Scottish Power Bill Help Please!

Scientomology

I recently switched my parents through MSE's Cheap Energy Club from Scottish Power to Co-operative Energy.

The application was accepted on 07 Dec 16 and the switch happened on 13 Jan 17.

I admit that I never looked at the bills but my Dad often complained they were taking lots of money every month and he was sure there is a big surplus lol Since the login details are only known by myself, I am in charge of organising entering meter readings, which I always forget to do so has been very infrequent.

In the past week, Scottish Power said to expect a final bill. I logged on and downloaded all old bills for archiving but was surprised to see that despite a £400 or so credit, they charged £700 on 17 Dec 16. I thought I was good at making sense of logic, but when I had a look at this bill, I was unable to understand what on Earth they were doing adjusting things so much.

They seem to be charging back to 2014 in the 17 Dec bill, despite having an actual reading between then. Then adjusting for some reason and increasing payments so that any credit disappears and the account is left owing.

They have added cancelled charges for the same period to add to the confusion. I also noticed all the estimated readings they stated do not tally with the ones for those dates in previous bills; they are higher.

I had thought bills were very easy to understand these days but I am lost by what they are doing as there is no explanation...or either the age is getting to me and need some expert guidance lol

I attach bills going back just over a year in case needed, although the ones I am referring to are onwards from '7 Scottish Power 17 Dec 2016 REVIEW.png' . Jeez, did these take a long time to create or what?!

There is also a screen shot of the billing/payments statement from the website showing estimated and actual bills (Full Blue Dot = Actual Reading)

Each image file should contain multiple pages. If not, let me know and I'll convert them to PDFs.

If someone can make sense of what is going on and please let me know, it would be very much appreciated! It may just be that my parents ARE using a hell of a lot of energy!

Thanks! :beer:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_e8HJtTSpoEZTJNYW5ycXMtY0U

Eric_Disley

I might be doing something wrong, but can only see the front page of the bills?

The probable explanation is the meter readings. If you didn't provide actual meter readings, or only did so infrequently, they will have used estimated readings to produce earlier bills. If the actual meter reading you gave them when switching was a lot higher than their early estimates had suggested it would be, they may have gone back and changed their earlier estimates.

If the tariff your dad was on changed during the period he was with SP, or there were price changes, SP would want to make sure they're charging for the right usage over the right period. If prices went up in the last few months your dad was with SP, charging you for the extra usage at the current price would see him charged too much. If prices went down in the last few months, he'd be charged too little.

So, they've re-estimated previous bills. Removed the amount they actually charged and replaced them with revised amounts. Hence the positive and negative adjustments on the final bill.

I've had bills with unexplained "account adjustments" on and it's not satisfactory. If they've recalculated earlier bills, they should tell you how they've done it i.e. provide you with the actual revised bills not just "adjustments".

But you can get a rough idea of how accurate your bills are by looking at actual readings and then calculating a bill yourself - work out how many units your dad used while he was with SP, at what cost per unit, and add in standing charges. It'll show you on your bill how to convert gas units. If the tariff was complicated i.e. Xp for first so many units a quarter and then Yp for remaining units, it'll be more complicated.

oldwiring

To give us all info I tentativley suggest:
Go to
https://www.scottishpower.co.uk/my-account/
then My Balance & Bills in ribbon at top of page.
Click on each View Bill Icon to open.
Copy each page 5 and save as pdf.
Amalgamte as one pdf with PdfBinder http://pdfbinder.software.informer.com/1.1/

Scientomology

Eric_Disley wrote: »

I might be doing something wrong, but can only see the front page of the bills?

The probable explanation is the meter readings. If you didn't provide actual meter readings, or only did so infrequently, they will have used estimated readings to produce earlier bills. If the actual meter reading you gave them when switching was a lot higher than their early estimates had suggested it would be, they may have gone back and changed their earlier estimates.

If the tariff your dad was on changed during the period he was with SP, or there were price changes, SP would want to make sure they're charging for the right usage over the right period. If prices went up in the last few months your dad was with SP, charging you for the extra usage at the current price would see him charged too much. If prices went down in the last few months, he'd be charged too little.

So, they've re-estimated previous bills. Removed the amount they actually charged and replaced them with revised amounts. Hence the positive and negative adjustments on the final bill.

I've had bills with unexplained "account adjustments" on and it's not satisfactory. If they've recalculated earlier bills, they should tell you how they've done it i.e. provide you with the actual revised bills not just "adjustments".

But you can get a rough idea of how accurate your bills are by looking at actual readings and then calculating a bill yourself - work out how many units your dad used while he was with SP, at what cost per unit, and add in standing charges. It'll show you on your bill how to convert gas units. If the tariff was complicated i.e. Xp for first so many units a quarter and then Yp for remaining units, it'll be more complicated.

Ah, I was wondering before whether not giving meter readings regularly was why they did this. I believe that the pricing did change at some point as it was moved to the Standard Tariff. However, I still don't understand the recalculating for periods before actual readings were given.

oldwiring wrote: »

To give us all info I tentativley suggest:
Go to
https://www.scottishpower.co.uk/my-account/
then My Balance & Bills in ribbon at top of page.
Click on each View Bill Icon to open.
Copy each page 5 and save as pdf.
Amalgamte as one pdf with PdfBinder http://pdfbinder.software.informer.com/1.1/

Jesus!! Was this basically mission impossible with MacOS! Apparently, you can merge PDFs through Preview but let me tell you that I spent over an hour doing it again and again and it just wouldn't work! Damn you Apple!!

Finally, found a free software which did it in a second and hopefully you can view the breakdowns now.

Eric_Disley

Check your PMs. According to my calculations, your parents used about £3,427 worth of gas and electricity between 29/12/14 (your first actual meter reading) and 13/01/17 (closing meter reading).

You need to deduct payments made between these dates and this will give you a closing balance.

Robin9

"I admit that I never looked at the bills but my Dad often complained they were taking lots of money every month and he was sure there is a big surplus lol Since the login details are only known by myself, I am in charge of organising entering meter readings, which I always forget to do so has been very infrequent."

By your own admission you have not handled your parents gas/elec very well and the confusing bills are of your own making. Your lack of control has cost your parents a lot of money.



Now you have changed to Co-op make sure you read the meters every month and submit them online. Read the bills and and emails - never pay on an estimated bill.

Eric_Disley

Robin9 wrote: »

"I admit that I never looked at the bills but my Dad often complained they were taking lots of money every month and he was sure there is a big surplus lol Since the login details are only known by myself, I am in charge of organising entering meter readings, which I always forget to do so has been very infrequent."

By your own admission you have not handled your parents gas/elec very well and the confusing bills are of your own making. Your lack of control has cost your parents a lot of money.



Now you have changed to Co-op make sure you read the meters every month and submit them online. Read the bills and and emails - never pay on an estimated bill.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMsrE-9CLFg

Scientomology

Thanks for the help!

£3,427pa sounds like a hell of a lot for a 3-bed house with only 3 people living there...In comparison, 1 bed flat's electric bill is £180pa and I have no gas...

I know last week they replaced the combi boiler they only installed 4yrs previously as it was leaking gas...I believe this had been going on for over a year but my Dad is a real scrooge and refuses to spend money to repair anything unless it blows up or something. Of course, he got installed the cheapest boiler by the cheapest quote he found with foreign workers who did such an amateur job, they were highly likely illegals. I will now tell him that his penny-pinching has cost him a lot of money compared to what he thought he was saving LOL

I imagine that due to not providing actual readings, they have amended the times when they estimated with more usage, even if there was not, because the final actual reading was higher...meaning possibly that they have added more units to when the price was higher etc.

I will now make sure to provide the readings regularly. Co-op give an option of where you can add other people to the account so they can manage the account also. I did this as soon as I saw the option so hopefully, this situation won't happen again!.

I'm positive that when they were with NPower previously, their yearly bills were half that what it shows here and I switched them to SP as they were meant to be cheaper lol

Perhaps it's better they are fitted with a smart meter so they can see how much they are using. Can you have this fitted on request?

Robin9

At least now you realise the importance of regular readings.

You might like to double check your own flat - £ 180 pa is little more than the standing charges.

Scientomology

I actually thought they would send people round to take readings as that's what usually happened with my parents for years.

One thing, I thought they were also doing on the bills, that even when a reading has been provided, (providing a base reading to start again from), when they have estimated after that and I have provided another actual reading, (am I mistaken in thinking) when they have recalculated, have they recalculated for all the past including past those actual readings?

Myself, I have a communal heating system which is super cheap, hence the low costs. Averaging about £20 for 2mths heating/hot water in the Winter, which is instantaneous. I don't get charged a standing charge on my electric neither.

Eric_Disley

No, £3,427 is the total cost of gas and electricity used, based on the first actual readings (29/12/14) and last (13/1/17). So, just over two years of use. If you want to check whether you've been billed accurately, compare this cost with payments you made over this period. This should give your final balance.

You won't necessarily have been overcharged - your electricity cost stayed the same over the whole period whereas unit gas costs went down slightly in March 2016. That's why they re-estimated your March 2016 reading. It shouldn't have made a huge difference.