Scottish Power credit

jamie07971

Hi

I have a credit of £258 on my electricity account with Scottish Power. They are not giving it back to me as they 'think' they may have been billing me incorrcetly. They are saying that they 'may' have got my day and night rates around the wrong way. I have been entering my meter readings online in the correct boxes and they have sent people to read the meter.

I have been a customer of their for over 4 years. Surely this is their fault if they have not been billing me correctly?

Does anyone know where I stand with reclaiming this money and with the possible billing error which they cannot confirm at the moment?

Thanks

Jamie

malkyh

They just don't want to refund you. A friend of mines had issues where they were over £400 in credit and called to ask for it back. Then they done a 'recalculation' and he was only £200 odd in credit.............They did refund him though. I'm with Scottish Hydro and they automatically credit your bank account when you are so much in credit on your account. I had over £200 credited last bill date.

jamie07971

WOW my account has gone from £253.08 in credit to £344.73 in debit over night. I really don't know how they make up these figures! Apparently they have billed me incorrectly since Dec 2009. Seems odd that they have reduced my monthly direct debit by £30 a month when there is this massive debit on my account now!

anniecave

I would do a basic meter test yourself. Take multiple readings throughout the day and see which meter reading moves during the day and check that the other one moves over night. Then check that the one that has moved during the day is the one charged as "day" on your bills.

Do you have electric storage heating in your property?

anniecave

jamie07971 wrote: »

WOW my account has gone from £253.08 in credit to £344.73 in debit over night. I really don't know how they make up these figures! Apparently they have billed me incorrectly since Dec 2009. Seems odd that they have reduced my monthly direct debit by £30 a month when there is this massive debit on my account now!

Was the reduction in direct debit before or after they adjusted for the day/night possible error? (Which I would check out as above).

I would suggest the computer may have reduced the DD assuming that you were in credit, but if the day/night error is genuine, so your revised bill is now correct, then that same computer will shortly generate a new letter with a new larger direct debit (or a request for immediate payment!)

macman

jamie07971 wrote: »

Hi

I have a credit of £258 on my electricity account with Scottish Power. They are not giving it back to me as they 'think' they may have been billing me incorrcetly. They are saying that they 'may' have got my day and night rates around the wrong way. I have been entering my meter readings online in the correct boxes and they have sent people to read the meter.

I have been a customer of their for over 4 years. Surely this is their fault if they have not been billing me correctly?

Does anyone know where I stand with reclaiming this money and with the possible billing error which they cannot confirm at the moment?

Thanks

Jamie

If the billing is wrong, then you are liable for any unpaid billing, regardless of where the error lies. If the error was in your favour, presumably you would still expect to get a refund?

jamie07971

anniecave wrote: »

I would do a basic meter test yourself. Take multiple readings throughout the day and see which meter reading moves during the day and check that the other one moves over night. Then check that the one that has moved during the day is the one charged as "day" on your bills.

Do you have electric storage heating in your property?

Hi

Rate 1 is my day rate and Rate 2 is my night rate. When I enter my readings online it asks for rate 1 and rate 2 not day reading and night reading. They have removed my bills online so i cannot see what i was being billed and have replaced it with an 8 page new bill.

I do not have storage heating in my property.

jamie07971

anniecave wrote: »

Was the reduction in direct debit before or after they adjusted for the day/night possible error? (Which I would check out as above).

I would suggest the computer may have reduced the DD assuming that you were in credit, but if the day/night error is genuine, so your revised bill is now correct, then that same computer will shortly generate a new letter with a new larger direct debit (or a request for immediate payment!)

The reduction was done after they issued my the new bill with the debit balance. I am awaiting a response to see what is going on with the bill.

jamie07971

macman wrote: »

If the billing is wrong, then you are liable for any unpaid billing, regardless of where the error lies. If the error was in your favour, presumably you would still expect to get a refund?

I think you are incorrect as when I spoke to one of the Executive Customer Service Team he stated to me that they can legally only go back 12 months.

Cardew

jamie07971 wrote: »

I think you are incorrect as when I spoke to one of the Executive Customer Service Team he stated to me that they can legally only go back 12 months.

Under the Billing Code(it is a code not a law) to which SP have signed up, they can only back bill for 12 months, from when the error was discovered, where the company are at fault.

SP are well aware of that provision and normally apply the rule without prompting.

That leaves three possibilities:

A. The new debit balance is after going back 12 months and they have written off 3 years incorrect payment.

B. They do not think they are at fault.

C. They have made a mistake.

To change from £258 credit to £344 debit is £602 difference. It is very likely that some of that £602 is for a bill at a later date. So my guess is that 'A' is the most likely possibility.