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Scottish Power have changed our deal without permission!
Jaycee_Dove
Posts: 223 Forumite
in Energy
I am a full time carer looking after my 85 year old mum who is paralysed after a stroke. As such she is in bed all the time and has medical equipment running 24/7. Consequently, our annual dual fuel bill has been around £2080 per year for the last two years.
They take a direct debit of £63 pm out of my mum's bank which only has her pension paid in. They have asked before to increase this but I have pointed out that they cannot do so as there simply would not be enough money in there.
So we agreed in writing when I became carer three or four years ago to let them carry on with the DD unchanged and also send quarterly bills that I would then settle immediately on line from my own account using my carer's allowance as I have had to give up work to look after her.
Our records have shown this ever since, it has suited us and it has worked smoothly.
However, with the recent rise in prices announced I called SP to see what they could suggest and they offered us two fixed deals, both costing more (though the cheapest was not a lot more) than the annual bill we have now.
The more expensive of the two (a platinum deal to Jan 2014) included boiler servicing and would be £180 pm.
I explained that my mum cannot use the phone (her communication is severely limited because of her illness) and I would have to go away and explain what they were offering to her and either call them back or go on line if we decided to go with either offer. But that we would have to consider going elsewhere if there were better options - even though we preferred not to move.
They said that was fine and it would be simple for me to take up the offer on line if we chose or I could phone her back the next day.
However, when I later tried to access the account on line SP had blocked access saying they had been notified of a change to its details.
When I could access it today it shows that they have without my permission (and certainly not with permission of the account holder as they knew they had never spoken with her) put us onto the most expensive of the two deals they offered.
Needless to say I am concerned, immediately notified them by e mail so as to put in writing that they had done this without asking for permission.
Now we just have to decide what to do next.
Could Scottish Power have done this to assist us or am I being over generous?
They take a direct debit of £63 pm out of my mum's bank which only has her pension paid in. They have asked before to increase this but I have pointed out that they cannot do so as there simply would not be enough money in there.
So we agreed in writing when I became carer three or four years ago to let them carry on with the DD unchanged and also send quarterly bills that I would then settle immediately on line from my own account using my carer's allowance as I have had to give up work to look after her.
Our records have shown this ever since, it has suited us and it has worked smoothly.
However, with the recent rise in prices announced I called SP to see what they could suggest and they offered us two fixed deals, both costing more (though the cheapest was not a lot more) than the annual bill we have now.
The more expensive of the two (a platinum deal to Jan 2014) included boiler servicing and would be £180 pm.
I explained that my mum cannot use the phone (her communication is severely limited because of her illness) and I would have to go away and explain what they were offering to her and either call them back or go on line if we decided to go with either offer. But that we would have to consider going elsewhere if there were better options - even though we preferred not to move.
They said that was fine and it would be simple for me to take up the offer on line if we chose or I could phone her back the next day.
However, when I later tried to access the account on line SP had blocked access saying they had been notified of a change to its details.
When I could access it today it shows that they have without my permission (and certainly not with permission of the account holder as they knew they had never spoken with her) put us onto the most expensive of the two deals they offered.
Needless to say I am concerned, immediately notified them by e mail so as to put in writing that they had done this without asking for permission.
Now we just have to decide what to do next.
Could Scottish Power have done this to assist us or am I being over generous?
0
Comments
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Just to update, SP have still not returned my call or replied to my e mail on this matter.0
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