Getting in contact with Scottish power

Cyclosa

Is anyone else having massive problems with contacting Scottish Power? 
I have a shopping list of issues that I need to pick up with them after buying a house they supply.
I've had numerous 7 hour phone marathons with them where on several occasions the operator has just cut me off and bounced me back into the main holding queue and have not managed to get anywhere.
I'm quite concerned as my Gas Meter is functioning however has a £500+ debt (definitely not ours) on it that the engineer was unable to clear.
I've not been able to talk to them about changing Tariffs so I'm very concerned that this will cause me further financial impact down the road.  

does anyone have any tips or other contact numbers that might work? 

Alnat1

Are these different to the one on the bill? 

0345 027 0072  
0345 058 0002

Cyclosa

Alnat1 said:

Are these different to the one on the bill? 

0345 027 0072  
0345 058 0002

One is the general one and the other one is for existing complaints and I'm not able to navigate through to a person sadly. 

Cyclosa

Cyclosa said:

Is anyone else having massive problems with contacting Scottish Power? 
I have a shopping list of issues that I need to pick up with them after buying a house they supply.
I've had numerous 7 hour phone marathons with them where on several occasions the operator has just cut me off and bounced me back into the main holding queue and have not managed to get anywhere.
I'm quite concerned as my Gas Meter is functioning however has a £500+ debt (definitely not ours) on it that the engineer was unable to clear.
I've not been able to talk to them about changing Tariffs so I'm very concerned that this will cause me further financial impact down the road.  

does anyone have any tips or other contact numbers that might work? 

As an update we have now been told on webchat to use the meter until it cuts off and then they can send someone out. 
I'm pretty concerned that they are giving advice out like this in the current climate. 

pochase

From your descriptions it looks like the gas meter is a prepaid meter?

If so, did you get a new key when you moved in? Otherwise you "inherited" the debt on the key and it will take effort to get that sorted.

Cyclosa

pochase said:

From your descriptions it looks like the gas meter is a prepaid meter?

If so, did you get a new key when you moved in? Otherwise you "inherited" the debt on the key and it will take effort to get that sorted.

We've got dated evidence it was on the meter when we bought the house, we are trying to come off pre-paid. 
They have sent an engineer out who was unable to clear this debt and was unable to get the card they supplied to work either, we also foolishly assumed that the engineer would report this to the supplier, they have no record of it, or at least the last person I spoke to couldn't be bothered to look it up.  

pochase

So did you use a new key or did you use the old key from the former occupier?

See below information from Scottish Power regarding the gas prepayment card.

When you leave your property, be sure to keep your gas prepayment card as it is unique to every customer and cannot be used by the new occupant of your old property. Your electricity prepayment card should be left in the meter.

Cyclosa

pochase said:

So did you use a new key or did you use the old key from the former occupier?

See below information from Scottish Power regarding the gas prepayment card.

When you leave your property, be sure to keep your gas prepayment card as it is unique to every customer and cannot be used by the new occupant of your old property. Your electricity prepayment card should be left in the meter.

No we have a new one, the debt is locked onto the meter which the engineer was unable to clear off the meter is running without a card.