Scottish Power: Outstanding Bill 18 months late!

tedblight

Hi,

Today I got an email from Scottish Power.

'Make your final energy payment to avoid charges...
You have not made your final payment.
It is very important that you pay now to avoid collection charges being added to your account'

So I logged on and sure enough, my account showed an outstanding amount of £37.

However, I've not been with Scottish Power since March 2014... And this is the first I've heard of any outstanding amount. I"ve had no letters, bills or emails until today....

Looking on Twitter, I don't think I'm the only one too get this email..

I'm happy to pay it but I find it quite bizarre.

dave52

From what you say you fall within the 12 month rule

http://www.energy-uk.org.uk/files/docs/Factsheets%20and%20guides/back_billing_consumer_guide.pdf

http://www.energy-uk.org.uk/publication.html?task=file.download&id=5220

I have something similar but with a lot higher bill and have referred them to this agreement.

They have said they would seek clarification and get back to me.

EDIT you were probaby one of those whose Electric accounts disappeared down a black hole just after March 2014 and only recently re-appeared.

Basically they got a new computer system last year but somehow about 75,000 customers accounts disappeared during the change-over.

I received my first electricity bill last week with billing going all the way back to March 2014.

Cardew

tedblight wrote: »

So I logged on and sure enough, my account showed an outstanding amount of £37.

However, I've not been with Scottish Power since March 2014... And this is the first I've heard of any outstanding amount. I"ve had no letters, bills or emails until today....

Looking on Twitter, I don't think I'm the only one too get this email..

I'm happy to pay it but I find it quite bizarre.

Normally when you leave Scottish Power you have no access to your on-line account; the account is closed.


However nothing would surprise me with Scottish Power!

tedblight

Thanks for the reply guys. I will contact them and use the 12month rule thingy. Fingers Crossed. As you can see, my account is strangely still open. But I am unable to download old bills too see if I did have a short fall when I switch suppliers. As far as I know and can remember the account was paid in full when I switched. And like I say, I've not had any bills, emails etc to say otherwise.

tedblight

Haha - I just went into the 'messages' section of my Scottish Power account to find the only message is dated 25/8/15... it made me chuckle...

It was a pdf of the bill with the line 'You have recently changed supplier....'
The word 'recently' made me smile!

tedblight

EDIT you were probaby one of those whose Electric accounts disappeared down a black hole just after March 2014 and only recently re-appeared.

Basically they got a new computer system last year but somehow about 75,000 customers accounts disappeared during the change-over.

I received my first electricity bill last week with billing going all the way back to March 2014.

If that's so, it's not our fault. How do we stand on it? Thanks again!

modsandmockers

dave52 wrote: »

you were probaby one of those whose Electric accounts disappeared down a black hole just after March 2014 and only recently re-appeared.

Basically they got a new computer system last year but somehow about 75,000 customers accounts disappeared during the change-over.

I received my first electricity bill last week with billing going all the way back to March 2014.

Now that is an extremely interesting titbit of information, given the ongoing problems with Co-op Energy which are the subject of more than one active thread on this forum page. I hope you don't mind if I copy some of the contents of your post onto one of the Co-op Energy threads.

tedblight

Well I've email Scottish Power... We shall see how it turns out. I know I'm not the only one this has happened to this week/month.

Today, you sent me a final bill for £37.27. However, I left Scottish Power in March 2014 and as far as I was aware my account was settled and closed. You have made no attempt until today to email, write or phone me with details of this new bill.
Under the energy-uk.org.uk Back Billing agreement, it has been over 12months without you contacting me. I recommend you remove the debt and correctly close the account.
Thanks You

Mark

dave52

modsandmockers wrote: »

Now that is an extremely interesting titbit of information, given the ongoing problems with Co-op Energy which are the subject of more than one active thread on this forum page. I hope you don't mind if I copy some of the contents of your post onto one of the Co-op Energy threads.

There were chats about this last year and the Scottish Power problems even were given articles in national papers.

In my case I kept pushing them for bills etc regularly supplying readings.

Once it got to March 2015 I just continued to give them readings as I believed I fell within the 12 month rule. So basically after that date I had not been billed for 12 months +

Someone will be along to give more details as they may have contributed to threads.

dave52

just to add this from the links I provided

http://www.energy-uk.org.uk/publication.html?task=file.download&id=5220

General guidance

The back-billing principles described in this document apply to domestic credit customers.
Although prepayment customers are not specifically covered by this clause, suppliers will
apply similar principles in relation to debts which are over 12 months old.
This would include circumstances where a customer has agreed to pay an energy debt through a prepayment meter and a supplier has failed to send a message to the meter to apply the debt within 12 months.
The back-billing principles do not apply to customers whose terms and conditions exclude them from receiving bills or statements.
The back-billing principles do not tell a difference between the circumstances when the original energy was used and was not billed for. As a result, customers will be fully entitled to take action under the back-billing principles if unbilled energy is identified, for example:
* during the roll out of smart metering;
* as a result of members’ billing system changes; and,
* customers moving between billing systems.
The time periods relate to a period of continued supply with the same supplier.

modsandmockers

dave52 wrote: »

There were chats about this last year and the Scottish Power problems even were given articles in national papers.

In my case I kept pushing them for bills etc regularly supplying readings.

Once it got to March 2015 I just continued to give them readings as I believed I fell within the 12 month rule. So basically after that date I had not been billed for 12 months +

That is more or less the strategy which I am pursuing on my daughter’s behalf. It’s easy enough if you are not owed money but I would be much less relaxed if, like so many, my daughter’s account was in significant credit and she wanted to switch. I seem to remember that SP were told to stop taking new customers - did that have any noticeable effect?