Scottish Power undercharged me, now they want it back...

moneywisemum

I switched to Scottish Power 2 years ago via Uswitch because they offered the best deal at the time. They then proceeded to undercharge my by £50 a month for a whole year before they realised their mistake and then said I owed them £600+

I negotiated a payment of £100 per month for the last 12 months and now I'm told I owe them £870 and my monthly payment will be increased to £213.50 if I can't pay off some of the balance owing.

This has caused me a huge problem because I could have afforded the initial payment they undercharged me by, but will really be struggling to afford over £200 per month.

Does anyone know if they can insist on my paying for their mistake?

I'd appreciate any comments!

bargain-hunter-uk_2

moneywisemum wrote: »

I switched to Scottish Power 2 years ago via Uswitch because they offered the best deal at the time. They then proceeded to undercharge my by £50 a month for a whole year before they realised their mistake and then said I owed them £600+

I negotiated a payment of £100 per month for the last 12 months and now I'm told I owe them £870 and my monthly payment will be increased to £213.50 if I can't pay off some of the balance owing.

This has caused me a huge problem because I could have afforded the initial payment they undercharged me by, but will really be struggling to afford over £200 per month.

Does anyone know if they can insist on my paying for their mistake?

I'd appreciate any comments!

Yes they can unfortunately, but they too have to be reasonable about the repayments, and often will give an allowance for the mistake. I would go back to them and state exactly what you have said here, and how badly they have handled the situation. Then ask for a reduction, and the payments to be spread over a longer period. If they refuse, then open a case with Energywatch who will then handle it on your behalf. Often telling the supplier you have little option left, and will let EW handle it usually gets a favourable response.

At BG, if a customer tells me they are going to go to energywatch, or already have a case open, then I am not allowed to handle the call, and have to escalate it to customer relations, who have more power to deal with indepth issues.
hope this helps

MarkyMarkD

I'm interested in how they came to undercharge you in the first place.

Are you sure that you don't mean that they charged you in line with the usage you provided to Uswitch, but that usage was wrong?

Otherwise, if Uswitch said that Scottish Power would cost you (say) £1,200 a year, but Scottish Power only asked for a DD payment of £600 a year, that's your fault for accepting that, not their fault for asking for a silly amount. You should have known you were being asked for way too little.

Cardew

Unless there is something of which we are not aware, I would have to agree with the post above.

A DD that doesn't cover your bill is not "undercharging". In fact it is a very common scenario as testified by scores of posts on this forum.

In fact, in most cases, it is not the fault of the Utiliity company. They have no way of knowing your past consumption, or indeed your future consumption.

Most of the 'fault' lies with the comparison sites who are driven by the need to get customers to change and hence make their commission - that is all they are interested in- ; so they fix the DD payment artificially low.

This seems, on the face of it, to be another case of someone not understanding the principle of the DD scheme

Dudey_3

The same thing has happened to me. They have written to me advising that "there has been an error with the meter details held" on my account. They go on to say that I now owe them £385.

The bit I can't understand is this:

"If you have been billed up to estimated reads and would like your account billed up to actual reads, please contact us on the number above"

Now if they don't know by what method they have billed me, how do they know I have been undercharged.

I'm going to the pub now, I hope they don't realise that they have been undercharging me for my lager and present me with a £500 bill!

Raksha

We were in a similar situation a month ago. When we first switched, they told us they were going to take C £100 a month, which was around the figure we expected. Suddenly this dropped to £35!!! Obviously our use didn't decrease (sadly) and we ended up owing C £900!!! We have negotiated a reduction (as it was due to their error) and reduced repayments over the next 18 months instead of the year they originally wanted. However, this does mean, unless we are in the position to settle in full, we are 'locked in' to Scottish Power, and I do wonder how many other customers are trapped in a similar way, especially with a company who have yet to announce even one price decrease.

Cardew

Dudey wrote: »

The same thing has happened to me. They have written to me advising that "there has been an error with the meter details held" on my account. They go on to say that I now owe them £385.

The bit I can't understand is this:

"If you have been billed up to estimated reads and would like your account billed up to actual reads, please contact us on the number above"

Now if they don't know by what method they have billed me, how do they know I have been undercharged.

I'm going to the pub now, I hope they don't realise that they have been undercharging me for my lager and present me with a £500 bill!

Welcome to the forum.

You have contracts with the utility company(s) to pay them for the gas and electricity you use.

If they under estimate the meter readings you have to pay them for all the gas/electricity you have used when the bills are calculated using the correct reading.

If they over estimate the meter readings, you are billed for too much and they will owe you money.

This happens all the time and it is not 'undercharging' or indeed 'overcharging'.

Virtually everyone in the country gets a bill based on an estimated reading at some time unless they notify the company themselves of their meter reading.

The bit you can't understand is just 'standard wording' and starts "If you have been billed up to estimated reads" and doesn't apply to you.

Dudey_3

Cardew wrote: »

Welcome to the forum.

You have contracts with the utility company(s) to pay them for the gas and electricity you use.

If they under estimate the meter readings you have to pay them for all the gas/electricity you have used when the bills are calculated using the correct reading.

If they over estimate the meter readings, you are billed for too much and they will owe you money.

This happens all the time and it is not 'undercharging' or indeed 'overcharging'.

Virtually everyone in the country gets a bill based on an estimated reading at some time unless they notify the company themselves of their meter reading.

The bit you can't understand is just 'standard wording' and starts "If you have been billed up to estimated reads" and doesn't apply to you.

Thanks for the welcome.

Nobody has come to read my meter for a long time. The last time I gave them a reading over the phone was a few months ago. I've not had chance to speak to them yet, I will phone tomorrow for clarification.

MarkyMarkD

Suppliers are a bit strange.

I've supplied online readings to Atlantic for both gas and electricity within the last 2 months, and they've written saying they need meter readings because they want them at least every 6 months.

John_Pierpoint

In the computer support game, there is a well known phrase "RTFM"; it means "Have you checked the instructions before wasting my time ?"

Can I suggest to everyone that the final "M" could as easily stand for Meter as Manual.

Unfortunately the utility companies are only required to read the meter every two years; so its up to you to make sure that your account matches the reality of your meter.

Most people can check a lottery ticket, an electricity meter is no more difficult.
Your supplier almost certainly has a relatively cheap and simple method of correcting the readings.

However I will agree that an old fashioned gas meter is somewhat more difficult to reconcile with the account.

We live and learn,

John.

eira

Had nexactly the same trouble with Scotish Power-mapyments went up from £75 to over £200 a month. I contacted Energy watch who said that sincew it was the company's fault I should receive a discount on the debts 9which I did0 and repayment schedule I could 'afford'(it's now down to £163) They are very expensive but I am now stuck with them because of this debt. They claimed that prices would come down on June 15th-no sign of this yet.