scottish power have taken over my utilities

LesU

Isn't this part of what the cooling off period is supposed to be for?

If I was putting any protection in place I would write the rules to say that the new and/or old supplier has to contact the householder in writing immediately, regarding the switchover.

If you receive a letter stating incorrectly that a switch has been requested, then you have the opportunity to stop it within the cooling off period when nothing is supposed to be happening.
End of problem.
Does this obvious, non-GCHQ involved control not exist at the moment?

macman

Back to basics: did you receive neither a 'sorry you are leaving' letter from EDF, nor a welcome pack from SP before the cooling-off period expired? If not, why not? These are the main safeguards against erroneous transfers, and should prevent the vast majority from actually going beyond the point of no return.

phoebe03cat

Nope..certainly nothing 'named' from SP to us personally. I don't open 'to householder' advertising but send it straight back. EDF now send out their sorry your leaving a day before the transfer day apparently. I have lodged a formal complaint with both of them, and asked specifically for them to state their safeguards to protect customers. The door seems to be wide open for malicious abuse..not that this is the case for us, but it shouldn't be possible

Ryune

Transfering has to be as easy as possible or otherwise people won't bother and the politicians will get their knickers in a twist and kick up a fuss. Unfortunatly this means you only need an address and aren't required to give anything as complicated as an MPAN or MPR. This leads to all sorts of fun when the address isn't clear (flats) or where someone selects the wrong address.


I've had a case where a tenant kept trying to transfer the landlords supply to their block, even when specifically told that was not their supply. Once they selected the wrong address. Second time they had a doorstep salesman and showed him the meter that was theirs and asked him to transfer it - it wasn't theirs. Fun times.

Cardew

phoebe03cat wrote: »

I have lodged a formal complaint with both of them, and asked specifically for them to state their safeguards to protect customers. The door seems to be wide open for malicious abuse..not that this is the case for us, but it shouldn't be possible

Back to the original point made earlier in the thread - how can you stop malicious use?

Virtually all the companies have stopped doorstep selling; which was a major source of erroneous transfers. Unless someone is intent on causing mischief to an individual there is no incentive. i.e. no financial gain for the miscreants, and no financial loss for their victims; and the matter sorted out with an email or phone call.

If somebody wanted to cause you mischief, there are far easier methods.

Your formal complaints asked specifically for them to state their safeguards to protect customers.

The answer was in the link I posted earlier:

Most erroneous transfers come to light when a customer receives a goodbye letter or final bill from the current supplier, or a welcome letter from their new one.

This can be worrying, but the good news is that all electricity and gas suppliers have signed up to the Erroneous Transfer Customer Charter. This is a voluntary code which means they must protect you if you have been switched to a new supplier by mistake.

The Erroneous Transfer Customer Charter sets out the minimum level of service that you should expect if your energy supply has been switched without your consent..

Twisted_Cherry

Not had a chance to read all the replies on here, but get EDF to check the meter numbers, it's possible that your neighbour has requested to transfer, but SP have accidently picked up your meter numbers in error and transferred you.

This use to happen all the time when I worked for E:ON!

phoebe03cat

Ah, thank you twisted cherry now that sounds very feasible. I was told the contract was made on line with my neighbour so there was no intervention from the utility company themselves...all very convenient. They did tell me the meter numbers would be generated automatically from the National Data Base but maybe that's not the case as you say, are they done manually please? Have I just got to take EDF and SP word for this, as surely they will agree to cover it up? I have now got a much clearer idea of how this works and understand why much more clearly too; thanks for all the comments. I know this will be sorted out by EDF and am getting really good communication from them. I do fully accept that human mistakes happen too, but just want to force some transparency on the part of SP. who have taken my utilities and failed to contact me directly at all.

Nada666

You want to force transparency by not reading people's replies. Very strange.

Twisted_Cherry

phoebe03cat wrote: »

Ah, thank you twisted cherry now that sounds very feasible. I was told the contract was made on line with my neighbour so there was no intervention from the utility company themselves...all very convenient. They did tell me the meter numbers would be generated automatically from the National Data Base but maybe that's not the case as you say, are they done manually please? Have I just got to take EDF and SP word for this, as surely they will agree to cover it up? I have now got a much clearer idea of how this works and understand why much more clearly too; thanks for all the comments. I know this will be sorted out by EDF and am getting really good communication from them. I do fully accept that human mistakes happen too, but just want to force some transparency on the part of SP. who have taken my utilities and failed to contact me directly at all.

If you can access your meter... read the serial number on it, ask the new supplier to check what meter number they have, if they have yours but your neighbours address then they picked up the wrong meter numbers. It use to happen a lot when I worked for E:ON (Well Norweb, TXU Energi, Powergen it was called when I was there!).

If they have got the wrong meter number, they should stop the transfer, they have the power to do that.

Also if you are on par with your neighbour, ask them to check there meter numbers. Many years back British Gas tried to take our supply over from E:ON and when it was looked into they were in fact suppose to take over a different address on the same close, they got just one digit wrong on the meter number so picked up our details rather than the correct address!

Dan-Dan

Nada666 wrote: »

You want to force transparency by not reading people's replies. Very strange.

Hardly surprising considering your history of falling out with people all the time

post 7 on this thread helps noone , for example

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/63818175#Comment_63818175