Scottish Power - Gassed and grumpy!

kerryberryboo

Hi everyone :j:j

This may be a long winded post but please stay with me, I need any advice out there!

Bit of background.....

I live in a two bedroom flat which is 4 years old. It has a lovely new boiler, radiators and double glazing. My partner and I are out from 8am to 6pm Monday to Friday, everything is off during that time.
Mistake number 1 was asking Scottish Power to keep us on a regular plan (they put us on Standard rate, monthly direct debit)

Our landlord and I read the gas meter together the day we moved in Oct 2009. We phoned Scottish Power that day and gave readings.
Our direct debit at first was £60 per month for gas and electricity. I hope you've not lost interest - it's been fairly bland so far. Every 3 months Scottish Power sent out a chap to read our meter and all seemed well.:beer:
We phoned in actual readings whenever we remembered.
Things started getting strange when Scottish Power were estimating readings on our bill which were lower than the actual starter reading.... for example

01.10.10 - 3068 Estimate
09.12.10 - 3312 Actual
18.03.11 - 3125 Estimate

So we decided we should perhaps read the meter and phone in our reading........
11.05.11 3129 Customer read.....

Our direct debit had increased to £90 per month, at this point I just didn't understand what was going on. I called Scottish Power, complained, asked the girl to check over our readings, bills, payments everything. She told me we were in credit of £40, I requested a cheque for this. I wasn't convinced we were using this amount of gas and electricity but at this stage I gave up. the next day a voicemail message informed me that we were indeed paying too much, the systems had updated and our refund was for £260!! Happy days!!!:T

At the end of July our bill arrived......

11.05.11 - 3129 Customer read
13.06.11 - 3837 Actual
( we were on holiday for 10 days during this time - 700 units used in less than 30 days?!?!)
01.07.11 - 3558 Estimate
31.07.11 - 3878 Estimate

We were in debit by £270, and our direct debit will increase to £91 per month :mad::mad::mad:

I have been on the phone continuously trying to figure out what is going on.:cool: Our neighbours told us the meters had been marked incorrectly but they are correct now and are marked correctly. We corroborated this by turning off the gas and trying to light the hob. We read our meter on 01.09.11 at 3901.:eek:

Scottish Power insist we should never have received the refund, that we need to pay it back, £31 to gas, £30 to electricity and £30 to paying back the refund.

I just have no idea where I stand.....

These readings are all over the place, Scottish Power are quoting different meter readings than what appears on our bill! In addition they had someone elses contact number on our file for no apparent reason. I suggested there was a fault with the meter or that our meter and our neighbours were getting read incorrectly - they said this was impossible!:eek::mad::eek::mad:

The customer service has been pretty appauling too, with one female telling me that my meter readings were wrong cos they didn't match her screen even though I was reading them from their bills!!

Can someone give me any advice or guidance, I want to get this resolved and switch away from these clowns!!!

Thanks for staying with me..



Kerryberryboo

Neil49

I suggest you note down the actual serial numbers of all the meters (including your neighbours) and ask S Power to check against their records. Also check the readings against those of your neighbours meters.

The fact that your neighbours said the meters used to be marked incorrectly is almost certainly where your problems arise from but it will be a central computer database that holds this information, not specifically Scottish Power, and until that is changed you will have problems.

Switching suppliers will not solve your problem.

Your problem is the person who marked them up incorrectly in the first place!

Scottish_Power

Hi kerryberryboo,

This sounds like what we would call a crossed meter, it can be difficult to get your head round.

If you e-mail me your details to [EMAIL="onlinecomplaints@scottishpower.com"]onlinecomplaints@scottishpower.com[/EMAIL] I will try to explain what has happened and what your options are going forward. I think the most important thing is to make sure your now getting billed for the correct meter.

Kind regards

Graeme @ ScottishPower

kerryberryboo

Thanks for the reply, I have noted the serial numbers and on all of my bills the correct meter number appears - on every single bill.

I have tried my hardest to resolve this but Scottish Power are insisting that the readings are correct.

I will indeed email that address, I'll also keep this thread updated with my 'progress'.

k