For direct debit errors, who is responsible? Scottish power or me?

Widelats

I went to Scottish Power and it was online contract, apparently i was supposed to get a contract confirmation or welcome pack in the post but i didn't, they just debited my account, i was unaware of any debits going to happen i did not read anything that stated it was up front i believed it was taken at the end of the quarter which is why i signed up.

I had no idea it was direct debit, charged up front for this contract.

Since the debits have been returned i been charged from the bank as well, basically Scottish Power say its my own tough luck and offered me no solutions, just demanded full payment of the bill.

I will pay the bill but i will not pay a cancellation charge, i received no phone calls from Scottish Power all i recieved is a badly worded email from a Asian rep
Dear Mr (spelled my name wrong),

Thank you for your email.

Your Gas account is closed with us and last payment we have received on your account was on 20th April 2011.

We are in process to close your Electricity account and we change your account on standard tariff on 5th May 2011 this is the reason that we send a request for payment.

Lat payment we have received on your Electricity account was on 4th May 2011.

I apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

I find the communications are pretty bad, answering none of my questions.

I don't think i should be responsible for my bank charges, i asked scottish power to stop debiting and they put me on quarterly billing, then tried to debit me again resulting in more bank charges.

The bill is under £30, but with bank charges and cancellation charges and vat charges i am near £100 in debt, i find it impossible to get any sense out of scottish power, the only language they seem to understand is money, so i am speaking their language when i say they will not be paid, and i intend to recover my bank charges too.

Is this fair of me???

Bambywamby

Have you informed your bank (in writing) not to allow any more direct debits from Scottish Power? If you have it is up to the bank to refund you the charges.

When you cancel a direct debit you should always do it in writing to your bank and the company in question. x x

Widelats

Bambywamby wrote: »

Have you informed your bank (in writing) not to allow any more direct debits from Scottish Power? If you have it is up to the bank to refund you the charges.

When you cancel a direct debit you should always do it in writing to your bank and the company in question. x x

Both were informed, Scottish Power were asked to stop, they say they did not recieve any requests from me - which is lies, i did send them a letter, and my bank also put a note for direct debits to half then and reject any from Scottish Power, bank says the ONLY way they could debit again is if scottish power set the debit up again themselves without my consent. Bank manager mentioned a certain practice they could do which recovers the cash back from scottish power, but said the legal things with it are very complex, but he would do it for me if scottish power refuse to accept that i informed them and reduce the bills accordingly.

Me i'm just wanting to pay my bill and get it over with, its all complex to me.

KimYeovil

Had Sony Anonymous given them your bank details? Otherways how could they take the money? A lucky guess?

(Haven't you already whinged about this in a dozen other threads? What is novel and fresh with this branch?)

(And call me over-sensitive but why would someone with dyscalculia so freely call to task some petty stylistic issues in a message from someone writing in their second (or probably third or fourth) language?)

Widelats

Kim, get off my threads please. Stay off, don't know what you wrote but it will be negative, rude and entirely wrong i would say, as well as no help whatsoever and possibly blaming me.

Scottish power have contacted me admitting that my account was not set up and are crediting me with my bank charges, they took direct debit without notifying me, and are switching my electric to the gas account, and removing the cancellation charges, problem solved, at least this time they properly looked into it.