Erroneous Transfer - Scottish Gas

dg044

Hi, could anyone suggest advice? Here is my situation.

1. I live in a tenement style flat in Edinburgh (notoriously bad for getting addresses mixed up, ie. I'm 138/3, but my energy company has me as 138, 1F3.)
2. I have been a dual-fuel customer with SSE since 2008
3. During this time I have received many bills from Scottish Gas regarding a different meter number (long story, but that issue was finally resolved and letters/bills stopped coming)
4. A few years ago I had a letter from SSE to say "Sorry you are leaving". Luckily I managed to contact them in time and they stopped the Erroneous Transfer to Scottish Gas (this was the first time I had heard this term, little did I know I would soon become very familiar with it!)
5. Early last year I received another of these letters. This time the erroneous transfer was to Scottish Power. Again managed to sort it out and Scottish Power sent me a £20 M&S voucher as a way of an apology. Great, problem solved I thought.
6. Recently I was checking my bank and noticed only one of my DD's to SSE was going out of my account (for Gas not Electric).
7. Phoned SSE and it transpires that when Scottish Power stopped the erroneous transfer they didn't send me back to SSE but instead sent me over to Scottish Gas (!!!!!!!)
8. SSE said they cant do anything now because it has been too long since the account was transferred, so I need to contact Scottish Gas.
9. Phoned Scottish Gas and explained situation. I now have a bill for £628!

I don't object to paying for electricity I've used. But I do object too all this upheaval as a result of their combined incompetence - all of which has nothing to do with me. I would have happily kept with SSE and paid my DD every month. Now I'm in a situation where I have spent hours of my time trying to sort all this out and over the years have had to be on the receiving end of many threatening letters about unpaid bills, forced entry, change of meter, etc. (the long story I mentioned in point 3 above).

Can I put a hold on the £628 payment while I look into my options?

Why should I suddenly have to pay a huge bill when, until recently, I had no idea about it.

Will the Ombudsman be able to help? Has anyone else had a similar experience?

Thanks for reading!

naedanger

dg044 wrote: »

Hi, could anyone suggest advice? Here is my situation.

1. I live in a tenement style flat in Edinburgh (notoriously bad for getting addresses mixed up, ie. I'm 138/3, but my energy company has me as 138, 1F3.)
2. I have been a dual-fuel customer with SSE since 2008
3. During this time I have received many bills from Scottish Gas regarding a different meter number (long story, but that issue was finally resolved and letters/bills stopped coming)
4. A few years ago I had a letter from SSE to say "Sorry you are leaving". Luckily I managed to contact them in time and they stopped the Erroneous Transfer to Scottish Gas (this was the first time I had heard this term, little did I know I would soon become very familiar with it!)
5. Early last year I received another of these letters. This time the erroneous transfer was to Scottish Power. Again managed to sort it out and Scottish Power sent me a £20 M&S voucher as a way of an apology. Great, problem solved I thought.
6. Recently I was checking my bank and noticed only one of my DD's to SSE was going out of my account (for Gas not Electric).
7. Phoned SSE and it transpires that when Scottish Power stopped the erroneous transfer they didn't send me back to SSE but instead sent me over to Scottish Gas (!!!!!!!)
8. SSE said they cant do anything now because it has been too long since the account was transferred, so I need to contact Scottish Gas.
9. Phoned Scottish Gas and explained situation. I now have a bill for £628!

I don't object to paying for electricity I've used. But I do object too all this upheaval as a result of their combined incompetence - all of which has nothing to do with me. I would have happily kept with SSE and paid my DD every month. Now I'm in a situation where I have spent hours of my time trying to sort all this out and over the years have had to be on the receiving end of many threatening letters about unpaid bills, forced entry, change of meter, etc. (the long story I mentioned in point 3 above).

Can I put a hold on the £628 payment while I look into my options?

Why should I suddenly have to pay a huge bill when, until recently, I had no idea about it.

Will the Ombudsman be able to help? Has anyone else had a similar experience?

Thanks for reading!

I am in a vaguely similar position. I opted to switch to npower a year ago. They transferred someone else's electricity bill into my name so I now get two electricity bills. While npower admit their mistake they are refusing to fix it in a timely manner. I took them to the Ombudsman who ruled in my favour many months ago. However despite being given 28 days to fix the problem npower have still not done so many months later and are largely ignoring my correspondence.

Do you need to pay Scottish Gas? If you had notified SSE rather than Scottish Power when you first noticed the erroneous transfer then it would be SSE's problem and you would not have needed to pay Scottish Gas. This is because your contract was with SSE so if you had told them about the error promptly they would be responsible for fixing it. I don't know if the situation will be different because of the delay in notifying them about the error. It sounds like SSE think by leaving it so long you are deemed to have accepted Scottish Gas as your supplier. If so you will need to pay the bill but can certainly ask to pay it up over a time period.

Personally I would pay the bill to avoid the stress of having to deal with Scottish Gas chasing for payment. Then I would complain to Scottish Power and expect them (1) to refund any loss that has arisen from them having transferred you to Scottish Gas and (2) to pay compensation for your time in dealing with the problems Scottish Power have created. If they don't pay then take them to the Ombudsman, as you have nothing to lose by doing so.

footyguy

dg044 wrote: »

Hi, could anyone suggest advice? Here is my situation.

1. I live in a tenement style flat in Edinburgh (notoriously bad for getting addresses mixed up, ie. I'm 138/3, but my energy company has me as 138, 1F3.)
2. I have been a dual-fuel customer with SSE since 2008
3. During this time I have received many bills from Scottish Gas regarding a different meter number (long story, but that issue was finally resolved and letters/bills stopped coming)
4. A few years ago I had a letter from SSE to say "Sorry you are leaving". Luckily I managed to contact them in time and they stopped the Erroneous Transfer to Scottish Gas (this was the first time I had heard this term, little did I know I would soon become very familiar with it!)
5. Early last year I received another of these letters. This time the erroneous transfer was to Scottish Power. Again managed to sort it out and Scottish Power sent me a £20 M&S voucher as a way of an apology. Great, problem solved I thought.
6. Recently I was checking my bank and noticed only one of my DD's to SSE was going out of my account (for Gas not Electric).
7. Phoned SSE and it transpires that when Scottish Power stopped the erroneous transfer they didn't send me back to SSE but instead sent me over to Scottish Gas (!!!!!!!)
8. SSE said they cant do anything now because it has been too long since the account was transferred, so I need to contact Scottish Gas.
9. Phoned Scottish Gas and explained situation. I now have a bill for £628!

I don't object to paying for electricity I've used. But I do object too all this upheaval as a result of their combined incompetence - all of which has nothing to do with me. I would have happily kept with SSE and paid my DD every month. Now I'm in a situation where I have spent hours of my time trying to sort all this out and over the years have had to be on the receiving end of many threatening letters about unpaid bills, forced entry, change of meter, etc. (the long story I mentioned in point 3 above).

Can I put a hold on the £628 payment while I look into my options?

Why should I suddenly have to pay a huge bill when, until recently, I had no idea about it.

Will the Ombudsman be able to help? Has anyone else had a similar experience?

Thanks for reading!

Ask them to put that response into a 'deadlock' letter so that you can pass on your complaint to the ombudsman without further delay.

Yes, the ombudsman will put you back to the supplier and tariff you were with on (or would now be on if the previous tariff has come to an end) before the erroneous transfer took place.

You will eventually have to pay SSE for any energy you you have used during this time. You will not have to pay anyone else.

dg044

Many thanks for your reply. Some very useful advice.