Scottish Power - rare praise

Glyndwr2000

Credit where it is due for a change.

My elderly mother received a letter on Saturday saying that her monthly direct debit for gas and electricity is rising from £70 per month to £135. As you can imagine it was a bit of a shock to a pensioner.

I called Scottish power today and spoke to a very friendly guy from liverpool (and a red by the way) called Danny who explained the thinking behind the rise and explained that it was correct. It was mainly due to her being given an oxygen generation unit which has spiked her usage for the last quarter thus skewing the figures and leading to a debit. However he then went on to look into ways to reduce that amount. After a long discussion and much calculator bashing he got the amount down to £86 which will pay off the debit in 12 months and then reduce to £66 per month which is a net drop in her monthly bill with no tie in period.

The call centre people tend to get the rough end of things and I would not want to do their job again (did it for a few years) so to speak to someone who goes above and beyond to help was exceptional !

:T:T:T:T:T:T

(and yes I did do a Uswitch, moneysupermarket, etc search and couldnt beat the deal we struck)

MarkBargain

Surely the 'deal you struck' is just a direct debit amount, whereas the standing charges and unit prices will dictate whether it is a competitive tariff.

My Mum left Scottish Power back in November, but they still haven't refunded her balance of £200-odd despite multiple requests and agreements to do so. Recently she cannot get through to them on the phone at all. Terrible experience.

ljonski

try CEO..............

MarkBargain

ljonski wrote: »

try CEO..............

Thanks, I just found his email address and read this article so it seems good advice.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/energy-bills/11183690/Scottish-Power-how-to-make-customer-services-listen-to-your-complaint.html

Froglet

Another vote of praise here for a chap called Darren who has helped me sort out not just my Mum's account but mine as well after changing tariffs.Last week I had the bad experience of speaking to a woman who gabbled away so quickly and sounded like she was reading from a text I could hardly follow what she was saying,and then didn't do what she said anyway.


Darren however, listened,took his time to explain things and came up with all the help and answers I needed. When I spoke to him about all the bad press and complaints they get,he said." you only ever hear about the things that go wrong,not the many times we do it properly,or sort out problems."


So I thought I would just put in a good word for the company.Each time the phone has been answered very quickly,and all that I have done on their website has also been actioned.

MarkBargain

Credit then to Danny and Darren, but as an energy company Scottish Power have the second lowest customer satisfaction only to NPower according to Which (http://switch.which.co.uk/energy-suppliers/energy-companies-rated.html).

My Mum has still not received back the money on her account after leaving Scottish Power months ago. She put in an official complaint. Nothing heard back so she spoke to them about a week later and they said the complaint had been closed as it had been 'resolved'! Money still not received.

I'm with First Utility who seem better. Good price fixed tariffs and they let you switch for free to cheaper tariffs when they come out, so long as the new one isn't shorter than the old one.

Froglet

Mark would it be worth ringing up and asking for Darren? He really has done everything he could to help ,and if there is a problem he should at least explain and try to help .He did seem to genuinely want to.

MarkBargain

Froglet wrote: »

Mark would it be worth ringing up and asking for Darren? He really has done everything he could to help ,and if there is a problem he should at least explain and try to help .He did seem to genuinely want to.

It's a nice idea, but I imagine their huge call centre may have several Darrens. My Mum's issue is now with their complaints department (second complaint after they closed with first one without good reason) so we await to hear from them.