Scottish Power Billing Query

Ergin9

CashStrapped wrote: »

The whole thing sounds really rather bizzare.

I have never heard of an utility supplier challenging the opening reading of an account (If this is the case. Have they confirmed this?), 2 years after the fact and after accepting the closing readings.

The only reason I can see them doing this is that after giving your closing readings, they have calculated that for the period you were with them [and based on the reading you gave] you used a suspiciously low amount of energy. If this is so low that it does not tally with the time you were with them, their system may have flagged it up. If they accept the closing readings, they must therefore (I assume) challenge the opening reading.

Without any evidence, It is hard to see how this will be resolved.

Going back to your original post (as sometimes information can get missed).....

....I can see that this [the disputed bill] is only for the two month period you were with them. Now, this is not very long, but it is in winter. You are responsible for the bills from the time the property completes. You say the property completed in November, but you only moved in in January.

When did you actually take over the supply? Was it when you moved in?

This could be the cause of the issue. You were responsible for the bills from the completion date. If the electrics were left on to keep the house warm for winter, it may have some KWH use over those two months.

If you set up an account in January, giving an opening reading then (at taking the reading at that time), and then immediately instigated a switch with a reading soon after, this will not tally with the final reading given by the previous occupants in November.

This may have only been picked up at a later date.....

This is all guesswork however, but the only logical reason I can see for SP to challenge your bill.

1) You need to check if the closing readings on your SP bill and the opening reading on the BG bill are actual/confirmed readings. Do they have letters next to them? If it is an e, then that is an estimate.

.....Having said all that, in your opening post you do say that SP are challenging the closing reading...which makes my theory less convincing...

So back to my original question....have they actually confirmed what the audit is challenging.

Hi Cashstrapped,

Can provide a bit of an update on this now. Had a call from a Scottish Power complaints handler earlier who wanted to detail all the reasons why the bill was raised and understand why I was disputing it.

As expected, the customer read closing reading was not a problem. The issue was with the opening reading which they stated was estimated. The handler asked if I had records of the original reading, which as mentioned earlier, I am no longer in possession of. Following on from this, the handler explained that the bill was re-raised due to such low energy usage between Nov14-Jan15, for some reason the system flagged this up as being unusual/potentially inaccurate. He then went on to explain that the last estimate from the property was used to generate the new opening reading and the new bill, i.e. before the property was in my name.

To cut a long story short, I explained that the previous owner of the property had passed away some months before I bought the property meaning their previous estimates were likely wholly inaccurate. I also explained that as the property was unoccupied (and completely empty) the low usage was entirely plausible. As a result, the handler agreed with me and cancelled the bill and agreed that my inital payment last year was likely accurate and covered the energy used!!

SP did apologise and again blamed their computer system. I raised the point that whilst the advisor was extremely helpful (in this instance at least), I still have concerns about the practice of raising bills so late and the impact this could have on more vulnerable customers, to which they agreed they'd look at their practices. Unlikely, but we'll see.

Anyway, i'm pleased to not be getting charged for any of this, and more importantly thanks again for all your advice everyone!

CashStrapped

Fantastic...

Looks like my guess as to why it was raised pretty much there..

As I suspected, with no or little evidence, I did not see how they could charge you.

So...all good in the end.

Thanks for the update.