Dealing with Scottish Power - what a nightmare

wordswords

I’d like to ask some advice with dealing with Scottish Power. I have had a long-standing complaint open since November 2020 with them because they have calculated my bills wrong. When I transferred over from Tonk Energy I was paying £100 / month for gas and electricity and now they are charging me £175 / month which is due to a miscalculation on their system. I have not significantly increased my electricity or gas use.

I have talked to numerous complaint handlers and several of them have agreed with me that it is a mistake on their system and promised to recalculate the amount. I thought I was making some progress a month ago when I finally got through to a competent person who suggested I take a meter reading at the start of the week and at the end of the week, and they would feed it through to their technical team who would reassess my bills properly from November last year. I unfortunately spent a week in hospital which delayed me sending the results but I took accurate readings on both dates and sent it to them via email with full details. I didn’t get any response from my email so I phoned up. They informed me that the complaint had been mysteriously ‘closed’ without further response.

They have recently issued me with a credit default and sent someone around to my house. I have explained that I have had a long term complaint with them open and that I have done everything required to resolve it, and I want my bills recalculated.

At this point I am not sure what my options are. They are threatening to send baliffs around but I want them to recalculate the bill properly and respond to me properly. I have heard there is the option of the financial ombudsman but I am not sure how to get them involved. I just want this resolved and my actual bill calculated so I can go on a payment plan and start paying it back.

Robin9

Have you made a WRITTEN formal complaint ?

[Deleted User]

There is an Energy Ombudsman which is a private arbitration service approved by Ofgem to deal with escalated complaints. You have to refer any complaint to them within 12 months of getting a Final Decision on your complaint from your supplier. The Energy Ombudsman has no statutory powers. Its Decision is binding on a supplier but not enforceable by Statute.

The Energy Ombudsman does not investigate complaints as such. It reviews the evidence that you and the supplier provide so it is very much in your best interests to submit a detailed chronological file of evidence. Given the time that has elapsed, you might wish to consider raising a Subject Access Request against the supplier.

You do not have to accept The Energy Ombudsman’s Final Decision. If you reject it, then your complaint is kicked into the long grass and the supplier can use the Final Decision in support of any Court action that it might decide to take against you.

Remember, your complaint times out after a year from the date of the supplier’s response to your complaint. If no formal response has ever been made then you had the right to escalate your complaint to The Energy Ombudsman 8 weeks after the initial complaint was made. I assume that the 12 months would time out from this date.

PS. Reading your post again. Have you actually made a formal complaint or have you just been engaging with various CS people on the phone? The latter does not constitute a complaint. If this is the case, then you cannot go to The Energy Ombudsman until you have followed the supplier’s formal complaints procedure. Also, an increase in your monthly payment does not necessarily mean that you are being overcharged. You need to look carefully at all your statements. This is the detail that The Energy Ombudsman will expect you to provide in support of your complaint.

jbuchanangb

As with all energy billing matters, the important thing is the meter readings. What were the readings (actual or estimated) used by SP when they transferred your account from Tonik? What are they now? Did a credit or a debit balance get transferred across to SP from Tonik? What are the daily rates, and unit rates for electricity and gas on whichever tariff SP has put you on?

Using the readings for the transfer and today's readings along with the unit and daily rates you can calculate how much you should have paid SP, adjusted by any debit or credit balance associated with the transfer. Presumably you know how much you have paid SP, so you can explain the disagreement to them, if they are asking for a different amount.

wordswords

Thank you to all who have replied.

They were trying to charge me around DOUBLE the previous price I had with my energy supplier until they went bust and I got automatically transferred to SP. Ridiculous. And this went on for about 10 months, about 5 months where they just sat on it with no communication on their side, and about 5 months where I would call them up regularly, complain that it hadn't been sorted, and they would try and call me back at completely random times of the day - which never works with me or my schedule.

After a couple of calls trying to reach me they would close the complaint, apparently company procedure, and I'd have to start the process again.

Finally I looked up the complaints procedure and found I could escalate things (none of the inital complaints handlers told me that of course despite me asking).

Once it was escalated to the head office it got resolved quickly, I got a time they would call back so I could recieve the call, and my bills were slashed in half. Finally.