Scottish Power stole my Electricity Account - only response = debt collectors-2 Years

Terminator-T1000

In November 2009 I (foolishly) signed up with Scottish Power (Duel Fuel) as I was taking over the utilities from my mother (in her 80s). Unfortunately at this time I found myself unemployed and finances were stretched to the limit so a reduction of £5 a month in my Direct Debit was welcome and when the representative called I went for it (even though it wasn't the best deal long term) for convienience.

On Januaray 8th 2010 I noticed that they had not taken the 1st DD for my electricity so I contacted SP to find out why as I needed to know where every penny was.
The reply was:

sp: We are pleased to tell you that we have transfered your account back to Southern & Scottish Electric

:mad: Well thank you, I never ask you to do that ! & not my question

me: Well can you get it back ? duel fuel discount etc

sp: No. You will have to fill in the forms again

Well if I had to fill in the forms why not go for the best deal (at the time) so I personally transfered the electricity account from S&SE to NPower and the gas from SP to NPower.
All went well:dance: . NPower kept updating me with the progress: they were going to start supplying me on 13th (gas)/15th March (electricity).

Finally got an interview & job :j
DD was set up 1st payment 15th May which they duely took (no surprises there ) and again in June. Marvellous, I thought, everything went without a hitch... finished paying SP off and cancelled DD to them so that they didn't accidentally keep taking my money
(£10K of debt by now, not easy paying mortgage on £64/week when you spend £20 to get to job centre to sign on and seriously there were no jobs circa Christmas 2009 remember?).
November 2010
Got a bill from SP ~ they've gone mad I thought ~ sent letter telling them I hadn't been with them since March.
No Response but started getting debt collection letters (2/week) but as they were from
"experts at finding people at their own homes" type and there was a bonfire nearby... anyway SP hadn't replied.
December 2010
Different collection agency letters but I noticed that the amount I apparently owed was going down week by week from £ hundreds to £52 including £40 transfer fees which they had transfered themselves :mad:
Got a cheque for £84 from SP :huh:
Demands stopped :T ...

December 15th 2011 :xmastree:
A letter/demand from SP saying that they had unfortunately FORGOTTEN to send me a bill in the LAST YEAR and it was estimated to be about £600!
Well the Southern Electric and NPower DD's were £28/Month (£336 /year) and it was a mild winter (Cooking/Heating is gas) so B.S.
Had to work away for 3 months so dashed off a letter explaining that they had taken control of my electricity account without my knowledge or consent and a second letter that I told my mother to send back to them after Christmas with all their bills.
Got back yesterday to be woken by debt collector at door :mad::mad::mad:
very mad told him to go away - Far Offshore.

So it would appear that Scottish Power have stolen my electricity account from NPower without my authorisation or knowledge at some time.
They refuse to acknowledge my letters or explain themselves.
I now have another extortion demand sitting on my doormat
(haven't looked yet and that is the only reason that fatherless debt collector is still in one piece).
Surely there can be no contract between us.
Any advice please ?

What really annoys me is when you sign up with them they loose/give away your accounts and when you leave them they steal them back and try to extort money from you.

Premier_2

Terminator-T1000 wrote: »

In November 2009 I (foolishly) signed up with Scottish Power (Duel Fuel) as I was taking over the utilities from my mother (in her 80s). Unfortunately at this time I found myself unemployed and finances were stretched to the limit so a reduction of £5 a month in my Direct Debit was welcome and when the representative called I went for it (even though it wasn't the best deal long term) for convienience.

On Januaray 8th 2010 I noticed that they had not taken the 1st DD for my electricity so I contacted SP to find out why as I needed to know where every penny was.
The reply was:

sp: We are pleased to tell you that we have transfered your account back to Southern & Scottish Electric

:mad: Well thank you, I never ask you to do that ! & not my question

me: Well can you get it back ? duel fuel discount etc

sp: No. You will have to fill in the forms again

Well if I had to fill in the forms why not go for the best deal (at the time) so I personally transfered the electricity account from S&SE to NPower and the gas from SP to NPower.
All went well:dance: . NPower kept updating me with the progress: they were going to start supplying me on 13th (gas)/15th March (electricity).

Finally got an interview & job :j
DD was set up 1st payment 15th May which they duely took (no surprises there ) and again in June. Marvellous, I thought, everything went without a hitch... finished paying SP off and cancelled DD to them so that they didn't accidentally keep taking my money
(£10K of debt by now, not easy paying mortgage on £64/week when you spend £20 to get to job centre to sign on and seriously there were no jobs circa Christmas 2009 remember?).
November 2010
Got a bill from SP ~ they've gone mad I thought ~ sent letter telling them I hadn't been with them since March.
No Response but started getting debt collection letters (2/week) but as they were from
"experts at finding people at their own homes" type and there was a bonfire nearby... anyway SP hadn't replied.
December 2010
Different collection agency letters but I noticed that the amount I apparently owed was going down week by week from £ hundreds to £52 including £40 transfer fees which they had transfered themselves :mad:
Got a cheque for £84 from SP :huh:
Demands stopped :T ...

December 15th 2011 :xmastree:
A letter/demand from SP saying that they had unfortunately FORGOTTEN to send me a bill in the LAST YEAR and it was estimated to be about £600!
Well the Southern Electric and NPower DD's were £28/Month (£336 /year) and it was a mild winter (Cooking/Heating is gas) so B.S.
Had to work away for 3 months so dashed off a letter explaining that they had taken control of my electricity account without my knowledge or consent and a second letter that I told my mother to send back to them after Christmas with all their bills.
Got back yesterday to be woken by debt collector at door :mad::mad::mad:
very mad told him to go away - Far Offshore.

So it would appear that Scottish Power have stolen my electricity account from NPower without my authorisation or knowledge at some time.
They refuse to acknowledge my letters or explain themselves.
I now have another extortion demand sitting on my doormat
(haven't looked yet and that is the only reason that fatherless debt collector is still in one piece).
Surely there can be no contract between us.
Any advice please ?

What really annoys me is when you sign up with them they loose/give away your accounts and when you leave them they steal them back and try to extort money from you.

Presumably you originally opted for Scottish Power at the time as they were the cheapest supplier for you.

Now you can try battling on with the confusion and possibly get agreement to pay another company at their higher cost.

But you owe the money for the energy used, and as a moneysaving forum I would suggest you just pay the cheapest supplier

Terrylw1

If SP have stolen your account you mean an erroneous transfer and you just tell your supplier about it and they will get you registered back to them with no period with SP hence no bill for it.

What you are describing though seems more like bills up to when you went which you would pay to them if you were with them for a period of time. However from your post you don't appear to have been their customer. If you need to check the gas its slightly different so ask your current supplier to check.

So, contact your mpas and ask them who the registered supplier was through these periods. If SP never registered you, you owe them nothing. If mpas won't do this, ask your current supplier who can do this for you online at their side.

Terminator-T1000

I hope this post clarifies things as I was a bit stressed last time as I pay all my legitimate contractually binding bills that I have agreed to.

The point is this:
Yes I did originally sign with Scottish Power but within 1 month (over Christmas) they (or someone) had returned the electricity account to the previous supplier.
When I discovered that they had not taken the first Direct Debit, I contacted them to ask why?
The answer was "we are pleased to tell you that we have returned your account to Southern Electric"
Well I hadn't asked anyone to do that ! (so OK erronous transfer).
I asked SP to get it back and was told "we can't, you will have to fill in the forms again"
Well I was of the opinion that they were quite inept so I transfered my gas account, which was still with SP and the electricity account that was now with Southern Electric again to NPower to benefit from the duel fuel discount (NPower were the best for me at the time).

I had only signed with SP because they cold called at my house just at the right time and they could reduce my direct debit by £5 which would have allowed me to survive on unemployment benefit for another 3 months before being completely bankrupt.

Everything seemed to go fine, the NPower direct debits were set up and were paid out over the next few months as I checked my bank statement.
I would think that anyone with that evidence would agree with me that NPower had my accounts ?

It wasn't until about 6 or 7 months after this that Scottish Power started hounding me which didn't make sense as to my knowledge I had nothing to do with them.
It was only at this point after and some investigation I discovered SP had taken control of my electricity account again but none of the companies had bothered to inform me.
I contacted them to tell them that I did not want to be with them and that they had taken the account without my knowledge or consent and I wanted it returned to NPower.
To date they have completely ignored this request and will not enter into dialogue.
The immediate reply is in the form of legal action.

So I guess my actual questions are:
If I personally move my supplier what right does Scottish Power have to hijack my account, refuse to return it to my chosen supplier and then demand payment ?
Scottish Power told me that they could not get the account back from Southern Electric so how did they get it from NPower?
As I personally moved the account to NPower and Scottish Power took it after this date how do I stand legally?
I'm sorry people all I have wanted is both my gas and electricity in the same place to benefit from the duel fuel discount and because the power companies work amongst themselves without informing the customer when an error like this happens it can be a year before you find out and as this was done without keeping me in the loop how can it be my fault and why should I be liable?

Terrylw1

In the first instance where you signed to go to SP, when it went back in error you didn't need to resign as you could have stated it was an erroneous transfer which just means you haven't authorised it. Since you didn't know how to do this, you stayed with your old supplier and chosr a brand new one on a better deal, which for you was npower.

So, you signed to npower and were transferred. If SP then transfer you without your knowledge, its an erroneous transfer. Forget SP, you tell the supplier you signed to and they will contact SP to transfer you back. They will correct all records to show you were never with SP but a record remains with the registration service at your distributor so they know what happened. There will be no reading movement between the suppliers as SP have no legal right to bill you and your correct supplier will bill you through your account as they would have if none of it ever happened.

If this is within 12 months, its simple enough. If its longer its a bit more complicated but I won't go into that unless you say its that far back.

Terminator-T1000

Thanks Terrylw1

It would appear that we see things the same way!
Its all a bit of a mess and it was about March 2010.
However since my original post I have actually got some sort of reply out of Scottish Power. As they can only back bill me for a year and if I can negotiate their estimated bill (I reckon its about 51% too high) then it is probably better to pay them and then transfer again.

Would anyone know how much electricity prices have risen (as %) since March 2010 ?
The electricity component of my bill was £28/month then so as a round figure I have factored in a 20% increase = £33.60
Scottish Power are estimating £51/month... too much me thinks.
(I have asked this in a new thread )

Terrylw1

Ah, ok ...that's beyond the industry limit where data crystallises at 14 months, so suppliers say 12 months to give them time to do it as the time limit is in real time.

In this scenario, there is no way to backdate a registration so your chosen supplier will talk to them but process you as a normal change of supply. You are however best raising complaints about this if you have been arguing with them all this time since an ET isn't rocket science for suppliets, its sadly a constant problem.

This leaves you with an issue with SP who you would be registered to, however that doesn't mean you can't tell them that your other supplier was cheape so you expect to pay that. They may say they csnt, we don't do that, the system won't allow it, etc...but they can, if they want to. You may even end up better off if SP were cheaper, but its worth considering each option on the prices.

Oh, and if npower prices were cheaper and they say "the system can't do that", they can always bill to SP prices and dump a credit on the bill...but get that in writing just I case.