Scottish Power Fixed Price - 28 February 2011

bunty109

Premier wrote: »

OES13 prices are effective from tomorrow

Details are now on the SP website http://www.scottishpower.co.uk/PDF/OnlineEnergySaver13May2012.pdf

Thanks - was definitely told it was this Friday - I feel a bit misled by SP....

lolly5648

The prices for OES13 seem to be cheaper in my area than OES12 - wish I hadn't rushed to sign up for 12.

Premier_2

lolly5648 wrote: »

The prices for OES13 seem to be cheaper in my area than OES12 - wish I hadn't rushed to sign up for 12.

Yes, for most users, especially on a single rate electricity supply, in your region OES13 is probably less than OES 12.

However, are you sure either was the cheapest option for you?
I would have thought e.g. BG Websaver 11 would give most users in your region a better deal.

Depending on when you signed up for OES12, you could have been benefitting for up to 3 months lower prices since switching. OES 12 was launched in November,

lolly5648

Premier wrote: »

Yes, for most users, especially on a single rate electricity supply, in your region OES13 is probably less than OES 12.

However, are you sure either was the cheapest option for you?
I would have thought e.g. BG Websaver 11 would give most users in your region a better deal.

I was on the fixed price deal with SP that finishes this month and transferred to OES12 around the end of Jan. I used the comparison sites and SP was definitely the cheapest for dual fuel and the amount of energy we use. I didn't want to take the risk of losing out when the fixed price ended if there was not a good deal to change onto.

Froglet

lolly5648 wrote: »

The prices for OES13 seem to be cheaper in my area than OES12 - wish I hadn't rushed to sign up for 12.

Me too,i am very annoyed,because although the gas is dearer on 13,the electric is significantly cheaper and i use a LOT more electric than gas.The risk you take when you sign up ,knowing there are penalties if you then want to back out.I thought each new tariff would be dearer.

hawkwind

I have been looking now the deal is due to end and the comparison sites claim edf online s@ver9 dual fuel to be the cheapest, although according to their website they have held price rises until March so i would assume they will not be the best option from next month.

Bit confused as none of the comparison sites give any details of SP in the cheapest offers?

But when looking here http://www.energychoices.co.uk/edf-unveils-online-saver-9-180211.html

They state

When it comes to online deals EDF’s new tariff is still nearly £180 more expensive than the cheapest one around at the moment. For example, Scottish Power’s Online Energy Saver 12 tariff will set you back £806 a year where as the new Online S@ver Version 9 will cost you £983 a year.

Confused, you bet i am.

I dont know whether to go for the SP OES13 tomorrow as it does not look as large an increase i i tought that it was going to be.

elektra

lolly5648 wrote: »

The prices for OES13 seem to be cheaper in my area than OES12 - wish I hadn't rushed to sign up for 12.

Having already initiated switch to OES12 I don't think I'm even going to look at prices for OES13 as I'll just get irritated if they are cheaper.

Premier_2

Oh why did I ever choose this bunch of numbskulls? :eek: :huh: :mad:

So they set me up on OES12 (I think). That comes with monthly direct debits. I set this at an amount that would be 1/12 my estimated annual usage (and since it's about now their annual review will occur, I wasn't too worried about it zeroing at the appropriate time of year)

My electricity was previously with SP, but paid quarterly on receipt of bill by DD. Just before the switch, I got another bill (as expected) and that was supposed to be collected Sunday (I know! so I thought Monday).
It's now Tuesday and there has been no collection. The DDI has vanished from my bank account (so presumably they have cancelled it as they set up a different DDI for monthly payments)

Just tried to call SP because my new account (it's got a different account number to the previous electric only tariff) is now in debt to the amount they should have collected. This will mess up my monthly payment plan.

When I call then I get:

"Your call is important to us." blah blah blah

"However all our operators are too busy to speak to you" :mad:

"Please email us with your issue or call us again later. Good bye." (Where's that rolling eyes emoticon when you really need it?)

They may be cheap, but I think I'm finding out just why they are cheap.

oldandhappy

I think you might find they are all of simular mould...SP new price options where a shock after fixed Feb 2011 Tariff finished 28th so I am to move to BG whose prices are better for our area at this time.
Done through Uswitch for the extra £22.00 as well.

Premier_2

Thanks, oldandhappy, but I was previously with Ebico administered by SSE. I certainly didn't get this type of issues with SSE although admittedly they were not perfect. However, what I did find with Ebico is that if I wasn't happy with the way SSE were acting, I could escalate the matter direct with Ebico who tended to get the issue sorted out.

Trying to contact SP yesterday, I tied calling again and got a little more success and got put on hold. However, I was still on hold when I went to deb and when I awaoke this morning I found I was still on hold - on hold for over 12 hours! :eek: :mad:
(Good job it was a freephone number )

Anyway called them again this morning.
Initial advisor gave more bun information. They confiremed that original billed amnount was not being collected as previously advised as they added it to the new account they created for the new tariff. So my new tariff is already in debt to the vavue of 3 months usage (previous account was based on wuarterly payment on receipt of bill)
She then explained not to worry as I'm now paying monthly by DD.
I explained the monthly DD was to cover usage based on OES12 only, not collection of arrears.
Then she said, "Ah, but we'll review your monthly DD payment after every 3 months and adjust it if it's not on track."
I tried to explain it won't be on track as they would effectively be assessing cost of consumption over 6 months (the past 3 months and the next 3 months) and I'd have only paid 3 months DD payments so I would still be in arrears and so the monthly amount will then be increased.
I explained this is not what I wanted. I wanted to pay OES12 on monthly DD covering only the consumption used in OES12. If they collected last quarter's payment as they originally said they would, there wouldn't be a problem.

Then the advisor came out with this corker:
"Oh don't worry, by May you will be using less energy as it'll be springtime, so normally we would reduce your monthly DD to accomodate this. With any luck the arrears now carried forward will be offset by this reduction so we'll be able to keep the monthly payments the same" :eek:

I asked again for complete clarification. Was she telling me that monthly payments are adjusted throughout the year to compensate for different usage. i.e. higherr payments in Winter and lower payments in Summer? I said I believed the bnasis of monthly payments was to even outv the payments over the year so that each month I would pay the same - the total hopefully amounting to the annual cost of consumption.

She reconfirmed that payments were now adjusted every 3 months to take account of lower usage in summer. i.e. I would pay less in summer when usage was less and pay more in winter months when usage was higher. The idea that paying the same amount every month was amended some time ago following complaints by other customers that they were either accumulating positive or negative balances during the year.

So I asked, well if that's the case, can you just bill me every 3 months and I'll pay for what I actrually consumed (as I always did previously). She said oh no, we can't do that. When I asked why as that is what she effectively was suggesting i.e. to pay for only what I consumed as I consumed it, she asked if I wanted to escalate the matter to a complaint. So I did.

Next guy confirmed that the previous advice was all garbage - the idea of monthly DD payments was and still is to pay a set, same amount every month which will hopefully cover total annual consumption.

So back to where I started, how would they like to get paid for the previous 3 months they had already billed me for on the basis I would pay it on receipt of bill. Adding it to the new tariff would screw up my monthly DD payments. I was happy for them to either arrange a new DD collection (I knew they couldn't as they have already cancelled the old DDI with my bank but I didn't tell them that) or would they like to send me a bank giro credit so that I could pay the amount at a bank?

They said they didn't send BGC slips. I questioned this as I said they certainly used to. Pass.

Next he said I can see we are due to collect your first monthly payment in the next few days; we could arrnage to add the arrears brought forward to that collection if you'd like.
ER, no I wouldn't like that thank you. You need to provide advance notice. "I'm giving it to you now" he suggested. Er, no, I think you'll find it needs to be 10 working days notice.
"But you said we gave you notice last month over the bill"
You did, but that was due for collection and you only have 3 working days to collect it and that has now expired so the advance notice has effectivel lapsed, sorry.
"Oh I don't know about that, we'll just add it to the amount we plan to collect in a few days"
Well I know about it; perhaps I could speak to someone within your company who does understand the DD scheme. What I can tell you is that the DD guarantee clearly allows me to reclaim any amount collected that has not been given the appropriate advance notice. Not only will that mean you don't get the arrears, but partial reclaims aree not the way the DD guarantees works so if you add it to the monthly payment you have correctly adbised me of, the whole lot will be reclaimed.

"Oh, I see. Ermmm... well you could write to us I suppose enclosing a checque and ask for that to be credited to your account" he suggested pulling at straws.

I'll tell you what, you write to me, explaining the problem you have created yourself and requesting payment by cheque for last quarters bill which you failed to collect contrary to the previous billing advice sent, and I'll staple my cheque to it and send it you back.

Oh in between all this, he cut me off too! :mad:
He did have the good grace to call me straight back though, so they can call my telephone number :T
So won't their call back system accept it? :huh:

Anyway, final option is they said they will collect the arrears in next month's (April's) monthly payment collection. I said fine, as long as I get the correct advance notice.

Not a great start Scottish Power!
I'm already counting down the days to 29 Feb 2012 so that I can switch. In fact, if I find a competitive quote elsewhere that'll pay the £50 early exit fee (cashback?), I'm tempted to switch today.

I never thought I'd say this, but it's a shame Ebico don't offer cashback
(I'd probably place the electricity with OVO, but no cashback there either I believe)

Cheap is good, but when I have to spend so much time complaining, I'd rather pay a few more pennies and get a much better service