Scottish Power - new meter

eilidhorrell

Hello

i was due to have a new meter fitted by Scottish power on 1st October, they cancelled 2 days before and couldn’t tell me when I could rebook. Their reason was my postcode is in a Covid restricted area. It’s not. 

After 3 emails back and forth I phoned and the lady on the phone told me that there was a 3-6 month delay in my area. If this was the case then I should never have been booked for October in the first place. I was told on the phone that they are fitting meters elsewhere in Scotland to which I replied then I should be no different. I said I presume this is because you don’t have engineers here or that they won’t travel and she laughed at me. Wasn’t the nicest phone all and after requesting to speak to someone in management I was told I would be phoned back. This hasn’t happened. Can anyone offer any advice as to what I can do?

tacpot12

You can complain, but mistakes happen; as you say, you should not have been given a date in October, but you were. You were laughed at because you made a funny comment. They should have called you back when they said they would - this is probably your strongest avenue for complaint. I doubt you will get a Smart meter any more quickly though. 

[Deleted User]

Hi,

is there a problem with your existing meter, credit or paygo?

Carrot007

Not much you can do except wait and keep trying to book. Is there a reason you want a meter change or is it just end of meter life?

I can tell you from experience that yes Scotland is a right pain for engineers, however it really does depends on where about you are. If up in the north SSE area then moving to them might help. Or it might not! Moving to British Gas may also help since they have the most customers by far so should have the most engineeers. But those are just random thoughts as no company will tell you the details of what engineers they have so it's all just guess work. (And if you are off mainland then expect the company has 1 guy that moves around beetween them all and unless you accept the one day a year he should be there then you will not get a meter change! Oh and don't forget he could well be off sick!).

Edit: Additional thoughts since I have been with SP myself before. Never ring them, use the web chat. Won't help if they have no capacity but you might actually come away with an understanding of what is going on.