Scottish Power - Meaningless Online System

CashStrapped

Fletch7 wrote: »

but it took a further 4 months and countless hours on hold to the call centre for my account to be closed and my credit refunded

This is exactly why I conduct operation "stay in debit". I try not to let any type of large credit (if any at all) build up on the account.Just before winter is the only exception. I just modulate the DD and treat it more like standing order.

backfoot

First the good news :

Received a history of copy bills going back to June 2013 which had disappeared from the Online system.

Remaining problems :

1. According to the Complaint Handler no one :eek: can explain either why the billing data disappeared or why the gas account bills back to June 2013, had to be totally rebilled on my latest bill. This resulted in account adjustments of £2,934.96 CR. . The electricity account was billed normally on the very same bill.

2. Lack of continuity of closing balances not becoming opening balances on the next bill. No valid explanation could be offered.

3.It is impossible to unravel the billing for gas without a massive reconciliation. My final payment was not shown as a separate payment but they inform me that it is included in the large credit account adjustment. How could I have known that?

In order to progress this , the Adviser will now create a 'normal' manual bill following on from the position before the system 'crash'. We will see if that makes sense.

I get the impression that SP did some sort of system amendment around the time of my billing which crashed the online system and lost historical data. The correction has meant a long winded workaround which leaves individual bills completely incomprehensible. I imagine it will all ultimately balance out but at the moment I cannot be sure.

It is incredible that a long standing Power Supply retailer can make such a mess and hard work from sending out a bill. They have already made me a goodwill payment.

backfoot

I have now concluded this with Scottish Power.

They have reworked my account manually and worryingly come up with a different final balance. My credit balance was understated by £16.03.

I don't know how many other customers are/were affected by the disappearance of gas billing data, but the system correction was impossible to understand or reconcile. It has also now proved to be inaccurate.

Scottish Power have made me a significant goodwill payment.

They have not provided a satisfactory reason or explanation for exactly what caused the online system to lose the gas billing data and it is still corrupted.

I would suggest you carefully check your Scottish Power bills to ensure that they are correct.:eek:

Rubidium

backfoot wrote: »

They have not provided a satisfactory reason or explanation for exactly what caused the online system to lose the gas billing data and it is still corrupted.

I would suggest you carefully check your Scottish Power bills to ensure that they are correct.:eek:

Scottish Power's £200 million project to move 3.6 million customers to a new system went wrong due to a "different data structure" in the new software which left customers without bills for months.

Imagine moving millions of houses, brick by brick. Even using the best procedures, some bricks just won’t sit the same in their new environment.
Neil Clitheroe, Scottish Power chief, on its new billing system

backfoot

cameltoe wrote: »

Scottish Power's £200 million project to move 3.6 million customers to a new system went wrong due to a "different data structure" in the new software which left customers without bills for months.

I would be asking for my money back then from the Software Supplier.

I am able to calculate my own bills on a simple spreadsheet. The fundamental data elements for a billing system are straightforward and would not differ between the old and new system.

Until a tariff switch mid September the gas billing data was present and my bills had been normal. The electricity account continued to work correctly but the gas account went bonkers and instead of calculating the current period's billing they went back to April 2013. :eek:

I don't think that this is the same issue you are describing but I may be wrong. When I asked and I quote their reply ' No one at Scottish Power can answer that'.:rotfl:

The bill they came up with was wrong, which is alarming. Perhaps they are trying to get the £200m back.

Cardew

backfoot wrote: »

I would be asking for my money back then from the Software Supplier.

I really am surprised that several gas and electricity suppliers have had so many problems with their multi-million pound computer systems.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/energy-bills/10950587/Why-cant-energy-providers-get-the-basics-right.html


British Gas had a disaster in 1996


http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/british-gas-outgrows-its-pounds-150m-computer-system-1284829.html


They repeated this in 2010 and had to sue the developers.


NPower were even worse, with a clever little 'trick' to manipulate 'seasonal weighting' to the disadvantage of all their customers - that alone cost them many £millions.


Personally I just can't see any of them coping when Smart metering gets into its stride.


I bought a new built property in the USA some 10 years ago. The sale of electricity is far more complex than UK with various taxes and charges that can vary each month. If you exceed xxxkWh a month you pay extra on the excess. There are also deductions if you allow them to disconnect heavy consumption items(heating/aircon etc) for short periods. Despite this complexity and remote monitoring of the meter, there has never been an issue with the billing.


I have several relatives and friends spread across the USA and having questioned them, nobody has ever had a problem with billing.

backfoot

I agree with you Cardew.

What is terrible is the arrogance of these Supply Companies.

As the issues on mine and your account are not the usual type caused by an incorrect meter reading, a dodgy estimate or a data input mistake but something much more fundamental. In this case, the billing process is so flawed that incorrect bills are being issued to customers. Not only that, but the 'fix' was so complex that unless you are totally focussed on understanding it, the customer can be easily fobbed off and made to feel uncomfortable for delving into it.

The front line staff try their best in the face of overwhelming problems but I wrote to and invited the SP Rep here and their Social Media contact to come here and comment. I even sent them my personal details so they could get to the bottom of it and provide other customers with remedies and solutions.

Nothing has been done so I presume Scottish Power are content to continue billing incorrectly and hope neither customers or Regulator spot the problem.

Earlier in the year, they were suspended from acquiring new customers. It is clear that the systems are not currently working correctly and the billing operation/new acquisitions should be suspended until the problems are resolved.

thesilentone

After months of frustration, see our last mail to Scottish Power today:

---

Dear xxxxxxxx

We do NOT accept your apologies.

So, you think this mail ends the Complaint ?

Your actions so far as a Company and UK Energy supplier has been completely incompetent, as one small example a certain xxxxxxxxxxxxxx said “I am unable to locate any payments . In order to investigate this matter further can you please provide a scanned copy, or a PDF attachment of your bank / credit card statement displaying the payment if you paid this way or a copy of the receipt showing the payment”

Prior to that a certain xxxxxxxxxxx said “I have checked our records that we have not taken any Direct Debit of £826.00 in June 2015. We have taken one Direct Debit payment of £200.00 on 15 June 2015 and we have received one off payment of £213.00 on 16 June 2015. If we have taken any Direct Debit payment of £826.00 in June 2015 then please provide us the copy of the bank statement showing this payment in order to investigate this matter further”
Now you say: “I can confirm you from our records that we have received the payments you are referring to. Due to a technical error your Direct Debit and Standing Order were being deducted from your bank account simultaneously, resulting in huge credit for which you have all ready received your refund. We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience this may have caused”

This rhetoric is nothing but blundering stupidity from people who have absolutely no idea what they are doing !!

We can only assume that the individuals named do not work for Scottish Power as the Payments were clearly logged on YOUR account system, a five year old could have worked it out !!!

You also state “resulting in huge credit for which you have all ready received your refund” Just so we are all 100% clear we have NEVER received a credit from you regarding this matter.

We sent extractions from our own personal account and YOUR on-line account, still you said you had no records of the mess up, and insisted we send a copy of our personal account to prove it. We did this on a Microsoft Word document, you said you could not open a Microsoft Word document and asked for a PDF version.

We extracted the payments from our on-line bank account and added to a PDF and finally someone who can understand a simple ledger can finally see the !!!!-ups you are making.

We insist that this complaint is escalated to a higher level, today, failure to do so may result in legal action being taken.


Regards,

Beckyjuice

Exact same nonsense from these idiots.
12 pages of bills with the same date, in the same envelope. Let's confuse you to death, in the hope that you don't follow up!
I pity vulnerable people, who just pay them. They owe us about £1200. They keep rebilling the entire account, with different results. Whatever they hope to achieve, it won't happen!