No first bill after a year with Scottish Power...

fightstar87

Good morning folks,

My fianc!e and I moved into a Taylor Wimpey new build property on December 12th 2013 (A year and 6 days ago...), and on the day that we moved in the Taylor Wimpey sales rep took us through the meter readings and submitted these to Scottish Power who would be supplying our energy at first.

Fast forward an entire 370 days, and we've still not recieved a bill, despite e-mails to Taylor Wimpey, the management company that they outsource their accounts mangement to, and indeed to Scottish Power, who are now saying that due to "system problems", our account hasn't yet been set up.

This leaves me very concerned that the bill that drops through the door (whenever that may be) is going to be at a rate that isn't exactly favourable to us, and that we've effectively been held at ransom for over a year to an energy tarriff that is entirely hidden from us, without the opportunity to shop around for a better price.

Where do we stand with this? Scottish Power have acknowledged the fact that this is their own issue and not one caused by us (or indeed by anyone else i.e. Taylor Wimpey), and I have mentioned in correspondance that I will be seeking compensation should the bill be at a higher rate than I'm happy with. Any advice with how to proceed to end up paying them as little as possible?

Thank you in advance.

lvf

I'm very sorry to hear about this. There is nothing worse than having to worry about a huge bill dropping in, especially as it is not your fault and you have actively tried to get it produced.

Your best course of action is to get a complaint opened as soon as possible. This can be done either in writing or over the phone.

If over the phone, if the advisor does not resolve this on the call, ask them to open an official complaint. You should then speak with a complaints manager who has 8 weeks to get your complaint closed or you can take it to the Ombudsman. As the company gets charged for every case that gets that far, believe me they will go out of their way to make sure this is resolved for you.

great_scot82

I'm in a similar situation with Scottish Power. My electricity account was opened in May this year and despite supplying regular meter readings online my account balance is still sitting at £0.00. I contacted them for a bill through their website in October (after making numerous attempts to get through to their call centre) and received a reply 5 days later describing a "system issue" with my account that was unable to be resolved at that time. They said my issue had been escalated to their complaints team and someone would be in touch within 28 days to provide an update.

Much to my frustration, I hadn't heard anything from them by last week so I contacted them (again via e-mail) expressing my concern at the lack of an update and, more importantly, the lack of a bill. I received an apology, a reassurance that the customer care team are looking into my issues, and they supplied me with a complaint reference number.

This morning I received a letter from their CEO acknowledging that certain customers have experienced poor service due to the implementation of a new IT system. He also stated that they would ensure I would not be left out of pocket due to the problems I've encountered with my account. Still no bill yet but the clock's now ticking for them and I'm hoping for a resolution soon.

I've found communicating with Scottish Power's customer service department frustrating to say the least. However, I would second lvf's comment above in getting a complaint opened as soon as possible as it forces them into action.

Cardew

In the case of the OP I would do absolutely nothing.


If you have not received a bill, and it is the fault of the supplier, they can only back-bill for 12 months. So if you get a bill in, say, March they can only bill you back to March 2014.

matelodave

What ever you do you should be reading your own meter, working out how much you've consumed and making sure you are saving the money for when a bill does eventually drop through the letterbox.

Putting the DD equivalent away into a savings account will ensure that you have enough money to pay the bill when it comes and with any luck you might even make a little interest as well. Even if you don't know what tariff you are on you should be putting away somewhere between £80-£100 a month to make sure you are covered.


If the bill comes out less then you've got some cash left over to spend on yourselves and it it's more then you you'll have most of it covered with only a small shortfall.