Scottish Power upped DD with no notice.

reduceditem

Premier wrote: »

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.

This in not correct.

I was initially on a monthly dd and changed to monthly standing order....I wasn't taken off any tarriff and all discounts stayed in place.

Standing order is better if you want complete control over what you pay. There will be no need for immediate, no-quibble refunds when you can rest assured you've only payed the exact amount you wanted each month.

Direct debits suck IMO.

Rupert_Bear

I use to be a great supporter of SP and only recently left them because of price. However because of a telephone call from their sales dept trying to make me return and based on a dd figure they picked out of the air I am now very disappointed with them.

I tried to get the rep of SP on this site to confirm what my actual dd would be based on my yearly readings but chose to ignore my message. He knew the figures they had quoted me were incorrect. They said (sales) my dd would be £87 per month but when I did a proper culculation it came to £98.00 per month.

No doubt if had fallen for this trick they would have increased my dd without notice in a few months.

Premier_2

reduceditem wrote: »

This in not correct.

I was initially on a monthly dd and changed to monthly standing order....I wasn't taken off any tarriff and all discounts stayed in place.

Standing order is better if you want complete control over what you pay. There will be no need for immediate, no-quibble refunds when you can rest assured you've only payed the exact amount you wanted each month.

Direct debits suck IMO.

What exactly is incorrect? :huh:

Whether you are affected when you cancel the DDI will depend of the particular tariff you are on at the time.
Usually the best value tariffs are those where you agree to pay monthly by DD (but paying monthly by DD does not necessarily mean you are on the best value tariff )

With standing orders, you are in control of what goes out. However, with that control comes the responsibility to manage it correctly, so if it needs to be cancelled, you must cancel it; if it needs to be varied, you must vary it etc.

e.g. if you want to stop payments (e.g. because you have switched supplier) and you fail to cancel the SO, it will still pay the old supplier. You then have the hassle of trying to reclaim it from that supplier.

With DD, all the responsibility lies with the Originator (the organisation being paid). They have to collect the correct amount. They also have to inform you in advance. Any problems, the paying bank will refund you under the terms of the DD Guarantee, and also will make a claim on your behalf for any consequential losses.

As you said, your post is your opinion ... and of course you are most welcome to post it. My post reflects the facts

Scottish_Power

Hi DirectDebacle

Thank you for your question. Our billing system will automatically change the tariff onto a standard tariff if we are notified by a customers bank that the Direct Debit is to be cancelled. If this happens before the expiry date of a tariff then the system will again apply cancellation charges if applicable. This process is all automated, however special situations can be reviewed of course if the customer believes the cancellation charges are not justified.

If a Direct Debit is cancelled before the expiry date of a given tariff or before the transfer date to another supplier, then the final Direct Debit has not been taken. Only when the account has been billed to the correct meter readings for the expiry date or to the meter readings provided by the new supplier, can a customer confirm that no further Direct Debit payments are required and then be in a position to cancel the Direct Debit without incurring a cancellation charge.

I hope this helps to clarify the position.

Kind Regards

Colin @ ScottishPower

DirectDebacle

Hi Colin,

Thank you for the response. Unfortunately it doesn't clarify the position.

What you are describing is SP policy which is being presented to customers as an integral part of the T&C's.

Please direct me the sections in SP T&C's where the conditions in your paragraph are made clear or even hinted at.

Section 13.3 of SP General T&C's on the requirements for DD payments are quite clear and unambiguous. They do not include any of the conditions which you have put forward.

As it stands I am of the view that SP by applying this policy are in breach of the T&C's, under certain circumstances. This was agreed with by one of your customer service supervisors. It would seem that even SP are confused by their own T&C's/policy and need to address the issue to prevent customers being overcharged.

If a tariff has an end date of the last day of a month and requires that the tariff be paid for by monthly DD it is obvious that once the final monthly DD has been taken then the customer will have complied with the T&C's described in S. 13.3. SP have no right to take any more DD under that tariff after the end date of that tariff.

Any further calls SP wish to make on a monthly DD, after that last monthly DD has been taken and before the end date of the contract, will require the correct notification to be given under the DD scheme, which the customer will have the choice of accepting or not.

The contract ends on the agreed date, not when a final bill is produced. The final bill will be produced after the final reading for that tariff has been submitted. The final bill will be, in almost all cases, be produced several days after the contract has expired. At expiry of contract the customer will be on a new contract with a different payment option. If that is by monthly DD then either a new DD will have been set up or the existing one will continue with agreed changes and will apply to the new contract only.

It would seem that SP are applying a policy or hidden T&C's in order to overcharge customers.

Not dissimilar to one of your competitors, which eventually found this practice to be an expensive 'mistake'. Customer service reps are being instructed to inform customers that they are in breach of the T&C's and therefore facing penalty charges, when in some cases they aren't. This is an appalling practice.

Energy companies write the T&C's and are expected to abide by them, as they expect their customers to.

I would have no objection to SP policy on a DD being kept open until a final bill had been produced, if it was made clear in the T&C's that no calls would be made on that DD, other than for closing the account of that tariff.