Scottish power issues.

woollisox

Hiya, this is a long story so be prepared.
I moved into my house in August (it's a project house needs loads of work doing to it). Had an electrician come down 3rd October to change the spurs on the storage heaters as they're not working. Changed the spurs but then he took one look at the meter and refused to do any more work as he said the meter had been tampered with. He explained about the metal loops that had been cut off that showed that someone had tried to by pass the meter at some point. He tested the fuseboard for the storage heaters and there was no power coming from the meter to this second fuseboard. He said that the storage heater fault is with the meter and I need to contact my provider and get the meter fixed/replaced.
I contacted Scottish Power 5th October and made an appointment for them to come to my house on 20th October. I was unhappy about the wait as I didn't have any heating in the house whatsoever but they assured me this was the earliest they could come and that the issue (whatever it was) would be fixed that day - I would come home and find the heating was on! :beer:

Skip forward to 20th October. I was at work (I'm a student nurse and can't switch my shifts around) so I asked dear old mom to come down to mine and wait in for the 8am-12pm appointment, which she did, bless her. My house has no heating, my living room is barebrick whilst we wait for the electrics to be finished and she stood in the kitchen drinking coffee for the entire time. My break at work was at 1 so I phoned her and asked her what time they'd got there but she said they hadn't yet arrived. As the appointment time finished at 12 I phoned Scottish Power to find out what was going on. I spoke to a lovely young chap called Barry who told me that my appointment had been cancelled approx 2 hours after I made it on 5/10/2016!!! He offered to send an emergency electrician around to fix it but this wasn't doable as I was at work and mom had to leave (emergency appointment was offered as I have a form of arthritis that is affected by cold conditions). He offered to make an emergency appointment at 4.30pm (it's a four hour block so would arrive anytime from then until 8.30pm) and then phone me before 5pm to confirm. I missed this call (which was at 5.30pm) and he left a voicemail saying he would phone me again in about half an hour. I phoned up Scottish Power at around 8pm and was told in no uncertain terms (and fairly rudely if I'm honest) that I was not eligible for an emergency appointment and would have to wait until 4th November (!) for a replacement appointment. I asked to speak to our Barry as he'd been so accommodating earlier but was told no, asked to speak to a manager but he'd gone home, asked to speak to duty manager but he was not at his desk. This guy on the phone told me that he was booking me the appointment for the 4th November and that was it. I told him I would phoned back again in half an hour to speak to the manager. Couldn't get back through to them (shockingly!).

My partner messaged them on FB and they asked for the account details and said the would get someone from customer care to call me to sort something out. The following day (Friday 21.10.16) 4pm, I got a phone call from a lady on the phone who asked my account details and said she was from the wrong department but would get the correct ones to phone me.
Saturday (22.10.16) I phoned them up again to find out why they hadn't rang, got put through to a girl on the prepayment team who said "I don't see what the problem is, you have rebooked an appointment for the 4.11.16" to which I explained that appointment had been booked without my permission and I wanted the complaints team to phone me, or could I be put through to them? No. I cannot be put through and it will take them 48 hours to phone me back, to which I'll admit I got a bit tetchy and said well I was waiting 3 weeks for an appointment that no one showed up for , but apparently they didn't need to contact me the other company did. I said that if the complaints team didn't contact me by the end of 22.10.16 I would be looking for a new electricity supplier. To which they basically said good luck.

I've been looking for one but it's going to take the standard switching time then the wait for an appointment for another supplier, which Scottish Power should be fixing anyway because they told me they would.

[TL: DR] Scottish Power are screwing me over, ignoring my complaints and refusing to send someone out to replace the appointment that was cancelled without my knowledge. What's my next step?

FullForce

woollisox wrote: »

Hiya, this is a long story so be prepared.
I moved into my house in August (it's a project house needs loads of work doing to it). Had an electrician come down 3rd October to change the spurs on the storage heaters as they're not working. Changed the spurs but then he took one look at the meter and refused to do any more work as he said the meter had been tampered with. He explained about the metal loops that had been cut off that showed that someone had tried to by pass the meter at some point. He tested the fuseboard for the storage heaters and there was no power coming from the meter to this second fuseboard. He said that the storage heater fault is with the meter and I need to contact my provider and get the meter fixed/replaced.
I contacted Scottish Power 5th October and made an appointment for them to come to my house on 20th October. I was unhappy about the wait as I didn't have any heating in the house whatsoever but they assured me this was the earliest they could come and that the issue (whatever it was) would be fixed that day - I would come home and find the heating was on! :beer:

Skip forward to 20th October. I was at work (I'm a student nurse and can't switch my shifts around) so I asked dear old mom to come down to mine and wait in for the 8am-12pm appointment, which she did, bless her. My house has no heating, my living room is barebrick whilst we wait for the electrics to be finished and she stood in the kitchen drinking coffee for the entire time. My break at work was at 1 so I phoned her and asked her what time they'd got there but she said they hadn't yet arrived. As the appointment time finished at 12 I phoned Scottish Power to find out what was going on. I spoke to a lovely young chap called Barry who told me that my appointment had been cancelled approx 2 hours after I made it on 5/10/2016!!! He offered to send an emergency electrician around to fix it but this wasn't doable as I was at work and mom had to leave (emergency appointment was offered as I have a form of arthritis that is affected by cold conditions). He offered to make an emergency appointment at 4.30pm (it's a four hour block so would arrive anytime from then until 8.30pm) and then phone me before 5pm to confirm. I missed this call (which was at 5.30pm) and he left a voicemail saying he would phone me again in about half an hour. I phoned up Scottish Power at around 8pm and was told in no uncertain terms (and fairly rudely if I'm honest) that I was not eligible for an emergency appointment and would have to wait until 4th November (!) for a replacement appointment. I asked to speak to our Barry as he'd been so accommodating earlier but was told no, asked to speak to a manager but he'd gone home, asked to speak to duty manager but he was not at his desk. This guy on the phone told me that he was booking me the appointment for the 4th November and that was it. I told him I would phoned back again in half an hour to speak to the manager. Couldn't get back through to them (shockingly!).

My partner messaged them on FB and they asked for the account details and said the would get someone from customer care to call me to sort something out. The following day (Friday 21.10.16) 4pm, I got a phone call from a lady on the phone who asked my account details and said she was from the wrong department but would get the correct ones to phone me.
Saturday (22.10.16) I phoned them up again to find out why they hadn't rang, got put through to a girl on the prepayment team who said "I don't see what the problem is, you have rebooked an appointment for the 4.11.16" to which I explained that appointment had been booked without my permission and I wanted the complaints team to phone me, or could I be put through to them? No. I cannot be put through and it will take them 48 hours to phone me back, to which I'll admit I got a bit tetchy and said well I was waiting 3 weeks for an appointment that no one showed up for , but apparently they didn't need to contact me the other company did. I said that if the complaints team didn't contact me by the end of 22.10.16 I would be looking for a new electricity supplier. To which they basically said good luck.

I've been looking for one but it's going to take the standard switching time then the wait for an appointment for another supplier, which Scottish Power should be fixing anyway because they told me they would.

[TL: DR] Scottish Power are screwing me over, ignoring my complaints and refusing to send someone out to replace the appointment that was cancelled without my knowledge. What's my next step?

Suppliers have up to 8 weeks to respond to and resolve any formally lodged complaint.

Poking someone does not usually equate to formally lodging a complaint.

Follow the suppliers complaint procedure.

After 8 weeks, you can excalate the matter to the ombudsman as explained in the complaint procedure.

Scottish_Power

Hi woolisox,
I'm sorry to hear of the problems you have experienced. If you, or your partner can PM us on here with your account information and a contact telephone number, I can then investigate for you and try to get this matter resolved for you as quickly as possible.
Regards, Faye