Scottish Power are atrocious - avoid!

Beckyjuice

I am finally posting here after much stupidity from Scottish Power. I gave them long enough to sort out their act, and have now voted with my feet, but thought some advice for potential consumers may be prudent.

Firstly, we joined as 'duel fuel' customers. They acknowledged this, but only billed us for electricity. We contacted them numerous times, and they promised to rectify the situation. Nothing happened.
Over 2 years we amassed an outrageous credit balance, as we were paying for both by DD. We finally became sick of asking for correct bills, and asked them to refund the credit.
Never have you seen such a quick rebill! They back billed the whole account, sent numerous different, and incorrect bills. Many consolidated into the same envelopes.
I created a spreadsheet to understand the situation. I sent them my calculations, and reminded them of our numerous attempts to rectify the situation, the 'back billing' rule, and the personal time and effort that had been wasted.
Eventually they agreed to refund, in line with their legal obligations. They then started sending meter reading requests to the previous occupant of our home, at our address!
I dealt with that nonsense, and initiated a switch to another provider.

Following this, they stated that it was impossible to refund the credit until 'probably 2 weeks after account closure'. The amount was over £1500!
I asked if they would require immediate payment if the account was in debit, and they admitted that they would.
I lost m temper at this point and asked for escalation of the issue. This was refused.

I posted on their Facebook page, and immediately someone wanted to help via PM. Funny that!
They assured me that they would reopen the complaint, which they had closed without permission. I waited.

Today I received 20 pages of different bills, in 2 separate envelopes. They have rebilled the whole account from June 2013, and added back the 'back billed' amount that was previously refunded. They seem to think that we owe them money, and will be taking this money at the end of the month. :eek:

I have missed out a lot of the detail and shambolic mismanagement.

I have just sent the following communication:

Dear Scottish Power Customer Service,

I am writing to confirm that I would like to close my account. Except I have ALREADY closed my account. Except you keep sending us page, upon page, of complete nonsense.
To explain in more detail, you closed the previous case without permission (reference given). This has NOT been resolved to our satisfaction. Today we have received 20 pages of bills, all dated 16th December, and all displaying different amounts. I am not even surprised.

Before I waste my entire Christmas trying to make sense of this nonsense, please can you explain exactly what you are playing at?
We have absolutely had enough of this complete stupidity.
The meter readings that you have listed as 'estimated readings' for 25th November are in fact the ACTUAL readings that I phoned in, which were dated 27th November. Presumably you enjoy overlapping your bills so that you can charge us for power supplied from elsewhere? Also, by stating that these are 'estimated', presumably you will send us another 20 pages of rubbish in order to extort addition monies from us.

Do your staff get a bonus scheme based on hitting overbilling targets? I would like you to inform me of any additional costs that I may incur by the misfortune of agreeing that you should supply my energy in the first place. I would have expected the process of closing my account to take less than 28 days. However, Scottish Power seem to have the ingenuity to overcomplicate and extend any seemingly 'normal' procedure beyond my wildest imagination.

To rectify this I would like you to please explain coherently and sensibly why you have sent 20 pages of bills, and completely rebilled the entire account AGAIN, and now seem to imply that we owe you money somehow.

The billing amounts received today are as follows:
£240.92 in debt
£332.38 in debt
£1,191.64 in credit
£0.00
£134.06 in debt
£588.41 in credit
Fascinating, yet utterly bewildering.

You have already rebilled the entire account to the point of insanity. What on earth do you hope to achieve? How many people do you pay for generating these outrageously confusing billing documents? As an experienced analyst, I am at a loss as to how you are generating these reams of inexplicable confusion.
From a scientific standpoint, I must assume that the principles of quantum theory are true, and you are billing individually from multiple universes, and some quantum event has created this situation. I will be sure to send my findings to the scientific community for analysis in the hope of winning a Nobel prize.

The compensation previously applied to the account for completely messing us around has now disappeared. Your company have some serious explaining to do, but I would like it in writing, and in clear English across one page of A4. Is this possible?

I feel that it would be reasonable to have this issue resolved with the next 7 days. I realise that this is likely to be impossible, following previous correspondence.

Please reply to my resolver email account as I would like to keep all of my communications in my personalised complaints case file.

Yours faithfully,
Blah blah.

Seriously - avoid them like the plague, unless you have money to burn.

teddysmum

Beckyjuice wrote: »

Blah blah.

Seriously - avoid them like the plague, unless you have money to burn.

I didn't read your post as it was too long, but you cannot expect people not to use SP, based on your experience.


Every supplier will have customers with reason to complain, so if people took their advice to avoid, there would be nowhere to buy their energy.

Eric_Disley

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/poll/17-11-2015/is-your-energy-companys-service-any-good

OP is far from alone in thinking Scottish Power are poor. Most of its customers say the same.

makeyourdaddyproud

I'm with SP (begrudgingly), and I can attest to the shambolic state of the billing and persisitent recording of estimated bills, despite readermen coming out like clockwork.
We got the regulator involved from the get go - stopped them from billing us at all, and recruiting any other new customers for that matter. Now the bill is sorted with proper meter readings, I will jump ship.

I didn't read your post as it was too long, but you cannot expect people not to use SP, based on your experience.

I had to laugh at that one, so if someone tells you Brand X keeps failing, costs too much to run, you will still go ahead and purchase? The OP was merely highlighting a good example of a problem with an incompetent energy supplier, which in my view is a very big deal, proven by examples in media coverage and thus this case in point should be a warning to others.

Hoof_Hearted

they are completely incompetent. I would rather pay more than go back to them.

harz99

Over the years I have experience of several energy providers, the only 2 I will now deal with are EDF or E.ON, and they are by no means perfect. Two I will never go near again are First Utility and Scottish Power, both of which caused me the same sort of hassle as the OP recounted.

trotter09

Eric_Disley wrote: »

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/poll/17-11-2015/is-your-energy-companys-service-any-good

OP is far from alone in thinking Scottish Power are poor. Most of its customers say the same.

I am with Scottish Power. They have the best dual fuel rates in our area and are just fine when it comes to customer service, and the website is easy to use.

Just to balance things up.

Cardew

There is another thread here on SP's billing.


https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5357927


In particular the practice of re-billing back a couple of years is an absolute nightmare.

poppellerant

If I were you, find the earliest actual meter reading - either taken by yourself or a meter reader. You might have to scour the bills for these, but note down as many as you can over the last 2-3 years. Simply ignore estimated readings.

What you then need to do is use is find the latest reading before joining Scottish Power and use this with a current meter reading (taken by yourself) to see how accurate SP's calculations actually are. Provide your readings to SP - actual meter readings, by yourself or a reader, are the best.

In terms of the back billing - stick to your guns. You need to report everything you have told us and Scottish Power to Ofgem. Also notify SP that you are now communicating with Ofgem, in the hope this might prompt them to take action.

I have seen the excuses for historic bills that Scottish Power reel out. I don't see how they can expect anybody to understand them to be honest. If it were me, I'd phone them up and refuse to hang up until they put you through to the complaints department. A lot of agents will almost flat out refuse to put you on hold, but what they aren't telling you is this is because the complaints queue is so long that it will mess up that agent's call statistics.

Cardew

Re the above post Ofgem will not get involved. It is the Energy Ombudsman that will deal with any complaint.

poppellerant

Cardew wrote: »

Re the above post Ofgem will not get involved. It is the Energy Ombudsman that will deal with any complaint.

That's my mistake. I must admit I have never made a complaint to such a body - sorry about that, OP!