Scottish Power, what to do now??

Tommy83

I'm not getting anywhere with this, spent an hour and a half on the phone to them today just to be told that because I rejected the Ombudsman offer they can't do anything more apart from set up a payment plan for the amount they say I owe.
They are not willing to explain to me how they have let it get to this, why they have had me on the wrong plan, why they stopped taking direct debits, and why they didn't honour the resolution they offered me.
Regarding the resolution they offered me 3 weeks into my complaint, they say they never offered me a 'final resolution' at deadlock and because I took the case to the ombudsman before one had been made any offer made by them is now void. I contacted the ombudsman 16 weeks after the initial complaint which is twice the allotted time they allow to resolve it, this was 13 weeks after SP had made me an offer of resolution and not followed through on implementing it despite my best efforts.
They are refusing to listen to reason and are refusing to explain what caused all of this and why it wasn't sorted....I asked to speak to a manager but was put on hold then told said manager wasn't prepared to speak to me.
This has become an absolute shambles and the ombudsman have failed to hold them accountable. Is there anywhere else I can try to get this resolved?

angelin77

Hi
Refer the matter to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). Explain to them that SP have not sent you all the information under SAR which you paid for. If you send the ICO the recordings which you say you made proving that SP made you the offer which you say they are now denying or refusing to comply with, I believe te ICO can put pressure on them to provide these recordings. If you go on the ICO website they have case studies there and one of them is about a lady who complained to them about an insurance company who didn't send all the info. This may help you to get SP to acknowledge the existence of the offer they made. Unfortunately you are in the same boat as me (but with a different supplier) and I now am preparing to take them to court.

Tommy83

Thank you....I will make them my next port of call.
Would SP have recordings of every single call as they claimed they sent me all of them but there is probably less than half on the discs.
They are refusing to acknowledge the offer made to me as being legitimate and are saying because I took it to the ombudsman it is now void anyway. They don't seem to understand that the reason i went to the ombudsman is because they didn't implement the offer and failed to abide by their own complaint procedure.

angelin77

If you can provide evidence that SP are withholding this information I would imagine the ICO would take a dim view especially if they have recorded other conversations and not the ones that show they offered you a solution. I would write to one of SP's top people (head of public relations maybe) after you have consulted with the ICO and explain that simply saying they have exhausted their complaints procedure hasn't resolved the situation.
As long as you yourself keep trying to resolve the situation then if they decide to take action against you it should count in your favour. I would hope you are also making payments for the energy you are still consuming. Look under 'Action we have taken' on the ICO website main page. If SP are saying your address is wrong, then they are holding incorrect info about you which you should also point out to the ICO.
I'm only suggesting the above as a way to progress your problem but I cannot guarantee any outcome but it's worth a try.

SammenForLivet2

Tommy83, I'm afraid to tell you that I doubt that anything further will come from this case. Perhaps if you manage to get the national media involved, maybe a slight budge from Scottish Power.

I agree that your experience has been far from what should have been expected. However, unless you pursue court action there is little further actions that SP will adhere too and any additional time spent is likely wasted.

Are you able to move away from Scottish Power? For your own health reasons, I'd recommend you do so. No point of them creaming anymore than they already have off you.

Could I be so cheeky and ask what you wanted as a resolution from the Ombudsman Service?

Tommy83

angelin77 wrote: »

If you can provide evidence that SP are withholding this information I would imagine the ICO would take a dim view especially if they have recorded other conversations and not the ones that show they offered you a solution. I would write to one of SP's top people (head of public relations maybe) after you have consulted with the ICO and explain that simply saying they have exhausted their complaints procedure hasn't resolved the situation.
As long as you yourself keep trying to resolve the situation then if they decide to take action against you it should count in your favour. I would hope you are also making payments for the energy you are still consuming. Look under 'Action we have taken' on the ICO website main page. If SP are saying your address is wrong, then they are holding incorrect info about you which you should also point out to the ICO.
I'm only suggesting the above as a way to progress your problem but I cannot guarantee any outcome but it's worth a try.

Ah think there is a misunderstanding, I have a copy of the call in which they offered me the resolution....it's further calls that I made in which they have not provided. They claim they sent me everything they have but it is only about half of the calls I made.
I haven't been making payments since April now, not because I don't want to but because they simply stopped taking the direct debit set up on my account and changed the payment to quarterly cash instead without asking me. And now they just keep sending me bills for over £1000. As for the address that is the only time that has happened.....All other times I have got through data protection without an issue.

Tommy83

SammenForLivet2 wrote: »

Tommy83, I'm afraid to tell you that I doubt that anything further will come from this case. Perhaps if you manage to get the national media involved, maybe a slight budge from Scottish Power.

I agree that your experience has been far from what should have been expected. However, unless you pursue court action there is little further actions that SP will adhere too and any additional time spent is likely wasted.

Are you able to move away from Scottish Power? For your own health reasons, I'd recommend you do so. No point of them creaming anymore than they already have off you.

Could I be so cheeky and ask what you wanted as a resolution from the Ombudsman Service?

Can I move away from them if they are saying I'm over £1000 in debit? What I don't get is that what started this complaint is a bill for £497 at the end of march, now that has more than doubled during the summer months where we haven't been using the central heating etc.....how can I rack up £600 worth of consumption from April to October??
I wanted more than the £100 goodwill gesture they offered because that's a joke to be honest, I wanted them to honour the resolution they offered and I accepted back in May. And I wanted an explanation as to what has gone on over the last 2 years. The ombudsman refused to offer any of these

Tommy83

If I dont agree with the ombudsman adjudicators decision can I appeal and have it refered to the actual ombudsman? I'm struggling to find information on what can be done if you don't agree with the ombudsman resolution and saw something about this albeit the financial ombudsman not the energy one.

Imladris

Bit late to thread, but yes, you can certainly leave SP.
Have a similar issue myself in another thread and this came up when searching for similar.

We genuinely fell behind on our bill during a hard patch, were referred to national Debtline to set up a payment plan and then left them a few months later when 36 degrees did the mass leave the big 6 campaign. Went to places for people energy who were ace and have a simple bill that is easy to follow, unlike SP. We are now in dispute over their almost £1000 bill when it was never that big in the first place, but have a £14 a month DD to clear it over 5 years, though I intend to have presented them with my own corrected bill in the next month. I have my meter readings, bank statements and dates of tariff changes back to when we were last in credit, before their system changes in Sept 13 and problems in 2014.

I would leave them, at least then the bill isn't getting any bigger and can recalculate with start and finish readings. Good luck!