Scottish Power, what to do now??

Tommy83

I'm after some advice on what i can do about my issues with Scottish Power now i seem to have exhausted most options.




I moved into my property in November 2014 and as the energy was already being supplied by SP i decided to stay with them as its seemed to be the simplest option.
I phoned them and gave meter readings for both gas & electricity and asked to be put on a duel fuel monthly direct debit tariff, was told this was all done and that the direct debit was set up.
I didnt have any direct debits go out for the first couple of months and instead received a bill through the post, so I rang them, paid the bill and was assured the issue was fixed and the direct debit would start going out the following month. A few months later and after more bills, more phone calls trying to resolve it, and no direct debits being taken out they finally seemed to have sorted it.
Fast forward to March 2016 and they send me a bill for £470, even though i had been paying direct debits every month and providing meter readings to them so they could accurately judge my consumption (the direct debit amount had been chnging occasionally in correspondance to this).
I rang to query the bill and was told someone would get back to me within the following week, but as i was due to go on holiday 2 days later I asked if they could contact me when i returned and was assured the £470 would not be taken out of my account. I arrived back from holiday to find that they had indeed taken the £470 out of my account and was informed they couldnt refund it, so i contacted my bank and got an indemnity refund.
They then kept sending me more bills with no explanation as to why i owed this amount and what had happened as the tariff on it said quarterly cash. At this point i started an official complaint, 3 weeks later someone from the complaints department rang me and explained that i was actually £20 in credit, set me up on a new direct debit dual fuel tariff, and informed me that the compalint was now resolved and all issues on my account sorted. None of this ever happened and i still kept receiving these bills.
I took it to the Energy Ombudsman as 16 weeks had passed since i started the complaint, a few months later the ombudsman have come to their decision. My account currently stands at £970 in debit according to SP, for some reason i am now on a quarterly cash tariff, and they have stopped taking direct debits for the last 6 months with no explanation as to why.
The initial meter reading for electricity from Nov 2014 is down as being estimated, they have contacted me 4 times asking for the meter serial number which i have provided every time, and my propety is apparently not even on the national database.
I have paid for recordings of all the calls they have between us and received some, but not all, of the ones i have made. These calls back up the tariff i should of been on initially and the resolution call about my complaint is also on there.
The ombudsman servive have come to the conclusion that they should apologise to me and give me £100 as a goodwill gesture. This just doesnt cut it after 2 years of this, countless hours on the phone and numerous emails sent, being fed false information and lied to when all i want to do is sort out what has happened so i can leave.
And to top it all off the debt recovery team phoned me yesterday, they asked for me to confirm my details for data protection and than told me they couldnt talk to me as the address doesnt match what is on my account??!!
Where do i go from here??

angelin77

Hi
Have you tried going on Scottish Power's Facebook site and having a rant on that. One of their team should then respond offering to sort the matter out.
Worth a try

Tommy83

I did that yesterday, took them a few hours to reply to the private message but all they said was that any offers of resolution they had made to me were now null & void as i went to the ombudsman, but the whole reason i went to the ombudsman is because they didnt honour or implement the offer of resolution that was made to me and that i have a recording of.

DavidP24

So yo be clear, they are billing you for a different address?

You do not make clear whether you usage is acurate, is the issue just the wrong tariff or are they charging you for more than you are using?

I have seen bad meters, eco7 meters that have a bad timer so you pay for 17 hours of extra heating every day, so usage is important.

There have been accused on You and Yours on Radio 4 of only having only "certain" recordings, it is strange how companies always seem to find the ones that help THEM!

So you have a recording of the tariff you SHOULD have been on, that call formed a verbal contract between you and them, so very least you can get is a credit at the rate you agreed.

Make a complaint, email You and Yours or local radio consumer show if you have one in your area.

Tweet how much they have ripped you off as a reply to every corporate tweet they make, relate it to what they tweet about so you are not trolling. For example if they say they are reducing prices you say "reducing prices is all very well but you are still over charging customers like me".

Put in a complaint to energy regulator, Vodafone got fine of millions because of new billing system screwing up direct debits.

Do not submit, ask your bank for the return of the direct debit, say you explicitly forbade them to take it.

Then refuse to pay and ask for it to be referred up due to a stalemate if they refuse to credit, bear in mind it costs them over £300 to refer so it is in their interest to settle.

What county in UK are you?

angelin77

OK Have you contacted The Citizen's Advice Consumer Service at Weston Super Mare who deal with energy complaints. They were given money from a fine imposed on one of the energy suppliers and I believe this part of CAB deal solely with energy complaints.
You are in the same boat as many of us, there seems to be no effective body that energy consumers can go to that can resolve problems swiftly and effectively. In my opinion the OS are a waste of time and do not resolve matters completely. They hand out apologies like sweeties which are meaningless. They even intimated that I was trying to defraud my energy supplier.in their Final Decision. After several emails I finally got them to admit they were wrong and that was only after I told them I would report them to the ICO.The evidence from the energy supplier supported my version. They had also based their pathetic 'award' on a grossly overestimated bill that the energy supplier had offered to reduce (and tat was after I got the OS involved) You only have one opportunity to challenge their provisional decision before the final one. You are then completely at their mercy. They can say anything in their Final Decision knowing that you have no right of appeal. This does not solve difficult or complicated cases. It is totally unjust and needs reform.If you can show that the OS decision is flawed you should be able to appeal. But that will never happen unless enough people complain about the OS

D_M_E

Doing it by private message really has no effect - you need to post it on their timeline for all to see - that will get a more positive response.

Tommy83

DavidP24 wrote: »

So yo be clear, they are billing you for a different address?

You do not make clear whether you usage is acurate, is the issue just the wrong tariff or are they charging you for more than you are using?

I have seen bad meters, eco7 meters that have a bad timer so you pay for 17 hours of extra heating every day, so usage is important.

There have been accused on You and Yours on Radio 4 of only having only "certain" recordings, it is strange how companies always seem to find the ones that help THEM!

So you have a recording of the tariff you SHOULD have been on, that call formed a verbal contract between you and them, so very least you can get is a credit at the rate you agreed.


Make a complaint, email You and Yours or local radio consumer show if you have one in your area.

Tweet how much they have ripped you off as a reply to every corporate tweet they make, relate it to what they tweet about so you are not trolling. For example if they say they are reducing prices you say "reducing prices is all very well but you are still over charging customers like me".

Put in a complaint to energy regulator, Vodafone got fine of millions because of new billing system screwing up direct debits.

Do not submit, ask your bank for the return of the direct debit, say you explicitly forbade them to take it.

Then refuse to pay and ask for it to be referred up due to a stalemate if they refuse to credit, bear in mind it costs them over £300 to refer so it is in their interest to settle.

What county in UK are you?

I'm in England, the address mix up was the first time it has happened, every other time I ring them they have my correct details.
As it stands they tell me I owe them £970 but they can't explain what it is for.
And yes I have recordings of the calls when I set up the account.
Who is The Energy Regulator?

Tommy83

angelin77 wrote: »

OK Have you contacted The Citizen's Advice Consumer Service at Weston Super Mare who deal with energy complaints. They were given money from a fine imposed on one of the energy suppliers and I believe this part of CAB deal solely with energy complaints.
You are in the same boat as many of us, there seems to be no effective body that energy consumers can go to that can resolve problems swiftly and effectively. In my opinion the OS are a waste of time and do not resolve matters completely. They hand out apologies like sweeties which are meaningless. They even intimated that I was trying to defraud my energy supplier.in their Final Decision. After several emails I finally got them to admit they were wrong and that was only after I told them I would report them to the ICO.The evidence from the energy supplier supported my version. They had also based their pathetic 'award' on a grossly overestimated bill that the energy supplier had offered to reduce (and tat was after I got the OS involved) You only have one opportunity to challenge their provisional decision before the final one. You are then completely at their mercy. They can say anything in their Final Decision knowing that you have no right of appeal. This does not solve difficult or complicated cases. It is totally unjust and needs reform.If you can show that the OS decision is flawed you should be able to appeal. But that will never happen unless enough people complain about the OS

Yeah i wasn't convinced by the OS at all....the offer of an apology and £100 goodwill takes the mick. They also told me that I had to let them know by lunchtime the next day, which between family and work commitments didn't leave me much time to properly evaluate their decision and the implications either way.
I know i owe SP a certain amount, seeing as they have not taken a direct debit for several months, but I keep getting fed different information from them so am not convinced they know how much exactly. Plus the fact that they have messed up my account and billing for 2 years doesn't fill me with confidence of their abilities to bill me accurately now.
Surely the fact that i have call recordings for the initial account set up and the resolution offer to my initial complaint showing what they should of done holds some weight?

Tommy83

D_M_E wrote: »

Doing it by private message really has no effect - you need to post it on their timeline for all to see - that will get a more positive response.

I've flamed them on Facebook but to no avail.....this is the reply to my private message one there that I copied and pasted on the original post for all to see;

***I can see you took your complaint to the Ombudsman and they accepted your case, at this point anything we had previously offered was null and void. You rejected their decision, and because you did not accept this you lost the right to their remedy and we have contacted you with the following;

"I am sorry that this matter has been ongoing and that both ScottishPower and the Energy Ombudsman have been unable to resolve your concerns. We have now fully exhausted our complaints process and we cannot accept any further representation from you regarding this matter."

Due to this I'm unable to take this any further. Thanks, Natalie***

angelin77

Have you tried the consumeractiongroup they help people with problems with energy companies.
Also have you made a subject access request (SAR) with SP. It will cost a tenner but it should get you every piece of info they hold about you including calls and bills,

Tommy83

I've already obtained all the information they hold on me and all the call recordings they have. Cost me a tenner from SP Data Protection Department.