Scottish Power upped DD with no notice.

Scottish_Power

Hi Scottishmummy

Let me know if you need any further information following your call back. If you did not receive any notification about the increase then the overpayment can be returned to you. I know you have cancelled the Direct Debit as a result of this but this action automatically removes you from the tariff you were on (due to the fact it will be a monthly Direct Debit only tariff), you will be placed onto our standard tariff and cancellation charges will be applied to your account if this has been done before the expiry date of your tariff (in your case you mention it being 31st March).

If you have not received notification of the increase then of course it is not fair for us to apply cancellation charges and these will be removed. This will be on the condition that we cannot prove that you received an email showing the DD increase.

Hopefully you will get this matter resolved quickly.

Kind Regards

Colin @ ScottishPower

DirectDebacle

scottishpower_company_representative wrote: »

Hi Scottishmummy

Let me know if you need any further information following your call back. If you did not receive any notification about the increase then the overpayment can be returned to you. I know you have cancelled the Direct Debit as a result of this but this action automatically removes you from the tariff you were on (due to the fact it will be a monthly Direct Debit only tariff), you will be placed onto our standard tariff and cancellation charges will be applied to your account if this has been done before the expiry date of your tariff (in your case you mention it being 31st March).

If you have not received notification of the increase then of course it is not fair for us to apply cancellation charges and these will be removed. This will be on the condition that we cannot prove that you received an email showing the DD increase.

Hopefully you will get this matter resolved quickly.

Kind Regards

Colin @ ScottishPower

Premier that was the last DD of that deal anyway so as soon as the money is available again I'll go online and pay what the DD should have been straight into my SP account which will still put us in credit until I give them the final meter reading....

Colin please explain your reasons for the action highlighted in bold in your post.

Section 13.3 of SP General Terms and Conditions only apply to missed DD payments.

According to the OP none were missed, as the disputed DD was the last DD payment under the plan and was taken by SP. The T&C's of the plan were fulfilled by the Op (as far as I can tell). Therefore no penalties should be charged and the OP should remain on the plan till 31/3/11 and not be put on any other plan until after that date.

If you have not received notification of the increase then of course it is not fair for us to apply cancellation charges and these will be removed. This will be on the condition that we cannot prove that you received an email showing the DD increase.

Even if the email were sent and the OP requested the recall by mistake, it is still the case that all the DD payments required under the plan were met.

Scottishmummy

Well the money actually went back in my account yesterday - so same day. I have been and paid SP what they should have taken so only a day late. Thankfully my mortgage company will not charge me unless they have to start sending out letters but that won't be the case as the money is now back in the account awaiting them to represent.

Colin it wasn't actually me that cancelled but my bank who suggested it would be better to cancel until it was sorted out which I agreed to.

The person I spoke to on the phone yesterday was quite adamant that I was sent out notice of this and had absolutely no intention of seeing that they might have made a mistake. Even though it even tells me online that NO letters have been sent to my account. If they try charging me for breach of contract they can go swivel. I have ordered my new tariff with BG which will take me past their end date before it is set up so I will have been with them for the full 12 months as was required.

DirectDebacle thank you for the links and the insight to their terms and conditions. I will be using them if need be. Not sure whether to ring them again now and speak to someone different or wait and see if they decide to add cancellation charges.

stewie_griffin

reduceditem wrote: »

I keep trying to tell people..............


PAY BY STANDING ORDER!!!!!!!!


You get the same discount as with DD (they don't tell you this, but you do).

Which supplier(s) does this apply with?

DirectDebacle

Not sure whether to ring them again now and speak to someone different or wait and see if they decide to add cancellation charges

Might as well wait until you receive the final bill for your A/C. Save you a call if they have sorted it. If not you will have the precise info you need to calculate the overcharge. If that is the case call the complaints dept no. I gave on the other thread to have the bill manually adjusted.

reduceditem

stewie_griffin wrote: »

Which supplier(s) does this apply with?

Scottish Power.

pibatad

Scottishmummy wrote: »

Scottish power have taken £31 more than usual from my account with NO NOTICE and as I had only put in enough to cover all my DD's my MORTGAGE payment has bounced!!!!!!!!!! :mad::mad::mad: I am spitting mad especially as they were quick enough to tell me my deal was coming to an end by email so why have I not received notice about this? The really galling thing is that this payment has put me £50 in CREDIT at the end of the deal!!!!!!!!!!! I will definately be going elsewhere now.

i wud leave scottish power and go to another supplier

Premier_2

reduceditem wrote: »

I keep trying to tell people..............


PAY BY STANDING ORDER!!!!!!!!


You get the same discount as with DD (they don't tell you this, but you do).

A standing order is a fixed amount over which they have no control.

Calculate your usage over the last 12 months in £'s, divide it by 12 and tell them you want to pay that amount by standing order.........they'll send you a standing order letter confirming the agreed amount that you send back to them.

Bingo, no more surprises.

If you do it now you'll very likely be in plenty of credit when next autumn comes around. If you start to be behind you can always phone up and make an extra payment to top up.


Direct debits are a bad thing. It's like opening your wallet and saying 'help yourself to however much you want'.

stewie_griffin wrote: »

Which supplier(s) does this apply with?

reduceditem wrote: »

Scottish Power.

The OP doesn't say which tariff they were on, but chances are as Colin suggests it was one that requires monthly payments by DD. Cancel the DD and the customer gets taken off the tariff (and possibly will incur early exit fees to boot if they are applicable)

Direct debits is the only payment scheme that fully protects the payer with a guarantee of an immediate, no-quibble refund on demand. It is this guarantee that fully protects the interest of the Payer that allows the scheme to succeed.

Premier_2

Scottishmummy wrote: »

Premier that was the last DD of that deal anyway so as soon as the money is available again I'll go online and pay what the DD should have been straight into my SP account which will still put us in credit until I give them the final meter reading - they had one only 3 weeks ago so shouldn't have used too much more since then. The deal we were on ends on the 31st March anyway and I had no intention of carrying on with them. SP's so called deal would still have had us paying more than 3p per Tier 2 unit of electricity more than BG's STANDARD rate!!!!!! And you have to use more Tier 1 units before you are switched to T2.

....

You need to keep the DDI in place for the full term of the tariff, and that usually means until the payment after the tariff ends, or in the case of a switch, the final bill.
Scottish Power will then cancel the DDI on your behalf anyway, even if there is no final amount to be collected.

DirectDebacle

There is no requirement to continue a DD mandate after the last payment under the plan has been taken. As SP apparently have no qualms about ignoring the terms of the DD scheme it is probably a good idea to stop the DD asap after the last payment has been taken. They will then not have the option of unwarranted plundering of a bank account and will avoid all the rigmarole of obtaining re-imbursement.