Scottish Power overcharged me £1300 and are evading making a refund

[Deleted User]

Hi,

if you were in any way organised, and prepared, for this, you should be able to put your hand on the snailmail document immediately.

spcustomer

I have not changed my standing order to SP for many years. It amounts to about £550 a year for the past three or four years.

The alleged amount outstanding at 19th April 2012 was £1,403 odd including the various arbitrary charges they will have added.

The alleged amount outstanding at 28th August 2013 was £1,390 odd including the various arbitrary charges - about £13 less than 15 months earlier!

Given the amount of times electricity charges have been increased over recent years, has someone been overcharging a little? Back in about 2007 when SP were not charging anything like as much as they do now I first made the order. I made it for £500pa

Nada666

spcustomer wrote: »

How tedious can things get?

You took the words right out of my fingers.

shammyjack

spcustomer !

Do you live on Elm Street by any chance ?

spcustomer

I haven't visited this affair for a while, so I am trying to do a composite answer before updating the history:

1. A certain person claiming to be a retired solicitor doesn't really seem to me to have credibility, and their comment seems pointless. David's job is supposed to be to be honest. I don't know if he is being honest and I don't know ehether he is on commission.

2. Frugal: who said I was organised? I'm not, and when I have to find a document it is a great struggle to do so. This causes me to keep every document in case I might need it and leads to what I believe solicitors call a 'paper storm'. I much prefer being a mechanic or playing music (or almost anything) to record-keeping.

3. Nada: if you find it tedious I would suggest you don't bother to follow it.

4. Shammyjack: Where is Elm Street? Is it one of those places where everybody is being fiddled at the same time? No. It isn't Elm Street.

Now to go on:

I put in my complaint to the (non) independent ombudsman complete with a copy of David's letter and they wrote back as though they had not even bothered to read the complaint.

They said they could not investigate my complaint if I did not have that letter!!

How cheap can you get?

spcustomer

Further update:

Two guys looking like a couple of hoodlums turned up on Friday morning saying they had a magistrates warrant allowing them to force an entry if necessary and fit a prepayment meter.

Needless to say, any bloody fool can forge a magistrate's warrant which would convince a policeman (let alone me) and experience has shown me that people who pretend to be or actually are bailiffs do this from time to time, so presumably SP people do as well.

They talked about not wanting to damage my front door (remember the Krays and Richardsons?) and (a cynical bit of marketing if ever there was one) wanting to help me!

I have a window in the front door and as they looked quite threatening and I did not know who they were (and because I am 75) I picked up a hammer which happened to be lying by the door before opening it. When I knew what they were up to I went in and phoned the police, who said they would come over. As the SP guys knew what I was doing (I had told them) they phoned the police themselves and said I was wielding a hammer. I think my call preceded theirs, so that particular trick (one commonly used by psychopaths I can tell you as a one-time mental health worker) would probably not carry much weight.

So the police came and we talked about my past and present work and anything else that would make a distraction (presumably a common police tactic with people they think might be loonies), I photographed the meter after it was out because when I pointed out that SP had quoted an 'actual' reading when there was nobody there to let the meter reader in SP's man said they could have read it through the window! (I knew this to be impossible, having tried it.)

And they all went away leaving me wondering what my next move would be. I now know.

I don't like being swindled.

I should tell you now how the original overcharge was made. It was entirely fraudulent. The house had been empty on all but two summer months for three years and bills had been sent and paid during that period. Then I moved in and started serious electicity use, so the bills were much bigger. Then they got ambitious and started charging absolutely massive bills . So now it looked like those years when the house was virtually empty were undercharges and so they decided to charge me the same rate for both meters.

When I caught them in the fraud of charging the same rate for both meters and asked how long they had been doing that they did not tell me but responded by telling me that they had overcharged me £1300 and would send me a refund. They then sent £300, and it was not until rep Linda came round that I realised that they had made up a random sum for 'undercharge' on the assumption that during the empty years I had been living there full time (and would therefore have had big bills) - or maybe they just thought they could get away with it - and knocked the £1000 off ( perhaps in more ways than one).

Fairly criminal thinking, I think you will agree.

The rest is reasonably well documented in this thread:

SP have numerous people writing on their behalf on MSE and so probably most of the posts are people trying to get me to pay or stalling for time until we go past the 6 year limit (which should not apply if you have been arguing on and off during the 6 years, so don't be put off by that idea). SP can also edit the thread.

As to the ombudsman service, they are a very useful tool for SP in that not only can they delay for years (as the present one and their predecessor did) they can then also use the six years as an excuse for doing nothing, and then if that fails they can decide you have not jumped through one of many hoops and turn your case down anyway. From SP's point of view the ombudsman service must be an absolute snip.

Meanwhile a paperstorm has developed and going to court will cost an arm and a leg.

Andy_WSM

spcustomer wrote: »

...one commonly used by psychopaths I can tell you as a one-time mental health worker.

Is it catching?

Seriously, no one lets themselves get in this sort of mess over utilities. It's not rocket science. You have a meter, it records your usage. You agree (reluctantly!) a unit price with a supplier and you pay them "meter reading multiplied by unit cost". Most of us do it, all over the world, without having the threat of our doors being kicked in!

cajef

spcustomer wrote: »

I have a window in the front door and as they looked quite threatening and I did not know who they were (and because I am 75) I picked up a hammer which happened to be lying by the door before opening it. it.)

Everyone just happens to have a hammer lying by the front door and then threatens people with it, reading this thread from the beginning and your last post there only appears to be one neurotic person with psychological problems in the thread. :eek:

spcustomer

(if you found two hoodlums knocking at your door and looking threatening what would you do? I happen to be someone who uses tools every day, so there is always something in the way of tools lying by the front door. But I must add that whether a person is mentally ill or not would make no difference to the facts and is irrelevant)

Now to go on:

Today I wrote the following and will post it shortly:


Customer relations
ScottishPower
Cathcart Business Park
Spean Street
Glasgow
G44 4BE

Your ref. ****

22 October 2013


Dear Sir/Madam

Two men from your company called on Friday to fit a prepayment meter to my premises and I asked them to instead disconnect the supply. They refused. I believe they might have been in breach of the law by refusing, but I am not sure.

I now want Scottish Power to remove all Scottish Power equipment and cables from my property at the earliest possible moment. If I am not in when they come, they will have to send me a letter and we will arrange a date for removal.


Yours


(spcustomer)

spcustomer

cajef wrote: »

Everyone just happens to have a hammer lying by the front door and then threatens people with it, reading this thread from the beginning and your last post there only appears to be one neurotic person with psychological problems in the thread.

If you want to play Perry Mason you need to be more observant and perceptive about the evidence.

Is there any evidence that anybody was threatened by anybody apart from the two hoodlums looking threatening?

I imagine you must be very experienced in mental health to make that other judgment! So many people are.

I am afraid I am going to have to leave this thread for a while owing to more important matters.