Scottish Power cancellation charge (when switched!)

matthew57

SP have charged me the £20 cancellation fee on the gas, no charge on the electricity.
Also not happy that the charge was "buried" in that it does not show on my final bill, but the penultimate one which I only found by going into bill history.

elektra

matthew57 wrote: »

SP have charged me the £20 cancellation fee on the gas, no charge on the electricity.
Also not happy that the charge was "buried" in that it does not show on my final bill, but the penultimate one which I only found by going into bill history.

Ditto for me, also another amount seems to be missing which is not shown on any bill, which is why I wanted to wait for elec bill and sort it out together but as they issue bills separately I might as well chase this one in the hope it ensures they then get the elec one correct.

backfoot

As the Scottish Power Rep/s haven't responded to this thread explaining what is going wrong, the conclusion appears to be that that they would like this to be kept low key.

I would encourage individuals affected by this to give details of their complaints to Consumer Focus with comments that many other customers seem to be similarly affected.(some of whom may not realise in amongst the complexity of their final bills)

It is likely that unless Scottish Power voluntarily check back into their records and correct this, then OFGEM can take action to force them to do this as well as imposing financial penalties for incorrect billing.

There has been sufficient time since the rules were clarified for this matter now to be correctly managed.

deutsch

The reply from Scottish Power today - Their reason: "We did not update the Gas account with this information"

They've correct the cancellation fee now and are sending a cheque to me.

Shall I pursue further, as I only complained about the Cancellation fee. Only later on this thread did I realise another error in being charged the new tariff from 1st August onwards (with an estimated reading).

I've calculated the only difference extra approx is:
Electric: £1.43 (+7p VAT)
Gas: £2.08 (+10p VAT)

How tight should I be? Should I ask for compensation? (i can only assume most of you will likely advise me due to the profits these companies make)

wakeupalarm

matthew57 wrote: »

SP have charged me the £20 cancellation fee on the gas, no charge on the electricity.
Also not happy that the charge was "buried" in that it does not show on my final bill, but the penultimate one which I only found by going into bill history.

Ditto again, very sneeky. It leads me to believe that this was a deliberate ploy to hoodwink customers.

They've replied to the complaint by going on about their 3 stage internal complaints escalation process. No instant refund although there was another issue as well.

backfoot

deutsch wrote: »

The reply from Scottish Power today - Their reason: "We did not update the Gas account with this information"

They've correct the cancellation fee now and are sending a cheque to me.

Shall I pursue further, as I only complained about the Cancellation fee. Only later on this thread did I realise another error in being charged the new tariff from 1st August onwards (with an estimated reading).

I've calculated the only difference extra approx is:
Electric: £1.43 (+7p VAT)
Gas: £2.08 (+10p VAT)

How tight should I be? Should I ask for compensation? (i can only assume most of you will likely advise me due to the profits these companies make)

The whole point of writing to them advising them of the intention to switch is to fix prices at their pre increase levels and to avoid termination fees.

I personally,don't buy the explanation you have been given. You had a dual fuel contract and it looks like a systemic problem to me rather than an oversight. In that case,I would imagine other customers are affected.

Having raised a complaint, it is hopelessly remiss of them not to have also realised that your notification should also adjust your unit charges.

It's not being tight to have things done correctly. Multiplied by many thousands of customers such errors are significant.As per recent threads you should be entitled to compensation as well.

DTDfanBoy

Well no cheque for me yet, but at least I managed to make some progress

It took a while, but I finally convinced them that I wasn't liable to pay any units at post increase prices. I suspect it took so long because the customer service rep was unable to read the fine print, hidden away at the bottom of the email advising me of the price rise & my rights in regard to it.

We also managed to agree that I wasn't liable to pay any cancellation fees, however due to the complexities of their billing system, that was as far as we were able to get.

To be fair to the CS rep as neither of the closing balances of two of the bills, each covering nearly identical periods, one with estimated readings and one with actual, showed any correlation to the opening balance of the third bill, I'm not surprised she was unable to help.

The good news is that she promised to get some of their best code breakers involved to decipher it, hopefully they produce some accurate bills, fingers crossed they'll even incorporate the final electricity bill which currently seems to be currently MIA, but I certainly won't be holding my breath

deutsch

backfoot wrote: »

It's not being tight to have things done correctly. Multiplied by many thousands of customers such errors are significant.As per recent threads you should be entitled to compensation as well.

How much compensation is reasonable to ask / for them to give? Unless significant, then the extra £3.50 odd isn't really worth asking for now I've got my cancellation fee back in the post.

Premier_2

matthew57 wrote: »

SP have charged me the £20 cancellation fee on the gas, no charge on the electricity.
Also not happy that the charge was "buried" in that it does not show on my final bill, but the penultimate one which I only found by going into bill history.

Ditto ... almost.

I just got my final bills and went searching for the intermediate bills as the final ones are a bit of a joke only showing the same start & end meter readings, despite them covering about a month supply :cool:
I think this is to avoid the price increases, and so all the bills show is a few pennies discount for dual fuel & online management.

Hidden in the electric bill was indeed a cancellation fee of £25.53 plus £5.11 VAT; total £30.64. No cancellation fee on the gas.
There shouldn't be either as I already wa promised in writing it would be waived.

Complaint already lodged asking for a rebate.
I wonder how many people are not looking at the penultimate bills and so are unaware of what seems, based on this thread, like quite a common error SP are making?

Premier_2

deutsch wrote: »

How much compensation is reasonable to ask / for them to give? Unless significant, then the extra £3.50 odd isn't really worth asking for now I've got my cancellation fee back in the post.

How much has it cost anyone?

It hasn't cost me anything ... apart from a bit of my time.

As you suggest, looking for compo looks opportunistic if you ask me. I just want the fee refunded.

Edit: However, the whole point of advising them upfront was to ensure you did not get the price increase
If they have failed, and wrongly applied the price incresae, then I would complain about that on principle, no matter how small the amount involved.

(it was to ensure I wasn't charged the higher rates that sent me searching for the penultimate bills in the first place. For me, they kept the old prices )