Is this sharp practice from Scottish Power?

Rookie

I recently transferred from them to Ovo. The new supplier asked for actual readings for the commencement of the contract which I provided.


Scottish Power have estimated my electricity readings and have overcharged by 23.9 units on economy 7 and 29.7 units on normal.


I have queried this with them and have the following reply:

Thank you for your recent e-mail regarding your energy account.
Your account is closed with us on 18 May 2014 with on the following meter readings.
Electricity 78159.70 Estimated
Electricity 79412.90 Estimated
Gas 7902 Actual reading.
I have checked your account and can see that we have already received final reads from your new supplier and issued a final bill using these readings.
The transfer readings you have asked us to use are very close to the readings provided by your new supplier.
When disputing transfer reads we abide by the industry wide Agreed Reads process. This process only allows reads to be changed when the difference between the reads being disputed is higher than set regulated tolerances and both suppliers agree to the change.
The industry set tolerances are
Electricity 225 units
Metric Gas Meters 120 units
Imperial Gas Meters 41 units
I checked the difference between the new supplier transfer read and the read you have provided us is within the set tolerances and as a result I am unable to change the readings.
Moving forward if you have any further questions, you can use our online help facility 24 hours a day by visiting <a href="http://www.scottishpower.co.uk/contactus&quot; target="_blank" rel="nofollow">www.scottishpower.co.uk/contactus
Kind regards

Jyoti Maloo
E-Contact Centre
ScottishPower




I don't know how much I am losing by this as my understanding of calculating cost per unit is extremely limited!!


Can anyone advise if what they have done is legitimate?


BEWARE SCOTTISH POWER

molerat

Are the opening reads being used by the new supplier the same as those closing reads. Even though you gave OVO actual reads they may not have used them. If they are you have no grounds for dispute as they are within the industry agreed tolerances and you will only be paying for the energy once. You need to check this with OVO and if they are not the same then you need to raise a complaint with SP.

Pincher

Oh well, I had better stay with Scottish Power and not leave then.

By next April 2015, and I am out of contarct, they will have built a Berlin wall, and anyone trying to leave will be machine gunned down like the traitors we are.:eek:

bengal-stripe

Rookie wrote: »

I don't know how much I am losing by this as my understanding of calculating cost per unit is extremely limited!!

There is virtually no difference (about 50 units) between your reading and the estimated one. The opening reading and the final reading will correspond. Those 50 units in question will have to be paid and will be billed either by the new supplier or by Scottish Power. Even if presume your new supplier Ovo is cheaper than the old one, the difference in price is likely to be less than 1/2 penny per unit (probably much less).

At the most, you will pay 25 pence more if the transfer is based on the estimated reading as opposed to your own reading.

Andy_WSM

Interesting that there have been a few posts lately about closing readings showing as "estimated" and on the high side, which means the consumer is paying twice for energy - once to the old supplier, then again to the new supplier, who starts with lower readings.

Now while there is technically "nothing wrong" with this according to "industry process", If the energy companies manage to squeeze 100 units out of a million customers, that's a tidy (approx) £140k "profit" that they wouldn't have made if they'd use the actual readings that had been provided to them. Obviously I don't know how many people switch to and from Scottish power every year, so could be more, could be less.

Surely if OVO supplied closing readings, then Scottish Power should use them, not some "estimated" figure which is higher, but within agreed process. Seems a bit naughty to me...

Andy_WSM

bengal-stripe wrote: »

At the most, you will pay 25 pence more if the transfer is based on the estimated reading as opposed to your own reading.

Only if OVO used the same readings that Scottish Power have estimated. If OVO are using the provided reading and Scottish Power have made up their own, then the OP pays twice for those 50 units.

Whilst the amounts aren't big, there's a principle here...

jayson043

There is no industry tolerance. They sent me the same lies by email. I called them and asked for a new bill. It was only for a 9 unit difference, I am still waiting for the bill.


Its about time these emails and lies are sent to Ofgem.

molerat

There is no tolerance for differences in readings between the old and new suppliers, any difference is cause for a complaint, the tolerance is on the readings you supply and the readings actually used in the transfer.

Rookie

After speaking to Ovo it seems they are using my readings so Scottish Power gain.


A good reason for potential customers to avoid Scottish Power.

molerat

Raise a written complaint with SP, the tolerance is not for a difference in new / old supplier readings.

jasmine

I left Scottish Power in Early May and switched to Ovo. Gas was closed to correct reading and refunded. It took until last week to receive my final electricity bill from Scottish Power. it's been closed to the right date but using excessively high estimated readings.
Ovo are billing me from my actual reading which they said had been validated by the industry but Scottish Power tell me they've had no final readings.
I've been passed backwards and forwards trying to sort this out until I escalated it to a formal complaint.
IF I hadn't checked the final reading it would have been paid by direct debit as the final bill.