scotish power pre pay meters

Scottish_Power

Hi Ste_t1

We recently improved our Prepayment removal policy so that any Prepayment customer, who do not have a debt, can have their meter removed once they have paid the meter exchange appointment charge. However, with the customer’s consent we will perform a credit search and dependant on the result of the search, some customers may also be required to pay a security deposit.

If a customer does not give consent to a credit search then their Prepayment meter can be removed once they have paid the security deposit. The current value of the security deposit is £150 per meter.

Our customers like Prepayment meters. They tell us they are a great way to budget and to keep control of their energy costs. They enjoy the comfort of knowing that they will not receive a bill that needs to be paid in full within 7 days.


Thanks Marie@ScottishPower

misterbarlow

our companies recent KPI figures showed that the cost per meter change is approx £23-26 to the company...

GrungeMeister

bev62 wrote: »

I have already spoken to a sales person at EDF who told me "as far as he knows" it is free - but when I told him as all calls are recorded, if I switch and end up being charged I would hold it against him and ask for the call to be listened to..... he quickly have me a CS number to ring. After 10 minutes of queuing to speak to them, I have decided its a job for another day!

But mission "exit Scottish Power" in on!

Bev, I am in exactly the same place as you right now. EDF have told me verbally that if I switch from Scottish Power to them, that EDF will remove the prepayment meter "free of charge" within about a month or so.

I had arrears though. There was an article here which said that provided the arrears were under £200, that the switch could still go ahead but that the debt goes with you. Fair enough, the EDF deal was cheaper for me anyway.

But Scottish Power's systems have now blocked the transfer twice, not because the debt is over £200 (it isn't) but because is over £50. The SP adviser to whom I spoke today said that they'll keep blocking the switch until the debt's under £50 ... so Scottish Power might well have signed up to this policy with other companies and the regulators, but in practice they're making it really difficult for prepayment customers to switch.

As it is, I've been scrimping and saving and scrimping and saving all year. My whisky jar was emptied of coins this morning, it was all bagged up carefully and taken to the bank (the bank was quiet ... I didn't cause a queue) and I had £189 saved up. They put that in my bank account for me.

My arrears were £167. I phoned Scottish Power & paid it off. I've just to top up two or three times and that will reset the meter back to normal.

Tonight I'm having a bath. I've showered regularly since last year but so far this year I haven't had a bath at all, I've been too scared to put the immersion heater on. Bath time, I'm going to have all the lights on too, the house will be lit up like a crimbo tree instead of one lamp only !

I'm SO glad I've finally paid the debt off.

bev62

GrungeMeister, I'm so pleased for you and really hope the bath was long and luxurious!

Your story reinforces my poor opinion of SP, at least the end is in sight now:beer:

Terrylw1

misterbarlow wrote: »

our companies recent KPI figures showed that the cost per meter change is approx £23-26 to the company...

Yeah, I can agree with you there. That's what I've seen as an average with some a little less.

Profit grabbing opportunity for suppliers...

Terrylw1

GrungeMeister wrote: »

Bev, I am in exactly the same place as you right now. EDF have told me verbally that if I switch from Scottish Power to them, that EDF will remove the prepayment meter "free of charge" within about a month or so.

I had arrears though. There was an article here which said that provided the arrears were under £200, that the switch could still go ahead but that the debt goes with you. Fair enough, the EDF deal was cheaper for me anyway.

But Scottish Power's systems have now blocked the transfer twice, not because the debt is over £200 (it isn't) but because is over £50. The SP adviser to whom I spoke today said that they'll keep blocking the switch until the debt's under £50 ... so Scottish Power might well have signed up to this policy with other companies and the regulators, but in practice they're making it really difficult for prepayment customers to switch.

As it is, I've been scrimping and saving and scrimping and saving all year. My whisky jar was emptied of coins this morning, it was all bagged up carefully and taken to the bank (the bank was quiet ... I didn't cause a queue) and I had £189 saved up. They put that in my bank account for me.

My arrears were £167. I phoned Scottish Power & paid it off. I've just to top up two or three times and that will reset the meter back to normal.

Tonight I'm having a bath. I've showered regularly since last year but so far this year I haven't had a bath at all, I've been too scared to put the immersion heater on. Bath time, I'm going to have all the lights on too, the house will be lit up like a crimbo tree instead of one lamp only !

I'm SO glad I've finally paid the debt off.

Oh dear, oh dear.

I suggest you raise a complaint about this.

£50 was an old value years ago before Standard Licence Condition (SLC) 14 defined it as £200.

They breached Ofgem's SLC by doing this.

See the supplier .PDF's in this link to Ofgem's site.

http://www.ofgem.gov.uk/Licensing/Work/Pages/licence-conditions-consolidated.aspx

Just proves what I keep saying on here...suppliers knowingly breach the objection rules as they know their customers won't know any different...

GrungeMeister

Terrylw1 wrote: »

Oh dear, oh dear.

I suggest you raise a complaint about this.

£50 was an old value years ago before Standard Licence Condition (SLC) 14 defined it as £200.

They breached Ofgem's SLC by doing this.

See the supplier .PDF's in this link to Ofgem's site.

http://www.ofgem.gov.uk/Licensing/Work/Pages/licence-conditions-consolidated.aspx

Just proves what I keep saying on here...suppliers knowingly breach the objection rules as they know their customers won't know any different...

Oh you are SUCH a star ... how blessed this forum is to have contributors like you ! Here's the clause they should've known about ...

"14.6 The licensee shall ensure that Outstanding Charges of amounts equal to or less
than £200 are capable of being assigned by the licensee to a new Electricity
Supplier in accordance with the Protocol."

And obviously they told me £50, not £200.

So my complaint is winging it's way to Scottish Power by email right now. I think it's really awful that they're preventing prepayment customers from shopping around for a better deal in this way ... the rotten lot.

I'll let you know what they say once they reply, maybe next week if we're lucky ?

Thanks again, thanks so much :beer:

GrungeMeister

Well it's now been three top ups since I paid my arrears off on Friday morning ... and still the arrears haven't cleared off my prepayment meter. It's still happily recovering a debt which doesn't even exist now. So thanks, Scottish Power, thank you SO much, yet more duff advice from your call handlers.

Because I'm low waged and don't get paid until next Friday, I now don't have any more spare cash to top the meter up until then. So that means I'm right back to electricity austerity then, back to no hot water and scrimping and saving again ... even though I've paid Scottish Power £192 since Thursday there.

Terrylw1

Has the payment even hit your account?

Its really sad that PPM technology and its network is so poor...3 top ups for a command to hit is poor.

misterbarlow

Talexus etc is useless... i regularly get call outs at night for a change of tenancy, as repeated commands to reset the meter debt for the new tennant have failed..
my company pays £1 per mpan per year to use this system which must run into the hundreds of thousands a year for them, and its utter pants!!!