Major price increase by Scottish Power

Spirit666

Hi all,

wonder if someone can help me with this problem. I have lived in my flat for over 3 years now and I have been with Scottish Power since I moved in. When we first moved in the price of the electricity a month was £85. The flat is only ran on electricity and I have no gas central heating but I do have wet central heating radiators which are powered off of a water cylinder so no storage heater in my flat.

The problem im having is in April I contacted SP to see if they could do me a better deal they said to me that I was £540ish in credit so what they could do was reduce my monthly payments to £14 a month and take the rest of it off the credit that I had, or they could refund me the money and reduce my payments to £65 a month as I was paying too much for my supply.

In Dec I got a letter from them saying that they where increasing my payments to £159 a month and left it at that no reason as to why so I phoned them and ask what was going on? I was told that for 3 years they had only taken one meter reading and because I have 2 meter I have been getting free electricity for 3 years so they had to claim the money back but as a good will gesture they had only back dated it to August when they found out about the mistake they had made.

Is there anything I can do to stop this? They knew there was 2 meters the whole time as the meter readers comes all the time and takes the two readings. I have never had a bill off them since I moved in but now they have sent copies of them all up to 2009 as that is as far back as they go (I dont think so). How can they say they found out about the mistake in August but no tell me until dec and the only reason I found out is cause I called them! If anyone can help I would really love to get it solved. I cant move supplier as I have been told that noone but SP supply electricity for my case so I am kinda stuck with them also noone can tell me what kind of supply it is its not economy 7 or 10 or 11 so I have no idea what it is and SP just say it is a standard rate.

Please help sorry it is so long but there is alot to say thanks in advance.

2010

Seems to me that SP have been very fair in this matter.
You`ve effectively received three years electricity but only been charged for six months.

Although SP failed to read the second meter, you also failed to notice that you were not being charged.
Surely you must have noticed or didn`t you read your bills.

Don`t look a gift horse in the mouth is my advice.

Spirit666

Both meters are always on the bill and like I said I was never sent any bills from them as I was told in dec I was on an online account. I never gave them my email address or register for this type of account.

I have spoken to a number of people in my block of flats and they dont pay anywhere near as much as Im being told I have to pay plus there are two flats that are occupied by people that dont work ( I dont speak to them) and there is no way they pay that much for electricity on benifits.

I just want to know how they can justify knowing about the two meters before I moved in with the previous owners then as soon as I move in the second meter just gets forgotten about. Then in august they see their mistake but dont write to me to tell me but I have to phone them to get an answer to the whole situation nearly 3 months later.:(

Premier_2

What do you want from the supplier?

The supplier is allowed to back bill you 12 months ... but look to have only decided to back bill you 6 months (since last August). They can also use any credit built up to pay for consumption longer than 12 months ago.

The meters are in your property. The bills come to you. You need to check those bills and if there is an apparent error, question it. The supplier has made a mistake, but appears to have been very generous in the way they are treating it.

What would you like to see as a fair resolution?

Scottish_Power

Hi Spirit666

This is an unfortunate situation and I agree that you should have been contacted when this billing error was identified by us. It is normal procedure that we will try to contact you or write to you to explain the situation. You mention in your post that your account was set up as an online account which would mean we have updated an email address for you. If the email address is incorrect then this may be the reason why you have not received your bills or an explanation regarding the billing error.

If we set up your electricity account and not updated both meters, this will result in you being charged only for the units used on one meter. From what you have posted, it sounds like you should have been billed on our Comfort Plus Control tariff. On this tariff, one meter will record all the electricity used in relation to the heating within your property, the other meter will record all other domestic electricity use (lights, TV, fridge/freezer etc).

As we are members of the Energy Retail Association we have agreed to comply with the Billing Code which stipulates that we are only entitled to back bill your account 12 months if we have been billing you incorrectly. This does not mean that we remove all charges prior to 12-months ago and rather requires that we review the charges we did apply to your account up to 12-months ago and then compare this with the correct charges up to 12-months ago. If the correct charges result in an increased charge, then the difference is credited to your account in the form of an energy adjustment and VAT at 5%.

We would then be able to review your correct electricity consumption and discuss a suitable payment arrangement to cover ongoing use (based on both meters consumption) and also recover any outstanding balance, if applicable.

I hope this information helps. Please let me know if you have any further questions.

Kind Regards

Colin @ ScottishPower