Scot power late price rise announcement

oscarward

Hi

Just received an email dated 21/1 from Scot Power telling me that the gas and electric tariffs would rise.

Nothin unusual in that except they tell me the prices will apply from the 25th of November.

I can't remember anything coming in snail mail so any chance I could argue the rise should apply from when I was notified?

dogshome

Hi oscarward - Look at your Terms & Conditions. They will state how many days you have from the date the rise was notified to you,( Usually 10 days), to advise them you do not accept the new prices and are going to Switch, and also start the Switch process - SP then have to maintain the old prices till the Switch takes place, and depending on the terms of your tariff, you may or may not have to pay any early exit fee listed on your tariff ,

SP may well be pulling a fast one - Price rise on 25th November, Email dated 21 January but sent 29th/30th January ? - Looks like they are trying to deny you the 10 day Switch window.

Suggest you quickly run your annual Kwh numbers thro' the Switch sites, and if you want to move immediately Email SP and follow it up with a Complaint letter regarding the Email notification date

Premier_2

According to their general terms & conditions, term 5.8 applies to gas which allows you 10 working days from receiving the notification to notify them you wish to terminate the agreement; term 9.8 refers to electricity and allows you 209 working days from receiving such notice to provide them with notice you wish to terminate the agreement.

Not sure if you were sent a letter as well, but we were which was dated 18 January 2011. As they send it TNT, they'll probably allow up to 7 days for delivery.

Edit: As for email, if you examine the full headers, you should be able to see when the email was actually sent, which other servers it may have gone through on it's delivery path with associated dates, and then the date it was delivered to your mail server and then your email account.

Cardew

I also got the same email yesterday.

--Important information about your energy prices--

We are writing to advise you of an increase in our energy prices because of rising wholesale energy costs. On average, customers on standard prices will notice a gas increase of 2%* and an electricity increase of 8.9%**. However, rules introduced by the energy regulator Ofgem about how gas and electricity prices vary in different areas mean that the actual movements may differ from these figures, depending on where you live. The figures will also vary depending on how much energy you use. This change came into effect on 25th November 2010#.

For more details on the new prices and changed discount, please visit http://www.scottishpower.co.uk/pricechangeproducts to view the full pricing leaflet (your supply area is Midlands and your energy package is Online Energy Saver 9).
If you're currently taking advantage of one of our product offers, any additional discounts or benefits you receive will continue to apply, so you can carry on enjoying a deal suited to your needs.

In answer to the OP's question, they have 65 working days(13 weeks) to notify you from the date of the rise.(that is soon to change)

If we want to change supplier we now have 10 working days to notify them that we are switching because of the price rise, and we will be charged on the old(pre 25 Nov) rates until we move.

In my case though there is £30 electricity & £20 gas cancellation charge if I move before 31/03/11

oscarward

Just read down the email and found the following

#You have the right to end your contract and have 20 working days from receipt of this letter to do so. If you do that, and the transfer of supplier process begins no later than 15 working days after you inform us, the new prices will not apply. Changes to gas prices and the gas primary block mean that some gas customers will see a decrease in their annual gas bill.

I'll call them tomorrow and ask what my options are but it looks like I'm switching and paying the exit charge.