct posters turn up. Everyone should check thier reading. I can't see the point of a company estimating bills deliberately high as it causes complaints and repeat contact. Ditto for not using meter readings provided.

I'm not sure quite what you are getting at, and am wondering how you think your new supplier will be any diffierent?

If you are in the habit of trusting a company you might not always check what they get up to. I am sure there are a large number of cutomers who like me trusted their supplier. I know for a fact that the older generation do, as when o kept mentioning what the company were up to they thought it might have been just me that had got things wrong, that was until it started happening to them! If you actually think about all the customers they have, this practice is a nice little earner, especially when their initial response was to leave the higher payments just in case.

On the point of the 'whole bill reading' had it actually bot been the meter man I would not have noticed they had estimated charges. I had to have him read an 'actual' for the electricity, that's when he pointed out the gas had been estimated despite the meter being read. Tomes this practice and it will add up to some amount, so therefore it is more than SP's while to do this. Luke any other company they have a well versed complaints script that would put you off and trust in them but I had had enough!

I switched someone else to the company I am transferring to and their practices over a year if watching them is or seems fair, in fact they were falling over backwards to issue refunds and reduce monthly payments as the payments where higher than 'actual' usage. They also take their customers readings and bill on that basis to save on resources of employing meter readers.

Ji

J107

On from my last post.....

GETTING A REFUND FROM SCOTTISH POWER

I found out (after Scottish Power kept me in the dark for a while) I was due a £200 odd pound refund from Scottish Power. (They are quick enough to get on to you if you don't pay them, but when the shoe is on the other foot, they ((Scottish Power)) certainly don't like it). I found this out as they produced a statement for my account in September 2009, they 'posted' it in the mail in December 2009 (and yes because of the weather then it got delayed), which meant I did not get this 'statement' until the end of January 2010.

I was by that time furious with Scottish Power, so I contacted them about a refund, they had the cheek to ask did I not want to leave the money with them, I told them NO get the refund out.

If you had read my earlier posts you would have seen that my supply meters are well read. So Scottish Power decided that they needed my meters read AGAIN before I got a refund! The meter reader duly came and read both meters at the same time and what did Scottish Power do?

They issued FOUR cheques for the one refund. i.e. They sent fifty odd pound in one cheque and so on until I got the whole refund back.

There customer service is disgusting, Scottish Power as a company are disgusting in respects of the way they treat their 'customers'. Anyway I have taken action and now in the process of moving supplier. I had been a loyal customer but with that treatment enough was enough.

I have now lodged a formal complaint with the regulators (not sure if it will do any good).

So do you have the same over charging or bad customer experience with Scottish Power? If so can you drop me a line, please?

Many thanks

Ji

angelsmomma

I am with scottish power and I have to say I have none of the problems you mention.

In fact I have recently posted on another thread on here (is your heating on or off) that despite me paying my direct debit at a higher rate than they said I needed I insisted I give them more to build up enough to cover all my winter bill, they have reduced my direct debit and refunded me the credit of £193. I did not ask them (or want them) to they just did it because they saw so much credit on my account.

I also do my readings every month online so know exactly what I am using and how much it is costing me.

MillicentBystander

I've always got on OK with Spanish Power, TBH. If you input regular (I would recommend monthly) meter readings online the bill is updated immediately IME. Plus, I really can't complain being that they have paid me £235 total cash back since April. Mad company, but in a good way, lol.

KimYeovil

davidgmmafan wrote: »

Hmm I'd better weight in before the, how shall I put it, more direct posters turn up. Everyone should check thier reading. I can't see the point of a company estimating bills deliberately high as it causes complaints and repeat contact. Ditto for not using meter readings provided.

I'm not sure quite what you are getting at, and am wondering how you think your new supplier will be any diffierent?

Yes, that what I was going to say but would have phrased it a bit more directly. Good call.

Scottish_Power

Hi J107

I am sorry to hear about the inconvenience that has been caused. There are a number of issues which you have mentioned which can be easily rectified. For example, if your electricity meter is being read and your gas meter is not, then it is likely that they are on different meter reading cycles and this needs to be aligned so that both meters are read on the same day. The meters may be read however this does not always mean that you are due a statement at that time. If your statement is due 1 month, after the meter readings are taken, then we will update the accurate meter readings recorded and then bill the account to estimated meter readings up to date (based on the consumption levels recorded). If the estimated meter readings are incorrect and are far more than what is showing on your meter then we can amend the bill if you are able to confirm the current meter readings. Unless we are requesting a change to your monthly payments at that time, it will not make any difference to you financially as we will continue to collect the agreed Direct Debit amount and a new statement will be issued next quarter to accurate readings or estimates if unable to collect readings. Again, we can send out a accurate statement if we are provided with accurate meter readings.

If you have internet access in the house and you are able to read your meter then you can eliminate estimated statements by updating your readings online as angelsmomma and MillicentBystander do. By doing this you create a data table online which graphs your consumption each month therefore answering any questions you may have about consumption or how much you think you should be paying.

If you do decide to return to ScottishPower I would recommend checking out the benefits of the online service as I am sure this would resolve any potential billing issues in the future.

Let me know if you have any questions and I will be more than happy to help.

Kind Regards

Colin @ ScottishPower

michaeln2

J107 wrote: »

Just wondering if anyone else has experienced over estimated bills from SCOTTISH POWER? Just want to know if you have looked at a recent bill and you know your meters have been 'read' providing an accurate 'actual' reading and when you look at the bill SCOTTISH POWERnot only have the 'actual' meter reading but they have decided to 'estimate' it higher in order to get more on your bill.

Ji.

I have noticed this too.

Just got my quarterly bill from scottish power today (i pay quarterly cash).

Both my meters ,gas & electric, were read on 11 december....i was chatting to the meter reader about the terrible weather as he took the readings, so i know both readings were taken.

The bill stated that the electric had been estimated at over 500 kWh more than what the actual reading was. As you can imagine, this increased the bill considerably.

I contacted them & asked for a new bill to be sent based on the readings that were taken on the day the meters were read, which they said they would. They could not explain why the reading taken by the meter reader had not been used when my bill was prepared.

I have always kept a record of meter readings & jotted them down at the time of the reading ......may sound a little paranoid as i always keep old paid bills too.

Been with scottish power since 2006 & they have been ok in the past regarding meter readings taken each quarter, hardly ever used to get an estimated bill, etc. But the last 18 months or so they have been not so satisfactory.