Scottish Power Overcharging me on Economy 7?

JadeD1985

Hi,

I have been paying £46 per month to my electricity since September but now I have received a bill stating that I owe £450 + which is still outstanding on top of what we have paid. I stay in a 2 bed middle floor flat and I have economy 7. I did leave my emergen heater on for a few weeks but I still don't see how my bill can be this high. I have two main storage heaters which have been set and on the night time I would put my other heater on if I was cold for maybe 20 minutes for some extra heat but no longer than that. What makes it worse is that they claim they have taken actual readings but the meter is not in our flat. My estate agents say I can't see the meter myself.

I just think the amount is ridiculous. Do you think there is the chance that they have got it wrong or my electricity is being tapped? My neighbour across the hall has had a bill for the same kind of amount and is as angry as me.

Thanks,
Jade

KimYeovil

I would expect £46 per month would just about cover only the cooking and hot water and background stuff over summer months. I very much doubt it would cover heating. An extra £450 for five cold winter months seems fair enough.

Easiest way is to look at your meters and check what you are using now - temperature's dropped for me again so are you able to put the heating back on and see what a reasonable amount should be?

KimYeovil

JadeD1985 wrote: »

My estate agents say I can't see the meter myself.

As far as I know this is completely illegal. You must be given access to your meters.

Unfortunately I have no idea who you approach to exercise your rights. Perhaps you could contact Shelter or CAB for advice. Or hang around for a know-it-all here to tell you.

Also contact whatever bodies exist to supervise and register landlords and enquire there (and even report the estate agents).

macman

Is your bill based on estimated or actual readings? It's clearly marked on the bill.
You have every right to have reasonable access to your meters, tell the agents to grant you that right. If you can't access them, then how can the meter reading company have done so?
What are your actual kWh consumption figs on each rate-it's those that matter, not the bill amount.

Richie-from-the-Boro

JadeD1985 wrote: »

Hi,

I have been paying £46 per month to my electricity since September but now I have received a bill stating that I owe £450 + which is still outstanding on top of what we have paid. I stay in a 2 bed middle floor flat and I have economy 7. I did leave my emergen heater on for a few weeks but I still don't see how my bill can be this high. I have two main storage heaters which have been set and on the night time I would put my other heater on if I was cold for maybe 20 minutes for some extra heat but no longer than that. What makes it worse is that they claim they have taken actual readings but the meter is not in our flat. My estate agents say I can't see the meter myself.

I just think the amount is ridiculous. Do you think there is the chance that they have got it wrong or my electricity is being tapped? My neighbour across the hall has had a bill for the same kind of amount and is as angry as me.

Thanks,
Jade

I am assuming you are all electric - no gas - Look at your actual bill from SP

- for example from the anydate /11/10 ~ to ~ anydate /01/11 it will tell you :

- - if it was estimated / customer read
- - exactly what the start & end readings were
- - exactly what the dates were
- - the price for night units @ 4.81p and the day units @ 16.84p and the total amount of days the bill covers
- - and the most important number the kWh used for both the night & day price
- - it will also tell you which if any discounts you receive

It will not however tell the Daily Service Charge applied, which can be 16-18p per day.

Check your actual bill and make sure both the correct numbers are being presented by your agents. Make sure you are on an E7 tariff. The trick with the storage heaters is to leave the damper leaver closed at all times and turn the thermostat [ not the damper ] up to take advantage of [ gives heat out all day ] the 60% cheaper electricity. Double lag the tank.

TBH on an electric only tariff I would expect it to be £70-80 per month at this time of the year for a nice warm place and less than that for a nice cold place. Remember in 6-8 weeks your bill will drop by more than half !

NOTE if you need to .. .. start a new thread with this title : Ping Colin @ Scottish Power and tell him what you've told us

Scottish_Power

Hi JadeD1985

Sorry to hear about your situation. I see you have already been given some great advice.

On top of what you have already been told, I would recommend setting up an online account which will allow you to update your own meter readings as often as you wish. In order to do this you will first need to find out how to get access to your electricity meter which you are entitle to do. The online account will then allow you to create statements over a desired period of time (weekly, fortnightly, monthly) so that you can see exactly how much you are using.

September through to March covers the coldest months of the year and with an all electric property this will be far higher than what you will use between March and September. If you are unsure about the meter readings that have been used to bill your account, get access to the meter and give us a call with your current meter readings. We will update these readings on your billing system and confirm to you what we hold as your annual consumption and what this equates to in charges.

Once you gain access to the meter you may also wish to check that the day and night rates are recording correctly. The best way to check this is to take a meter reading around 8am/9am and then again around 5pm/6pm. The rate that advances during this time should be your day rate. Once you have idenified your day rate and night rate on the meter, look at your statement and make sure the appropriate readings are assigned to the day and night rates.

I hope the information provided is helpful. If you have any further questions let me know and I will be happy to help. I can also review your account for you and confirm the details on the charges and meter readings being used. Just send me an email to [EMAIL="onlinecomplaints@scottishpower.com"]onlinecomplaints@scottishpower.com[/EMAIL].

Kind Regards

Colin @ ScottishPower

JadeD1985

Thanks everyone for the great advice! Yes, I am electric only. I expected to have to Pay maybe £200 extra for the winter months but not £450+. In my previous flat my direct debit for my gas and electric was £50 each month and in the year I lived there I never owed any extra and that's when I lived with 2 other people so constant showers/heating on/TV's etc!

I have managed to get access to my meter tonight so I will use the advice given and take the readings for myself. I am leaving the flat in 3 weeks and getting back to a place with central heating so gas and electric which I am glad about I can't stand economy 7. I will definitely be more careful now though with my energy use in the hope that over the coming summer months the amount comes down with me using less. I do wish that when you set up your direct debits with electricity companies they can give you a better estimate of what it should be. I was told only to pay £30 per month when I rang to set up the payments when clearly £90 per month would have been the realistic figure!

Apparently the bill I have received is based on actual meter readings. I am hoping they have made a mistake as £450 is a lot of money to suddenly find over the coming months but something tells me it wont be.

Richie-from-the-Boro

- you could privately email colin in the thread #6 above and ask him to check the details for you
- when you read your meter there may be as many as 4 different counters on a telemetry meter, record them all
- - 1 = ??????
- - 2 = ??????
- - 3 = ??????
- - 4 = ??????
- in case the previous person reading has managed to get the day & night figures mixed up / reversed
- best of luck

macman

You are almost certainly not paying £450+ extra for the winter months. You are paying a catch-up bill for all the months you've been underpaying due to estimated bills. How did you think that £360pa would be enough to heat, light and power and supply hot water to a property using E7, if your previous gas CH heated flat was costing £600?

mattcanary

Also, I would suggest that the meter may have been read by your supplier eventually. Possibly some of your neighbours own their flat and/or are with a different letting agent? (ie: they have have been given a key to gain access to the meter cupboard. In which case the meter reader could have knocked on several doors in order to find someone who had access to the meter cupboard.

Col_A

This is possibly due to some major error on the part of Scottish Power. I had a very animated conversation with them last night after they informed me that they've not been charging me for the heating side of my electricity for the last 2 and a half years! This is despite the fact that I give them regular readings from both of my meters (and occasionally have someone at the door to take readings as well).

Thankfully, due to some regulation to do with adjustments made that don't come out in favour of the customer, I can only be charged for the last 12 months of use but I now owe them over £600. The guy I spoke to in their Customer Care dept was very helpful but for them to allow this error to happen in the first place is crazy. I'm now in the position of having to almost treble my payments to them for the next 2-3 years to pay back the balance. This probably doesn't help your situation but thought you might want to be aware that they are prone to the odd monumental mistake!