Switch the Scottish Power via MoneySuperMkt

stan4th

Hi,
recently went through Money Supermarket to switch dual fuel to Scottish Power. Put in current consumption which is currently £70+ per month for dual.
Got a letter a few days ago from them telling me they will put me on £170 per month. This is way too high, so I phoned them and they said there was nothing they could do as I would need to speak with other dept which is only open weekdays to 5pm.
Phoned up then. I was told that there is nothing which they could do until the switching process was complete.
Should I wait and trust that they will lower the amount (they only review after 3 months and that would be a lot of money) and will I be able to cancel by then if they won't change it back down?
Cheers

dogshome

When you researched the Switch sites, presumably you entered your Annual Kwh consumptions to find a better deal - Forget the phone and Email those Kwh readings to Scot.Power, giving notice of your rejection of their D/Debit value.

Wywth

stan4th wrote: »

Hi,
recently went through Money Supermarket to switch dual fuel to Scottish Power. Put in current consumption which is currently £70+ per month for dual.
Got a letter a few days ago from them telling me they will put me on £170 per month. This is way too high, so I phoned them and they said there was nothing they could do as I would need to speak with other dept which is only open weekdays to 5pm.
Phoned up then. I was told that there is nothing which they could do until the switching process was complete.
Should I wait and trust that they will lower the amount (they only review after 3 months and that would be a lot of money) and will I be able to cancel by then if they won't change it back down?
Cheers

Put forward a fully reasoned and logical argument as to the monthly figure you would think is appropriate, and if they still won't agree to that, ask them to justify the figure they have come up with.

You won't be able to switch supplier in the timeframe you suggest (and why would you? I guess you opted for SP as they are the cheapest)

You should be able to get the supplier to agree to suspending collection any sum by DD until they have justified it to you.

Consumerist

The probable excuse from SP is that they have no consumption figures to go on so they have had to estimate.

You could ask your current supplier to send your past year's consumption figures to the new supplier with a copy to you. Recent licence conditions require them to comply with your request.

Scottish_Power

Stan4th Sorry about that. Please e-mail details to [EMAIL="onlinecomplaints@scottishpower.com"]onlinecomplaints@scottishpower.com[/EMAIL] and we will sort this out for you. Thanks David

stan4th

Well, did as this representative advised the same day (I had also used their on-line form prior to this).

BUT no response...

stan4th

hmmmm

will have to see if I get any joy by Monday.

Consumerist

Still early days yet. It may take a little time for a real person go over the numbers.

In any event, the 8-week clock started on the 15th in case you have to go to the Ombudsman.

Hope you get it sorted sooner rather than later.

spcustomer

Don't trust them. Some years ago I caught them overcharging me by rather a lot and sent them an email about it. They replied straight away that they had overcharged me by £1,300 by using the wrong tarriff and said they would send me a cheque. They then sent me a cheque for £300 and I was obliged to run up arrears to make up the defecit (so I could not even get a quote from another supplier!). Subsequent correspondence led to so much evasion and time wasting that I have now gone past the 6 year limit for claiming and they are adding enormous extra charges to my bill for alleged non-payment when I made a standing order years ago and have removed most of my electrical stuff.

I now only have a few lights, a fridge, and a cooker that is used for fast food about two meals a week, and they are still charging the same amounts!

So do they fiddle the meter readings too?

stan4th

That's appalling!
Sometimes you need to describe what has happened to you to get an outside perspective - and what you've described is truly disgraceful.
Have you contacted BBC Watchdog? I really think you should.

I wonder how Mr Cameron's initiative on tackling energy prices is progressing.

chris-j

spcustomer wrote: »

Don't trust them. Some years ago I caught them overcharging me by rather a lot and sent them an email about it. They replied straight away that they had overcharged me by £1,300 by using the wrong tarriff and said they would send me a cheque. They then sent me a cheque for £300 and I was obliged to run up arrears to make up the defecit (so I could not even get a quote from another supplier!). Subsequent correspondence led to so much evasion and time wasting that I have now gone past the 6 year limit for claiming and they are adding enormous extra charges to my bill for alleged non-payment when I made a standing order years ago and have removed most of my electrical stuff.

I now only have a few lights, a fridge, and a cooker that is used for fast food about two meals a week, and they are still charging the same amounts!

So do they fiddle the meter readings too?

Rubbish, take your own ACTUAL readings. You will have old bills showing what you used, go back as close to 1 year as possible (ideally just over a year)hen compare with current readings then divide by number of days and multiply by 365 (remember to convert gas to KWh) then give them this number as actual usage. If they don't refund overpayment and/or reduce DD then ombudsman complaint and you have tangible evidence.