MSE News: Scottish Power banned from sales activity after failing to meet complaint t

Cate1976

Does this ban mean existing customers can't change tariff?

Cardew

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays wrote: »

Implemented well there is no reason why SAP should cause meltdown - given their customer base, BG complaints on here are remarkably few in number.

That may well be but it took them a long while to get their system working and MSE was full of complaints about BG two or three years ago.


IIRC they sued the designers of their system.

dick_splash

I moved house in December 2013, gave Scottish Power final meter readings, and contacted them at the end of December asking them to return the £300 balance on my account. They told me they couldn't do it until they produced my final bill, and that they couldn't produce a final bill because of system problems.

After several months, countless hours on the phone and every excuse under the sun, I eventually got a final bill, and a refund, but the bill and refund were both wrong. They promised to correct their mistake and send me out a revised bill. The revised bill was exactly the same as the previous one - still completely wrong.

I complained to the Ombudsman who more or less shrugged their shoulders.

By November 2014 it still hadn't been resolved. OfGem told Scottish Power that they had to resolve complaints like mine by the end of November or face a sales ban.

So, on 30 November, I got a letter from Scottish Power with another "final bill". The bill was even more inaccurate than the previous one. The letter was so amateurish, it looked like a 5 year old had written it. My case, they told me, had been closed, and "sorry for any incovenience".

I don't know what it is with Scottish Power. Didn't they believe that OfGem would follow through with their threat? Don't they care about bad publicity? Or are they really so pathetically dysfunctional that no-one in the company can produce a correct bill, or write in joined-up sentences, even under threat of sanctions?

redux

footyguy wrote: »

Should be shut down entirely and all customers moved to the cheapest possible supplier & tariff as DC strongly hinted at before doing a swift U-turn.

Only when they've sorted out all the current existing complaints should they then possibly be allowed have any customer (which they will have to win back).

:cool:

No thank you.

This house is already on the cheapest tariff available.

Scottish Power.

They evidently have some problems with some accounts, but demanding they cease trading completely with over 5 million customers who have no issues would be ridiculously over the top, and create much more mayhem than there is at the moment.

Consumerist

So, the toothless wonder known as Ofgem have finally DONE something - albeit entirely trivial.

I think Ofgem should be disbanded as unfit for purpose. The Labour party have said they will but that's probably just an election promise to be disregarded if elected.

andyfal52

Scottish power rang me in December trying to get me to switch. Once they told me how easy and it be saving £120 I agreed (like a fool) .

I was told £75 p/m dd would be set up and taken from January onwards.

I checked my bank account yesterday and realised they hadn't been taking the last 3 months dd. so I rang. Got through after 20 minutes. The lady was completely confused. Said I was on a standard tariff and they would be taking quarterly cash. I explained the switch, confused by what tariff I was on and now I'm going to be nearly £250 in debit what are they going to do to resolve. I honestly never saw all this in the press about them, wish I had as I would never have switched. It has been raised as an emergency issue and they will,be calling back tomorrow (apparently). I would just switch to someone else but I expect they would want payment of all the untaken debit and that is too much for me in one go.

Confused and annoyed, even more so at myself.

I was with edf before, never had a single issue

Purplesky_2

andyfal52 wrote: »

Scottish power rang me in December trying to get me to switch. Once they told me how easy and it be saving £120 I agreed (like a fool) .

I was told £75 p/m dd would be set up and taken from January onwards.

I checked my bank account yesterday and realised they hadn't been taking the last 3 months dd. so I rang. Got through after 20 minutes. The lady was completely confused. Said I was on a standard tariff and they would be taking quarterly cash. I explained the switch, confused by what tariff I was on and now I'm going to be nearly £250 in debit what are they going to do to resolve. I honestly never saw all this in the press about them, wish I had as I would never have switched. It has been raised as an emergency issue and they will,be calling back tomorrow (apparently). I would just switch to someone else but I expect they would want payment of all the untaken debit and that is too much for me in one go.

Confused and annoyed, even more so at myself.

I was with edf before, never had a single issue

Make a note NOW of the time and date of the call.
DO NOT expect a call back. When one inevitably fails to materialise, call them back the day after. Make another note. (repeat ad nauseum). I've been dealing with them for 8 months now. Don't do what I did and rely on phone records.

I don't mean to sound overly harsh, but there is a reason that the boards are all aglow with criticism.

lobsterthang

So annoyed after reading all this, I left scottish power 8 weeks ago, still waiting for my £595 refund cheque to arrive, called ofgem today who said they cant help and that I have to call scottish power again!!!

Trying not to get stressed but its easier said than done when that money is very much needed right now!!!! any advice?

Southend1

When will the government wake up and renationalise the industry to put a stop to these fraudsters? It's the same gas and electricity from the same wires and pipes no matter whose logo is on the bill. As it stands, UK consumers are being ripped off to subsidise energy costs for consumers elsewhere in the EU (EDF/NPower etc) and line shareholders pockets. The same goes with public transport - bus fares in my local area are higher than necessary in order to subsidise cheaper fares for German commuters (Arriva/Deutsche Bahn).

MillicentBystander

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays wrote: »

SAP isn't a "system" any more than Microsoft is a system.

Implemented well there is no reason why SAP should cause meltdown - given their customer base, BG complaints on here are remarkably few in number.

HaHa! Some people have beer goggles but it seems you have BG goggles. Cardew is entirely correct, BG's system performed so poorly originally and they had that many customer complaints they ended up suing the designers/installers (Accenture?). How much did it cost? £400+ million?:eek: