Take scottish power to ombudsman or not?

matilda.cs

Hi All,

About 8 weeks ago, I had a letter from a debt collection agency stating that they'd been instructed by Scottish Power to recover monies owed from an account which closed in 2014. (£95+25 admin)
I have previously had 2 letters from Scottish Power about this matter and I have on both occasions, contacted them to discuss.
They have confirmed on both occasions that there was an error at their end, apologised and promised me I'd hear no more about it.
Now I'm getting letters from a debt collector, I thought I should proceed in writing.
I contacted them around 8 weeks ago, referring them to reference numbers from my previous complaint, with a statement about the previous conversations I'd had with their customer service team.
I had an email a few days later asking to confirm I was the account holder and they said they'd come back to me ASAP.
Yesterday, I had a letter saying that they apologise for the delay in replying, and they've spent 200m pounds on a new customer management system and as such, they haven't been able to reply as quickly as they'd hoped. They say as its been over 8 weeks, I'm entitled to escalate it to the ombudsman.
So - Do I escalate to the the ombudsman or not?
Is there a financial incentive for me to do so?

Thanks in advance

mrsp1987

The ombudsman won't award you a financial amount like compensation as far as I'm aware. It'll just say whether SP are in the wrong.
You could always get in touch with your local Citizens Advice. They're the statutory consumer watchdog for energy issues and you might have a quicker response through them. Might! It's not guaranteed cos SP have been very slow dealing with complaints since they introduced that new "customer management system".
It's up to you though.

Cardew

You haven't actually lost money so the financial incentive will be a directive from the Ombudsman for SP to pay you between £50 and £100.

matilda.cs

I've chosen to escalate it... I'd rather resolve it quickly and having debt collectors contact me isn't what I need!

DUTR

matilda.cs wrote: »

I've chosen to escalate it... I'd rather resolve it quickly and having debt collectors contact me isn't what I need!

Indeed, the damage may have already been done when they get involved, like they say prevention is better than cure.

mrsp1987

Once the situation is resolved and if SP are found to be in error and there was no debt and it shouldn't have been passed onto a debt collector surely this can be corrected with the credit reference agencies?

davidgmmafan

Indeed it is possible to correct it with the credit reference agencies afterwards. Shame if the OP was applying for a mortgage or similar at the time though isn't it? I wish there was a way that CRA's didn't just blindly accept information given to them or at least went back to the company to demand some robust proof when they are challenged byt the consumer.

At present all that happens is they say the company has to correct it - the same company that fouled up in the first place!

Personally I would take this to the Ombudsmen and/or seek some sort of goodwill gesture from SP. There is your time to consider and the hassle of being told something is sorted when it clearly isn't.

Definately get something in writing (which they will be loathe to provide). The last time I dealt with SP and the Ombudsmen they were ordered to credit £100 to my account and the Ombudsmen had an option setup just for Scottish Power and another one for customers whomhadn't had the promised remedy implemented by SP following an Ombudsmen decision.

Of course there is some work involved in contacting the Ombudsmen so you may wisht to just mention this to hasten their response.

Joyful

If it has gone to the debt collectors make sure they sort your credit rating too.

daveyjp

If I were SP I'd be asking foe money back on the IT system.

We swapped in December. First bill was only for gas, paid it, electric showing no bill.

May arrives and an e-mail asking for readings. Log in and only possible to log gas reading. E-mail them and get what was obviously a standard reply telling me to enter readings.

I then downloaded the app and I could add electric readings and did so.

E-mail today saying my bill will be estimated as no readings have been received. Log on to account and confirmed readings given on 17th May.

I expect the bills will be wrong, but the money is still in my account.

cing0

Well its taking 4 weeks for OS to respond to enquires@os-energy emails and OS decisions can take anything from 3 months to over a year to be produced.
I'd try and continue with SP dirsupp@scottishpower.c om while you wait.