Scottish Power- Help with complaint letter

corners_2

Hi,

Please can I ask if the following letter sets out a summary of my current situation, what is wrong and how I want it corrected?

I've gone wordblind writing it!

The Ombudsman decision was agreed in September 2014, and Scottish Power couldn't give me a bill. They sent one last month and it is a shambles.
ok...here goes:

I write regarding the Ombudsman Services Energy Complaint with Scottish Power number 1xxxx from September 2014.
I am still not satisfied that this complaint has been resolved.
I would refer to your latest letter of 5th June 2015. In this letter you have stated that the amount outstanding is stated to be £689.83, after £1111.95 had been applied to the account as the account had been billed up to 5th June 2015. I was puzzled by this as I had not supplied any meter readings for that date.
No bill was attached or enclosed with the letter, and when I telephoned Scottish Power about the missing bill I was assured that this had been sent separately.
I was therefore surprised to receive another letter, copy attached, dated 8th June 2015 along with emailed requests asking me to provide meter readings, which were provided as requested.
This was followed by a letter dated 10th June 2015 requesting payment of £700.31
Around 25th June, I received the attached ‘Final demand’ dated 17th June 2015, one of several ‘Final Demand’ letters received from Scottish Power. This requested the sum of £700.31 *which was due on 23rd May 2015*.
As I had still not received a copy of any bills at all, I telephoned Scottish Power again and I was told a further copy of the bill of 5th June would be put in the post to me.
At the beginning of July, the attached bill dated 9th June 2015 arrived, using the closing meter readings I had provided on 8th June 2015. This bill stated that the amount outstanding was £700.31 but provided no explanation why this was different from the amount in the earlier letter, nor why it matched the amount in the final demand letter dated 17th June 2015.
I have several issues regarding the bill provided dated 8th June 2015:
TARIFF INCORRECT:
I note that usage has been calculated using the most expensive tariff for ‘Standard Online Quarterly cash’.
I attach a copy email from Scottish Power welcoming me on 31/1/2014 on their Online Fixed Price Energy February 2015 V3 Offer, and would dispute the tariff used for calculating this bill.
CORRECTIONS:
Having studied the bill, I am confused as after itemising random usage periods and estimated readings, final figures are given for usage and amount owed, followed immediately by unexplained adjustments and corrections.
These adjustments make a nonsense of all the previous calculations as no explanation is given as to what the corrections relate to, and therefor provide no information as to how the final bill has been calculated.
GOODWILL PAYMENT:
Furthermore, there is no clarity around the refund of £100 agreed with the Ombudsman service in September 2014, and whether this has been applied to the bill.
I am deeply disturbed that the outstanding Ombudsman’s decision and recommendation agreed in September 2014 has still not been resolved, 9 months later, and I have found the delays and problems very upsetting, especially as I have received several ‘Final Demand’ letters and several phone calls to agree a payment arrangement, including one on a Sunday morning. None of which could then be resolved as my file was ‘still with the ombudsman department’.
I do not consider the Ombudsman complaint resolved, as I am not satisfied that the bill provided is a true statement of my account with Scottish Power, nor does it correctly reflect my usage charges for the charging period.
This situation is now extremely distressing to me. It is tremendously upsetting and stressful that I have had to take time off work to make telephone calls in office hours in my attempts to resolve this issue.
I would like the bill recalculated at the correct tariff and a clear explanation of any adjustments and how they are calculated. I require a new bill which does provide a clear account of the charges.
As a gesture of goodwill, I have agreed a payment plan starting this month, as requested to pay Scottish Power. However I currently feel unable to transfer to another supplier until I am satisfied that this is correctly resolved, that my credit file is not impacted by the issues, and the amount owed is resolved and explained clearly. These are all part of the original resolution which Scottish Power appears to be making no effort to rectify.
Please give this matter your urgent attention to resolve my complaint and avoid any further delay in implementing the proposed resolutions.


Any suggestions welcome, I am heartily sick of it.

BTW they also stated we would not be charged for energy/standing charges until resolved-in December 2014- but I haven't included this

footyguy

corners wrote: »

Hi,

Please can I ask if the following letter sets out a summary of my current situation, what is wrong and how I want it corrected?

I've gone wordblind writing it!

The Ombudsman decision was agreed in September 2014, and Scottish Power couldn't give me a bill. They sent one last month and it is a shambles.
ok...here goes:

I write regarding the Ombudsman Services Energy Complaint with Scottish Power number 1xxxx from September 2014.
I am still not satisfied that this complaint has been resolved.
I would refer to your latest letter of 5th June 2015. In this letter you have stated that the amount outstanding is stated to be £689.83, after £1111.95 had been applied to the account as the account had been billed up to 5th June 2015. I was puzzled by this as I had not supplied any meter readings for that date.
No bill was attached or enclosed with the letter, and when I telephoned Scottish Power about the missing bill I was assured that this had been sent separately.
I was therefore surprised to receive another letter, copy attached, dated 8th June 2015 along with emailed requests asking me to provide meter readings, which were provided as requested.
This was followed by a letter dated 10th June 2015 requesting payment of £700.31
Around 25th June, I received the attached ‘Final demand’ dated 17th June 2015, one of several ‘Final Demand’ letters received from Scottish Power. This requested the sum of £700.31 *which was due on 23rd May 2015*.
As I had still not received a copy of any bills at all, I telephoned Scottish Power again and I was told a further copy of the bill of 5th June would be put in the post to me.
At the beginning of July, the attached bill dated 9th June 2015 arrived, using the closing meter readings I had provided on 8th June 2015. This bill stated that the amount outstanding was £700.31 but provided no explanation why this was different from the amount in the earlier letter, nor why it matched the amount in the final demand letter dated 17th June 2015.
I have several issues regarding the bill provided dated 8th June 2015:
TARIFF INCORRECT:
I note that usage has been calculated using the most expensive tariff for ‘Standard Online Quarterly cash’.
I attach a copy email from Scottish Power welcoming me on 31/1/2014 on their Online Fixed Price Energy February 2015 V3 Offer, and would dispute the tariff used for calculating this bill.
CORRECTIONS:
Having studied the bill, I am confused as after itemising random usage periods and estimated readings, final figures are given for usage and amount owed, followed immediately by unexplained adjustments and corrections.
These adjustments make a nonsense of all the previous calculations as no explanation is given as to what the corrections relate to, and therefor provide no information as to how the final bill has been calculated.
GOODWILL PAYMENT:
Furthermore, there is no clarity around the refund of £100 agreed with the Ombudsman service in September 2014, and whether this has been applied to the bill.
I am deeply disturbed that the outstanding Ombudsman’s decision and recommendation agreed in September 2014 has still not been resolved, 9 months later, and I have found the delays and problems very upsetting, especially as I have received several ‘Final Demand’ letters and several phone calls to agree a payment arrangement, including one on a Sunday morning. None of which could then be resolved as my file was ‘still with the ombudsman department’.
I do not consider the Ombudsman complaint resolved, as I am not satisfied that the bill provided is a true statement of my account with Scottish Power, nor does it correctly reflect my usage charges for the charging period.
This situation is now extremely distressing to me. It is tremendously upsetting and stressful that I have had to take time off work to make telephone calls in office hours in my attempts to resolve this issue.
I would like the bill recalculated at the correct tariff and a clear explanation of any adjustments and how they are calculated. I require a new bill which does provide a clear account of the charges.
As a gesture of goodwill, I have agreed a payment plan starting this month, as requested to pay Scottish Power. However I currently feel unable to transfer to another supplier until I am satisfied that this is correctly resolved, that my credit file is not impacted by the issues, and the amount owed is resolved and explained clearly. These are all part of the original resolution which Scottish Power appears to be making no effort to rectify.
Please give this matter your urgent attention to resolve my complaint and avoid any further delay in implementing the proposed resolutions.


Any suggestions welcome, I am heartily sick of it.

BTW they also stated we would not be charged for energy/standing charges until resolved-in December 2014- but I haven't included this

You should be contacting the ombudsman service about this not the supplier.
In fact you should have contacted the ombudsman service along time ago - the supplier is supposed to act in accordance with the agreed resolution within 28 days.
(Let's hope the ombudsman will still hear you after such a delay)

The supplier is under no obligation to discuss a complaint directly with you if you opted to take the matter to the ombudsman service and the ombudsman service are dealing with it / you agreed a resolution with the ombudsman.

naedanger

corners wrote: »

Hi,

Please can I ask if the following letter sets out a summary of my current situation, what is wrong and how I want it corrected?

I think it is way too long - if you must include the detail put it into separate appendices.

Also why are you not laising with the Ombudsman. They should be helping to ensure their remedy is implemented.

I have drafted below a rough suggested letter, hopefully to illustrate how to keep the detail out of the letter. (If you must supply the detail put it in separate appendices.)

I suggest something along the following lines.

"I am deeply disturbed that the Ombudsman’s decision and recommendation agreed in September 2014 has still not been resolved 9 months later.

This ongoing situation is extremely distressing to me and I have had to take time off work to deal with it. Furthermore I have been sent final demands for payment even though you have still to implement the actions agreed with the Ombudsman. (I have summarised the problems I have had trying to resolve this matter in Appendix A - Chronology of Events.)

I received your latest "bill" on xxxxxxx but this is still incomplete and full of errors. (See Appendix B "Errors in Latest Bill" for a summary of the problems with this bill.)

In order to resolve this matter please:

1) Confirm you will stop all demands for payment until you have complied with the Ombudsman's agreed remedy.

2) Send me an accurate corrected final bill that is in line with what the Ombudsman decided.

3) [anything else SP are to do according to the Ombudsman.]

4) Confirm that your energy and standing charges have been, and will be, waived for period until the Ombudsman's remedy is finally implemented.

Yours ..."

Also CC the Ombudsman.

corners_2

Thank you for your advice, every time I have contacted the ombudsman they seem to refer me back to Scottish Power who are continually doing little or nothing to resolve this. They have shown no appetite to enforce any action on SP to resolve it

There is a special ombudsman team at SP who are allowed to talk to me but this whole thing is a complete shambles. I have been back time and time again to the Ombudsman, when I've received the final demands and nothing is getting done.

I'm no further forward now than when I first agreed the resolution and SP stated they could not provide a bill.

Would it be an idea to go to the ombudsman, state the basics of the case summarised as suggested above, and ask if I can accept the £700 as owed, pay it off 'in full and final settlement' to allow me to terminate the relationship with SP?

naedanger

corners wrote: »

Thank you for your advice, every time I have contacted the ombudsman they seem to refer me back to Scottish Power who are continually doing little or nothing to resolve this. They have shown no appetite to enforce any action on SP to resolve it

There is a special ombudsman team at SP who are allowed to talk to me but this whole thing is a complete shambles. I have been back time and time again to the Ombudsman, when I've received the final demands and nothing is getting done.

I'm no further forward now than when I first agreed the resolution and SP stated they could not provide a bill.

Would it be an idea to go to the ombudsman, state the basics of the case summarised as suggested above, and ask if I can accept the £700 as owed, pay it off 'in full and final settlement' to allow me to terminate the relationship with SP?

I would send SP an email along the lines I drafted and then sit back until they do what was agreed by the Ombudsman. If they send any further bills (ie for power consumed while this matter is outstanding) I would open a new complaint with them (and after 8 weeks the Ombudsman) about this further new failure by SP (i.e. the failure to stop charging while this matter is unresolved). If SP make any further material failures then open a new compliant about each.

If you feel the Ombudsman is not providing an acceptable service you can complain about them too (although I am not sure I would recommend this unless they are really obviously bad):

http://www.ombudsman-services.org/unhappy-with-our-service-form-os.html

http://www.ombudsman-services.org/service-standards.html

When drafting any new emails really try to summarise things so the reader can see and appreciate the problems quickly.

footyguy

corners wrote: »

Thank you for your advice, every time I have contacted the ombudsman they seem to refer me back to Scottish Power who are continually doing little or nothing to resolve this. They have shown no appetite to enforce any action on SP to resolve it

There is a special ombudsman team at SP who are allowed to talk to me but this whole thing is a complete shambles. I have been back time and time again to the Ombudsman, when I've received the final demands and nothing is getting done.

I'm no further forward now than when I first agreed the resolution and SP stated they could not provide a bill.

Would it be an idea to go to the ombudsman, state the basics of the case summarised as suggested above, and ask if I can accept the £700 as owed, pay it off 'in full and final settlement' to allow me to terminate the relationship with SP?

That doesn't sound right at all, if you have made a valid complaint to the ombudsman, the ombudsman proposed a resolution and you accepted that resolution.

So do I take it you've been in regular contact with the ombudsman since you accepted their proposed resolution about 10 months ago?

There are ways yo complain about the ombudsman service if I have understood you correctly.

(The supplier can speak to you about the matter, but they are not obligated to. As you say, speaking to the supplier is a "complete shambles" so don't waste any more of your time doing the same thing in the hope you will get a different response )

corners_2

Following your earlier advice I've redrafted my letter as below:

I write regarding the Ombudsman Services Energy Complaint with Scottish Power number xxxx from September 2014 and your letter dated 5th June 2015.

I am still not satisfied that this complaint has been resolved.

I am deeply disturbed that the Ombudsman’s decision and recommendation agreed in September 2014 has still not been resolved 9 months later.

This ongoing situation is extremely distressing to me and I have had to take time off work to deal with it. Furthermore I have been sent many final demands for payment even though you have still to implement the actions agreed with the Ombudsman.

As a gesture of goodwill, I have agreed a payment plan starting this month to pay Scottish Power, however the bill supplied is incorrect and I do not accept that as being the amount owed.

After numerous phone calls I received the first copy of a "bill" on 1st July 2015 but this is incomplete and full of errors. The tariff is wrong and there is no clarity about what adjustments have been made rendering all calculations meaningless (See Appendix A "Errors in Bill" for a summary of the problems with this bill).

In order to resolve this matter please confirm you will stop all demands for payment until you have complied with the Ombudsman's agreed remedy and confirm all energy and standing charges have been, and will be, waived for the period until the Ombudsman's remedy is finally implemented. This should be reflected clearly in any bill you supply.

1. Send me an accurate revised bill at the correct tariff from the start date of supply.
2. Allow an penalty and objection free transfer;
3. Ensure my credit file has not been adversely affected as a result of the subject matter of this.
4. Offer a payment plan to clear the balance over an extended period of time;
5. Apologise for the problems experienced; and
6. Make a goodwill payment of £100.

Please give this matter your urgent attention to resolve my complaint and avoid any further delay in implementing the proposed resolutions.

What I'd like to do is add a timescale for this along the lines of if you don't sort this out within 28 days to my satisfaction I reserve the right to change to a different supplier without owing you any money. Can I do that?

naedanger

corners wrote: »

What I'd like to do is add a timescale for this along the lines of if you don't sort this out within 28 days to my satisfaction I reserve the right to change to a different supplier without owing you any money. Can I do that?

I don't think you can actually switch supplier if your existing supplier decides to block it.

You can hold your supplier liable for any losses that result from any unreasonable delay, for example if the charges you were incurring from SP during the delay were higher than the charges you could obtain elsewhere. But if I understand the position correctly you will be getting free energy from SP until the matter is resolved (and so would be gaining rather than losing from any delay). However I may not be understanding correctly since I notice you have removed my fourth point, which covered this point.

corners_2

naedanger wrote: »

I don't think you can actually switch supplier if your existing supplier decides to block it.

You can hold your supplier liable for any losses that result from any unreasonable delay, for example if the charges you were incurring from SP during the delay were higher than the charges you could obtain elsewhere. But if I understand the position correctly you will be getting free energy from SP until the matter is resolved (and so would be gaining rather than losing from any delay). However I may not be understanding correctly since I notice you have removed my fourth point, which covered this point.

I've re-worded your point but in it's current context it had less impact. Having reviewed all my previous correspondence, I wanted to reiterate the points raised by the ombudsman, and make my point logically.

I'm emailing this tomorrow morning, as I don't want any more delay on my part.

I write regarding the Ombudsman Services Energy Complaint with Scottish Power number 1114207 from September 2014 and your letter dated 5th June 2015.

I am still not satisfied that this complaint has been resolved.

After numerous phone calls I received the first copy of a "bill" on 1st July 2015 but this is incomplete and full of errors. The tariff is wrong and there is no clarity about what adjustments have been made rendering all calculations meaningless (See Appendix A "Errors in Bill" for a summary of the problems with this bill).

I am deeply disturbed that the Ombudsman’s decision and recommendation agreed in September 2014 has still not been resolved 9 months later.

This ongoing situation is extremely distressing to me and I have had to take time off work to deal with it. Furthermore I have been sent numerous final demands for payment even though you have still to implement the actions agreed with the Ombudsman.

As a gesture of goodwill, I have agreed a payment plan starting this month to pay Scottish Power, however the bill supplied is incorrect and I do not accept that as being the amount owed.

In order to resolve this matter please confirm you will stop all demands for payment until you have complied with the Ombudsman's agreed remedy and confirm all energy and standing charges have been, and will be, waived for the period until the Ombudsman's remedy is finally implemented. This should be reflected clearly in any bill you supply.

The agreed actions are to:

1. Send me an accurate revised bill at the correct tariff from the start date of supply.
2. Allow an penalty and objection free transfer;
3. Ensure my credit file has not been adversely affected as a result of the subject matter of this.
4. Offer a payment plan to clear the balance over an extended period of time;
5. Apologise for the problems experienced; and
6. Make a goodwill payment of £100.

Please give this matter your urgent attention to properly resolve my complaint and avoid any further delay in implementing the proposed resolutions immediately.

Wish me luck with sorting this out