Why is Scottish Power so useless?

Yorkie1974

We moved house earlier this year and inherited Scottish Power gas and electric pre-pay meter. It took a couple of months before I was allowed to request a standard meter, and five installation appointments before they had successfully swapped them.


I then had to go onto their standard tariff for one month so they could establish usage before I could swap onto a better value deal paid monthly. When I tried to make the change, I spent 45 minutes on hold on two consecutive days before giving up and swapping energy provider. I'm now with Avro, who are wonderfully helpful.


When my final Scottish Power bills came, they were estimated, so I phoned up to ask for accurate bills based on my real usage, and was promised them in the next couple of weeks. They had also messed up my pre-pay and monthly payment accounts, so I'd been receiving bills on the wrong one, apparently.


In them meantime, I'm still receiving demands for the former tenant, who I have advised them has moved on and I don't have a forwarding address.


I phoned to ask them to remove the old tenant from our address and was told that they couldn't - they had to keep sending them. So I advised that I would be making a £5 admin charge for each letter I had to return to them, and I confirmed this by email.


I then asked if I could settle up my account, and was given my 'final figures' (and I did specifically ask if these were the final figures, and once I had paid these, I would owe Scottish Power nothing and they would close my account). I paid this, and was thinking the whole sorry tale was over.


Sadly not - the next day, I received four emails demanding payment and threatening a default to be registered on my account if I didn't pay. I wrote to them complaining, and detailing the rest of the issues. I got a call back from a lovely lady the following day saying that she had looked at all of my account history, and I was actually in credit by just over £60 - I'd receive that amount by cheque, and a further £30 as an apology for the inconvenience.


Eight days later, I get another letter asking for my final readings to calculate my final bill. I phone up customer services as I thought my account had been closed, but they were apparently waiting for the final usage figure. I sent them a photo I took the day after the switch of my gas meter reading, and the advisor told me that, based on his calculations, I should still be in credit.


This morning, I've had an email from them saying that I'm actually £27 in debit, I should get a bill in the post, and I should pay immediately.


I have no issue paying for gas and electricity that I have used, but how can I have confidence that they have got their calculations right this time?


My experiences of their customer service department have been generally pretty rubbish, but even their complaints department - who seem far more in control and helpful - are giving me information and assurances which later prove incorrect.


So, MSE forumites - should I pay this latest bill and hope that it is finally all concluded? What would you do?