SCOTTISH POWER - Check your GAS Bills NOW...

derekwilliams

I have started this thread as a 'heads up' warning for ALL Scottish Power GAS customers.

After days of trying to convince SP Customer Services that they have been using an incorrect calculation for GAS used on my bill, they have finally admitted that they are using the WRONG CALCULATION. :eek:

As a result ALL my bills since joining SP in January 2015 have been scrapped/refunded and are now being recalculated. This has saved me roughly £120 compared to the original bills.

I have been discussing this error in detail in one of the other MSE Forum threads, starting at Post #430 on the page which you can view here:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4415621

SP told me this error was ONLY with my account, but i seriously doubt that, as this is an industry standard calculation that they have got wrong!!

The easiest way to check if YOU are also being overcharged for your GAS is to look at Page 2 of your Bills. Look for the section called 'Converting Gas Units to kWh'. If it shows the 'Volume Correction' factor as '1.22640000' then you have been overcharged by ~20% for your GAS on the affected bills. This is what the ERROR looks like:


The CORRECT 'Volume Correction' factor is '1.02264', notice the extra zero after the decimal point. If your bill shows this value then you are probably OK.

I would be interested to know if any other SP customers have the same error with the GAS component of their bills. I have been on 3 different tariffs with them this year, so it is not a problem with any single tariff.

BJV

At work at the moment but I will check when I get home. Thanks x

lvf

It's very unlikely to be an isolated incident. I would assume it was for one billing period only but I would suspect quite a number of customers in your area may be affected.

It pays to check your bills regularly!

derekwilliams

lvf wrote: »

It's very unlikely to be an isolated incident. I would assume it was for one billing period only but I would suspect quite a number of customers in your area may be affected.

It pays to check your bills regularly!

It was not just one billing period. It was wrong in ALL my bills for 2015.

Luckily i keep details of all my meter readings (taken weekly) in a spreadsheet which calculates my estimated charges for the year. That is how i first suspected i was being overcharged.

Cardew

All my bills correctly show 1.02264 in the part of the bill that explains how they convert metric gas units to kWh.


However that is just an explanation, the important part is to check that 1.02264 is used in the actual calculation.


If the correct value(with 39.2 as the calorific value) is used 1 metric gas unit = 11.135kWh.


Using the incorrect value of 1.2264 1 gas unit = 13.354kWh i.e a 20% overcharge.


All my bills are correct.

naedanger

derekwilliams wrote: »

SP told me this error was ONLY with my account, but i seriously doubt that, as this is an industry standard calculation that they have got wrong!!

I would be interested hearing what their explanation was of how the error only affected your account. Are they really saying they only set this factor wrongly for one customer, who just luckily happened to be sufficiently knowledgeable to spot their mistake for them?

If this factor, which is supposed to be the same for everyone, is set at the individual account level then how can they be sure they have not made the same mistake for others? (Most people will not expect to have to check an industry standard constant on their bills.)

If they are storing a constant value separately for each account that seems like a badly designed system to me (as it enables rogue wrong values to be held for some unlucky customers).

derekwilliams

naedanger wrote: »

I would be interested hearing what their explanation was of how the error only affected your account. Are they really saying they only set this factor wrongly for one customer, who just luckily happened to be sufficiently knowledgeable to spot their mistake for them?

If this factor, which is supposed to be the same for everyone, is set at the individual account level then how can they be sure they have not made the same mistake for others? (Most people will not expect to have to check an industry standard constant on their bills.)

If they are storing a constant value separately for each account that seems like a badly designed system to me (as it enables rogue wrong values to be held for some unlucky customers).

That was the exact point i made to them. If they set this conversion constant manually for every account it would be prone to error and take ages to setup. They offered no plausible explanation, which is why i find it hard to believe that mine is the only account with this error.

derekwilliams

Cardew wrote: »

All my bills correctly show 1.02264 in the part of the bill that explains how they convert metric gas units to kWh.


However that is just an explanation, the important part is to check that 1.02264 is used in the actual calculation.


If the correct value(with 39.2 as the calorific value) is used 1 metric gas unit = 11.135kWh.


Using the incorrect value of 1.2264 1 gas unit = 13.354kWh i.e a 20% overcharge.


All my bills are correct.

I initially thought it was probably just a typo in the explanation section, BUT they had actually used the WRONG value 1.2264 in the bill calculation, hence all my bills being redone now.

Cardew

derekwilliams wrote: »

I initially thought it was probably just a typo in the explanation section, BUT they had actually used the WRONG value 1.2264 in the bill calculation, hence all my bills being redone now.

Firstly, thanks for raising this issue.


My first thought, like yours, was it was simply a typo.


Given that the 1.02264 figure is a constant for every company, I am surprised that any computer algorithm allows that value to be a variable. That algorithm is independently audited to ensure that the one variable(Calorific Value) has been entered correctly for the different areas of UK.


If it can be varied, then it is a racing certainty that Scottish Power would get it wrong! However it is inconceivable that you would be the sole customer affected.


Personally I would report this in writing to the Ombudsman, expressing your concern that others would be affected.


Or get someone with some clout e.g. Martin Lewis to have it investigated.

polymaff

Cardew wrote: »

Given that the 1.02264 figure is a constant for every company, I am surprised that any computer algorithm allows that value to be a variable. ... If it can be varied, then it is a racing certainty that Scottish Power would get it wrong! However it is inconceivable that you would be the sole customer affected..

I launched a thread some time ago, describing how SP had overcharged me through faulty billing that you would have thought just could not occur in a rigorous system. I, like the OP here, explained how to spot the error and invited anyone who suffered the same error to reply.

Result: no replies. Conclusion: SP do not have a rigorous billing system and are far more "manual" than you'd expect.

EDIT: This came out as I keep parallel accounts. It took almost a year of SP prevarication before I got my money back.

modsandmockers

polymaff wrote: »

Conclusion: SP do not have a rigorous billing system and are far more "manual" than you'd expect.

I think that the whole of the industry’s inability to offer a 21st century level of customer service is partly due to the fact that most of their ‘systems’ are still rooted in the days before privatisation, when manual systems were the norm (BT OpenReach is the same). Modernisation? Competition? - perish the very thought of it...

ps - I use the following link to check the conversion of gas meter reads into kWh - usually, the energy supplier's calculation is very slightly cheaper than my own!

http://www.energylinx.co.uk/gas_meter_conversion.html