Scottish Power cancellation charge (when switched!)

matthew57

It gets worse.

I emailed SP about the £20 cancellation fee 2 days ago, including all the emails between us since I wrote to reject the price rise -including the one on the 21 July which stated -

The service package on your account is Online Energy Saver 10 which is due to mature on 31st October 2011.

The cancellation fee applicable on your account is £50.00, however, I have arranged to waive off the cancellation fee on your account by using Right to cancel facility and has been passed to our relevant department, who will endeavour to resolve your issue as soon as possible

The reply today states -

I have checked your account and confirm that the cancellation charge of £20.00 has been applied to your account on 6th September 2011 as you have cancelled your contract before product end date which was on 31st October 2011.


So as well as wrongly applying the cancellation charge they have not even read my reason as to why it was wrongly applied! There was no mention of a 15 day window. SP stated that the fee would be waived and should stick to that.

backfoot

It's not like Graeme to have written in such terms as he is normally helpful and understanding. I can't help thinking that one of his Execs has instructed him to knock this bad press on the head.

As can be seen from the groundswell reaction,such a post has backfired spectacularly with a body of posters who are well respected, informed and balanced in their views. (albeit customer focussed).

Whatever the reason, I would invite Graeme and SP to reconsider their position. Saying things are complicated is purely of their own making. Where the volume of errors is large, then customers naturally fear that there is a deliberate manipulation.

All billing should be simple but getting six final bills as we did, in order to apparently cope with the SLC's is ridiculous.Those Conditions have been present for many years. The IT should simply be able to cope. Just keep open a tariff which is ending until the final bill . Don't pretend it's complicated, just amend the IT so it isn't.

It's the same with Termination Fees. they are effectively redundant now on most non fixed tariffs. All of these hassles arise because SP have made a complete meal of it. Do away with the vile things and treat your customers fairly.

You are not in business to penalise the unwary with made up charges, for doing nothing, and it's shameful that a post has been made trying to support such a stance. A very good example of Mr. Milliband's accusations yesterday.

DirectDebacle

It appears there has been little change since my dispute with SP in March this year. I cancelled my DD after the last payment had been taken but prior to the end of the fixed price contract. This caused the system to automatically and immediately put me on their standard tariff when there were still several days to the end date of the fixed term. This caused increased charges.

I complained and shortly was speaking to one of their more senior customer care (complaints) advisors on 0845 2700053.

After explaining to them how SP were in breach of their own T & C's manual bills were quickly raised with the addition of credits for my time and trouble. It was explained to me that it was their IT system that caused the problem and work was in progress to rectify the problem.

Clearly this has not been done and cancellation/termination fees are still being automatically applied.

As Backfoot points out the changes to the SLC notification period have had no bearing on the remainder of SLC 23 which has been operating for many years.

What has changed slightly are the Standard Terms and Conditions applied by SP. Unfortunately I cannot copy and paste them from a PDF but here is the link:

http://www.scottishpower.co.uk/PDF/SPGenTandCv1.pdf

Para 5.8 is the relevant one. Here SP, by using italics and changing the wording are saying that individual customers must give SP notice of refusal of a change in addition to them receiving notification from the new supplier within 15 working days of such a refusal.

They do not specify how this notification is to be communicated.

Neither does the revised SLC23. As far as I am aware such notifications have been part and parcel of the switching process and taken care of by the new supplier. This has been industry practice and Ofgem saw no reason to change this practice when amending the notification period.

SP, rather than amend their IT have amended their T & C's in an attempt to continue their underhand charging practices.

Apart from contributors to forums such as this it is likely that SP are collecting from hundreds or thousands of unsuspecting customers unwarranted cancellation/termination fees.

The fact that it appears they are splitting bills, placing fees on penultimate and not final bills, making subtle changes to T & C's in order to trap customers into a mistake and ignoring the words and spirit of SLC23, smacks of dishonesty.

I would recommend anyone so affected to use the phone no. above (provided it is still current) to speak to someone with more authority than the front line rep. If not a successful outcome then straight to the Energy Ombudsman for redress.

backfoot

From the Scottish Power website for their Capped Product:

'Cancellation charges of £30.64 (incl. VAT) for electricity and £20.42 (incl. VAT) for gas may apply if you switch to another gas and/or electricity supplier before 31st December 2013. These charges will not be applied if the contract is cancelled due to a home move.'

Perhaps it should also highlight not payable following a price increase.

What are these charges for?

What do they actually cover? Administration costs? Profit? Penalty/fine? Are they cost reflective of an efficient process?

Why do they differ between gas and electrcity?

Are they for SP's self imposed complex manual process?

Why does it become £51 when another Supplier notifies them of a switch and nothing if you notify them? Even if that difference might be a couple of days.

As we know with bank charges, under Contract Law, the banks were obliged to substantiate their charges or they were seen as Unfair under Consumer Regulations.

What is different here? What is the breakdown of these charges?

Scottish_Power

Morning all,

Reading through the posts since my post of yesterday morning it is clear that the cancellation charge issue is one which the majority do not like. This is something I will pass on to the business improvements teams.

I am satisfied that our billing system does only apply cancellation charges when it is correct to do so. As previously stated there can be scenarios when common sense is required and each case will be reviewed on its own merits.

Kind regards

Graeme @ ScottishPower

jalexa

scottishpower_company_representative wrote: »

Reading through the posts since my post of yesterday morning it is clear that the cancellation charge issue is one which the majority do not like.

Well you are right about that, but appear to have missed the point. A recurring point is that many posters are reporting personal compliance with the (strict) rules but nevertheless find cancellation charges on their final (or penultimate) bill.

Casting my mind back on the last couple of months, (without checking) I have a recollection that as reported in this Forum, Scottish Power (and British Gas) were ahead of the game by having what was described as an Early Termination Charge "waiver". What you described yesterday, and fail to retract today, is hardly a "waiver".

Just an epic business "fail", snatching defeat from the moral high ground of yesterday's "waiver".

backfoot

It's difficult to be precise about the timing of various Supplier's granting 'waivers' of their termination fees. I believe EDF were the first to actually make a policy not to charge fees following the price rise on OS7.(although they forgot to tell some of their staff. :rotfl:.)

Of course, the terms policy and waiver are bogus,because as we have seen there are now so few situations where anything can be waived following a price increase. We are left with the final throes of 'fining' customers for perceived (but not proven) procedural requirements. Essentially these made up charges are defunct.

It looks like Graeme has taken on board the overwhelming arguments put forward by posters and it shouldn't take long to report back. A simple IT amendment to remove all Termination Fees from relevant tariffs will resolve it at a stroke.

No more 'accidental 'mistakes, simple billing,simple processes, no more complaints, bad press and a tick in the box from OFGEM under the Retail Market Review.

Shame though, I was looking forward to a test case.

jalexa

jeepjunkie wrote: »

Why is it all the big Scottish companies are awful and up to their necks in it...

As David Brent might say "oh..racist".

But then perhaps you meant Spanish...

Dalt0n

I have read this thread after I have already received my cheques of which I was in credit. Thought I would give them a call about the cancellation charge on my gas as they had stated i would not be charged then after looking at the bills noticed I was charged £20.42. They said they would refund and post the cheque straight away. I didn't bother to ask about the few pennies they had charged due to the new tariffs as it worked out less than £2.00, :j Thanks for making me aware of this charge now I am £20 up

backfoot

Dalt0n wrote: »

I have read this thread after I have already received my cheques of which I was in credit. Thought I would give them a call about the cancellation charge on my gas as they had stated i would not be charged then after looking at the bills noticed I was charged £20.42. They said they would refund and post the cheque straight away. I didn't bother to ask about the few pennies they had charged due to the new tariffs as it worked out less than £2.00, :j Thanks for making me aware of this charge now I am £20 up

Well done.:T

Claim what's due to you. That's why you abided with their petty procedures. Ask for a further amount as compensation for them getting their strict procedure wrong.

That's what they do if you don't do it correctly.:)

£20.42 seems to be the going rate.:D