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Scottish Power Aggghhhh!!!!
edthedead
Posts: 149 Forumite
This is the short version!
I changed my gas & elec supplier in March 06 to Scottish Power on their on-line tariff and set up a direct debit for the recommended monthly payment. This worked fine in April & May 06 but then the DD got cancelled... the bank say by Scottish Power, Scottish Power say by the bank.
Every 90 days I went online to give my meter reading, every time the elec one would not go through because the computer was saying my new reading was lower than my last (which it wasn't). Every time they would say they would fix it, but never did and never told me that the DD was not working.
Anyway, in May 07 I got a posted bill saying may account was £450 ish in debit, but it said in bold 'No Further Action Is Required' because i was paying by DD. I called up and questioned this. It was only then that I realised the DD had not been working, Scottish Power hadn't noticed either.
I have tried now for the last 3 months to get the DD set up correctly for £85 per month to clear the debt and cover my current usage, but the DD always fails, Scottish Power blame the bank and the bank blame Scottish Power.
On 4th July when the DD failed, again, I set up a standing order to pay them, giving up on the DD. When I called up to get their bank dets I was told that I could not set up a standing order until i had paid off the debt in full... by a very rude and unhelpfull agent. I eventually spoke to a supervisor who told me the bank dets for the standing order and agreed that £85 per month would be a reasonable amount to pay.
Then on 5th July they sent a letter telling me that I would have to pay the full balance and because I was no longer paying by DD could not have the online discount so had been moved to their standard package.
After many more phone calls and wasted hours i now have a standing order and also a direct debit set up just to ensure that they get paid... it's driving me nuts! Just to make things even better on my last call the agent said that she didn't think the bill was right anyway, due to the problem inputting the elec meter readings on the internet!
I agree that i owe them the some money, but since they are unsure the bill is right and I feel they are partly responsable for the bill getting so high by not telling me the DD had failed think they have a cheek sending demand letters.
Has anyone else had this problem? What did you do? What should I do!
HELP!
I changed my gas & elec supplier in March 06 to Scottish Power on their on-line tariff and set up a direct debit for the recommended monthly payment. This worked fine in April & May 06 but then the DD got cancelled... the bank say by Scottish Power, Scottish Power say by the bank.
Every 90 days I went online to give my meter reading, every time the elec one would not go through because the computer was saying my new reading was lower than my last (which it wasn't). Every time they would say they would fix it, but never did and never told me that the DD was not working.
Anyway, in May 07 I got a posted bill saying may account was £450 ish in debit, but it said in bold 'No Further Action Is Required' because i was paying by DD. I called up and questioned this. It was only then that I realised the DD had not been working, Scottish Power hadn't noticed either.
I have tried now for the last 3 months to get the DD set up correctly for £85 per month to clear the debt and cover my current usage, but the DD always fails, Scottish Power blame the bank and the bank blame Scottish Power.
On 4th July when the DD failed, again, I set up a standing order to pay them, giving up on the DD. When I called up to get their bank dets I was told that I could not set up a standing order until i had paid off the debt in full... by a very rude and unhelpfull agent. I eventually spoke to a supervisor who told me the bank dets for the standing order and agreed that £85 per month would be a reasonable amount to pay.
Then on 5th July they sent a letter telling me that I would have to pay the full balance and because I was no longer paying by DD could not have the online discount so had been moved to their standard package.
After many more phone calls and wasted hours i now have a standing order and also a direct debit set up just to ensure that they get paid... it's driving me nuts! Just to make things even better on my last call the agent said that she didn't think the bill was right anyway, due to the problem inputting the elec meter readings on the internet!
I agree that i owe them the some money, but since they are unsure the bill is right and I feel they are partly responsable for the bill getting so high by not telling me the DD had failed think they have a cheek sending demand letters.
Has anyone else had this problem? What did you do? What should I do!
HELP!
0
Comments
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Have you been in touch with EnergyWatch?
http://www.energywatch.org.uk/0 -
Continue paying what was agreed for the time being, put a complaint in writing, and if it isn't being dealt with satisfactorily within 14-21 days complain to energywatch.0
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Well Im having fun at the moment, because I switched from EDF to SP for my electricity. EDF say they dont have the readings for final bill and wont accept them by email, SP say they've sent them. EDF finally gave up and sent me a £100 cheque as my account is in credit - so progress there. I said I would pay the final bill in full at the Post office when they finally get it sorted...0
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Update...
I got another letter from them yesterday saying that if i wanted to set my standing order up for £88 pm I needed to complete the enclosed form and send it back to them... problem is I had already set up the standing order with my bank for £85 pm.... plus it said that I was, again, on a different tariff (3rd in as many weeks!)
I called them up and eventually spoke to the person I spoke to last time who admitted that she had made a mistake with the amount. She also said that she had forgotton to set the direct debit up... I make that 5 times i have tried now!!!
After I wrote the first post on this thread I wrote a 4 page letter to their complaints department... we'll see what happens!0 -
Update - got a letter from the person i spoke to above, appologising for her error, saying she will credit my account with £50 and she hopes this resolves my complaints, but making no reference to any of my other complaints.
I have written another letter, this time to the customer services director, asking for a proper relpy to my first letter...0 -
I think that you will find most of the letters you have received are from an automated system. An account only ever gets looked at if it throws a flag or a customer phones in (and even then it is usually only looked at in the context of a specific query). Who knows why direct debits sometimes fail to set up .. I have had a few of those in my lifetime.
IvanI don't care about your first world problems; I have enough of my own!0 -
Ivan,
You are probably right... but why let the system send them if they are incorrect! The most recent letter appeared to be written by a real person, unless their computer makes spelling mistakes (very professional!)
I agree that DD do sometimes fail for no apparent reason, my arguement with Scottish Power is that just because the DD won't work why should I be forced to pay more for my gas and elec, epsecially when I am paying by another automated method?
ed0 -
They are driving us insane!An average day in my life:hello: :eek::mad: :coffee::coffee::coffee::T
:rotfl: :rotfl: 
:eek::mad: :beer:
I am no expert in property but have lived in many types of homes, in many locations and can only talk from experience.0 -
I can believe, my complaint is still rumbling on... still no reply to my second letter. I e-mailed it to them about 10 days ago... still no reply. I have now called them a couple of times about it... still no reply. If a reply does not appear today or tomorrow I will be writing to Enery Watch...0
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Ok... an update!
I contacted Energy Watch through a form on their website and they e-mailed me a complaint number and a 'phone number for a specialist team at Scottish Power who deal with Energy Watch complaints... I called it.
They discovered that one of their agents had set my direct debit amount to zero, for no apparent reason... that's why they weren't taking any money... and they could not setup a new one because there was one already in place... their fault completely!
The meter reading were not going in correctly because the first reading i supplied to them was incorrect... my fault, but their system would not allow them to correct it... their fault. They have had to completely cancel the account and re-open it to correct the error. They are then going to re-bill me for the gas and elec used on the correct tariff from the start.
It seems that they though that by crediting my account with £50 I would forget about the fact that the ammount they say I owe them might be wrong...
Seeems like I am fianlly getting somewhere!0
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