Switching from Scottish Power- final billl

fly-catchers

Today I was moved from Scottish Power to PFP. The first DD went to PFP today also. The last bill I had from Scottish Power was in January! And despite giving monthly readings and their web site showing the relevant bill date only January is actually there.    
 I have contacted them a few times but nothing has changed. They take the same DD payment each month but I know I am currently at least £1500 in debit with them. I run several tropical greenhouses so do have above average electricity usage.
Prior to the January bill and just before I finally got my credit from Tonik they were going to increase my DD to an amount that would have more in keeping with the amount used. But once they redid that last bill with the Tonik credit left the DD as it was. When the switching started they listed the switching date as January 2017 for both gas and electricity! Now they don’t even list the gas. Just saying I am switching electricity from January 2017. So their website is completely messed up.
Should I cancel my DD with them and after calculating the actual amount I owe them , pay them separately. The figures I gave PFP for their first readings are the same I have put in on the Scottish Power site. That is showing on their site but the credit balance is just the amounts I have paid each month since January and does not reflect any actual usage! 
Scottish Power must know I am switching as I have loads of calls from them to “persuade “ me to stay! And whenever they have phoned I have pointed out the completely inaccurate figures on their website. But nothing has been done about it. Any suggestions?

Reed_Richards

In due course PFP will send Scottish Power an adjudicated opening reading which SP will use to generate a final bill.  Both SP and PFP are obliged to use this adjudicated reading as the handover reading.    

niktheguru

If your account is massively in debit why would cancelling the direct debit help?
I would suggest keeping it and waiting for your final bill, assuming SP haven't blocked your transfer due to a large debt (not entirely of your making, but more due to their inability to produce a bill for you.)

Have you calculated a 1500 debit, or is that what the online account is showing not taking into consideration usage since Jan?
Once you've switched and the meter readings have been agreed by the third party adjuication body thingy, you'll be able to accurately calculated how much you owe and can contact SP and tell them to sort themselves out!

[Deleted User]

fly-catchers said:

The figures I gave PFP for their first readings are the same I have put in on the Scottish Power site. 

A picture saves a thousand words. This shows what happens when you initiate a switch of supplier. The New Supplier Metering Agent validates the reading that you provided against your past usage, and it passes the reading on to the old supplier via its Metering Agent,  and to your new supplier to open and close your accounts. The old supplier has 6 weeks from the date of the transfer to raise a Final Bill.

fly-catchers

I have had the final bill from Scottish Power which is shown as an estimated reading and is quite a bit more than my current readings. And a lot bigger than the reading I gave PFP as my starting reading. I had put in the readings earlier to SP which were accepted but have now been replaced by these higher readings. Does this all eventually get sorted or do you have to accept you will end up paying for some of your energy twice with both suppliers? I tried to enter my readings again but it came up with an error message.

MWT

How much higher is it (in kWh) than the closing reading you provided?

fly-catchers

MWT said:

How much higher is it (in kWh) than the closing reading you provided?

90 kWh day.  31 kWH night and 31 kWH gas.

[Deleted User]

fly-catchers said:

I have had the final bill from Scottish Power which is shown as an estimated reading and is quite a bit more than my current readings. And a lot bigger than the reading I gave PFP as my starting reading. I had put in the readings earlier to SP which were accepted but have now been replaced by these higher readings. Does this all eventually get sorted or do you have to accept you will end up paying for some of your energy twice with both suppliers? I tried to enter my readings again but it came up with an error message.

Oh dear. When you switch suppliers, you should not give final readings to your old supplier. Your new supplier manages the complete transfer of supply process which includes the validation of the readings that you provided to it on switch. Once validated, these readings are passed to both suppliers to open and close your accounts. There is never a situation where you will end up paying for the same energy twice. You may though end up with estimated readings that are different from the ones that you provided.

For example, if you overpay your old supplier for 90kWs, then your new supplier will not charge you for units consumed until the actual meter index passes the agreed opening/closing readings. The difference in cost to you is therefore the DIFFERENCE in unit prices times 90: pennies

https://octopus.energy/blog/secret-life-opening-meter-reading/

If the industry-agreed readings differ from the ones provided then subject to certain limits an Agreed Readings Dispute can be initiated:

https://www.ovoenergy.com/binaries/content/assets/documents/pdfs/pbe_meter_read_dispute_web-147.pdf

fly-catchers

I did get an email from Scottish Power asking for the meter reading once the switch was underway. Should I had to ignore that message? Currently Scottish Power in my final bill which will debited at the end of this month is higher than the starting amount shown on the PFP site. Or will that get adjusted in due course? 

[Deleted User]

When was you actual supply transfer date? Tye validation of opening readings can take up to 10 working days from the date of transfer. 

The losing supplier has six weeks from the date of transfer to raise a final bill. Both suppliers are required by their Supply Licences to use the same readings to open and close your accounts.

fly-catchers

My transfer date was 14th June. I think my mistake was putting in my final reading which PFP had asked for on the 9th June. Because of course 5 days have passed. So I guess I should have put my current reading on that date? Should I update my readings on the PFP site to my current one? Though of course it still would show the opening reading as being the same one I had given them on the 9th! It does my head in! Every time I switch it never seems to go to plan!