Scottish Power outrage!

Pramilla

Sorry to hijack your thread but I don't know where else to say that there is, indeed, no such thing as a "painless switch" as advertised on this and other switching sites. In these times of austerity we all try to save but is the stress of "painless" switching worth it? I think not

I sat down a few weeks ago and tried to switch energy suppliers and then communications (phone, line rental, internet). Both were such nightmarish experiences that I thought I would fit again.

Here is what I wrote to one of the energy companies - Southern - today, upon receiving yet another bill for a service I declined because they were so incompetent before I'd even finished signing the contract, as it were:

I am in receipt of your letters dated .... and....... August respectively.

The first confirms that my supply would not be transferred to your company but would remain with my old supplier. The second tells me of an erroneous transfer in terms of which your company went ahead and switched my supply anyway, but assured me that you would rectify the situation and that my billing by my current supplier would be uninterrupted. I would, you assured me, “not be expected to make any payments to us” – meaning your company.

I thought that the matter would end there and that I would no longer be subjected to communications from your company by text and mail insisting that I was being transferred – all causing me infinite stress and time wasted on phone calls waiting in endless phone queues to remind your company that I was NOT moving to you. Every phone call would end in assurances that my relationship with your company – never begun – would end. And still the letters – and today a hefty bill – would arrive.

I declined moving to your company because the initial stages were so mismanaged that it gave me no confidence in dealing with your company. It seems that not only can your staff not manage a transfer of supplier to yourselves, thus losing you custom, but its gross incompetence encompasses the undoing of its errors.

I am thoroughly sick and tired of all the worry your company has and continues to cause me and of all the time it costs me. The time has come to institute a formal complaints procedure. Any further communications from your company will also result in legal action for the anxiety you are causing me.

BlueEyedGirl

I don't think Scottish Power have ever read my Dad's meter. All the bills seem to be estimated, so we provide readings. There is no excuse since the meter is outside the door in a cupboard!

george1939

sacsquacco wrote: »

I work for Scot Power reading meters.Please check your day and night reads are getting correctly billed.The meter readers have no idea if they are getting the day/night reads correct.Understand your own meter. Check the timer switch which controls the switchover. The old 24 hr timers can have the cheap 7 hours coming on at virtually any time in the 24 hr cycle.Digital meters with built in timers can drift an hour or so.Radio teleswitch timers are more or less spot on. Maybe Scot Power are back billing you for transposed readings in the past.We normally read Scot Power meters 6 monthly .No supplier reads two monthly but if they re keen to access for a "must read " status read we will harass them more often.

There are people on this forum who after two years are still with them this could mean satisfaction I for one have been with them nearly one year they were the cheapest fix for me and every time they had a better fix just rang them instant change. Whenever I put my readings in my account is updated straight away My fix ends in May 2016 Their site is easy to use and for me they have always been on the ball Before them I was with Npower left only because Scottish power was the cheapest fix then of all the fixes

lisa110rry

I had a long-running problem with Scottish Power which, to be fair, was not initially their fault. We were "stolen" by Virgin Energy back around 2001 without our knowledge, there was a huge hoo-haa about this at the time. It was at the same time that Norweb migrated to Scottish Power, it's a long story, so I won't bore you, but it meant that for a considerable amount of time we were paying nothing toward our energy supply to anyone. For this reason I stayed with SP until it could all be straightened out and we could get a handle on actual usage and a realistic monthly DD (SP, to be fair, would promptly repay the £600ish overpayment each year).

Nothing is so good as taking a reading around the same day of each month (shortly after your DD goes out) and providing it to your supplier and also calculating usage/cost monthly yourself in order to check your supplier's bills and recorded usage.

Catssquirrel

Got some junk mail from Scottish Power, binned it. Later on was visited by some SP Gimboid, seems like you have to contact them in order to stop the Energy Advisor turning up .