More Scottish Power poor service, if you could call it that?

sp1987

I've been waiting (and waiting, and am still at this time, waiting) for a Scottish Power Bill to come through my door.

Despite waiting for said bill (so I know how much I owe, because I do owe money as I have not paid anything since February I believe?) nothing has materialised.

I'm sure this will cue the normal 'well you knew you were using electricity so you should have prepared for it'. Absolutely, I am and have been ready and willing to pay a bill, almost poised for payment :rotfl:

They could not possibly send you a bill of what you owe, but what they will do is send someone round with a letter 'to the occupier' stating that they will be applying for a warrant to enter the property and fit a meter. Or maybe they will just forget, like they forget to ensure I receive a bill...or call me, or even to attend and ask if I am receiving any bills. Why come round in the morning and shove a threatening letter through someone's door and give them no indication of anything?

I am now completely unaware whether this sum on the pre warrant letter is what I owe, or what I owe plus fees or extra charges, totally unclear. Have they sold my arrears on? What are my arrears, who even wants my money now? Can they tell me how much of my money I even owe them? Lol.

I will be straight away from this awful company as soon as possible. They have lost a customer for jumping the gun and being uncooperative and I am really bad with overconsumption of electricity so over the long term I am worth a few quid more than I should be. Meanwhile I will have to guess an amount to pay (in a manner reminiscent of when in a student house where the same company never sent any bills for a few months then either so we just paid what we had the previous quarter hoping it was right :rotfl:).

I cannot see why people who have no problem paying their bills cannot be contacted (by phone, you must have my phone number?) or by post before sending some plonker round to deliver a letter like I have done something wrong waiting to be charged. Next time I will get my crystal ball out and predict what the amount will be as they certainly are not keen to tell me.

If anyone has had a similar problem with not receiving anything from your silent pen friend of an electricity provider before they deem you some sort of bill shirker, share your story :rotfl:

Scottish_Power

Hi sp1987,

Sorry to hear about the problems you have been having.

From what you have said it sounds like we might not have an account set up in your name, which may be why we are not sending you bills.

If you wish to e-mail me with your account details at [EMAIL="onlinecomplaints@scottishpower.com"]onlinecomplaints@scottishpower.com[/EMAIL] I can have a look in to things for you and give you a more detailed response and provide you with an accruate bill.

Kind regards

Graeme @ ScottishPower

sp1987

The account is in my partner's name and we have been receiving bills in his name originally, so 'the occupier' has popped up since. We currently do not receive anything whether bills, statements of owed monies. Our postbox is lockable so either they are being sent and the post is failing to deliver that particular mail or something else is happening. Since I am available to collect the post there is no reason why I would not have picked it out of the box if it were there. I have since paid the equivalent to 2 predicted months, but who knows as this is such guesswork.

Yesterday's abrupt notice of obtaining a warrant was only addressed to the occupier.

Although the lady on the phone could understandably not discuss the account details with me when I called, she herself did not seem too concerned that my reason for calling was being accused of not paying and requiring enforcement action. I thought speaking to a human may pacify my disbelief in your company's level of poor service but it has unfortunately only exacerbated it. From whatever she has in front of her she will be able to see payments that I have made, even if she cannot tell me that I have made them. I am sure she does not particularly need to speak to the billpayer to assess that someone leaving a letter under your door would be unnerving for me and quite terrifying for vulnerable customers, especially ones who are only too happy to pay for what they have used.

I cannot email you either as I am not the billpayer who is not available to call or email himself today. If he were I would not be calling. Had we been called or posted something with a lower degree of urgency (a bill or a you are late paying the bill of £X letter) then it would not have been such a time critical issue. We could have taken a few days to put myself on the bill or just to pay the charge detailed.

I want to pay this bill quicker than your company wish for me to because I want to change energy suppliers as quickly as is possible.

Edited to add that I have accessed the online system and paid the amount detailed there via the telephone system minus the last payment I made a matter of hours ago (so does not yet show up). Who knows if this is correct. It should not really be such supreme guesswork. I am also presuming that because the payments does not yet show on the account (as it can take up to 5 days), I could well expect somebody else to turn up in the interim, possibly entering my home, for arrears which (if the online balance is correct) are no longer owed. Absolutely awful. It may be a successful way of getting payments from people with the money to pay but it will drive exactly those same customers to absolutely any other company. Scottish power will be left with only people who cannot pay and so cannot leave.

Incidentally, thank you individually for such a quick response, but it baffles me why often the more helpful members of staff are put into 'complaints' departments, rather than being the first port of call for customers generally. Tesco motor insurance was the same, months of witholding my no claims discount and claiming I had been in fault accidents I had never been involved in (after paying out when another customer crashed into me), but the complaints department were fine. The aggregate result is that the customer leaves immediately, just feeling sorry for the person in complaints who has to hear all of the above.