Scottish Power =Useless 28 August 2014 at 9:54PM edited 30 November -1 at 1:00AM in Energy 7 replies 2.7K views

diamond_dave

Switched from SP to NPower almost 5 months ago and because NP used the wrong final readings, Sp kept sending me an estimated final bill.Despite giving SP the correct readings myself, they continued to send an incorrect bill.Eventually, after some 4 months wrangling they accepted my final readings and sent me an email agreeing a debit of £42 on 6 August. Today I receive a letter from a company called Pastdue credit solutions demanding a payment of £80.04. Called SP and after waiting 50 mins to be answered, I was told that the bill hadn't been made up! The young lady agreed to email someone and that I would get a final bill in 5 days.Can anyone explain what is happening with SP? perhaps the SP representative can explain why I am still waiting for a final bill after 5 months.

zzzLazyDaisy

diamond_dave wrote: »

perhaps the SP representative can explain why I am still waiting for a final bill after 5 months.

I don't think SP rep is active any more.

I tried unsuccessfully to contact him when I left SP. In my case I moved house, gave the final readings and waited for the final bill and refund of £180 they were holding. However despite logging the final readings and marking the on-line account as closed, they continued to bill me on estimated readings and deduct the bill from the amount they owed me. They did eventually refund the balance but it took months to get back the money they had wrongfully deducted.

To make matters worse, their 'customer service' number rings out forever with no reply....

You have my sympathy!

EnergyInside

diamond dave - You haven't been waiting 5 months for a final bill, one was sent to you, albeit estimated. This is the fault of your new supplier Npower who sent this estimated reading to SP in the first place. This means Npower have been billing you from this incorrect estimate as this has been reflected in any bills you've received.

Just phoning SP and telling them what your final reads were will not get a final bill based on these readings in 5 days I'm afraid to tell you. To get the readings changed either supplier must raise a process called a "SAR" short for Shipper Agreed Read. This process can take 4-6 weeks on average to complete (sometimes much longer) and will only be accepted if the difference of units is large enough. A difference of less than a few hundred units will be rejected. You are not being overcharged these units as you've already been undercharged from your new supplier based on these readings.

zzzLazyDaisy - Your NEW supplier is responsible for the change of supply process. Do not blame your old supplier for incorrect readings they have received.

Hoof_Hearted

This may be true but Scottish Power are the most incompetent bunch I have ever had to deal with. I am going to the Ombudsman about them to try to get a result.

nuttergem

I am currently dealing with Scottish Power being totally incompetent when leaving them and transferring to a new supplier. I had an incorrect estimated final bill (hugely over estimated). I contacted both new supplier and SP. After several months of endless calls to both, my new supplier miraculously managed to contact SP whilst I was on hold and agree new reading. All sorted with new supplier. SP however is a completely different matter several months on and they still have no record of this. Now they have magically 'found' a correct bill on the old system, when talking to a different complaint adviser (though my complaints manager denies this is how they have come to the current conclusions). It appears that over 10 months from switching I may be seeing some light at the end of the tunnel, they say they will be authorising my refund. However they don't recompense for all the calls I have had to pay for (I don't care to remember how many hours/days it has been!!!!!!).

Hoof_Hearted

I would dearly like to leave them but until they recognise that they are supplying my gas, I can't really move somewhere else. I would just get them into a bigger mess.

zzzLazyDaisy

EnergyInside wrote: »

diamond d

zzzLazyDaisy - Your NEW supplier is responsible for the change of supply process. Do not blame your old supplier for incorrect readings they have received.

Read my post and get your facts straight before defending these imbeciles.

I did NOT change supplier.

SP did NOT receive incorrect readings.

I moved out of the house, sent in my readings, and cancelled my account with SP. Plain and simple.

SP acknowledged the readings and closed my account, with a credit balance of £180. I could see that on my on-line account with them.

They then continued to deduct money from the balance for estimated bills raised AFTER I had moved out and the new people had moved in.

It didn't help that they don't respond to emails and customer service do not answer the phone. In the end I had to e-mail the CEO's office to get a response and even then they messed up and only refunded the balance AFTER the money they had wrongfully deducted for imaginary bills after I had sold the property. It took weeks and several more e-mails to the CEO to get that sorted out.

Daisy

Guinea33

I made the recent mistake of switching to Scottish Power from Southern Electric. Have only been with SP since 2nd October and each time I've called them to request that they send my final meter readings on to SE (which I have now given to them on 4 separate occasions) they either say the reading has been sent or they play dumb and ask me to give the readings to them all over again!!!! (Grrrrrrr).

I also found it somewhat disconcerting when I spoke to one advisor today who inflated my night time Economy 7 reading from 18,751 to 19,751 and said that she would re-send this reading on to SE. I quickly put her straight.

Based on this experience and after reading comments in the forums I have decided to switch back to Southern Electric. They at least can quote me the correct readings without my having to repeat them. AND they have been very good at refunding my over payment.

Clearly SP do not keep a record of account holders calls and comments and they certainly don't appear to record verbal meter readings. They also took a DD payment out of my account 1 month too early. Fortunately I got that reversed by my bank and I have subsequently now cancelled the DD as I do not trust SP one bit.

Fingers crossed that I will be able to switch away from them without too much trouble.