scottish power trying to charge me exist fees

Io_Saturnalia

Wywth wrote: »

Were you rejecting a notification of a price increase in your tariff?

You don't need to notify your supplier to simply move away from them - the new supplier will do all that for you

I don't remember the exact text of the email it is it home but it was something along the lines of, 'Your deal is ending, we will move you onto our standard tariff unless you inform us by December 3rd you want to leave.' Which is what I did.

I too had a call from retentions yesterday claiming a termination fee would be payable said there was no record on the system of my call.

Wywth

Io_Saturnalia wrote: »

I don't remember the exact text of the email it is it home but it was something along the lines of, 'Your deal is ending, we will move you onto our standard tariff unless you inform us by December 3rd you want to leave.' Which is what I did.

I too had a call from retentions yesterday claiming a termination fee would be payable said there was no record on the system of my call.

Whoops, I deleted my previous response as it was mostly inaccurate (me not reading your post fully)

You are in a different situation to the OP. Your existing deal was coming to an end. It will end at the stated date anyway (unless you switch away before) and a higher price will almost certainly be charged. You can't change that - your existing deal will come to an end.

You only need to call your supplier to switch to a different SP tariff other than the one you will default to (Standard).

I don't know why you called your supplier originally, but if you did and that is now disputed and is causing issue, I'm sure your telephone provider can provide suitable evidence you did make the call

You'll need to re-check what your email did say, as I'm sure it didn't say you had to call SP to switch to another provider

As you appear to have switched away from SP prior to the end of your deal, that is why an early exit fee is being applied.

Io_Saturnalia

Wywth wrote: »

You are in a different situation to the OP. Your existing deal was coming to an end. It will end at the stated date anyway (unless you switch away before) and a higher price will almost certainly be charged. You can't change that - your existing deal will come to an end.

I don't know why you called your supplier originally, but if you did and that is now disputed and is causing issue, I'm sure your telephone provider can provide suitable evidence you did make the call

As you appear to have switched away from SP prior to the end of your deal, that is why an early exit fee is being applied.
You'll need to re-check what your email did say, as I'm sure it didn't say you had to call SP to switch to another provider

Thanks, I will check the text of the e-mail but I am 100% sure it said if I wanted not to go onto the standard tariff I needed to call them before December 3rd, no exit fees will apply and I will continue to be charged the my current tariff as long as they received notification within 15 days of my call.

I already know the precise time of the call, Nov. 1st at 9.57 am. This was a callback from Scottish Power.

Wywth

Io_Saturnalia wrote: »

Thanks, I will check the text of the e-mail but I am 100% sure it said if I wanted not to go onto the standard tariff I needed to call them before December 3rd, no exit fees will apply and I will continue to be charged the my current tariff as long as they received notification within 15 days of my call.

I already know the precise time of the call, Nov. 1st at 9.57 am. This was a callback from Scottish Power.

But not wanting to go onto their standard tariff is not the same as leaving them. They have a multitude of other tariffs you could go onto.

If your existing deal had an early exit fee, why would they be offering to waive this for switching early to another supplier? Why would they offer to keep you on a deal that would already have expired?

What did you actually ask/notify them when you called them?

Io_Saturnalia

These are extracts from the email.

'You are also free to notify us that you wish to end your agreement by changing your supplier (please see 'Changing supplier' for further information)' 'Or you could choose another offer'

'If you notify us that you wish to change supplier before 3rd December 2012 and we receive a request for your supply from another supplier within 15 working days, we will not apply the increased prices or the cancellation charge for your product (if applicable). '

Cant remember exactly what was said but I did comment that the I was sure I had to inform them I wanted to change supplier as per the email.

bikeman

you gotta love it when others cant be bothered to create their own thread and just hijack anothers....

wywth- I dont see how Io Saturnalia's case differs from mine at all; we both received the same email from SP when they changed their prices and we both initiated a switch as a result of said email.

anyway, I emailed [EMAIL="onlinecomplaints@scottishpower.com"]onlinecomplaints@scottishpower.com[/EMAIL] at 1:00 today but haven't received any response.

bikeman

Wywth wrote: »

That's their terms, supported by the appropriate regulations. Complain to the appropriate authorities if you don't like 'em

If a supplier doesn't inititae a switch within 15 days of you asking them to, maybe you should think again about having that supplier - they obviously are not interested in serving you as a customer

A line has to be drawn somewhere else you could reject a price increase and not ever arrange an alternative supplier forcing the existing supplier to continue to supply you at their pre-increased prices forever.

Yes I understand that but the price wasn't due to increase until the 3 Dec, so I havent benefitted from maintaining my existing pricing because the rise hasnt happened yet.

The SP email said "You are also free to notify us that you wish to end your agreement by changing your supplier" and that's exactly what I have done in plenty of time ahead of the price increase.

Anyway, I think I'll wait for the official resp from SP rather than continuing to debate this with you.

Wywth

bikeman wrote: »

you gotta love it when others cant be bothered to create their own thread and just hijack anothers....

wywth- I dont see how Io Saturnalia's case differs from mine at all; we both received the same email from SP when they changed their prices and we both initiated a switch as a result of said email.

anyway, I emailed [EMAIL="onlinecomplaints@scottishpower.com"]onlinecomplaints@scottishpower.com[/EMAIL] at 1:00 today but haven't received any response.

If, as you believe, Io Saturnalia has the same issue as you, I'm not sure why you think they are hi-jacking your thread :huh:

jalexa

bikeman wrote: »

How am I supposed to manage the requirement for the new supplier to notify them within 15 days? This is beyond my control.

I agree on the face of it that does appear worrying. In practice I don't recall posts ever claiming a gaining supplier had failed the 15 day requirement. This is because it is a simple electronic exchange trigerred at the conclusion of the cooling-off period.

However there have been numerous posts about Scottish Power levying early termination charges even when correctly notified. It's not impossible you were told "nonsense" by retentions but I haven't had time to review the regulations [now posted]

If a supplier failed the 15 day requirement a customer might have a valid complaint against the gaining supplier.

Unfortunately I believe you made the wrong judgement call.

jalexa

bikeman wrote: »

Terms are not allowed to be unfair. Suppliers cant hide behind unreasonable small print.

If you are the barrack room lawyer I think you might be, try to make something of this...

23.6 The licensee must treat the variation as ineffective and neither enforce nor take advantage of it where –
(a) the Domestic Customer notifies the licensee after he becomes aware (by any means) of the variation on or before the date on which the variation has effect that he is ending the Domestic Supply Contract by changing his Gas Supplier; and

(b) no later than 15 Working Days after the Domestic Customer has notified the licensee in accordance with sub-paragraph 23.6 (a), the licensee received Notice under the Network Code by way of the Relevant Gas Shipper that another Gas Supplier will begin to supply the Domestic Customer’s Domestic Premises within a reasonable period of time after the date on which that Notice has been given; or

IMO the "before the variation date" has precedence over the order of the events since the requirement is compliance with 23.6(a) i.e before the variation date. So get your notice in to Scottish Power pronto and/or a Complaint citing my argument:D.

There is similar wording for electric.

Oh and an aside. Look out for some final account nasties from Scottish Power, including loss of your online access just when you need it most, splitting of a dual-fuel account into separate accounts, arbitrary allocation of the single bill balance to separate fuels possibly creating credit and debit balances (never the twain shall cancel each other out). If you are lucky enough to have a credit balance, a refund eventually by cheque in the post.:rotfl: Remind me which century we are in.