Scottish Power... people are still confused

loon_2

here's a little bit of info for all those people who have been living under a rock:

Scottish Power supply gas and electricity. Sainsbury sell food, etc. and Lloyds/TSB deal with cash,etc.

if you get stopped in Sainsburys, you will have your gas/elec supplied by Scottish Power, not Sainsburys Energy(this is just a name). Similarly, if you go to your bank and they say they will deal with everything for you hassle free, do not listen to them. they like door to door reps are merely selling the products on behalf of Scottish Power, the difference is that they work in a bank during the day, and don't come round your house.

so, if someone at the bank says that they will sort it for you, the best thing to do is check uswitch.com and get an independent price comparison. all they can do, is sign you up to scottish power, and then get a healthy commision.

in fact, if you call scottish power and query bank tactics, they will more than likely tell you the same and then give you a quote much cheaper than you got at the bank... ironically, both were incorrect in my case.

System

Beware of Scottish Power - I decided to go with them for both electricity and gas some months ago. They sent me a form (with the wrong first initial) on confirming the direct debit (which has never appeared in my list of direct debits).

I've had nothing else from them despite being told that it'd take 6-8 weeks to transfer - that period is well over now.

Having read posts from others, and with the recent increase in price for gas, I'm going to do what Martin has suggested and sit on my hands until November.

Scottish Power have a few too many criticisms for me to be comfortable with them, even if they turn out to be cheapest for me.

System

Yeah, due to their inability to set up Direct Debits i owe too much to leave them as i cant afford to pay it all back in one go. I am now paying over twice as much as i did with my old utility supplier. I have also spent a fortune in phone calls (i recently found an 0800 number though so i have been using that).

However, in their defence, once i got the online billing set up (that took about 5 phone calls to get right), i am really happy with the system. I know exactly how much i am using each week/month and when i get sorted, i intend to pay any extra into a bank account so i dont get in this mess again.

However the kids are not impressed, i have hid the bath plug, they now have to use showers. ;D

Mumbles50

Scottish Power gave up with me and their 'Door to Door' salesman managed to con my neighbour into accepting their deal. The guy wouldn't leave me documentation with the prices he was quoting overnight as he stated that the rates could change by the next day and that I would 'miss out'.......CRAP.

My neighbour agreed to change and then I checked the details he left with her. The prices underlined by the rep were excluding VAT.....which made the including VAT prices alongside look as if my neighbours were getting a cheap deal.

I worked it out for my neighbours and proved that it was cheaper for them to stay with their existing supplier (SWALEC). The salesman for SP spent ages going door to door and had managed to convince my neighbour that they were offering 'once only' extremely cheap deals.......they aren't.

STAY AWAY from Scottish Power.

Premier_2

This thread is 6 years old! as well as being factually incorrect in many aspects.

Susan1942

Now I am a little alarmed as I am thinking of changing to SP. They definately work out cheaper for me with USwitch quoting £115 less and I believe this as I had to put in Night and day use and I found I am using 80% night use rates.
Other things I filled in I was saying that the use was 70%
USW had the day and night units exactly whereas the others based their price on the 70% and so made the savings higher.

Sue

daveyjp

Marks and Spencer are also partnered with SSE. Check via the M&S website if you are considering SSE, you'll get some M&S vouchers for switching.

We moved to them in June and all has gone without a hitch - our first bills arrived this week.

Plushchris

As Premier said THIS THREAD IS SIX YEARS OLD

Sainsburys energy is no longer supplied by Scottish Power, its now EDF that work with Sainsburys.

If you did a comparison recently and took advantage of the cashback with Scottish Power then dont worry, their cheapest tariff is reasonably good and the cashback will make it a winner in most cases.

Although M&S are partnered with SSE thats largely irrelevant to this thread as SSE (Scottish and Southern Energy) is a completely different company to Scottish Power..