Scottish Power - Highly disappointing

simonwalsh

I've suffered with Scottish Pwoer since signing up with them in August 2010, and now it's just coming to a head where I've had enough.

Having previously seemingly not wanted to bill me for months - They wouldn't give me online log in details despite multiple requests, and wouldn't send anything to my house. This was all sorted eventually, and apologised for, I now have queries about the bills.

On Feb 17, they requested a meter reading. I gave one and recieved a thank you for doing so email.

On Feb 18, they revised my bill. It had gone up, as expected with the winter months. No problem there.

Out of the blue now on Feb 19, I recieve another email saying that my bill has been revised, and it's gone up by £11 on the 'revised' amoutn sent on Feb 18!

Scottish Power have replied to my complaint, and explained it should be the Feb 19 amount. However, I'm still querying this, as they gave me a 'timeline of events' according to their records, which is completely wrong. The dates are wrong, the amounts are wrong, and and there's no mention of them sending me a revised mail on Feb 19.

I'm sorry to have a bit of a rant, but has anyone else suffered such a rubbish level of service from Scottish Power? As I have to say, I've had nothing but bother from them since signing up.

Whilst I await another copy and pasted reply with minimal apologies from SP, I was wondering what the deal is with the likes of uSwitch etc.

If I switch, and I thoroughly intend to unless they come up with something decent in reply, what exactly is involved?

Do I have to pay my remaining balance with SP, and the contract cancellation fee etc? As I'm being quoted that I cold save £270 per year by moving to nPower.

Thanks for the help, comment and advice.

Premier_2

Their level of customer service is not great. I've had historical issues with them, and have recently returned to them. See my recent experiences I logged here:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=41244192&postcount=91


Anyway, to go direct to the point of your issue, do you agree with the revised bill? If so, then that is what you owe. If not, I would make an official compliant explaining why you believe there to be an error. (To be fair, when I made an official complaint in the past, they did resolve my complaint)

If you just don't understand the bill, you'll need to give us some more information and perhaps we can help you.

simonwalsh

I have had a reply back, and once again they are wrong with the dates.

They claim the first revised bill was sent on the 17th as I hadn't provided a meter reading. First of all, the revised bill was sent on the evening of the 18th (I have email proof of this) and I submitted meter readings on the 17th as requested (of which I have email proof). Again, no reference to the 2nd upped bill sent to me on the 19th.

I understand the pricing system, but wish to enquire as to why it has been upped a second time. It's all quite confusing.

A lady called Lynn emailed this back, and asked me to call her on the number provided immediately. I rang it, only to be told they are not open on a Sunday. Obviously someone is sat somewhere answering emails, but I cannot get in touch. I have replied asking them to ring me ASAP.

Scottish_Power

Hi simonwalsh

I would like to apologise for any confusion caused. I am sure there will be a simple explanation for this. Little confused regarding the information you have posted and please let me explain why:

1. You received a bill on 18/02/11 providing you with details on your charges up to the meter readings you entered for 17/02/11.
2. You say that you received a revised bill on 19/02/11 confirming your charges have gone up by £11?

I am not aware of us ever writing to a customer to tell them that we have created a new statement for them and instead of sending the statement to them, we write and tell them that there charges are increasing by £11.

What I believe you mean, and please correct me if I am wrong, is that you received a statement on 18/02/11 confirming your charges and that you received a Direct Debit reassessment letter on 19/02/11 to confirm that your monthly payments will be increasing by £11? Is this correct?

If this is correct, we will be able to confirm to you what we currently hold as your annual consumption (in kWhs) and what we calculate as your annual charge based on your current tariff. As you have not been with SP for 12-months, if you can confirm what your meter readings were 12-months ago, then we can have a look at your last 12-months consumption based only on accurate meter readings to see whether our billing figures are correct.

I am sure that you will be provided with the information you are looking for, however please do not hesitate to ask me if you have any further questions.

Kind Regards

Colin @ ScottishPower

LoopyPrune

Couldn't fault Scottish Power for clarity myself. Unlike EDF who I moved to who have only just got their online account section working. Chances are I will return to Scottish Power.

macman

Switching is perfectly straightforward and takes about 20 minutes via a cashback site (better to do that than use a comp site for the actual switch-use a comp site only to determine the best tariff). However you will have to clear your debt with SP before you can switch.

sunflowergirl

We have had REALLY bad customer service from Scottish Power. They would not take us seriously when we told them that our electricity consumption went sky high for no reason and we thought our electricity meter was at fault. (Our meter was tested by our new supplier OVO and it is running 27% fast!) OVO have great customer service they have been so helpful and they have a free phone number and always ring back with answers.
Scottish power say they are going to ring you at a certain time and then don't! Some staff are helpful when you ring but most are very condescending and do not help by answering your questions but just say they are right and you are wrong! Scottish power eventually gave us a refund of nearly £500 for the overpayment we paid them for our electricity only to get a bill a week later for £400 for a billing period we had already paid them by direct debit for each month! .....confused?? we are!!
Today they have now decided that they paid us too much back for our overpayment and that now we owe them £120 back (they say they have knocked off £100 for good will) I assume that they still think we owe them £400 for the months we paid by direct debit.
We are so fed up with the way we have been treated, we have a scottish power complaints number yet the woman we spoke to today made us explain what had been going wrong all over again. When we got the letter from them with our revised final bill and telling us we would get money back we rang them to make sure this was correct and we were told that it was and that the matter would be now closed. I am so shocked then to get a bill for electricity we have already paid for and to be told we have to pay extra back!
After the multiple phone calls we have paid for in ringing them and the bad service we have had, I feel that we should owe them nothing!

I even asked to speak to Colin Gilchrist today because of the debacle of confusion over this matter as this has been ongoing since last August. I was told that Colin does not answer phone calls which is very comforting seeing as he is Customer Service Director!!
We are getting a new electricity meter installed tomorrow and will hopefully return to having a normal electricity consumption.
Scottish power do not care about their customers.
I am looking into the complaints procedure with the energy ombudsman and even bbc watchdog.
I wish I could just get a straight answer and the correct information from scottish power - the left hand does not seem to know what the right hand is doing!

Scottish_Power

Hi sunflowergirl

I am very sorry to hear about the service, or lack of, that you have received from us. I appreciate that you have an open complaint already and I am sure that you will be provided with the answers you are looking for.

If we have refunded you money for overpayments, then it would be unfair to turn round a week later and say that you owe money back and I am sure that we will address this issue. When you received your final bill showing the credit balance, was this invoice billed to the date you transferred over to OVO? Is the final meter reading the same as the meter reading OVO are using to start billing you. It may be that your account was originally closed to an estimated meter reading (no transfer reading received by OVO) and that you were issued with a final statement from SP showing a credit balance. We may then have been issued with the correct transfer reading from OVO which resulted in SP amending the final statement and then sending you an invoice showing an outstanding balance. This is all hypothetical of course as I do not have your account details to review but is something to check.

It sounds like quite a complex situation but break it down so that you have the answers to the following questions:
1. What meter reading are SP finalising your account to?
2. Is your consumption being reduced by SP to compensate for the meter running fast? What percentage reduction are you being offered?
3. Why did you receive a final invoice showing a credit balance to then be issued with another invoice showing a debit balance?

Having the answers to these questions will help to start then we can address the customer service issues as well.

I hope you get this matter resolved to your satisfaction. Remember I am hear if you have any problems. You can email me at [EMAIL="onlinecomplaints@scottishpower.com"]onlinecomplaints@scottishpower.com[/EMAIL] if you want me to review your account.

Kind Regards

Colin @ ScottishPower

sunflowergirl

Colin,
Thank you for your reply, Our complaint number is 3184856 we are writing an email to you now with all the answers to your questions asked. We would really like you to to look into this matter for us and reply as soon as possible as we want this whole mess sorted out asap.

sunflowergirl

Colin, please confirm when you have received our e-mail regarding our problem with Scottish Power.

Scottish_Power

Hi sunflowergirl,

I will certainly look into this matter for you and see what I can do. The complaint number you provided was an old complaint. I have the details of your new complaint.

On having a quick look at the account I can see that the £496.03 was a refund of credit with your account being billed up to 01/01/10. The outstanding balance on the account is the charges from 01/01/10 to the date you transferred to your new supplier (14/10/10). I will investigate the finer details of the account and report back.

I have an email from you dated 16/01/11 and also enclosing an email from OVO. I have also just check my [EMAIL="onlinecomplaints@scottishpower.com"]onlinecomplaints@scottishpower.com[/EMAIL] mailbox and see that I have another email from you sent yesterday. I will review this in detail and report back.

Kind Regards

Colin @ ScottishPower