Scottish Power - Massive backdated bill

mumof5boys

So ive been with scottish power for electric about 5 years. I pay approximately £60-70 per month. Today I received a letter changing my direct debit from the latter to £427 per month ! I of course rang them immediately - apparently I now have £1900 debit on my account OMGGGGGG - I have never ever hear that there was any defecit at all. No letters - no change of DDM - nothing.
I turns out they had my old email address so i accessed the emails in there and again apart from - please send us your meter reading i have had no email letters either - apparently they had had a few estimate meter readings and now the deficit is this much. This cant be right how can they suddenly do this to me - any other company inc of my gas company would adjust accordingly when needed this is over a years worth or electric at least outstanding - HELPPPPPPP:mad::mad::mad::mad:

System

mumof5boys wrote: »

So ive been with scottish power for electric about 5 years. I pay approximately £60-70 per month. Today I received a letter changing my direct debit from the latter to £427 per month ! I of course rang them immediately - apparently I now have £1900 debit on my account OMGGGGGG - I have never ever hear that there was any defecit at all. No letters - no change of DDM - nothing.
I turns out they had my old email address so i accessed the emails in there and again apart from - please send us your meter reading i have had no email letters either - apparently they had had a few estimate meter readings and now the deficit is this much. This cant be right how can they suddenly do this to me - any other company inc of my gas company would adjust accordingly when needed this is over a years worth or electric at least outstanding - HELPPPPPPP:mad::mad::mad::mad:

I assume from your post that you haven't been supplying Scottish Power with meter readings. If this is the case, you are the victim of what is known as a 'Catch Up Bill'. I assume that they must have read your meter which, until recently, was only a once every 2 year event. Estimates are nothing more than a best guess. If the consumer doesn't check bills for accuracy then, hard as it might seem, the blame is not entirely with the supplier.

I suggest that you call your supplier; explain the circumstances, and ask for time to pay.

dogshome

Never mind Emails asking for meter readings - Have you had any bills from them?
If not the 'Back-billing agreement' offers a possible way out

If you have had bills, best bet is to negotiate a repayment level you can afford

Nanabash

Scottish Power are appalling.
My on line account 'lost' all my bills from 2015 to end 2016, creating a massive credit in my account. They reinstated all my bills after I complained BUT in doing so re-activated 2 old accounts at my address that belonged to the house builder. I then started getting bills for the 2 old accounts. Trying to get them to understand all this was a nightmare, I eventually went down the Formal Complaint route and got an apology with £20 compensation. I suspect something somewhere has dropped with their IT system and we are the victims of it.

I feel for the staff who have to work for such an inept company - the only reason Ive not switched is because theres not much to save on the rate I am on, but if that improves I'm off!

Ive got a friend who had terrible trouble setting up an account with them in their new build home and had to beg SP to take monthly DD payments. when they did get round to setting up the account they had to (again) apologise and wiped £600 from their account because of the shoddy service.

This is probably not much comfort to you, sorry, but stand your ground.

phillw

mumof5boys wrote: »

This cant be right how can they suddenly do this to me - any other company inc of my gas company would adjust accordingly when needed this is over a years worth or electric at least outstanding - HELPPPPPPP:mad::mad::mad::mad:

First make sure that the meter reading is correct, then work out when they think you used the electricity. They should average it out since the last actual read and not the last time they produced a bill. I assume you're on a variable tariff and electricity is likely higher now than it was when you used it.

If it's right and you can't afford to pay it back that quickly, then haggle with them to let you pay it back over a longer time. You won't be able to switch away without paying them back in full, but make sure you're on their best deal. It looks like your electricity bill is quite high, you would probably find an energy monitor to be quite helpful. Some libraries lend them out for free, Scottish power also used to give them out if you asked them.

They can't adjust it if they don't have an accurate meter read, so in the future try to provider them with a read every month.

mumof5boys

Hengus wrote: »

I assume from your post that you haven't been supplying Scottish Power with meter readings. If this is the case, you are the victim of what is known as a 'Catch Up Bill'. I assume that they must have read your meter which, until recently, was only a once every 2 year event. Estimates are nothing more than a best guess. If the consumer doesn't check bills for accuracy then, hard as it might seem, the blame is not entirely with the supplier.

I suggest that you call your supplier; explain the circumstances, and ask for time to pay.

Oh yes you are right I havent given them meter readings clearly - but i have had many a man turn up to read my meters so clearly i have assumed it was for electric maybe it was just gas.

mumof5boys

dogshome wrote: »

Never mind Emails asking for meter readings - Have you had any bills from them?
If not the 'Back-billing agreement' offers a possible way out

If you have had bills, best bet is to negotiate a repayment level you can afford

I have had not a thing from them - i was signed up to paper billing butthey had the wrong email and to be honest I was paying my direct debit so thought all was good - i have today set up the online thing and looked at it all online and i was clearly underpaying but why on earth has noone ever told me .!!!!

I will look up this back billing thing you mention.

dogshome

If you are absolutly sure you signed up for paper billing, you have a good case for a claim under the 'Back-Billing Agreement, which n'power have signed up for

Basically, if a supplier fails to send out bills for more than a year, ( Bills sent to a wrong address, or bills posted to an onlne account the customer doesn't have would count as not sent, ) then supplier can only back-bill for the previous 12 months, and that 12 months is calculated back from the day they did manage to issue a bill

WRITE a letter headed Complaint, pointing out that you signed for paper bills only, and until today you had not opened an online account

mumof5boys

I am not sure I signed up to paperless billing . Been in my folder where I keep bills and I have nothing from them. I think I was with first utility and it switched over to Scottish power - not my choice I think . I don't have one single bill. Right I will start writing a letter apparently I am being called on Monday by the manage after they have looked into this. I'll see what they have to say .

teddysmum

I know that for my supplier, the tariff I am on had the conditions of paperless billing and paying by monthly direct debit as part of the deal; paperless, making the user responsible for looking up their own bills and credit situations , online.