ScottishPower - hopeless. Want to switch away

bjt42

I switched to ScottishPower (dual fuel) in November last year. Shortly afterwards our gas meter was replaced with a new one as a routine upgrade.

Although the electricity account went live straight away, it took ScottishPower 6 months to get the gas account to go live. A meter reader hasn't visited since the switch, so any readings have been estimated or supplied by myself.

ScottishPower still haven't registered that we have a new gas meter and are calculating estimated readings based on the old one. I have complained and they say that their systems aren't allowing them to enter the new meter details and they will update me every 28 days - basically just a fob off.

I'm not willing to spend the time to fight them to resolve the situation, but I can see that the longer this goes on the bigger the discrepancy between actual and estimated readings. I want to switch away, start with a new supplier with correct readings and let ScottishPower sort the situation in their own time.

Has anyone been in this situation? Will ScottishPower cause problems for the switch? WIll there be an opportunity for me to provide correct, up-to-date readings to the new supplier?

Thanks

Cardew

Given the chaos in SP at the moment it is inevitable there will be problems with any switch.


I am with SP and sick of the constant battle to get billed correctly so will be leaving soon; however I have a considerable credit balance at the moment and am convinced that it will be another battle to get that refunded; so I will wait until mid winter when I can get in debit and then switch.

redux

Cardew wrote: »

Given the chaos in SP at the moment it is inevitable there will be problems with any switch.


I am with SP and sick of the constant battle to get billed correctly so will be leaving soon; however I have a considerable credit balance at the moment and am convinced that it will be another battle to get that refunded; so I will wait until mid winter when I can get in debit and then switch.

The last bill here, about 2 months ago, for the first time ever they refunded the account balance down to zero.

I asked why, and they said this was automatic if the balance was over a certain amount. (It had been about £125.)

It's been higher in credit than that before, and that never happened, so I don't know if this is a new change or just took time for the function to be rolled on to this account.

You might try submitting a meter reading.

Cardew

redux wrote: »

You might try submitting a meter reading.

I just posted this earlier today:

SP asked me for an on-line meter reading which I provided; two days later a meter reader called and I checked his readings were only slightly different from mine.

A few days later I got a bill based on estimated readings - the estimated readings were pretty accurate; but why ESTIMATED.

I have one dual fuel account with SP but on-line it shows 3 accounts all with identical account numbers.

I have had bills dated 08 Aug, again on 08 August, 11 August, 12 August and 13 Aug.

My home page states 'last bill March 2015' and Next bill June 2015.

It shows my Direct Debit as 0.00 after changing it 3 time last month.

Phone calls and messages are just a waste of time.

Hoof_Hearted

They are totally incompetent. The only time I got good service was when I left and they sent me a cheque for my balance within a week. Now with a competent company even though they are a little dearer.

bjt42

Well, this went to the Ombudsman and in the meantime I changed to another supplier via the MSE big switch. ScottishPower were unable to sort the issue with the new meter and as a result they had to refund me the gas charges for the whole year I was with them, plus £125 for the hassle.

Now with Eon who by comparison have been very responsive. Both NPower and Scottish Power are on my "never again" list.

footyguy

bjt42 wrote: »

Well, this went to the Ombudsman and in the meantime I changed to another supplier via the MSE big switch. ScottishPower were unable to sort the issue with the new meter and as a result they had to refund me the gas charges for the whole year I was with them, plus £125 for the hassle.

Now with Eon who by comparison have been very responsive. Both NPower and Scottish Power are on my "never again" list.

So if I undertstand you correctly, in November 2014 when you were already being supplied by SP, you had a new gas meter fitted. There would be a record of what this meter reading was when installed - often you have to sign for it and it gets stuck on the meter! (but that is not the only record kept)

But there were issues with SP getting your account up & running online due to this meter change.

Then you switched supplier sometime since September 2015. You presumably supplied a start reading to the new supplier (who would have passed that back to the old supplier for them to use as a final meter reading). There is no indication that there is any fault with the gas meter.

Yet the ombudsman thought it proper and reasonable that you should not have to pay for any gas you consumed from SP for about 1 year? And awarded you an additional payment of £125 too!
I look forward to reading this case on the ombudsman's website - looks like it has set a whole new way on how the ombudsman is handling complaints. :cool:

mike_the_bike_2

I joined Scottish Power about 6 years ago and initially found their customer service quite good.

About a year ago I started having all sorts of problems with billing.

My last phone call to them took 47 minutes before I spoke to somebody (not their fault)

I pointed out calmly that I was going to leave as clearly any organisation that has management that believe that it is acceptable to deliver this to an individual that is giving them the best part of a thousand pounds a year to my mind did not value my custom

Last week I moved my account to GB Energy saving as considerable amount of money and so far touch wood everything has gone smoothly