MSE News: Scottish Power to hike energy prices

roddydogs

Switching to Co Op, theres not much in it, but then im not tied into a minimum period. SP have shot themselves in the foot, what is the point of putting up prices, then when you contact them your told "You can have a lower tariff"

harryhart

tjones4958 wrote: »

I have just received a letter from Scottish Power informing me that my daily service charge will increase from 16.95p to 33.20p. I'm not a mathematician but that is NOT a 19% increase. 100% more like! I'm switching NOW.

The announced 10% increase for electricity is also nonsense. I have just re-calculated my last bill with the new unit prices and this shows a increase of 40% How on earth are these massive increases justified.

(Sad note: When I switched from British Gas to Scottish Power last November just a week after uswitch confirmed my swap an email arrived to say that prices had gone up by 8%. Still, it wasn't bloody forty!)

roddydogs

roddydogs wrote: »

OES 14 is still going, was offered it yesterday.

Update--its still available to existing customers, not new ones.

roddydogs

SnowWhiterThanWhite wrote: »

From the web-site:
ScottishPower Price Announcement

You may have seen in the news recently that rising prices have been making the headlines.
Prices for many things, from food to petrol, have gone up. Wholesale energy prices have been rising dramatically too, and although we've been doing what we can to absorb these costs for as long as possible, our domestic prices will increase from the 1st August 2011.
We will notify affected customers from 11th June 2011, giving at least 30 days notice before price changes are due to take effect and will advise on available options.

This is already wrong as I still havent had any notice yet, and its the 4th of July!

Devils-Advocate_3

broxis11 wrote: »

But wouldn`t it be better if the contract was cancelled when the tenant moves out and the new one selects a supplier and the contract would start straight away. If it wasn`t for the 28 day contract, is there any other reason this wouldn`t work?

Nope. And this would not work. A property has to have a supplier. And it takes 4-6 weeks to change supplier. So if a tenant moves out, and someone moves in, they WILL HAVE to have the current supplier until they decide to change it. This won't, can't, and shouldn't change. It's called a deemed contract.

elektra

roddydogs wrote: »

This is already wrong as I still havent had any notice yet, and its the 4th of July!

I had notice but it was the wrong information, not relating to my tariff, so I am treating it as not having received notice ( I have informed them of their error).

Cardew

broxis11 wrote: »

But wouldn`t it be better if the contract was cancelled when the tenant moves out and the new one selects a supplier and the contract would start straight away. If it wasn`t for the 28 day contract, is there any other reason this wouldn`t work?

That used to happen years ago - except the gas and electricity were cut off until the new occupant had signed a contract.

It wouldn't work because if the contract with the supplier was cancelled on the old occupant leaving, but gas and electricity were left connected, the new occupants would have no incentive to contact a supplier; some would carry on using gas/electricity until they were found out.

Which utility company would check if, who and when new occupants were in residence? BG - EON - EDF - Scots Pwr? i.e whose responsibilty would it be?

The current system of a legally binding deemed contract for the new occupant, with the existing supplier, is the only way it will work!

john-306

Just rang Scottish Power up and changed from OES 12 to OES 14, was told it will be the same cost as OES 12 was before any price increases.

OES 12 had just come to the end of it's discounted life and thats why it went up massively in price.

OES 14 is now discounted till 31st Aug 2012, and will not be effected by recently announced price increases, but any future price increases will effect it.

That's what I was told anyway.

motoko

Yes, its true that when you move you can get stuck on a standard tariff with the previous supplier while the transfer to another supplier with a cheaper tariff goes through. However, there is no reason why you should wait until you move in to start the ball rolling is there? If you are able to give them 4 weeks notice then you should be able to get switched over within a week or so of moving in. Whenever I move house (renting), I generally contact energy, phone, internet companies etc as soon as I've paid the deposit to the agent, to get things set up for as close as possible to when I move in.

Similarly if you are pretending to move out to get out of some rip off contract... You could contact your existing supplier tell them you are moving out in a month's time. Then get the new supplier to start the transfer process. Potential problems could be:
1. The transfer takes longer than expected and you get stuck on the standard tariff for a week or so. If this happens in the summer, its probably still going to be less than your cancellation charges, but in the winter it could easily be more.
2. The transfer happens too quickly and is completed before the date you told them you were "moving out". This could be a problem, but I imagine if you blamed it on the "new tenant" getting the supply transferred you should get away with it, after all this is hardly your fault?
3. The new supplier gives the "new tenant's" name to the old supplier as part of the transfer and they realise its the same person. I honestly don't know if they give out the name or not, I get the feeling its all done based on address only (due to various transfer screw-ups I've experienced when tenants who moved out years earlier suddenly start getting bills again), but am prepared to be corrected by anyone who knows more? Obviously if you have a partner or other adult in the house who you can transfer the account to, then this is not an issue.

davidlizard

After much deliberation I have decided to tell SP to shove their tariffs where the sun doesn't shine.

Perhaps I might be slightly better off if I switched to one of their other tariffs, however, it's the principle - I do not want to give any more of my money to this greedy lot. It will make me feel slightly better, if not any better off.

Just out of interest, does anyone know how much our friends on the continent get charged for gas and electricity - I have attempted to click around a few foreign websites, and they either redirect me to the UK one or have information in languages I do not understand.