Scottish power - will not sort this problem out - 12 months ongoing now.

dangerpowers

Hi all, I was at the end of my tether a year ago with Scottish Power, and this has pretty much destroyed me now so looking for advice what to do next as after 12 months of calls, emails and broken promises / apologies. I'm a bit ashamed to admit but I think about it all the time and upsets me fairly regularly as I can't seem to resolve it.

Just a few bullet points below to show my history.

• I moved into my current property March 2017 and transferred over my existing EDF Gas+Electric account to my new property.
• I switched to Tonik energy in February 2019
• I switched to E.on in January 2020
• I am now with British Gas from January 2021

The problem I have is that I signed up to "lookaftermybills.com" just after I switched to Tonik energy (February 2019) who then decided to switch me to Scottish power a month after my Tonik switch. The Scottish power tariff was more expensive than my Tonik one so I cancelled the switch and my account with "lookaftermybills.com".

Unknown to me the Scottish Power switch was completed for electricity only, so during my time with Tonik energy I was actually with Tonik for Gas, and Scottish power for Electric. (This is all recorded on the national database according to various suppliers i've called). I managed to recoup my money from Tonik and now need to pay this to Scottish Power.

After phonecalls to Scottish Power I managed to get a bill for the electric to cover the period February 2019 to January 2020. However they had actually billed me for my entire period of living at the property from March 2017 to January 2020 - 3 years in total even though I have bills and national database evidence to show I was with other suppliers during this period.

I then started to receive demands for the immediate payment of £1400 for 3 years of electric which culminated in a phonecall to Scottish Power collections department to set up a payment plan for this just to stop the collections department from issuing me a default.

After many more phonecalls, Scottish power admitted they had made the error and apologised profusely claiming they would sort this out. In the meantime I would make payments of £24 a month until this issue was sorted out. That was last summer and i'm still making this payment and Scottish Power will not sort this issue out, claiming it is a very complicated process at their end.

This complicated process is basically them changing my tenancy period with Scottish Power on their records from 3 years to 1 year and to send me a new bill, which has taken nearly a year to do.

Sorry for rambling but I tried to keep this as brief as possible.

Please can someone offer some advice? i'm not in a good place with this.

Many thanks, Dan

tacpot12

Do you know how much you owed Scottish Power before the repayment plan was set up? 

If so, my suggestion would be that you either pay them what you owe them or let the repayment plan run until you have paid them. Then cancel the direct debit and wait for them to take you to court. They will have to convince the judge that you owe them anything at all, and if they are so disorganised that they can't give you an accurate bill, I doubt they will have sorted themselves out by the time they appear in court.

It strikes me you have been far to patient and accommodating of them. I would not have paid anything until they gave me an accurate bill. 

niktheguru

Have you actually written a complaint to them? Or has this just all been chats to customer service (phone/email)
You must write a written complaint detailing exactly  what has happened. Include meter readings where possible and establish exactly how much you owe scottish power in kwh and £/p. Ask them for a deadlock letter if they are not willing to solve the complaint in a timely manner.

Then you must go to the ombudsman and make a complaint. This will then be sorted with all the facts.

You've learned the hard way how shambolic "lookaftermybills" are, they should be renamed "shaftmybills"
You say you "cancelled" the switches to scottish power. If that was the case then how come you are paying SP anything? surely it should all be reversed and you should be owing this electricity amount to tonik, as they failed to cancel your transfer. Do you have evidence of this cancellation in terms or emails etc. (or did you just tell lookaftermybills to cancel it?)

dangerpowers

tacpot12 said:

Do you know how much you owed Scottish Power before the repayment plan was set up? 

If so, my suggestion would be that you either pay them what you owe them or let the repayment plan run until you have paid them. Then cancel the direct debit and wait for them to take you to court. They will have to convince the judge that you owe them anything at all, and if they are so disorganised that they can't give you an accurate bill, I doubt they will have sorted themselves out by the time they appear in court.

It strikes me you have been far to patient and accommodating of them. I would not have paid anything until they gave me an accurate bill. 

Hi Thanks for the reply.

I have records of my meter readings and have told them this. Unfortunately I believed them when they said this would be sorted in a few weeks and since I was being threatened with collections and default the next day on my file (whilst I was going through a difficult mortgage application) I thought it would have worked through.

dangerpowers

niktheguru said:

Have you actually written a complaint to them? Or has this just all been chats to customer service (phone/email)
You must write a written complaint detailing exactly  what has happened. Include meter readings where possible and establish exactly how much you owe scottish power in kwh and £/p. Ask them for a deadlock letter if they are not willing to solve the complaint in a timely manner.

Then you must go to the ombudsman and make a complaint. This will then be sorted with all the facts.

You've learned the hard way how shambolic "lookaftermybills" are, they should be renamed "shaftmybills"
You say you "cancelled" the switches to scottish power. If that was the case then how come you are paying SP anything? surely it should all be reversed and you should be owing this electricity amount to tonik, as they failed to cancel your transfer. Do you have evidence of this cancellation in terms or emails etc. (or did you just tell lookaftermybills to cancel it?)

Hi, thanks for the reply,

I cancelled the switch but the national database says otherwise. Cancellation was done over the phone unfortunately.

Scottish power said they have opened a complaint with them on my behalf. If I work out the exact cost I owe them myself do you advise cancelling the payment plan I have with them? I'm petrified of defaults as I have a mortgage.

Thanks so much for help.

niktheguru

The details are a little vague so far. I assume you should be paying scottish for 11months of usage. Do you know what that usage is. You should have meter readings for the opening and closing readings. You shouldn't pay more than that.

You should ensure you have a WRITTEN complaint against scottish power, where you clearly list what has happened. You then need to include evidence of meter readings both opening and closing detailing how much you owe them. Don't leave it to them to work it out. You TELL them what it is and say that is what you are paying, unless they can provide you with an accurate bill saying otherwise. (you should know what your unit rate and standing charge is so can calculate what you owe them to the penny. (if you need help post all the details here and we can help you.) Then also provide them with the FIRST bill from E.on stating which opening reading they used and what date, so you can prove when scottish stopped supplying your energy.
You should demand compensation for the time, effort and inconvenience this has posed you.

In situations like this you have to be really clear and really well prepared with all the facts. Dont just pay what they want. If you over pay then it'll take you another year to get it all back. It has taken long enough!!

If you are not getting anywhere GO TO THE OMBUDSMAN. Don't delay. They cannot ask debt collectors etc to come when there is a dispute with the ombudsman.

Also, get latest copies of your credit files (for free) and make sure there is nothing from them on there. If there is you will need to insist that they reverse this as this has all been their fault.

dangerpowers

niktheguru said:

The details are a little vague so far. I assume you should be paying scottish for 11months of usage. Do you know what that usage is. You should have meter readings for the opening and closing readings. You shouldn't pay more than that.

You should ensure you have a WRITTEN complaint against scottish power, where you clearly list what has happened. You then need to include evidence of meter readings both opening and closing detailing how much you owe them. Don't leave it to them to work it out. You TELL them what it is and say that is what you are paying, unless they can provide you with an accurate bill saying otherwise. (you should know what your unit rate and standing charge is so can calculate what you owe them to the penny. (if you need help post all the details here and we can help you.) Then also provide them with the FIRST bill from E.on stating which opening reading they used and what date, so you can prove when scottish stopped supplying your energy.
You should demand compensation for the time, effort and inconvenience this has posed you.

In situations like this you have to be really clear and really well prepared with all the facts. Dont just pay what they want. If you over pay then it'll take you another year to get it all back. It has taken long enough!!

If you are not getting anywhere GO TO THE OMBUDSMAN. Don't delay. They cannot ask debt collectors etc to come when there is a dispute with the ombudsman.

Also, get latest copies of your credit files (for free) and make sure there is nothing from them on there. If there is you will need to insist that they reverse this as this has all been their fault.

This is great thank you so much for the info.

I'll get onto a written complaint to Scottish Power with the exact amount owed and what I've paid.

If no luck I will go to the Ombudsman.

MWT

dangerpowers said:

• I moved into my current property March 2017 and transferred over my existing EDF Gas+Electric account to my new property.

This isn't actually possible, you cannot transfer an existing account to a new address, you have to register with the existing supplier at the new address first and then switch to your preferred supplier...

I wonder if it is possible that Scottish Power were the existing supplier at the time and that is where the problems have come from?

jbuchanangb

The OP says that various checks have been performed on various databases to confirm the timings but I agree that the question does arise as to which company was supplying the property when they moved in, and how the switch to to EDF was handled.

It is possible that any payments made to EDF from March 2017 to February 2019 were erroneous if no switch from previous incumbent supplier to EDF had actually occurred.

OP may have been providing meter readings, receiving and paying EDF bills, all the while SP were the actual supplier.

jbuchanangb

OP needs to set out clearly:

Date moved into property. Gas & Electricity meter readings on that date. To which supplier these readings were provided.

Date account taken over by EDF (if EDF were not the incumbent supplier). Gas & Electricity meter readings on that date. Might be 2 dates and readings as these switches rarely happen on exactly the same date.

Date of switch to Tonik for Electricity. Electricity meter reading for that date. (If a switch from EDF to Tonik for Electricity happened.)

Date of switch to Tonik for Gas. Gas meter reading for that date.

Date of switch to SP for Electricity. Electricity meter reading on that date.

Dates of switches to E.On with meter readings for those dates.

Alongside all this is needed amounts billed by and paid to each of the energy suppliers, and any refunds received.

It is complicated, but if set out clearly, it can be resolved. In the past I have helped someone who was willing to post up in the forum all their bills going back about 3 years, by entering all the data into a spreadsheet. It's a very long thread, you can look at it here.