Scottish Power threatening debt recovery without telling me how much I owe

ArcticRoll

Scottish Power have my Jan - April (end of March) energy usage at £585, which works out to £195 a month. For a single person in a one bedroom property that seems excessive. My position is that the calculations are faulty. It turns out that the meter reading they used when my new credit meter was installed in January (I had many problems trying to give them a meter readings) is different to the reading the engineer wrote on the white sticker besides the new meter.

Anyway that's merely background information. The current situation is that the account is "on hold" whilst they investigate and recalculate my energy usage. I again sent the email with the photo of the sticker last week, and received an automated reply.

"This is not proof the email was sent"

Hmmm, let's not go there.

But I do not know how much I owe Scottish Power. In accept I owe them something but do not accept I owe them £585 and even they acknowledge a recalculation is in order once they receive the photo of the white sticker left by the engineer confirming the reading from the old meter. Despite that I'm told I have to agree a repayment plan within 7 days or else it'll be passed onto debt recovery.

I don't even know how much I owe them presently but apparently if I don't agree a repayment schedule to pay back this unspecified amount I could have debt collectors at the door. I challenged the legal basis for passing the debt (and of course customer information) for refusing to agree a repayment schedule for an amount owed that isn't even yet confirmed. Yet the lady on the phone was insistent that this would happen within 7 days even if "the team" hadn't got around to recalculating my energy usage. It seems bonkers. I accept I do owe Scottish Power for that period but wanting to know precisely how much before setting up a repayment plan is entirely reasonable, isn't it?

Robin9

As you have an agreed reading as at April and you know todays reading you should be able to work out the energy cost in that period.

Please delete - just found your other thread

ArcticRoll

I've actually ran through an online calculator based on my actual starting reading from January and closing reading from April and it shakes down to around £300. I know it's variable based on tariff but it seems far more reasonable than the £585 figure.

But the main thrust of this grievance is them threatening me with debt recovery action for a debt they aren't even able to confirm the amount of yet. I wasn't prepared to agree a repayment schedule that could be "revisited" at a later stage after the revised bill had been calculated as I've no faith in the company allowing me to do that. I've already had a complaint against them upheld by the Ombudsman due to them being absolutely impenetrable to contact. I didn't think that was unreasonable to want to know how much I owe before agreeing an instalment plan to repay it.

effie39

Scottish Power are thieves. They have taken over from Extra Energy and I am being forced to accept their terms until I receive my 'Welcome Pack' and only then can I ditch them. They are going to charge me QUADRUPLE the daily standing charge I was paying with Extra Energy and I have no choice but to put up and shut up. But I am out of as soon I possibly can.

Uxb

Quite probably then why Extra Energy went bust.
Setting their prices either standing charge or the volumetric rate too low and then finding they are unable to buy in the energy now required in the spot market at todays' prices or did not/could not forward bulk buy previously at levels/quantity make a profit.

ArcticRoll

Looking at the final statement before they changed my key meter for a credit meter on 04/01/18, it states the final reading was 34756, but on the sticker the engineer left besides the new meter when he installed it he's written the figure as 37903. Seems like quite a big discrepancy.

Wonder if he left, forgot the number so when he logged it with Scottish Power later he either made it up, or maybe got my number confused with someone else's?

ArcticRoll

I've sent the email with the photo of the white sticker next to the meter showing the meter reading before it was replaced 3 times.

First time on 26th November as a reply do their email to me. i received an automatic reply confirming they had received the email

- On 28/11/18 during a telephone conversation with them they told me they hadn't received it. I checked the email address (contactus@...etc) and that I should just put my account number in the subject of the email. I did that and sent it to them again. I got another automatic reply/confirmation email from them.

- Today I got a call at work, the email still hadn't been received. Again sent the email to them and again received another automatic reply/confirmation email. I waited on the phone as long as I could but it still hadn't been received.

I'm getting concerned now as they've told me this is imminently going to be passed onto debt recovery and I'm concerned about the possible impact on my credit score.

System

ArcticRoll wrote: »

I've sent the email with the photo of the white sticker next to the meter showing the meter reading before it was replaced 3 times.

First time on 26th November as a reply do their email to me. i received an automatic reply confirming they had received the email

- On 28/11/18 during a telephone conversation with them they told me they hadn't received it. I checked the email address (contactus@...etc) and that I should just put my account number in the subject of the email. I did that and sent it to them again. I got another automatic reply/confirmation email from them.

- Today I got a call at work, the email still hadn't been received. Again sent the email to them and again received another automatic reply/confirmation email. I waited on the phone as long as I could but it still hadn't been received.

I'm getting concerned now as they've told me this is imminently going to be passed onto debt recovery and I'm concerned about the possible impact on my credit score.

Personally, I would never trust email for this type of thing. Put all the information in a letter and send it Recorded Delivery.

ArcticRoll

Usually I'd agree but each email receives an automatic reply confirming receipt, so there is an electronic trail. The risk with recorded delivery is that although I'll have confirmation it was received they could pull the "oh, but you should have addressed it to X department, else it won't get there." With email I've used the email address they asked me to send it to, three times and received confirmation three times that my email was received.

Yesterday I received red-topped 'Payment demand' letter from the 'Escalated Recoveries Team;' Still absolutely no acknowledgement of the information supplied that would necessitate a recalculation of the bill. My issue isn't that I don't believe I owe them money, it's that I want to know how much I owe them before I agree a repayment plan.

redux

Why not pay what you hope is about the right amount, leaving the rest to be resolved?

It wouldn't do anything to speed up eventually getting the right figure, but surely it would show you intend to pay, and hold off their debt chasing department.

ArcticRoll

The amount would be too high. This is a bill that covers Jan - April. One of my previous disputes was over the fact they did not send me a bill, despite requesting to be billed monthly, until after I had requested to switch suppliers. Even then the bill itself didn't arrive until July.

I did have an instalment plan with them for 3 months but stopped once they stopped engaging completely with my requests for the amount of my bill to be looked at again. My energy usage for the period was the average you'd expect from a fully-occupied 5 bedroom family home, and I live in a one bedroom apartment by myself. Once they weren't willing to engage or respond to evidence that I had supplied them that my bill was incorrect I stopped the instalments.

I fully acknowledge I owe them something but I'm not expected to calculate my own bill. I've told them multiple times that I will agree a repayment plan once they recalculate what I owe them. I don't want to agree a repayment plan for an amount I do not owe as they've given me reason to doubt they'll ever respond to me again and simply continue taking money until the incorrectly calculated bill is repaid.

The fact that I am disputing my bill is something they were aware of months before they passed it onto their recoveries team, yet they've ignored every single correspondence, which have included several phone calls where "our team will investigate and get back to you" has been a frequently broken promise, and of course ignored emails.