My account has been De energised and I cant move??

sunnsea

Its now been a few days from my last post so here's a quick update.... I sent in a formal complaint and received a reply saying they would get back to me within 72 hours which they did.
They said that there appeared to be a problem with my address details on the local distribution network operator (DNO) which had resulted in the DNO telling Scottish power that my meter was attached to a different supply number. Scottish Power said they knew this information to be incorrect. So in order to make the necessary corrections they asked me to confirm my full address so they could arrange for the DNO to update their records and re - energise my supply and also give me a supply number - thus enabling me to move to another company..
Now I don't really understand why Scottish Power need me to confirm my full address as it is sent in every email that has been exchanged between us through my account - so I'm not sure why they would need me to confirm it again! However, I did thank them for their reply and immediately sent my full address to them. They also sent me a complaints procedure letter so I knew how the process worked.
I sent my full address to Scottish Power as soon as I had read the message from them and I again received the standard reply saying my message would be answered within 72 hours. This has come and gone and I have received.... yes you've guessed it .... nothing! I have just sent another email asking why they haven't bothered replying to my previous one.
The amount of frustration this is causing is unbelievable and I now think I am going to lose out on the great deal I had found by switching energy suppliers.
Will keep you posted.

Scottish_Power

sunnsea if you e-mail details to [EMAIL="onlinecomplaints@scottishpower.com"]onlinecomplaints@scottishpower.com[/EMAIL] we can check progress of this for you. Thanks David @ ScottishPower

sunnsea

scottishpower_company_representative wrote: »

sunnsea if you e-mail details to [EMAIL="onlinecomplaints@scottishpower.com"]onlinecomplaints@scottishpower.com[/EMAIL] we can check progress of this for you. Thanks David @ ScottishPower

Hi David,

I have sent all the details via email to Scottish Power electronically including the formal complaint - so it should be readily available for you to look at. I don't think that it would be appropriate to now send all the information again to another department.

I logged onto my account last night and saw that my complaint is under investigation. This shows as being logged on the 5th November although the issue was reported on the 13th October.

It would have been nice if Scottish Power had sent me an email telling me the above information rather than me having to go into my utilities on-line account and find the information out for myself.

I do appreciate you following my thread though and as I have read the complaints procedure leaflet which says to give it 10 days from the date of my formal complaint to sort out the problem I shall do that before pursuing the matter any further - even though it also states that I will be kept informed every step of the way which I clearly am not being!

I shall continue to keep you posted.

Regards

sunflower_2

chanz4 wrote: »

op remove your mpan from your post, anyone can check where you live

chanz4 - purely out of interest (I am constantly being told I am naive) what difference would this make? i.e. what problems could OP possibly have by someone knowing where they live?

thanks

Terrylw1

sunflower wrote: »

chanz4 - purely out of interest (I am constantly being told I am naive) what difference would this make? i.e. what problems could OP possibly have by someone knowing where they live?

thanks

There are 3 such reasons:

1 - your MPAN is all anyone needs to switch you without your permission.

2 - anyone in your current supplier who uses MSE could trace your name and address for a forum which operates with your true identify being optional.

3 - anyone who has access to ECOES, which is a lot of people in the utility sector, can trace your address from a forum which operates with your true identify being optional.

Terrylw1

There are some issues to address here.

Firstly, Spiro is spot on. Your new supplier doesn't need your meter number or a status of energised. Furthermore, a supplier cannot update a meter number in the distributors database. Only the suppliers appointed Meter Operator agent is allowed to do this and its a newer industry process going back a few years. So, before this, the supplier couldn't even see this in the distributors database and used other methods to view it. To get it updated, the supplier asks their agent to send it on.

Its also been a common problem to find this meter number to be incorrect. When ECOES launched, suppliers were asked to analyse the test version and I can tell you that there were hundreds of thousands of errors with meter numbers from my view alone...as I did one of the supplier analyses.

Now the second issue. This is worse because you seem to have an issue with your MPAN, address & meter number combination.

Ask them who de-energised your MPAN and removed the meter number.

The distributor shouldn't just do this without the supplier so I suspect your supplier took incorrect action causing this.

Another possibility is that someone has Disconnected your MPAN. This is a more serious action. However, it can be resurrected where an error has caused this but it can all take a few weeks of dithering between supplier & distributor.

Contact the distributor's MPAS and ask them if the MPAN on your bill is DEAD/DISCONNECTED. If so, the more serious action has occurred. Since your address may have been changed, explain this or they may withhold this information.

A distributor can change the address against the MPAN and send the change to the supplier who should update their systems & agents or challenge it to change it back. Distributors use data from the Royal Mail and are careful when making changes...suppliers are often less careful.

I can't say anymore as its a bit unclear what the true issue may be so hopefully you can get some more information.

sunnsea

I am now aware as previously posted that the new supplier doesn't need my meter number or a status of re-energised/de-energised. However, my new supplier does need a supply number and this is where the problem exists because apparently there is no supply number relating to my address!

Scottish Power said they are aware of this but have done nothing to sort it out apart from asking me what my full address is. Most correspondence has been done electronically from my fuel account with them which shows my address in full.

The house where I live is over a 100 years old so the problem isn't because its a new build or anything like that. I have never been in debt with my fuel and I have never had my supply cut off. I moved here 14 months ago and changed supplier 13 months ago without any issues whatsoever.

I have been informed that any issues with my supply number must have been caused by Scottish Power as there wasn't an issue before they took over the supply. I have noticed that none of my bills show a supply number either (something I didn't know it was supposed to do until someone on this site told me)

After telephoning customer services several times and being told several different versions of why there is and even why there isn't a problem, I took to this site in the hope that someone else can help.

Its now been logged as a formal complaint and still I am getting no answers from Scottish Power on when it will be sorted and when I can change supplier but time is moving on and once the time frame they have given me has run out, I shall escalate the complaint further.

Will post again when I know more.

Regards

Terrylw1

That's very strange.

In switching you, they created an account which contains your MPAN & supply number. The MPAN is the number that identifies your site, the supply number just details how your meter & payment is operating along with a number that fixes how the supplier is being charged.

I can't see how they can bill you without the MPAN. If there is no MPAN, the distributor doesn't charge them. The only way that could occur would be by creating an account outside of the correct process e.g. a member of staff with greater system privileges trying to get around a system problem.

This could still mean someone has disconnected your MPAN. Perhaps that removes it from the bill but a supplier can't bill on this status as it ends the distributors billing to them...so again have they messed up and kept on billing in error?

If your new supplier is telling you that SP have caused this, ignore them, its possible for the distributor to cause this. Your complaint would still be to your supplier, I'm just saying its worth keeping an open mind on it.

sunnsea

Well - that seems to be what's happened but I can't be sure as SP have not; and are not keeping me informed of what's going on or how its going to be resolved.

Scottish_Power

sunnsea sorry you've not had a response. Still willing to check this for you if you want me to. Thanks David @ ScottishPower