Add your feedback on energy supplier Scottish Power

tk47

Danceswithhorses said:

I'm on SP Sep 2020 deal, but looking at Cheap Energy Clubs comparison, there is a better deal (Apr 2021).
Is it possible to transfer from one SP deal to another SP deal mid contract (6 months to go) without a £60 penalty ?
Also if you can, i guess you wouldnt get the cashback lol ?

If you can switch via the Cheap Energy Club, then you will get the cashback, as it states on the Cheap Energy Club.

Jeremy_Boden

Danceswithhorses said:

I'm on SP Sep 2020 deal, but looking at Cheap Energy Clubs comparison, there is a better deal (Apr 2021).
Is it possible to transfer from one SP deal to another SP deal mid contract (6 months to go) without a £60 penalty ?
Also if you can, i guess you wouldnt get the cashback lol ?

I have done it at the beginning of the year, no £60 penalty was levied (although if I'd switched to a different provider, it would have been payable) + I eventually got the £25 cashback too!

The actual switch of tariff was extremely quick (a few days) - the cashback took about 6 months. They didn't bother me about installing "smart" meters either, even though that was in the small print.

Spurskingy

Past Due solutions are trying to chase me for an overdue payment, on behalf of Scottish Power, from an address I have never lived at. I am still amazed at how they managed to get my current address, to be honest.
After the first letter I rang and explained the issue to a guy called Damien at PDS who told me he would tell Scottish Power and i would hear no more about it.
Two weeks later I have received another letter offering a reduction in the amount owed. this seems bizarre to me. I have tried to contact SP directly but they are impossible to get hold of at the moment.
Is this a scam, perhaps? It seems unlikely for SP to reduce the value after just one letter.

MWT

Spurskingy said:

Two weeks later I have received another letter offering a reduction in the amount owed. this seems bizarre to me. I have tried to contact SP directly but they are impossible to get hold of at the moment.
Is this a scam, perhaps? It seems unlikely for SP to reduce the value after just one letter.

Doesn't sound like a scam, but is common when a collection agency buys a package of debt from a provider and gets dodgy data.

Two possibilities from here really, either you do owe them money and they've just got the wrong address... or you don't owe them anything and they've got the wrong name on the account.

If you are sure you don't owe anything then I'd go straight to a complaint letter to PDS and copy in SP. 

CatrionaCory

I haven't switched from Scottish Power - I am an ex customer who had a never ending litany of issues with their billing systems, dating back to their IT issues around 5 or so years ago. But it didn't stop there, even when my initial account was fixed, when we moved to a new property, the billing problems started up again. Eventually they were fixed and we stayed with them til that particular deal ran out and I moved us away as quickly as we could. Customer service would say anything to get me off the phone when making complaints, but they would never be dealt with - from those conversations it was made clear that the onus is on the customer to raise a problem, but with little effort from SP to resolve. 

I switched away from SP 2 years ago, and yesterday we received an email announcing that we owed money to SP. It appears that they never issued a final bill (I can't prove either way at present, as I was paperless and my account long gone) so have decided to now claim. I haven't got a copy of any final bill either, only SP insisting that I owe them money. So, in terms of customer service and billing, they are the shoddiest company I have ever had to deal with. I don't recommend. 

hybernia

CatrionaCory said:

 So, in terms of customer service and billing, they are the shoddiest company I have ever had to deal with. I don't recommend. 

My sympathies. 'shoddiest' company is probably an understatement. 'Shoddy' pales into insignificance alongside 'corrupt' and  'thuggish'. epithets which Spanish Power has deservedly courted for many a long year.

The blame-- ultimately --resides with Britain's useless regulatory system, the weak-kneed Office of Gas & Electricity Markets (OFGEM) which could, long since, have stripped Spanish Power of its licence to operate in this country but did not.  Add to that the Energy Ombudsman service, a fatuous entity deliberately created by Parliamentarians to be toothless, so that it has neither the authority to 'adjudicate' on anything nor 'punish' anyone.

The dysfunctional combination of those two taxpayer-funded watchdogs has meant golden years for Spanish Power, year after year of seemingly deliberate mis-billings, disregarded Ombudsman complaints, debt collector extortion attempts and handsome bonuses for top management.

You need to involve your local constituency Member of Parliament right now, and copy in that correspondence to Spanish Power's CEO. Google can be your friend in researching names and addresses. Good luck.

Jayzee369

I have been moved to Scottish Power from Tonik and having an awful time with them.  I came to them in credit and they took a first direct debit payment that was almost double what I was paying before. When I called to find out what was going on the advisor couldn't explain why my payments were so high and apologised saying they would review the DD and get back to me by email. No email. In the meantime they have taken another payment from me without notification.  Trying to switch suppliers and they have stopped it. Currently sitting on the phone - been on hold for 30 minutes so far - to find out why.  I suspect those of you who choose to switch to them are not having these issues  I guessed my payments would go up a bit but not by almost double. It's more than I can afford. ....and whilst I have been on hold typing this, they have cut me off!  Here we go again....

MovingForwards

The short version:

I've never known a utility company to be this bad. Reading the reviews and complaints, it's a shame to know I'm not the only one suffering. Usually I stick with whatever the supplier, but even if Scottish Power were the cheapest, I wouldn't stay with them.

It took them over 8 months to admit they were the supplier of my home, originally they told me it was a different company.

The national database for my gas have been out as it was thought I was shipperless, but then managed to trace back to SP, but for some reason they didn't update the database when the meter was changed over 10 years ago.

They've addressed me using the name of a previous occupier, who owes them money, but moved out years ago. I've provided screen prints of the electoral roll to show when that family moved. 

I've lodged so many complaints about the different things they've done / not done since I moved in and it was only when I emailed the CEO things started to get resolved.

I even told them from the start where problems stemmed from, provided screen prints so they can see for themselves the issue and it was only when the CEO forwarded my complaints to a different department they came to the conclusion the issues were what I told them!

I wish I could say having this senior complaints person dealing with me helped, but it didn't.

They put this old occupier on the priority register, when I asked them to put me on it.

I've had a reasonable credit added to my account, but I doubt it's made up for being on their deemed high tariff for all this time (10 months), or the amount of time I've put in to get accounts, lodge complaints and generally deal with them.

Can't wait until I'm transferred to a different supplier as Scottish Power are not one I'd wish on my worst enemy!

TonNic

The regulator moved my account to Scottish power and although the direct debit would remain the same the tariff is 30% more expensive. On our usage we would be getting into fuel debt by at least £420 a year and that’s before factoring in the family working from home. 

At what point will the regulator insist that the tariff should remain the same for 49 days after they move you to these muggers? This looks akin to the old miss selling of old. 

Using the MSE comparison tool I will save £240 a year with my next supplier. 

Anything to stay away from the big six. 

hybernia

Jayzee369 said:

I have been moved to Scottish Power from Tonik and having an awful time with them.  I came to them in credit and they took a first direct debit payment that was almost double what I was paying before. When I called to find out what was going on the advisor couldn't explain why my payments were so high and apologised saying they would review the DD and get back to me by email. No email. In the meantime they have taken another payment from me without notification.  Trying to switch suppliers and they have stopped it. Currently sitting on the phone - been on hold for 30 minutes so far - to find out why.  I suspect those of you who choose to switch to them are not having these issues  I guessed my payments would go up a bit but not by almost double. It's more than I can afford. ....and whilst I have been on hold typing this, they have cut me off!  Here we go again....

Unfortunately, Jayzee, the Spanish-owned 'Scottish' Power is run by a board of directors and senior management which think 'ethics' is a county to the east of London.

This means that whatever you're told by an SP employee will more than likely be a lie, because from top to bottom dishonesty seems institutionalized at this particular energy provider. Add to the company's mendacity its endemic incompetence and you'll wonder, as many already have, why OFGEM in all its craven  toothlessness should have authorised Spanish Power to take on customers from the failed Tonik, a decision that says all there is to say about a regulator that seems much, much too pally with the Big 6.

It's not that long ago that OFGEM was dealing with more complaints about Spanish Power than about any other energy supplier -- and yet, here we are, so ineffective and inefficient is the watchdog that it has cosied up anew to an energy company with about the worst track record of its type in the UK, a business which should've forfeited its UK operating licence many years ago..

You are, however, NOT tied to Spanish Power.

OFGEM, when making its original announcement, said customers transferred from Tonik to Spanish Power have the right to switch from Spanish Power to a different energy provider without having to pay an exit penalty fee to Spanish Power.

(MSE info on this link: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2020/10/tonik-energy-ceases-trading---what-you-need-to-know/

Similarly, this:

"The good news is that, under Ofgem’s safety net, you will continue to receive your gas and electricity supply and any outstanding credit balances will be protected.

The energy watchdog has nominated Scottish Power to take on Tonik’s customers. You can choose to either stay with Scottish Power or switch to another energy supplier without paying any exit fees.

Philippa Pickford, Director of Retail at Ofgem, said: “Tonik Energy customers do not need to worry"

This is the link to that article

:https://selectra.co.uk/energy/news/market/tonik-energy-goes-bust

You say that Scottish Power has 'stopped' you from switching. But you don't say in what way it has done this.

Has it told you it will object to you switching (because you've made the mistake of revealing your intention to it) or have you started a switching process to another supplier and SP has told that supplier that it won't comply with the process?

You need to have SP's explanation of its position in writing ASAP.