In debt due to fixed tariff

PhilBall

Please can you help? I've been reviewing my mother's account with Scottish Power. She was on a fixed tariff which ended June 2016 and has since been on standard tariff. In the interim she has racked up a £650 debt. Scottish Power had an incorrect email for her, and despite her account being 'paper billing' she has had no contact from SP to advise her on the accumulating debt (probably they were emailing the wrong account).
I find it horrific that they have not bothered to send her a letter or telephone in the last 6 months and instead have let mum rack up this bill.
Any help or advice would be great. They have said they will allow her to pay the debt off over 24 months, but mum wants to leave them and is mortified because she has never had a debt before and now has once which is not really of her own making.
What are our chances of getting them to admit fault and reduce the debt, or should we just bite the bullet and pay the money owing?

footyguy

PhilBall wrote: »

Please can you help? I've been reviewing my mother's account with Scottish Power. She was on a fixed tariff which ended June 2016 and has since been on standard tariff. In the interim she has racked up a £650 debt. Scottish Power had an incorrect email for her, and despite her account being 'paper billing' she has had no contact from SP to advise her on the accumulating debt (probably they were emailing the wrong account).
I find it horrific that they have not bothered to send her a letter or telephone in the last 6 months and instead have let mum rack up this bill.
Any help or advice would be great. They have said they will allow her to pay the debt off over 24 months, but mum wants to leave them and is mortified because she has never had a debt before and now has once which is not really of her own making.
What are our chances of getting them to admit fault and reduce the debt, or should we just bite the bullet and pay the money owing?

If a bill has not been sent, then they will admit that error.
You may get say £20 goodwill gesture for such an error if a complaint is made.
They will not reduce the debt.
However, check the bill is based on on actual meter reading
They probably will not allow a switch whilst there is an outstanding debt on the account - but they will allow a transfer to an alternative tariff they offer.
If it is agreed the money is owed, and payment can be made in full, then probably best to pay it now.

PhilBall

Thanks very much for the speedy reply. I submitted new meter readings yesterday so they have updated her account accordingly and issued a new bill. I'm made a complaint in writing, which is when they said they'd allow payment over a number of months.
Thanks again for your help

D_M_E

If she was on paper billing then she should have been sent, in the post, an actual paper bill.

In this case email is irrelevant as she was on paper billing and I suspect that any bill sent by email could therefore be safely ignored.

You also need to check that any bill is based on actual meter readings and not their usual superinflated eyewatering estimates.

She needs to WRITE and head the letter in COMPLAINT in big bold letters and send it by recorded delivery and keep a copy.

In the letter, complain about the fact that, due to their negligence in not sending an actual paper bill as per the tariff she was on, and no notification of end of said tariff, she has been forced into debt by their incompetence and failure to keep to their side of the contract, and state that all correspondence on the matter will be conducted in writing only.

If they do phone tell them politely that everything must be done in writing so you have a copy of what they say about the matter and what they offer.

gvp444

Please please whatever you do with Scottish power, make a record of the meter readings you send, in fact make a note of everything you do with this company . I had over a year of problems with them on a similar situation. Although I physically phoned them and gave them the reading they never actually took note of it, or so they said. As I said, be careful with them.. I had nothing but trouble and have vowed never to use them again. In the end I gave up and paid the £300 they said I owed them which I didn't.

Cardew

Correct me if I am wrong, but the OP has not stated his mother hasn't had a bill. He has complained that his mother has not been sent a letter telling her that her fixed tariff was ending.

She was on a fixed tariff which ended June 2016 and has since been on standard tariff. In the interim she has racked up a £650 debt.

That quote implies that the £650 debt is due to the change from fixed to standard tariff; and that simply cannot be the case. I was with Scottish Power until last year and iirc the Standard tariff was about 15% higher. Thus it would add around £180pa to the average annual bill, and the OP's mother was on the Standard tariff for 6 to 8 months.

I suspect that the larger part of the £650 debt is caused by the usual situation of under-estimated meter readings not being corrected.

The OP's mother was apparently on 'paper billing'.I thought a condition of Scottish Power's fixed tariffs was that they had to be run online, - like mine. - not certain about that point. Could the OP's mother been on paper billing some while ago, and that ceased when moving to the fixed tariff?

P.S. How did the OP review his mother's account - was it on-line?