Scottish power doubling my DD payment

MWT

veejay43 said:

Octopus are raising a dispute with SP about the last higher reading they sent, compared to my meter reading

That will be a dispute with the organisation that reviews the meter readings for switches and changes them if they believe the reading should be different based on previous usage.

It must be quite a distance from the meter reading you gave to Octopus as they cannot dispute it if it is close, even with photographic evidence.

Robin9

veejay34 - you continue to talk in terms of £'s -   what has been your ACTUAL consumption over the last 12 months - in kwh not £.

milgo

veejay34 - If you drive a car this analogy may work for you!

Imagine that you could pay for your petrol or diesel by DD instead of each time you visited a petrol station. and the amount of that DD was £50 per month because when you set up the DD you were told that if you drive no more than 1000 miles per month your DD would cover the cost of your fuel.

So off you go to the filling station and fuel your car without having to hand over any cash as you are paying by DD. Then your circumstances change and you are actually driving 2000 miles per month but still only paying your £50 DD.

3 months later you are sent a bill detailing how much fuel you have "actually" put into your car and it comes to a total of £300. Of course, you have already paid £150 by DD but you will still have to pay the additional £150 that YOU have used.

Conversely had your circumstances changed the other way...Let's say you went away on holiday for a month and when you got back your car not used for another month so in that 3 month period you only drove for 1 month and only covered 500 miles.  You would have paid for more in DD than you had used so would be in credit on your account.

veejay43

I  do know i have no way used the amount of Electricity SP are billing me for, Octopus   said the readinSP gave them for my final bill is a lot higher than the reading i gave them for my final bill

I had only been with SP for 4 months when i was told i was in debt by £300, ans that was summer, from May to September,

I had paid £70 a month for that time which is what i was asked to pay,then changed it to £85 which was already more than the £300 i was supposed to be in debt for

Of course i am saying it in money terms because i had not used enough fuel to rack up that amount,no way

If i had been using a lot of gas and Electricity,i could have understood it but no one could rack up that amount in summer on their own using basic appliances, and rarely using gas especially

I understand i would be paying more if i was using more but i wasn't,

i would have had to have my heating on a lot and maybe do a lot of cooking or using lots of electric, hardly even had the TV on in summer

milgo, i get what you are saying and of course i understand what you mean, but i was not using more than i was paying for

I know those bills were wrong, and the refunds i mentioned earlier were at the ends of my contracts, so i paid the same amount in summer to cover for extra use in winter, and still overpaid,even after the winter,as it seems it was misunderstood

I think i will just leave this here now,as obviously it seems as if i am just complaining about overpaying when i have actually used a higher amount of fuel , when i know my bills should not be anything like what i am being asked for

Also can anyone explain  why ,SP have put on my final bill 2 amounts i am supposed to have paid them which i actually haven't ,and has not even come out of my bank,and how SP charged me £50 for 3 weeks gas in hot weather,when Octopus bill for one month   and hot weather again only £14

Scottish Power seem to overcharge a lot from what i have recently read from others,

Robin9

veejay43 -  please, please, please - if you give us consumption figures in kWh we may be able to help. If you continue to talk solely in £'s we can't.

veejay43

Just to add, look on Trust Pilot, so many having similiar problems,

When i did manage to speak to someone,during lockdown who said he couldn't help  as customer services were inundated,[ i bet they were] he was only there to get new customers,and change tarriffs

Also very rude,said would i rather people sat next to each other and got the virus?!!

Gerry1

You need to deal with hard facts, and that means annual kWh from actual meter readings.

Not ££. Annual kWh from actual meter readings.

Emotion by itself won't cut the mustard, it'll just do nasty things to your blood pressure.

Talldave

@veejay43 are you reading replies to your messages?  Post meter readings,  rather than repetitive rants about how little you use.

Neil_Jones

veejay43 said:

Scottish Power seem to overcharge a lot from what i have recently read from others,

Scottish Power do not overcharge any more than anybody else.  The issue you've raised is one of the most common "complaints" on the forum, and nine times out of 10 it isn't a "complaint", its a lack of understanding how the system works.

As has been highlighted you need to think in terms of usage (kWh, or "the numbers on the meter" if you like), and not what's coming out of your bank account.

Mystymay

I switched to Scottish Power and wish I hadn't. They keep on changing my direct Debit and making it higher, and saying I am using more. I only have a small one bedroom flat. Their Customer Service is dire...I have never known anything like it. I was trying to discuss my direct Debit with someone there today, and he just spent long periods in silence, and  would then come back to me with short bursts of why they had raised it, none of which made sense, except that he was telling me I had used more over the Winter. The Direct Debit amount ususally stays fixed and balances out over the Summer months and they keep changing it. When I told him they are charging me more than I should be paying , he cut me off, and didn't bother to ring me back. I  waited over half an hout to speak to someone, and can't go through that wait again. I then tried to use the online chat system, that was useless. A message came up saying 'Due to the covid restrictions etc', but I couldn't finish reading what it said, as the words faded and disappeared to nothing. I assume it was saying that due to covid restrictions, there was no one availble. Looks like they passed out half way through typing it. I am now trying to find a way to send them an email, that isn't as easy as it sounds either. I will be switching. This is the worst company I have ever dealt with.