Have you tried to reclaim old bill credit?

davyboy57

Read this article and went back to my old supplier (Scottish Power) to see if anything owed. Had email to say account was in credit and, once the account gets billed, I will receive a refund of £66.11. Happy days!

onejontwo

I switched via the energy club from Scottish Power to Co-Operative energy around mid December, I am now paying the Co-Op via direct debit but I'm still waiting for a credit of £521. which was overpaid into my account. The account is shown as closed and I have saved a copy of the account to show the credit. After several e-mails and no response I think the next stage is a long wait on the end of a telephone line.

tug

Hi onejontwo,
Try sending another email just asking for a copy of their "complaint procedures" - that seems to stir them!

onejontwo

Hi Tug, thanks for that. I think I'll give that a go after all I've nothing to lose.

fourlegsgood

I see a trend here about Scottish Power!

So, I've just phoned up my last few gas/electricity companies. All have paid me my credit balance except for Scottish Power gas. £103 in credit from July 2011 !

The annoying part is that they insisted that they had got in touch with me about it back when I closed the account. Well, I searched back through my bills to find the closing statement. It did report the £103 in credit, but in the 'what to do next' section, the very first thing it states is 'You do not have to take any action'. So they've been giving all their customers misleading advice - anyone reading their final statement would assume that it was all being taking care of, when in fact they expected you to get in touch to request your money back.

Anyway, they tell me I should receive a cheque in the post in a few days for the balance, and I have registered a complaint to see if I can get any compensation - after all, it is through their wrongful advice that they kept my money in the first place. Not very hopeful though...

MorbidX

fourlegsgood wrote: »

I see a trend here about Scottish Power!

So, I've just phoned up my last few gas/electricity companies. All have paid me my credit balance except for Scottish Power gas. £103 in credit from July 2011 !

The annoying part is that they insisted that they had got in touch with me about it back when I closed the account. Well, I searched back through my bills to find the closing statement. It did report the £103 in credit, but in the 'what to do next' section, the very first thing it states is 'You do not have to take any action'. So they've been giving all their customers misleading advice - anyone reading their final statement would assume that it was all being taking care of, when in fact they expected you to get in touch to request your money back.

Anyway, they tell me I should receive a cheque in the post in a few days for the balance, and I have registered a complaint to see if I can get any compensation - after all, it is through their wrongful advice that they kept my money in the first place. Not very hopeful though...

In all honestly you wont get any compensation. it's harsh i know but you can press the situation for weeks/months and they may offer you maybe £10-20 tops but it will be a lot of hassle.

Best thing to do is to get your money and draw a line under it, it's not ideal i know but if you escalate the complaint and you aren't happy with the resolution they will stick it in deadlock which means the only option is the ombudsman which is a long drawn out process and even after than you may not even get a penny if they deem sufficient attempt to contact you and return the money was made.

This is advice from experience so please don't think i'm being harsh

onejontwo

N Power have a rep. on here how come Scottish Power don't?

MorbidX

onejontwo wrote: »

N Power have a rep. on here how come Scottish Power don't?

Depends if they have a dedicated social media and web team i guess?

pineapple

I moved from Scottish Power to EDF late 2013. It was duel fuel and the gas part took some time to complete but all was done by the end of the year. I am around £200 in credit and still waiting. When I did finally get through to a real person at Scottish Power in February they said they couldn't find a record of my readings which EDF should have sent them. They asked for a week to sort it out and of course that was the last time I heard from them.
I've mailed EDF twice to ask them to send my initial readings - just in case they didn't get sent but no response from them. Are they all as bad as each other?
I've contacted the Ombudsman but I can't see that will help as all contact was via phone or email and there is no paper evidence.
I lived very frugally fuel wise to build up this credit and I could really do with that cash.
Angry is an understatement. :mad:

fourlegsgood

MorbidX wrote: »

In all honestly you wont get any compensation. it's harsh i know but you can press the situation for weeks/months and they may offer you maybe £10-20 tops but it will be a lot of hassle.

Yes, I'm expecting nothing to come of it. They have promised a call back about the complaint, so I'll probably be phoning them one more time when I hear nothing from them. After that I'll give it up as a lost cause. (the compensation/interest, that is. I still expect my credit balance!)

But, something I should have said in my original post: A big thank you to MSE for alerting me to do this in the first place - I would never have thought to enquire about the money otherwise.