Scottish Power chasing me for £350, I have never used them.

zippygeorgeandben

OK, please help me everyone. Apologies for the long email but need some advice.
I will tell you the facts and not muddle the post with thoughts/opinions as best I can so you may be able to hep and point in right direction.
1) I moved into a new property on the 1st August 2019, moving from E11 to E18.
2) My previous supplier at E11 was Bulb (recommended on MSE)
3) 23/07 (A week before moving) I sent this email to Bulb in reference to moving home. Hi Bulb, trying to complete my switch to transfer Bulb from my current address to the one I'm moving to. Have filled out online but when I click complete switch it isn't moving to the next page so it suggests I contact you. Ben
4) 24/07 I hear back. We're so excited to have you join Bulb. We've just told your old supplier you're leaving. So sit back and relax, your home will be powered by our renewable energy on 13 Aug 2019. But Bulb were my old supplier...
5) I email Bulb querying and they said I tried to do the switch too soon and replied with 'Hi Ben I can reapply for the switch in a few days if you would like. Can you confirm your new address again for me, I then did that this day, with the new address.
6) I notice that I haven't received an online bill from Bulb. So I contact them on 29/09 Hi Carl, Just checking - am I with bulb at the moment? I went online to give a meter reading however, it still has old address. Can you check your information on the system as to whether bulb is set up in my new address. Thanks. I’m pretty sure I set up to start again when I moved on 31/07/2019 to E18.
7) I never heard back from Carl at Bulb so I sent this email on 12/12.
Hi Carl,Needing some help here. I have just received a bill from Scottish Power (who I have never used) for 1st August to the 19th October for £377.12. I am not sure why as my contract is with you? Can you read the email trail below. Not sure what is happening here.
Can you please close the E11 account as well? It is still showing on my bulb account.
It doesn’t seem this switch was as smooth as it should have been.
Thanks
Ben
8) 3rd August I have an email from bulb asking for final meter reading and it is my last day with Bulb.
9) 4th August an email from bulb saying 'All done and dusted. We no longer supply you at E11. We'll send you your final statement soon. We'll let you know if there is anything left to pay, or whether we need to refund you any credit.
10) On the 21/10 I get an email saying Hi Ben, Congrats, we're now your supplier for electricity. You don't need to do anything else.
You'll get your final bill within 6 weeks once your old supplier has your meter readings. We'll send your readings to the regulator now to check, and then we'll email you in a couple of weeks once they've sent them on to your old supplier.
11) 2/11 email Hi Ben We've heard back that your old supplier has received your electricity reading of 40552. This means they have everything they need to close up your account.
12) 3/11 email from Bulb - Maxine Y. (Bulb Help)
Nov 3, 09:36 GMT Hi Ben, As you have more than one property with Bulb, we’ve grouped them together into one online account. The next time you sign in using this email address, you can select a property from the dropdown menu at the top of the screen. so you are definitely still with us. (doesn't this contridict point 9?)
13) Receive letter from Scottish Power - with my name on, address, account number. I'm surprised by this. Never used them in my life. I also know that the previous tenant did not use Scottish Power, they used a different supplier. Spoke to Renee at 1240 SP at collection department option 3 -She says what would happen is that the previous occupier closes down the account and then they ask the new tenants whether they want to continue with it.
She has written all the notes down . she isn't sure how I have name, address and account number if I haven't signed up for them. I explained I have never had a SP account
14) I ring a different number for SP and cannot get through security as the DOB on their system does not match the one I give them over the phone. This bill of £377.12 is for 6 weeks worth of energy on a standard current tariff (I was out of the country for 10 days in this spell) The meter reading on it is the one I gave to Bulb in point 11 (40552) so have bulb told SP this? Even though they aren't the supplier for previous tenant or me?
15) On live chat with SP they say - I do get that you have not contacted us in order to create the account,
However Scottish Power has supplied the property till 19 Oct 2019 ,
and the occupier needs to bear the usage cost till 19th oct as Bulb Energy to over the supply as on 20th oct.
Hence you have received the bill, And during move out customer has option to provide the new occupier details as occupier needs to confirm that he is no longer responsible for property.
The bill you have received is based on reads supplied by Bulb energy during change of supply process , as they will need to supply the meter reads to close the account hence on the basic of same bill has been generated.

My questions though are still that I never authorised SP to set account up and the previous tenant did not use. What meter reading are they taking this bill from i.e. who gave them a reading from before I moved in? I know the pervious tenant said she didn't so it's an estimate. How can SP say they supply when they aren't the supplier for this property and haven't been,
Any help appreciated

Gerry1

Unfortunately you've done it all the wrong way; all the to-ing and fro-ing with Bulb is an irrelevance. (TBH, it's also a bit TL;DR !)

You should have registered with the provider at the new address which for whatever reason is Scottish Power. If you didn't, you will have ended up on an expensive 'deemed' tariff: you will have a contract with them by default. There's not much point in challenging this, it's how the system works. At best you might get some small goodwill payment from Bulb if they've messed you around and given you wrong information, but in general you'll have just to put it down to experience and move on.

Presumably you haven't given SP your opening meter reading so they've probably had to use estimated readings. You will have to regularise the situation with SP first and then move to Bulb. You'll probably have to pay the expensive SP deemed rates until you have registered.

twhitehousescat

sorry . quick thought

when you move to new property you are automatically placed (supplied) by the company that suplied the previous occupant , you need to transfer to your name THEN change supplier

its not like milkman or even internet , you need to register with company that were supplying the property THEN do a transfer

zippygeorgeandben

The previous occupier was OVO - not SP. So why are BULB giving SP details?

zippygeorgeandben

I also think Bulb deceived by saying it was quick and easy. Wasn't!

JJ_Egan

(But Bulb were my old supplier)
No not at this property .

Reads as Bulb thought you had done everything right and you had registered your deemed contract .

zippygeorgeandben

Also - as it's the first I want to reduce bills - I'm paying around £110 a month for electric. We don't have dishwasher, tumble dryer. We don't have central heating. We don't use the wall heaters (we use a dyson floor fan to move hot air around the room). It's a small 2 bed flat.
Any tips on reducing the bills?

zippygeorgeandben

More info from SP live chat
Though Scottish Power is not the supplier at the property, However looking at your consumption and calculating it, I have observed that your usage is more then 30 units per day ,
Which is extremely high compared to normal usage.
In case you do not consume too much electricity, I would suggest you to contact your current supplier and check if the meter is fine.

Andy_WSM

zippygeorgeandben wrote: »

Any tips on reducing the bills?

Use the Dyson heater less! It's not "moving hot air around the room", it's burning electricity to make hot air to blow around the room, exactly the same way a £7.99 fan heater from Argos would do.

zippygeorgeandben

Thank you everyone. We use average of 31 units a day and we're not quite sure what on. I have agreed to pay the SP bill in instalments and then I can chase Bulb. Maybe the meter is faulty.
As you're all helping we have an 'Electric off peak mains pressure system' in the airing cupboard. There are four individual switches, no idea what they do and a thermostat as well. It's all so confusing.

Gerry1

Sorry to say this, but if you have moved to a flat without gas you have made a BIG mistake. Electric heating is hideously expensive, especially if it is at single rate or peak rate Economy 7. If you are renting, then at least you have the option of moving without all the costs of stamp duty etc.

If you have purchased and gas cannot be laid on, then it's very bad news. You have the choice of insanely expensive plug in heating, or storage heaters on E7 that are inflexible and tend to provide heat at the wrong times. You could consider heat pump systems, but then you face the capital and installation costs, it's still more expensive than GCH and they have various limitations and drawbacks.

In the meantime, look at the power ratings of all your devices, take meter readings regularly and understand your tariff: think of annual kWh usage from actual meter readings, and forget the DD amounts which may or may not be keeping up with your usage.

If you have a two-rate E7 meter, make sure the immersion heater is only used on the cheap rate and that any second immersion heater on a 24 hour supply is left switched off.