Scottish Power Customer Service & DD Issues

quilani

I've just got off the phone to a Scottish Power manager and to be quite honest I'm pretty livid. I could do with some advice with what to do next.

Here's what's happened:

15/07 - Scottish Power randomly put my Direct Debit for gas up from £20 to £46. My account is already £50 in credit and as I am living alone and going away at weekends, my total Dual Fuel DD is no more than £20/month.

23/07 - I logged into my account and noticed this error. I phoned up to complain at around 17.30 and was on hold for 23 minutes before hanging up.

24/07 afternoon - I phoned back in the daytime and a helpful agent told me that in order for him to work out what was going on and change the DD back, he'd need some up to date meter reads (my last ones were only 3-4 weeks old). As I wasn't home he told me to phone back later that day when I was.

24/07 evening - I phoned again at around 5.15 and this time I was left on hold for 46 minutes. As soon as the agent answered the phone they dropped the call. I noticed the time was 17.59 - Obviously the end of their shift!

24/07 later evening - I phoned back yet again and this time was on hold for 25 minutes before I got through. After waiting a little longer I was told that nobody in the Direct Debit team was available to speak and I was offered a callback for the next day. We agreed on a window of 9am-12pm for the callback.

25/07 today - I phoned again today at work and was on hold for 15 minutes before hanging up as I obviously had work to be doing. At the end of my lunch break I tried again and got through.

To cut to the point I was told that the lowest my Direct Debit could be set at was £60! I wasn't offered any explanation either. So I told her; I live on my own, my account is in credit, I am only in the property for one more month and I will use £25 worth of energy max.

The agent advised that Icancel the DD at my bank then when I submit my final readings, payments will be sorted out. What she forgot to mention was that this would put me onto standard prices! (I am on a cheap, old fixed tariff)

I asked to speak to a manager to lodge my complaint and make them aware of the issues to prevent anybody else having to go through it.
This is when she informed me that should I cancel the DD I will go onto standard. It also struck me that this agent hadn't even asked me for the meter readings that had held up the whole process in the first place!

Anyway, the manager simply agreed to put the DD back to £40 as it previously was.




So what's the problem, you ask? The DD is back to normal - yes, but why should anyone have to go through this ordeal?
At a rate of 14p/minute, I have also racked up a bill of approximately £20 in calls to SP over the last 3 days.


What can I do from here? The manager appologised numerous times, but it felt quite empty and it's not enough to make up for that phone bill.

If I complain could I be given compensation?
I'm not looking to do anything too time consuming as I've already used enough of my time up on this!


Thanks,

Carl

vuvuzela

Why are you paying 14p/minute ? They have an 0800 number. If you use this on a mobile and get charged, there are alternatives - see https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/556007

Wywth

quilani wrote: »

I've just got off the phone to a Scottish Power manager and to be quite honest I'm pretty livid. I could do with some advice with what to do next.

Here's what's happened:

15/07 - Scottish Power randomly put my Direct Debit for gas up from £20 to £46. My account is already £50 in credit and as I am living alone and going away at weekends, my total Dual Fuel DD is no more than £20/month.

23/07 - I logged into my account and noticed this error. I phoned up to complain at around 17.30 and was on hold for 23 minutes before hanging up.

24/07 afternoon - I phoned back in the daytime and a helpful agent told me that in order for him to work out what was going on and change the DD back, he'd need some up to date meter reads (my last ones were only 3-4 weeks old). As I wasn't home he told me to phone back later that day when I was.

24/07 evening - I phoned again at around 5.15 and this time I was left on hold for 46 minutes. As soon as the agent answered the phone they dropped the call. I noticed the time was 17.59 - Obviously the end of their shift!

24/07 later evening - I phoned back yet again and this time was on hold for 25 minutes before I got through. After waiting a little longer I was told that nobody in the Direct Debit team was available to speak and I was offered a callback for the next day. We agreed on a window of 9am-12pm for the callback.

25/07 today - I phoned again today at work and was on hold for 15 minutes before hanging up as I obviously had work to be doing. At the end of my lunch break I tried again and got through.

To cut to the point I was told that the lowest my Direct Debit could be set at was £60! I wasn't offered any explanation either. So I told her; I live on my own, my account is in credit, I am only in the property for one more month and I will use £25 worth of energy max.

The agent advised that Icancel the DD at my bank then when I submit my final readings, payments will be sorted out. What she forgot to mention was that this would put me onto standard prices! (I am on a cheap, old fixed tariff)

I asked to speak to a manager to lodge my complaint and make them aware of the issues to prevent anybody else having to go through it.
This is when she informed me that should I cancel the DD I will go onto standard. It also struck me that this agent hadn't even asked me for the meter readings that had held up the whole process in the first place!

Anyway, the manager simply agreed to put the DD back to £40 as it previously was.




So what's the problem, you ask? The DD is back to normal - yes, but why should anyone have to go through this ordeal?
At a rate of 14p/minute, I have also racked up a bill of approximately £20 in calls to SP over the last 3 days.


What can I do from here? The manager appologised numerous times, but it felt quite empty and it's not enough to make up for that phone bill.

If I complain could I be given compensation?
I'm not looking to do anything too time consuming as I've already used enough of my time up on this!


Thanks,

Carl

I don't fully follow you, sorry.

Are you saying the DD was altered without providing you advance notice?

If so then you need to claim direct from your bank under the terms of the DD guarantee.

Or

Are you saying you did get advance notice, but just don't agree with the new monthly payment figure they advised?
If so, try this:
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/lower-energy-direct-debits#fight

Nada666

If you are in the property for only one more month what's the problem? Surely it's better to receive an end of account payment of £110 rather than demanding it only be £40.

Sometimes people do need to just relax and go with the flow rather than stamping their dummies.

butler_helen

As an alternative to calling i find Scottish powers online messaging service to be excellent.

I emailed quite bluntly telling them to reduce my dd from £106 to £67 and requested a full refund and told them to call me if there was an issue. 2 days later the dd is reduced and 6 days later I have a cheque for the crazy balance we had built.

quilani

Wywth wrote: »

I don't fully follow you, sorry.

Are you saying the DD was altered without providing you advance notice?

If so then you need to claim direct from your bank under the terms of the DD guarantee.

Or

Are you saying you did get advance notice, but just don't agree with the new monthly payment figure they advised?

The DD was changed without them directly notifying me via a letter, email, text or phonecall.
Fortunately I managed to spot it on the 'recent account activity' section of my online account that the DD had unexpectedly gone up. This was 10 days before the next payment.

So I don't really know how you would class it. I wasn't notified about it, but the information was there on my account to see. Either way, I am using 50% of my original DD amount, with a load of credit already so it's completely unreasonable for them to increase it.

Nada666 wrote: »

If you are in the property for only one more month what's the problem? Surely it's better to receive an end of account payment of £110 rather than demanding it only be £40.

Sometimes people do need to just relax and go with the flow rather than stamping their dummies.

Sorry but some people aren't in a comfortable position to be splashing out £66 on energy bills (even if I would get everything that I am owed back soon).

I am definitely choosing the option to "stamp my dummy" (is that even a thing?) 'cause it's not very nice sitting on hold for 45 minutes, being forcefed Ed Sheeran and Adele before being cut off by the agent!

The main reason I came on here to post was to ask; if I were to lodge a complaint, would I be wasting my time or could there be something in it for me - be it compensation or anything more than just another empty apology?

Wywth

quilani wrote: »

The DD was changed without them directly notifying me via a letter, email, text or phonecall.
Fortunately I managed to spot it on the 'recent account activity' section of my online account that the DD had unexpectedly gone up. This was 10 days before the next payment.

So I don't really know how you would class it. I wasn't notified about it, but the information was there on my account to see. ...

You'll need to refer to your agreement with the supplier, but I would suspect this is how they agreed they would provide you advance notice.

quilani wrote: »

The main reason I came on here to post was to ask; if I were to lodge a complaint, would I be wasting my time or could there be something in it for me - be it compensation or anything more than just another empty apology?

I can see no valid basis for a claim for compo in this instance.

(You can request the monthly payment is revised if you believe it unreasonable as I previously posted)

matelodave

Once I've been [EMAIL="Bu@@@red"]Bu@@@red[/EMAIL] about on the phone, then it's a written snottogram, sent recorded delivery to their complaints dept - it usually gets a response

Mackem45

I have also just had a similar experience. 3 weeks ago I supplied my meter readings online. My account then showed over £40 in credit for the quarter ( I was also in credit for the previous quarter). I them requested a reduction in my direct debit. Not only was it refused, but the monthly charge was increased by 51%!!! I asked for a detailed explanation of the increase - this was not forthcoming, only a standard response that my account would be reviewed at the next quarter end! By this time I was in France for a holiday and contacted customer services online. Same robotic response.

I now intend to cancel the direct debit on grounds of abuse of the system and to consider seeking a new supplier.

vuvuzela

Mackem45 wrote: »

I have also just had a similar experience. 3 weeks ago I supplied my meter readings online. My account then showed over £40 in credit for the quarter ( I was also in credit for the previous quarter). I them requested a reduction in my direct debit. Not only was it refused, but the monthly charge was increased by 51%!!! I asked for a detailed explanation of the increase - this was not forthcoming, only a standard response that my account would be reviewed at the next quarter end! By this time I was in France for a holiday and contacted customer services online. Same robotic response.

I now intend to cancel the direct debit on grounds of abuse of the system and to consider seeking a new supplier.

I'd recommend not cancelling your DD (as then you'd lose any DD discounts), but looking for another supplier might be a good idea, if you're not in a lock-in period.

quilani

UPDATE:

Mon 29/07 - I was phoned back by Scottish Power the Monday following my ordeal.

The chap was phoning to confirm that my DD had been reset at the original £40 starting with the payment due on 02/08. Quite nice of them to do that, made me feel reassured the issue was finally sorted.

02/07 - My DD comes out of my account and I went online to check the payment. Can you guess how much it was?


£66.


I'm just astonished that this type of thing happens and goes unpunished. :mad:

I will be calling again later & I'm very interested to see what they have to say.