(Scottish Power) Mam is Being Set Gas Bill For Someone Who Has Never Lived Here

GothicStirling

Hi. My 76 year old Mam has been sent 2 letters from Scottish Power for a couple that have never lived here. The address is correct, and it looks like its a final bill for another address in the same town. My Mam and Dad bought this house 32 years ago, and have been supplied by British Gas for years.

The first letter I returned saying no-one by that name has ever lived here. On getting the second I've tried calling Scottish Power a couple of times (and see their customer service is as !!!!! as it was 5 years ago when I was a customer). I will try again after work on Monday (I've already wasted half my Saturday afternoon on this).

Any advice? My Mam is 76, and has heart problems. I don't want her getting stressed out about someone else's bill.

Marktheshark

Put in the recycling bin and move on.

[Deleted User]

A few years ago next door moved out without paying his bills and left my address as his new address. I just wrote and told them that there was nobody of that name living here and they accepted that and went away.

angelin77

Hi
I don't wish to worry you but I had a similar experience with Npower. I started receiving bills for someone of a different name but correct address. Npower ignored my efforts to put the matter right, later quoting the data protection act and they could not deal with me as I was not the named account holder. It ended up with them fitting an external prepayment meter when I was away from the property and effectively cutting off the gas supply and after 10 months of a complaint with the ombudsman, I am now taking Npower to court.
I'm not saying SP will treat your mum the same (Npower failed to follow the correct procedure as required by Ofgem rules in my case) but I would suggest that you do not ignore these letters/bills. I would also suggest you edit the thread title to include the company name, which should attract the on site company rep (Malc I think) to respond.
.I'm also a pensioner and it does cause a lot of stress.

D_M_E

As advised above, you need to write to SP and tell them the named people do not and never have lived at the address concerned and tell them to stop any attempt at collecting a non existent debt. Get your mother to sign it - it's her address and also point out that she has never been a customer of SP (either that or not been a customer for many years).

Send it by recorded delivery and stay off the phone - their customer service staff just fob you off.

Also check the meter serial numbers on the bill against the serial numbers of your mum's meters and if, as expected, they do not match, also point out this fact if the letter.

System

Check the postcode that is more important than the address as some streets duplicate all the time but never in the exact same post code and first number of the sectors of the post code, eg "station road " can be in adjoining postcodes but have a different sector number..eg SO3..4 NU and SO3 5ST

GothicStirling

Thanks for the advice.

I would like to clarify that although the bill has been sent to our address, that the bill is for a different property in the same town. It looks as though they have moved out of this property, and the gas bill has been forwarded to here. The strange thing is that there is no electricity bill.

Scottish_Power

GothicStirling wrote: »

Thanks for the advice.

I would like to clarify that although the bill has been sent to our address, that the bill is for a different property in the same town. It looks as though they have moved out of this property, and the gas bill has been forwarded to here. The strange thing is that there is no electricity bill.

Hi GothicStirling,

I am very sorry to hear that your mother is receiving mail for one of our other customers at a different billing address.

If you are possibly able to email me at [EMAIL="social@scottishpower.com"]social@scottishpower.com[/EMAIL] with the address details of the property your mother is receiving the mail for, I can get then get this looked at for you.

Kind regards
Faye

Scottish_Power

Hi GothicStirling,

Thank you for sending me the details via the email address I gave you in my earlier post.

I have investigated this and found that your mums address was incorrectly added as a forwarding address for the account which mail is being issued for. I am really sorry for this error.
I have now removed your mums address so no further mail for the other property will be sent to your mums home.

I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely apologies for this issue and for any inconvenience this has caused you and your mum.

Kind regards
Faye

Dird

Marktheshark wrote: »

Put in the recycling bin and move on.

I'm sure that will help his mom's heart problems when bailiffs turn up at the door

Good to hear it's been resolved though