Scottish Power worse than !!!!!! Turpin

Just_landed

Well with today being so cold I went to my 82 year old mothers to grit her paths and make sure she was warm enough. She buys duel fuel from Scottish Power, I was amazed to find that she was on their standard tariff. I thought this cannot be right so I telephoned them up and not happy had a go at them. It gets worse my mother is actually in fuel poverty and pays £100 a month direct debit from last April. Well it turned out she was £479.00 in credit, at that I flipped calling them a few choice words. I said we want the £479.00 back ASAP no way was the reply, we revue every six months. Not happy with this we came to an understanding of a lower tariff starting immediately, (with interest rates so low) we settled for a much lower direct debit for the next 12 months.
Moral of the story is :- If anyone out there has an elderly relative check how much they are paying their utility company they to could be, being ripped off especially Scottish Power.

:eek:

katz03

thanks - i'm planning to pop over to my MIL - i shall be checking

chanz4

Is it billed on actual or estimated reads the credit? Also no need really to give callcenter advisors abuse, they are only there to help and like yourself don't warrant abuse.

jalexa

chanz4 wrote: »

.. Also no need really to give callcenter advisors abuse, they are only there to help ..

Well that is reasonable but...

The OP posts "I said we want the £479.00 back ASAP no way was the reply, we revue every six months". However the Regulations require...

27.16 Where any Credit has accumulated under a Domestic Supply Contract and the relevant Domestic Customer requests that the licensee do so, the licensee must, save where it is fair and reasonable in all the circumstances for the licensee not to do so, refund, in a timely manner, any Credit which has accumulated under that Domestic Supply Contract to the relevant Domestic Customer. Where the licensee considers that it is fair and reasonable in all the circumstances for it not to refund any Credit which has accumulated under a Domestic Supply Contract in accordance with this provision, it must inform the relevant Domestic Customer of its view and of the reasons for holding that view.

So was the Adviser "helpful"? Was the Adviser "competent"? Was "no way" (or similar) an appropriate response?

macman

Why is is SP's fault that she is on Standard tariff? The customer chooses the tariff, not the supplier. No supplier is obliged to move customers onto their cheapest tariff, or even advise them of a cheaper tariff.
And, unless you have registered her as vulnerable with them, they will have no idea of whether she is 82 or 18 years old.

fightyfish

There is never an excuse to be rude, if the call-centre agent was unhelpful or you disagreed with their advice you should politely but firmly ask to speak to a manager and if necessary raise a formal complaint.
In regards to your issue however you should have been able to get a refund provided the account was billed to an up to date actual read which they should have been able to take from you. As mentioned above tariff's are the responsibility of the customer and utility companies are under no obligation to check that customers are on the best deal. Also as most tariffs have stipulations as cancellation fees it wouldn't do any good for companies to sign customers up automatically either. I'm glad your mother was able to get a better deal though - good timing with this cold snap!

Scottish_Power

Hi Just landed,

The only reason I can think that we were unable to offer a refund would be if actual readings were not available. It sounds like the reduction in monthly payment has resolved this for you. If not you can e-mail me with your details to [EMAIL="onlinecomplaints@scottishpower.com"]onlinecomplaints@scottishpower.com[/EMAIL]

Kind regards

Graeme @ ScottishPower

Just_landed

I thought I would give an update on this.
As I have said in a previous post I got her on a better tariff and a much reduced monthly direct debit of £40 a month. Well that was quit a few months ago and her credit balance was not coming down much so I got back on the phone to Scottish Power and asked them firmly to reduce her payments still further, which giving credit to Scottish Power they did without any objections to £25 a month. I will be watching my mothers A/C closely over winter, if her credit balance does not start to drop much quicker I will be asking for the payments to be reduced still further, :shocked: that is a75% saving no wonder utility companies are making a fortune.
The point of me posting about this if you have elderly relatives look out for them, Power companies do not do enough if anything about our elderly folk.
I have told a close friend about this a few months ago, so they took a close look at their mothers power bill (she is 89) and her charges were far worse than my mothers anyway after a couple of months the power company (not Scottish Power) changed the fairly new Electric meter and since have wavered £400 + of the £500 + bill.
The moral of the story is :-watch out there is a ***** about,

undaunted

I agree with Jalexa & personally I'd want her money back now rather than a lower DDI over a protracted period - why should you give SP an interest free loan?