Scottish Power-refund query. Sleight of hand magic trick?

spiritus

My mother was with Tonic Energy which went into liquidation and her account was transferred over to Scottish Power.
At the time of Tonik Energy's collapse my mother had around £ 175 of credit on her account with them which was transferred over to Scottish Power.
When Scottish Power completed the transfer of my mother's energy account they kept the monthly direct debit at the same amount as when my mother was with Tonik.
When I asked Scottish Power for a refund within the first month they told me we had to wait for the 1st bill to be generated which I thought seemed fair enough at the time, however,once the first bill was generated a refund was still not forthcoming and then I completely forgot about it for 2-3 months until I checked mum's account and remembered about our refund request. I requested a refund again and was told AGAIN that we had to wait for another bill to be generated so I submitted upto date readings. As this was a winter reading the created bill was larger than the summer months and most of the credit amount disappeared (they offered to refund £ 55 to mum's bank account).

I know I am probably being thick but I would have thought that if there was a credit balance on the account that they would either a) reduce the direct debit amount or b) refund the credit amount to her bank account.

I am also presuming that the direct debit amount which remained the same from Tonik's contract was calculated to absorb fluctuations with usage over high peak and low peak demands. Even if they refunded the whole amount the DD should have covered this (more or less) and any shortfall would result in an increase in monthly payments at some stage OR a request to pay the shortfall.

I can see the credit amount of £ 175 was allocated against mum's bill but in real terms the DD amount has not dropped nor has mum received the full amount of the refund.

Is it a case of us waiting for the account to return to a credit balance during the summer months to then request another refund?

Have Scottish Power acted properly? 

jbuchanangb

The first miracle is that the credit balance from Tonik was carried over correctly onto your mother's Scottish Power account. A modest credit balance (about the same as the monthly DD) is no bad thing. If you switch supplier it has to be paid back to you. Otherwise, when the DD has its annual review, it can be deducted from the forecast cost for the next 12 months' worth of energy, and factored into the new DD amount. Scottish Power's web site even has a feature to allow you to change your DD amount, so you could do some arithmetic now as the the cost of the next 12 months energy, deduct the credit balance and propose a new DD amount.

SPOWER

Phone supplier and ask for Direct Debit to be reduced by say £15 each month, you wouldn't want you mum to wind up in debt surely?

SPOWER

There isn't a magic trick and the thanks button is not an ornament.  Thank you.

worrywart_3

Lucky you I haven’t seen hide
nor hair of my tonik credit it sounds likes it’s been absorbed in to what your mum has used with sp charges being much higher than toniks.

MWT

spiritus said:

Is it a case of us waiting for the account to return to a credit balance during the summer months to then request another refund?

It sounds like everything is working as intended.

It is normal to have a decent sized credit built up to carry you though winter and it is normal for it to be reduced by the winter bills to the point where it has pretty much vanished by the end of March.

The worst thing you would do is let the credit build up again over summer and then claim it back before you hit the higher winter bills, that would just leave her owing them money and seeing her DD increased to cover the shortfall.

Take a look at her account after the March bill has been paid and if there is still a credit at that point ask for that amount back, that still leaves time to build up a buffer again before winter..

BedrockFred

SPOWER said:

There isn't a magic trick and the thanks button is not an ornament.  Thank you.

Doh  Why should he use the thanks button, can't see how you have helped enough for a thanks button 

SPOWER

Always hated the flintstones..........

Tranboy

SPOWER said:

Always hated the flintstones..........

And not being patted on the head......

theoretica

Scottish Power is considerably more expensive than Tonik was so by keeping the DD the same it will be buying less electricity and the winter means higher usage which is why credit builds up over the summer.  If they change to a cheaper supplier any remaining credit will be refunded.

SPOWER

Tranboy said:

SPOWER said:

Always hated the flintstones..........

And not being patted on the head......

What is that supposed to mean?