Getting compensation from Scottish Power for poor customer service

twokcc

Long running sage with Scottish Power when they failed in so many ways to not only give a reasonable customer service but issued many incorrect bills,failed to do what they promised to do(plus lots of other things). Got to the stage where I was spending lots of my time trying to get a correct account and to get them to act on information provided. This got to a ridiculous level just because they didn't act, acted incorrectly etc etc. I therefore advised then that I would charge then £25 for reading an email from them and £75 for replying if this was necessary because they had failed to resolve the issue but also that these charges would DOUBLE for each subsequent response.

Intention was to try to get them to make sure they had acted on the information provided and provided a correct bill and hopefully allow the closure of the account without having to spend any more of my time trying to sort the mistakes that they continually made.

They were just not capable of getting anything right.


In end my charges accumulated to circa £2000, they have rejected these I offered to settle for £500 or take my claim to the small claims court. This will take a considerable amount of my time. Just wondering if anyone else been able to claim a reasonable amount from Scottish Power because of poor customer service and how did they do it.

S.P. said claim was closed because they had resolved all issues and advised me to got to Ombudsman which I rejected on the basis of making my case thro small claims court.

dj1471

How do you propose to prove your "losses" in small claims court? Your silly plan to charge them for your time will be laughed out of court and you'll be left only with a bill for the court expenses. Small claims courts only deal with actual, provable debts not made-up ones.

Your only option is to go to the ombudsman.

spiro

£25 to read an email which takes you say 5 minutes, that means your day job pays you £300 per hour. I don't think so unless you're someone like Alan Sugar.
As has already been said the small claims court is to claim money you are genuinely owe not some up work of fiction.

victor2

Even lawyers don't double their fee every time they reply on an existing chain! If, due to SP's actions or inactions, you had been forced to take paid-for legal advice, and had subsequently won, you might stand a chance of recovering the costs you had actually incurred. Otherwise, forget anything but a small "goodwill gesture".
BTW, it has just cost me £35 to write this....

firefox1956

My solicitor charges £32.00 plus VAT to read an email 0.06 of an hour.
His secretary charges £19.50 plus VAT to read an email 0.06 of an hour.
HTH

Cardew

Much as we can understand your frustration in dealing with energy companies - especially Scottish Power - you need to establish and quantify any losses, and prove they have failed to repay monies owing.


Whilst the defendant in a Small Claims case has normally to cover their own costs, if you look at the regulations closely that does not apply if the judge considers your claim frivolous. In that case you can be made to pay for the defendants legal costs.


However there have been a couple of cases where people have successfully sued energy companies. See:


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/money-saving-tips/7914426/British-Gas-customer-wins-2000-payment-for-wasted-time.html

twokcc

Thanks for input- as already said I advised Scottish Power that I would be charging them every time they didn't get things right this was done out of frustration after extensive conversations/emails which would just take to long to document.
Just looking at my msg file with S.P. there are above 30.
Some of the errors were not immediately obvious to why the charges had changed.
They made an approx £100 month increase in my dd (from about £80) based on vastly overestimated meter readings. My account was funded more than enough to cover payments due-this was about April 2014. I verbally advised them that I was cancelling the dd(Aug 2014) and confirmed my discussion via e-mail after it had finished. They reissued my bills based on a standard tariff (because I had cancelled my dd but didnt advise that they would do that in conversation)resulting in something like an extra £400 charge.
Scottish Power did nothing for weeks and it was only after I wrote to Neill Clitheroe(CEO?) that any action was taken even then it was painfully slow and still involved a further 6 or 7 emails during which time more incorrect bills/credits etc were issue. Even the final bill was had the wrong electricity reading. S. P. blamed new provider but eventually issued a final bill with correct electricity reading but this as include the gas charge for which cost had changed.(based on exactly the same consumption). Spent a day trying to resolve why this had change credit was only about £7 but vat difference was £7 -just didn't make any accounting sense.
Scottish Power offered £70 compensation which seems to be about the going rate from the Ombusdman.
Just don't see why they should be able to get away with such appalling customer service.
We are encouraged tp change suppliers but very few energy suppliers seem capable of issuing a correct bill in a timely manner.

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth

BoP will now interpret for the hard of reading.

OP is a customer of Scottish Powet. They could not be bothered to log in, put in their consumption and go on cheapest traffic, like BoP. But instead, continued to pay by DD. At time of meter reading, they account was corrected and a new DD amount set to recover debt.

OP objected, and wishes to charge them for increasing their DD. So instead of contacting them he listened to Ralph done the C0ck and Bull inn. On cancelling his DD, he broke thei terms of his tariffs, reverted to standard rate, and was billed again.

OP upset by this wants to take them to court. Go on mate, good luck!

My account with SP is in good order, currently at £55 a month! Will be checked again in January to see if we are on best tariffs.

twokcc

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth wrote: »

BoP will now interpret for the hard of reading.

OP is a customer of Scottish Powet. They could not be bothered to log in, put in their consumption and go on cheapest traffic, like BoP. But instead, continued to pay by DD. At time of meter reading, they account was corrected and a new DD amount set to recover debt.

OP objected, and wishes to charge them for increasing their DD. So instead of contacting them he listened to Ralph done the C0ck and Bull inn. On cancelling his DD, he broke thei terms of his tariffs, reverted to standard rate, and was billed again.

OP upset by this wants to take them to court. Go on mate, good luck!

My account with SP is in good order, currently at £55 a month! Will be checked again in January to see if we are on best tariffs.

All complete BS always provide meter readings paid increased dd for 3 months account then more than £500 in credit. Total consumption for year slightly less than my estimate on joining SP which original dd would have paid of and still been in credit at end of term
Why make such offensive suppositions -do you work for Scottish Power?

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth

twokcc wrote: »

All complete BS always provide meter readings paid increased dd for 3 months account then more than £500 in credit. Total consumption for year slightly less than my estimate on joining SP which original dd would have paid of and still been in credit at end of term
Why make such offensive suppositions -do you work for Scottish Power?

Have you rung them. When mine goes into too much credit it us refunded. Mind you, cancelling a DD actually cancels your tariffs, not a good move,

If you hang round this thread, SP actually monitor it.

Or ring Contact CS via https://www.scottishpower.co.uk/customer-services/

Note, going in all guns blazing, will only upset the gun holder.

twokcc

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth wrote: »

Mind you, cancelling a DD actually cancels your tariffs, not a good move,

Yes rang them and told them cancelling direct debit (followed up by confirmation email) -they didn't advise that tariff would be cancelled but did reverse it once they released they were at fault.
After being kept hanging on when phoning them resorted to emails- no response until contacted Neill Clitheroe.

If you had read posts you would have seen this -not gone in all guns blazing it wasn't until after about 25 emails that I advised that I would charge them for any more wasting of my time. Intention was hopefully that they would issue a correct bill-still proved beyond their ability.
Would have agreed with you after my first 6 months with SP it just went pear shaped in last 6 months.