Stuck with Scottish Power - getting desperate

aaz01

We moved into a new build house nearly a year ago and were told by builder that gas/elec is supplied by Scottish Power.

We contacted Scottish Power as soon as the builder sent them our details to close our account.

We were told "Your property is not on our system, we are not your supplier"...

Double-checked with builder, they sent Scottish Power our details again. A few weeks later I called again.... same answer, our property is not on their system.

A few weeks later I wrote them an email asking for clarification, got no answer.

We went through the winter with our heating turned right down because we have no idea how much this house costs to heat. We were terrified of a huge bill landing on our door.

So I involved the Energy Ombudsman - after a LOOOONG time (about 8 months after moving in), they came back with an offer which involved Scottish Power billing us at their "preferential" rate, which was still several hundred pounds more than we could have gotten elsewhere!!

I wasn't happy, so I sent them a signed-for letter saying I am only willing to pay as much as the cheapest supplier would have charged us, please reply to let us know if that's ok.

... No reply.

I sent an email.

... No reply.

I sent another email.

.... No reply.

I am now getting really angry. We have been living in fear of a gigantic bill arriving out of the blue, we had to freeze our asses off through a very cold winter and I have wasted a huge amount of time trying to deal with this.

I'm worried if we just go to another supplier without closing our account (if we even have one?) with Scottish Power, we'll just get debt collection at our door one day without warning. Or a black mark on our credit record, or who knows what.

I don't know what to do next, and at this point I am considering going to small claims court. I never agreed to be a Scottish Power customer and if I had ANY choice, I would have left them the day we moved in!

Help please!

Cardew

Firstly you don't have to 'agree' to be a Scottish Power(SP) customer. When you move into a house you are on a legally binding 'deemed contract' with the existing supplier.

That said the legendary inefficiency of SP has once again come to the fore, to your disadvantage.

To insist that you should pay no more than 'the cheapest supplier would have charged us' I think it is a perfectly reasonable stance for you to take.


However Scottish Power's tariffs are some of the cheapest and if the Ombudsman has approved SP 'preferential tariff' offer, I would be very surprised if that energy would cost 'several hundred pounds more than we could have gotten elsewhere!!'


I would appeal the Ombudsman's decision, but have to supply figures to prove that the 'preferential rate' offered was £xxx more than the cheapest available tariff. It would also be normal for the Ombudsman to order some sort of compensation payment for the time and inconvenience.


I would be careful not to overstate your case. For instance:

We went through the winter with our heating turned right down because we have no idea how much this house costs to heat.

If you could work out the costs of the cheapest tariff at several hundred pounds less, you obviously can read the meters and would know the prices of even SP's most expensive standard tariff. In any case in a new build house heating costs should be low and there simply isn't hundreds of pounds difference between heating costs.


Incidentally it is not an option for you to leave Scottish Power now as the losing company(SP) can(and will) block any switch to another company when you owe them money.


If you can supply details of the Ombudsman's ruling, including details of the SP tariff you have been offered, we might be able to give advice.