In debt with Scottish Power... because they won't take my money!

[Deleted User] · 10 August 2017 at 9:54AM

Hello,
I need a bit of advice because I'm in a bit of a strange situation and not quite sure of what to do. Bit of a long post, but stick with me!

In December 2015, I moved into a new flat and took over the energy bills provided by Scottish Power. I already owed them a little bit from my last bill at my previous address, so I called up to set up the account to start paying the new bills and pay off the rest of the old at the same time.

Well, that was a whole lot of bother in itself. For some reason the account was never set up, even after we were told yes it had been and to expect a welcome pack which never arrived. We didn't receive any bills addressed to us but they continued to send bills (and then warnings) addressed to the landlord. After about five months and hundreds of phone calls, it took me lodging a complaint to actually get the bills set up in my name so I could start paying them.

So I set up a direct debit of £80 per month. This was to pay off what I owed, both in the time I hadn't been getting the bills at my new address and the little bit from my old address, plus my monthly energy usage. The direct debit was set up to come out of my partners account, so I transferred him £40 a month.

Months later, I decided to have a look at my online Scottish Power account to see where we were at. Well, I was shocked to find that we were in debit of £700+. Surely not. They had never contacted me to tell me I owe them any money - never so much as a letter or email. I called up to find out what this was all about and according to the customer service rep, no payments had ever been received. I said that a direct debit had been set up and agreed to check with my partner and call them back. Well, he checked his bank and confirmed nothing had ever been taken and he simply had never noticed. That bit of silliness aside (because he should have bloody noticed the bill wasn't going out), I called them asking why exactly this had happened as we set up the direct debit months ago. The only answer I got was "I don't know".

So we set up a different one, this time for £100 a month. I was told that it would come out on the 1st of the month. It never did. I then called back up and switched it to my bank account, and was told it would come out the following month. It never did. I called up again. And again. And again. All the while getting the occasional call from their Indian call center telling me I owed them money, which enraged me because I was trying so hard to pay it.

I then decided to quit Scottish Power altogether because I had enough of the poor service and quite frankly nothing ever being done. I was told I would need to set up a standing order to pay the balance once I switched providers and was told I would be sent a letter detailing how to do this. Of course, this never arrived. So, again, I had to lodge a complaint - I warned them that this was my last attempt at paying the money before I washed my hands of it.
Weeks turned into months before I ever heard back from them. When I finally did receive a phone call, I was assured that this time, yes, it's all set up, and it WILL come out of my bank account.

Of course, nothing. To this day, I owe them over £800. It's been months and months now and they haven't contacted me since. And true to my word I've washed my hands of it, because I'm tired of fighting it - if they don't want my money, that's cool with me because I'd much rather keep it.

So my question is - what happens now? If they are not bothering to try and recover it.. is that it? I can just imagine one day I will receive a letter demanding immediate payment and then I'm going to somehow going to have to come up with almost a grand. But the longer it's being left, what is the likelihood I'm actually going to have to pay it? And could I fight that considering all they have put me through and all the issues I have had?

Apologies for the huge post. Thanks in advance for any advice.

sourcrates · 10 August 2017 at 11:34AM

Hi,

Just go to there website, register your account, and pay online.

National_Debtline · 10 August 2017 at 12:06PM

Hi [Deleted User]

I can understand your frustration with this situation. I’m wondering whether you’ve ever made a formal complaint to Scottish Power? That will be an option, and if you are not happy with their response you have 6 months to escalate your complaint to the Energy Ombudsman for an independent decision. You can visit their website here https://www.ombudsman-services.org/sectors/energy.

With regards to ignoring it I’m afraid you will run the risk of being chased at a later date, even years down the line. They will only run out of time to take court action against you when there has been 6 years without the debt being paid or acknowledged in writing. The most likely step for them to take next would be to pass the debt on to a debt collection agency (DCA). They don’t have any special powers so they would only be able to ask you to pay the debt.

I think you need to weigh up the risks of doing nothing and decide if you think it’s worth it. Bear in mind this could be damaging to your credit file. They may have registered a default which will remain for 6 years, and if they were to get a CCJ at some point that goes on for 6 years as well. If a default has been registered you could try asking for it to be removed as part of your complaint. I’d recommend checking your credit file to see what it shows.

Susie
@natdebtline

[Deleted User] · 29 August 2017 at 4:43PM

Thank you for both of your replies, however it's obvious that neither of you really read my post. I'm pretty astounded really as I put a lot of effort into describing the long battle I've had with Scottish Power which a) Yes, involved trying to pay online via my account (I mean, really!? What a confusing reply to get!) and

Also involved more than one formal complaint, as I have written!

sourcrates · 29 August 2017 at 4:59PM

[Deleted User] wrote:

So my question is - what happens now? If they are not bothering to try and recover it.. is that it? I can just imagine one day I will receive a letter demanding immediate payment and then I'm going to somehow going to have to come up with almost a grand. But the longer it's being left, what is the likelihood I'm actually going to have to pay it? And could I fight that considering all they have put me through and all the issues I have had?

Apologies for the huge post. Thanks in advance for any advice.

Apologies if i did not get the jist of your post originally.

To answer your question, one of two things will happen, either you will never hear from them again, or more likely, the debt will either be passed to a debt collector to deal with, or the account may be sold to a specialist debt buyer.

You would then have a choice of either dispute the debt with the agency or buyer, or to pay up.

theoretica · 30 August 2017 at 12:03AM

As said, they could come and demand the money - but might not. Can you put this much into a savings account and keep it for 6 years until they are out of time?

louloubelle79 · 30 August 2017 at 1:15AM

I Had exactly the same problem! Never had a problem before with any other provider. DD never came out and I didn't realise, rang another 4/5 times to set up and told would work now. Never did! Then had a bill for £800. Rang and they still didn't take any money. Manager said that they had trouble with Santander and DDs not being set up with their system. I used Resolve to file a complaint, went to manager and finally he/she set up a payment plan to pay off the debt! I also started to keep a log of dates I rang SP to try to pay them for my notes.

Novice_investor101 · 30 August 2017 at 2:13PM

Had the same when I moved into my house. Took over the account & set up a DD for £50. They collected the first payment & then nothing for the next 7 months. I'd been submitting regular meter readings. Calling them is useless if you even manage to get through after over an hour waiting in the queue. they never resolved it until I asked to speak to a manager (yes, really...). Then it was fixed. They said I owed them £350, which I said wouldn't if they'd collected the direct debits as they should have done. I paid the bill over the phone & they promised my DD would not go up because they'd finally got their systems sorted. I was assured as I'd payed the outstanding amount the DD amount will not change. 24 hours later I got an email saying my DD monthly amount was being increased to £90. I called again, then gave up after 10 mins in the queue & headed to Uswitch & EDF, where I never had any problems....