Scottish Power Complaint

janice58

I left SP on the 7th March and have just had a DD taken from my account by SP for £362.18. Thinking it was a mistake I contacted them and have been told that nearly 8 weeks after leaving them it is acceptable for them to take this amount as it is what I owed them. I queried why my DD were not increased accordingly as I always appeared to be in credit.
Apparently I was in credit on my Electricity not Gas I have asked to raise a complaint as it was a big shock and I am sure other people are in the same predicament as myself. So please make sure your bills are up to date before you leave you may be in for a nasty shock.

Simon7685

Unfortunately I doubt the Ombudsman or anyone else will decide that the amount you owe can be written off. As others have said you used the energy and have been correctly billed by SP.

There is an error by SP in not taking the DD from your account each month but that does not warrant your bill being wiped out. From SP's point of view they can argue that you should have paid by other means or kept the money that should have been collected.

I would seriously consider contacting SP in writing stating you want to come to an arrangement to clear the debt with them and in the meantime make manual payments towards your ongoing use.

Ultimately you have used the energy and not paid for it, so you do owe it. If you do not come to an arrangement they could and probably will install a key meter to recover the debt, which they have a right to do, unless you are classed as vulnerable. In which case they can still do it by going through the courts. They would then set the meter to take back an amount every week to recover the debt. ie - You put £20 on your key but only £10 of that is available for you to use in ongoing energy use, so you repay £10 a week towards your debt.

If you are genuinely suffering financial hardship there are charities set up to help with energy debts, I am unsire if SP has one but it may be worth asking. You would need to supply evidence that you are in hardship though and explain how and why the debt came about and why you did not make payments by other means before they would help. It might be a long shot but worth trying.

Ultimately SP have not done anything wrong, you have got into debt by not paying by other means and that is the bottom line unfortunately.

Get in contact and come to an agreement while you still can is my advice.