Scottish Power - When paying for what you use isn't enough Round 2

Simon7685

A number of people that frequent this forum will remember the thread from earlier this year I started following my issues with Scottish Power trying to hike my payments when it wasn't necessary. Also when they told me that paying for the amount of energy you use isn't enough.

To briefly recap - I signed up with SP in Oct 2012, gave them my usage and they set a price of £97.65 a month.

By March this year they were wanting £120 a month. I insisted that my usage which I constantly monitor through my own spread sheet was bang on and that the hike was not necessary. They refused to lower the payments and came up with a new DD plan insisting my annual usage would be over 4000 units than I have ever used in all the years we've lived here. I complained and eventually got my payments reset to £97.65 a month, after a long struggle.

In July we had a repeat performance with them this time wanting £126 a month. Again I insisted that my usage by the end of my first year would be covered by my ongoing payments of £97.65. They would not accept it and I ended up having a very heated discussion with one of their customer service agents. He refused to lower the payments and said I didn't know what I was talking about and if I paid £1000 a year for my energy and used £1000 I still would not be paying enough.

Eventually following another complaint I got my payments reduced back to £97.65 a month.

There were also some heated debates on here with a number of people who did not agree with my figures etc.

Well I did say I would update at the end of the year and that time has now come. My actual anniversary date is 16 October but SP insisted on a reading earlier than this, to my annoyance. So I submitted my readings on Monday just over a week early.

The results are in.........

I have ended the year in credit by £63.08.

Had the figures gone in next week my credit would have been around £50. Which is still above the £32 I was expecting it to be and probably because we have been able to keep the heating off, thanks to the Indian Summer.

My point really is after all the arguments on here and with SP my figures were pretty accurate and my payments have been right over the course of the year. So there is absolutely no need for all the payment hikes that SP tried to impose.

I have now written to them to point this out and ask them to conduct the annual review which is supposed to happen at the anniversary of the account. I have also included for them my own review, which shows that based on the last 12 months usage my payments could actually be reduced but I want to leave them as they are, which will allow me a buffer in case of a harsher winter than last year.

Also interestingly my Economy 7 breakdown for the year has shown that 78% of my usage occured during the Economy 7 period, with just 22% for the rest of the time.

It may be interesting to see what they come back to me with and I will feed back when they respond.

thriftylass

To briefly recap - I signed up with SP in Oct 2012, gave them my usage and they set a price of £97.65 a month.

By March this year they were wanting £120 a month. I insisted that my usage which I constantly monitor through my own spread sheet was bang on and that the hike was not necessary. They refused to lower the payments and came up with a new DD plan insisting my annual usage would be over 4000 units than I have ever used in all the years we've lived here. I complained and eventually got my payments reset to £97.65 a month, after a long struggle.

After the winter you were probably in debit and they wanted more money to pay that off soon rather than just to wait and see if over the summer you use less and pay the debit off that way. EDF does that lets say I pay £50 over the 5 winter months (=£250) but use £310 they don't want to wait and see if I now only use £30 of the 50 I pay and reduce the debt over the next three months. They play save and ask for £310/5=£62 which gets me into credit till the winter when they reduce the DD again. They are not very good at seeing the whole year if that makes sense.

thriftylass

Of course their comment paying £1000 for £1000 usage isn't enough is stupid.

And I don't understand how they wanted another increase after the March to July period as usage should have gone down.

matelodave

I've had a similar situation with SP, although I couldn't be bothered to go through all the effort of arguing with them so just paid the money.

We started paying £85 a month which was about £6 a month too much for my estimate of £948 for the year, but I was happy to pay a bit over knowing that winter had started early last yaer. After 3 months they panicked and put it up to £119, after another 3 months it came down to £87 and now it's down to £55. Our total cost over 12 months is £910.11p, my estimate was £948, so I was about £40 out (due to installing LED lights and economising a bit). However so far we've now paid £1038 and they now owe us £128. Which we'll get back when we transfer to someone else and no doubt have the same mucking about all over again.

They just don't seem to understand how the DD system should work, mind you neither do a significant amount of correspondents on these threads judging by the state some of them get themselves into.

DragonQ

It's just a case of the energy companies wanting you to be in credit all the time so they can profit from the interest. The only fair way to do it is to be in credit for half of the year (so approximately zero balance either mid-winter or mid-summer).

smallblueplanet

I had a similar 'we're increasing your DD payment' farrago with them. Twice they increased the payment automatically, twice I had to ring up and argue the toss and get the DD set back to what it was! It didn't help that they chose meter reading dates just before a DD payment was due so it looks like you're a whole month's payment amount 'in debit'. Anyway I'm off to nPower after the SP Nov. online fix ended...

Simon7685

I was in debt after the winter, however that is pretty much to be expected after the winter quarter. Just as you are in credit at other parts of the year, in fact having looked at the whole year it does actually work out at least 50% of the time you are in credit.

The main problem, not just with SP but with all the energy companies is they want people to be in credit with their accounts at all points of the year, so they massage things to suit their own requirements. At the end of the day they want more and more.

According to SP your annual review is carried out at the end of your payment plan, which is determined by your anniversary date, which is supposed to be the date you join. In real terms they attempt to get all customers to a zero balance in April. Which is fine if you join in April but not fine when you join in October.

Then of course is their "terms" under which they tell people they can have their credit balance refunded. According to their website if you are in credit by a full 3 months worth of payments at the end of the year they will give you a refund. Otherwise they offset the amount of any other credit balance against future use. Is that really fair?

I think the interesting thing will be whether or not they will now be prepared to run with payment plan now they have a full 12 months usage details.

Simon7685

Just a quick update, having fired my long email with all the facts and figures included. They have contacted me this morning to say it has all been passed on to the complaints department who will contact me in due course.

There is still no sign of them conducting the annual review, in accordance with their own procedures but equally they aren't trying to increase my monthly payments either, not that they could really when I am in credit at the end of the 12 months.

ollski

I'll bet you'd have let your 'taters freeze off rather than have the figures not work in you favour tho.

Pincher

They do an "annual review" every time I submit a reading.
:rotfl:

Simon7685

ollski wrote: »

I'll bet you'd have let your 'taters freeze off rather than have the figures not work in you favour tho.

You couldn't be further from the truth if you tried. I will not be cold, if the fire needs to go on it does, likewise the storage heaters. In fact this year it was June before they got switched off.

I just know how to work out how much I need to pay to cover my use and having a tight budget, every penny counts. This year we have actually used more than we have ever used but that doesn't mean you need to allow an energy company to take the P out of you regarding payments.