Advice needed please re Scottish Power

calnmui

Hi there, I really need some advice so if you could either point me in the right direction or share some advice it would be greatly appreciated. This is a long one so appologies in advance.

We moved into our property in August 2016, a mid terrace in a run of 4 houses. British Gas Prepayment meters were fitted for both gas and electricity. In our pervious houses we have always been with Scotish Power on Duel Fuel Direct Debit.

I contacted them to have the prepayement meters removed and credit meters fitted, advised to run with them for 3 months to get some sort of account info, complied with this and the a date was arranged for 22 December for meters to be changed.

On the day the Gas engineer was a no show - we were given a £30 comp, which just arrived in the post, apparently the system automatically generates this for failed appointment.

The Electrician came in and advised that our meters earth cable came from the end of terrace to the left and that he is unable to d anything, energy network would come out within 40 days to fix the cable and he would come back out to change the meter. The man phoned his supervisor and reported the fault in my kitchen on loud speaker, his supervisor also stated the 40 days.

This is where it will get confusing

Electricity

40 days passed with no contact or engineer, I have spent months phonining them backwards and forwards and in the end phoned energy network myself (even though scottish power told me i couldnt) who told me that scottish power had never notified them, the lady was great and arranged for an engineer to come out the following week and fix the wiring.

I then had another 2 months of phoning them to get an engineer out to change the meter.

Gas

The engineer came out duly and changed the meter in approx February. After speaking with customer services and giving bank details ect i was told my dd would be taken on 17 month. my payment did not come off, i phoned them and told them this and was told that it would correct itself and would be first payment march, so i waited and nothing came off again, this then caused me to phone fortnightly to advise that no money was being taken for my gas, offering to pay on the phone, kept getting told to wait, eventually after 4 months, 100's of telephone calls, emails i finally got someone on the phone who told me that the gas engineer hadnt notified them that the meter had been changed??? i had to go out and give them the meter serial number ect to get it set up and then they gave me a £300 bill for used gas in that period

Eventually i have my two meters changed, my electricity is now on a smart meter. my direct debit was set at £93 to cover my usage plus pay off the £300 debt from my gas.

I had to go to the ombudsman after lots of contact with scottish power and getting no where, personally i felt that i should have some sort of compensation for the electricity used between the end of january when i should have had my electricity meter changed and the August when it eventually was as i was not getting any sort of duel fuel discount and in my mind i was paying a higher rate for my electricity due to being on a prepayment meter.

The ombudsman final decision was that scotish power should issue a cheque for £50 compensation and should go back and yes give me back the difference between the two price plans for the electricity.

I have received a letter from Scottish Power telling me that the prepayment price plan was CHEAPER than the direct debit price plan at that time so no money was due to me. :eek:

Fast forward to last month. A man has been coming round our area monthly taking gas meter readings. so I have just allowed him to carry on. I shouldnt have to be entering my electricty reading as its a smart meter.

I noticed last month that the gas man hasnt been round so i went out and got the reading myself to input, logged in online and wasnt able to ut it in without putting in the electrcity one.

went to the electricity meter got the reading and nearly collapsed, the difference between the previous reading and the up to date was incredible, my gas was out by about 2 digits. i have input the reading and now have a £500 bill and the dd has increased to £150.

contacted them to query what it happening and she has told me that my smart meter hasnt inut a reading since august 2017, they havent chased. she said an electrician needs to come back out as the meter isnt commisioned, i have no idea what this means.

ive to sit tight for a fortnight which i have and nothing from them at all.

On saturday night i came back home from asda at midnight (hubby home from work kids were sleeping so got peace to go) and my neighbour was letting an electrcian out from scottish power out, apparently the house at the end of the blocks electricity was running too high which caused the fuse box next door to start smoking and crackling. The engineer has come out and changed the fuse and notified us that the energy supply from the four houses is all fed in through one house.

sunday morning up pulls vans and diggers, they have dug up my front garden (which i am not complaining about) and cut all our supply and went in to our neghbours and fitted a full new circut board. we were back up and running within two hours no issues at all.

i was having a conversation with my neighbour next door whos house has the circut board for all the houses. she told me that 2 years ago she moved onto a dd plan with n power and scottish power came out and fitted her meter as they own all the meters in our area. she went from £40 PER MONTH prepayment to now having a bill for £500 also.

she has moved back to prepayment and is clearing off her debt but again is only using £40 a month.

Before having our meters changed we were using £45 to £50 monthly in electricity. We are in a fully double glased house, full insulation just done year we moved in, heating system fitted in the last 7 years everything on energy saving nothing changed.

Our last house didnt have double glazing, was the old wooden draughty windows, same amount of bedrooms / rooms, tvs ect and my electricity was never what it is in this house.

all my children are at school now so noone in the house during the day unlike last house where i had two little ones in throughout the day.

this doesnt seem to add up to me, how can there be so much difference? and is it strange that my neighbour is having the exact same problems? can wiring be done wrong?

thank you in advance

Jackandn

Hi Cal

Your problem seems quite extreme and to be honest I'm not a 100% sure of what to do myself. I have heard of cases in the past of one house being charged for an entire streets electricity so I do know it is possible for this to happen. I suspect the best thing to do is to get together with all 4 of your neighbours and make a complaint as a group to the ombudsmen and explaining what has happend and how the energy company is at fault.

It's usually the case that you should complain through Scottish Power first and what you would say is that due to the problems with circuit boards it is unclear how much energy you have actually used and the same applies for the neighbours. I suspect though that meaningful resolution will only come through the ombudsmen.

Good Luck

hybernia

OP: Midnight visits from electricians, diggers ploughing up front gardens, tales of Scottish Power actually "owning" electricity meters in properties to which it doesn't even supply electricity . . ? This is much more than the kind of situation most likely to be encountered by the average householder.

Before even thinking of a complaint to anyone, be it the dysfunctional Scottish Power or the toothless Ombudsman service, you and your neighbours need to get together to share the cost of obtaining independent expert guidance from a qualified electrician, because until all of you are clear in your own minds as to what has actually gone on before, and what is going on now, in terms of supply distribution, you're never going to be able to ask the right questions or formulate a meaningful complaint.