Scottish Power have lied to me to get my business!

misstaffy77

I am currently with British Gas, but as prices have increased I have been looking around for a better deal to switch to when my contract runs out later this month. After visiting their website, Scottish Power contacted me by phone and gave me a fairly competitive tariff, which beats all the others I have looked at, so I agreed to swap (after several further phone calls to the same rep). All fine so far, until I recieve my welcome letter through the post and see the REAL price per kwh, which is nothing like the price I was given over the phone (nothing to do with VAT being excluded by the way). I am furious! How can they tell such porkies?? I will be phoning them first thing tomorrow and cancelling the agreement! Grr!:mad:

jalexa

misstaffy77 wrote: »

How can they tell such porkies?? I will be phoning them first thing tomorrow and cancelling the agreement!

The unit price per kWhr in isolation is not an accurate indication of total cost. What was the name of the Scottish Power tariff? Could you have misunderstood the primary tier unit price?

Next time use a comparison website and compare headline costs for your typical annual consumption. It is quite likely Scottish Power has a reasonably competitive tariff with less "gotchas" than other suppliers.

What's a "gotcha"?

macman

Would you expect a rep to tell that his tariff would cost you more than a competitor?
Why on earth bother phoning around and talking to reps when a comp site and a cashback site can tell you the cheapest tariff in seconds, and then give you the commission instead of giving it to the rep?

Scottish_Power

Hi Misstaffy77,

If the price per kWh is different to that quoted during the sales call it may just be an admin error with the wrong pricing info being sent to you. If you e-mail me with your details to [EMAIL="onlinecomplaints@scottishpower.com"]onlinecomplaints@scottishpower.com[/EMAIL] I can look in to this for you.

Kind regards

Graeme @ ScottishPower

misstaffy77

macman wrote: »

Would you expect a rep to tell that his tariff would cost you more than a competitor?
Why on earth bother phoning around and talking to reps when a comp site and a cashback site can tell you the cheapest tariff in seconds, and then give you the commission instead of giving it to the rep?

Not sure why I am getting lectured here?!!

Anyway, initially I went to several comparison sites who all had N-Power down as the cheapest for my annual consumption which is 2626 units per year. I wanted to get as many prices as possible, so went to suppliers websites too, hence why Scottish power phoned me back.

I would expect them to truthfully tell me what their tariff is. End of.

I was quoted:

No standing charge
22.255p (inc VAT) up to 225 units
10.842p (inc VAT) 226 units and above.

Which was by far the cheapest I had found, so I went with it.

However, it turns out that their Online Fixed Price 2013 prices are quite different from the above.

Don't think I will bother posting on this forum again if I just get treated like I am some kind of idiot - I thought this site was meant to be helpful!

macman

I did not treat you like an idiot. I suggested a means by which you would get the quickest and most accurate tariff search results, plus some cashback in your pocket. In my books that is 'helpful'.
If you had already got that info from a comp site, why go to SP?
There was nothing to stop you checking the SP phone offer back on the comp site to verify it.

misstaffy77

macman wrote: »

I did not treat you like an idiot. I suggested a means by which you would get the quickest and most accurate tariff search results, plus some cashback in your pocket. In my books that is 'helpful'.
If you had already got that info from a comp site, why go to SP?
There was nothing to stop you checking the SP phone offer back on the comp site to verify it.

Scottish Power did not appear on the results of the comparison website. Nor did British Gas, who bettered anything that was offered on the comparison websites. Surely better to go with the most competitive quote than pay extra for something just because it came top on a comparison website.

Therefore I would surmise that your method of searching for "the most accurate tariff search results" is not always correct.

Getting back to SP - If someone telephones me and offers me a good price for electricity, which would result in £40pa less than any of the other quotes, why did I do anything wrong in agreeing? It was not my fault that the man on the end of the telephone told me a complete fabrication of the truth. That is what I am annoyed about.

Anyway, I have cancelled the SP transfer now.

jalexa

misstaffy77 wrote: »

I was quoted:

No standing charge
22.255p (inc VAT) up to 225 units
10.842p (inc VAT) 226 units and above.

Which was by far the cheapest I had found, so I went with it.

However, it turns out that their Online Fixed Price 2013 prices are quite different from the above.

Don't think I will bother posting on this forum again if I just get treated like I am some kind of idiot ...

Prices vary by region but these are very typical of correct unit prices for SP Online Fixed Price 2013 except for one thing, the tariff is 900 primary units per year (or 225 primary units per quarter). Perhaps that is the source of the misunderstanding/misinformation.

I am certain if you had used a Consumer Focus accredited comparison site, for example TheEnergyShop or uSwitch, the above tariff would have been listed if you had looked far enough.

Now a small lecture (or tutorial) for the benefit of others. Most tariffs at the very top of the comparison are there by virtue of one or more "gotchas", in the case of NPower by employing "deferred discount":eek:. Beware "deferred discount":eek: if you do not understand the circumstances in which you could forfeit the discount.

In contrast, a Scottish Power fixed tariff is usually commendably (or honestly) free of "gotcha".

macman

misstaffy77 wrote: »

Scottish Power did not appear on the results of the comparison website. Nor did British Gas, who bettered anything that was offered on the comparison websites. Surely better to go with the most competitive quote than pay extra for something just because it came top on a comparison website.

Therefore I would surmise that your method of searching for "the most accurate tariff search results" is not always correct.

Getting back to SP - If someone telephones me and offers me a good price for electricity, which would result in £40pa less than any of the other quotes, why did I do anything wrong in agreeing? It was not my fault that the man on the end of the telephone told me a complete fabrication of the truth. That is what I am annoyed about.

Anyway, I have cancelled the SP transfer now.

Which comp site did you use? SP and BG are on all the accredited comp sites recommended by MSE.
I doubt that SP lied to you. What they probably failed to point out is that quoting just unit kWh rates does not tell you the cheapest tariff, because it does not take all the many other variables into account.
If you feed the comp site with your annual kWh figures, you will get accurate results.
And the other reason for not buying on the phone or on the doorstep, is that you lose your commission to the agent.