Add your feedback on energy supplier Scottish Power

2010

Everyone from the energy minister to Ofgem knows it`s going on, and has been for a long time, but they are too useless to do anything about it.
From today`s Telegraph:

Energy firms should give back direct debit billions to clients, says minister.

Energy companies sitting on billions of pounds of customers’ money should either give it back or start paying interest on the cash, a minister will say.

Greg Barker, the energy minister, will challenge the Big Six companies over the money they hold from customers who pay a fixed sum by direct debit.

Even when energy bills are rising, some customers are running up surpluses. Some estimates suggest the companies are sitting on as much as £2 billion, earning £36 million a year in interest.

Consumer groups say that getting the companies to refund that money is extremely difficult.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/10426406/Energy-firms-should-give-back-direct-debit-billions-to-clients-says-minister.html

Maybe we should all bombard this so called energy minister with complaints.

[EMAIL="barkerg@parliament.uk"]barkerg@parliament.uk[/EMAIL]

POLAR_BILL

scorpa280 wrote: »

I have switched a few times over the last 15 years, it never went smoothly, so I haven't bothered for the last 5 years mainly for some of the same reasons mentioned, holding on to money, DD issues which ended up costing me money. I had court threats from British Gas & N Power stating I was in debt after I had switched, I think twice now. Anyway the last move was to Scottish Power, but our current monthly DD has risen to £143 pm which is too much for dual fuel on a 4 bed house with good insulation & low energy light bulbs.
I have just done some quick checks & SP actually ranked high on the list via the cheap energy club. I have checked directly with SP & I can reduce my monthly payments to £114 immediately by switching to a fixed price deal til 2015. That's ok for me.
There's a further price reduction of 3.8% from the end of the month, so even better.

Do you still get the price reduction after going on to a fixed deal? My new deal started 1st January till end of February 2015.

Froglet

I'm fairly sure i read that anyone on a fixed deal would not get the reduction,so more lies.

I really don't know what has gone wrong with this company.When i first signed up with them about 5 years ago they were not only the best on price but had fantastic service.You could call them,get an instant answer and be able to discuss with the staff what you wanted and within reason you would get it.Now i am only hanging on for the warm home discount on my account,and the fixed rate to finish and I too am off.

fed_up_hippie

2010 wrote: »

Everyone from the energy minister to Ofgem knows it`s going on, and has been for a long time, but they are too useless to do anything about it.
From today`s Telegraph:

Energy firms should give back direct debit billions to clients, says minister.

Energy companies sitting on billions of pounds of customers’ money should either give it back or start paying interest on the cash, a minister will say.

Greg Barker, the energy minister, will challenge the Big Six companies over the money they hold from customers who pay a fixed sum by direct debit.

Even when energy bills are rising, some customers are running up surpluses. Some estimates suggest the companies are sitting on as much as £2 billion, earning £36 million a year in interest.

Consumer groups say that getting the companies to refund that money is extremely difficult.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/10426406/Energy-firms-should-give-back-direct-debit-billions-to-clients-says-minister.html

Maybe we should all bombard this so called energy minister with complaints.

[EMAIL="barkerg@parliament.uk"]barkerg@parliament.uk[/EMAIL]

Ive sent an email as well to this MP, thanks for the figures that these idiots earn off OUR money!!! :mad:

fed_up_hippie

2010 wrote: »

The average 8 weeks of delaying refunds seems to be deliberate policy by SP.
The staff must be told to say any old rubbish at the call centres regarding the matter.
It`s a pity one of them don`t come on these boards and "whistleblow" about this greedy company.


Be warned and don`t go with them and also check your DD at your bank to make sure they haven`t sneakily, without your permission, opened one again.

we went to our bank yesterday to see if our long awaited refund had been paid back into our account because no chq has arrived yet, the lass in our bank was very helpful and she has put a stop on all future direct debits to S/P she also said that if they do try to take money its fraud and our bank will investigate them. :mad:

POLAR_BILL

Froglet wrote: »

I'm fairly sure i read that anyone on a fixed deal would not get the reduction,so more lies.

I really don't know what has gone wrong with this company.When i first signed up with them about 5 years ago they were not only the best on price but had fantastic service.You could call them,get an instant answer and be able to discuss with the staff what you wanted and within reason you would get it.Now i am only hanging on for the warm home discount on my account,and the fixed rate to finish and I too am off.

Do you know if bank interest, ISA interest and bond interest are taken into account when calculating household income when applying for the warm home discount? I have E-mailed them but haven't yet had a reply.

jackryanjnr

We switched to Scottish Power when we moved into our new home. Because the property was an old one that had been refurbished, it had an economy 7 meter which we obviously did not want. We therefore had a normal electricity meter installed.

18 months later we are STILL faffing about! STILL spending hours on hold! STILL not able to log-in properly on the website (sometimes it works and then SP updaye something and it doesn't!)

Western Power have been out 3 times to write a report that confirms to Scottish Power that the meter THEY had installed is actually installed at the property!

We have had direct debits increased without notificaton. Dreadful and labourious customer service. An on-going saga where SP seem incapable of updating their own systems! 18 months of nonsense in a nutshell!!

NEVER, EVER, AGAIN !!!!

Lodged an official complaint and leaving at the next available opportunity, once they FINALLY sort our tariffs, metering and back-date our bills properly!

Froglet

POLAR_BILL wrote: »

Do you know if bank interest, ISA interest and bond interest are taken into account when calculating household income when applying for the warm home discount? I have E-mailed them but haven't yet had a reply.

When i applied(and it had to be in my husband's name as he is over 62,that is a criteria as well as income,)then no mention was made of savings and interest.Our total income,including his pension and my part time job comes to well below the minimum.
However i have heard nothing yet.They are quite likely to check that what i stated is correct,expected them to.So i hope it doesn't mean my application is being ignored.

Knowing SP now,i don't hold out a lot of hope it will be given ,but last year my Mum got hers,however she is much older and gets pension credit.I will keep you updated.

matelodave

Getting your refund from Scottish Power - don't hold your breath but don't give up hope either.
I've just got my £133 back after changing from them on 4th November.
It took several snotty e-mails to get the final bill which was eventually produced on 24th December and another one to prompt the refund which appeared in my bank account on 13th January, so near enough 10 weeks. :j

sparkymarcopolo

I've just got off the phone to SP because I had the intention of switching from those very unhelpful people at nPower. Although courteous (aren't they when they want your money), the girl did not have the information required to enable me to make a decision.

She explained the fixed rate price, but then said SP were reducing their unit costs by 3.3% on Jan 31st so I ask her to recalculate based on that, she couldn't because she never had the figures.

I said it might be straight forward, take the per kw/h unit cost, minus the 3.3% and then use my annual usage figures to provide a monthly payment. Nope, couldn't do it.

So I'll wait......