Scottish Power obstructing raising complaint?

MarkDirac

Has anyone else experienced Scottish Power obstructing you in moving through their complaints procedure?

I made a complaint. It took me 1.5 hours on their web chat, but I received a fob-off response by email. I then found I could not escalate my complaint because they had not provided me with a Complaint Reference Number.

Their first obstruction was to refuse my emails. Despite SP and OfGem saying that you can complain via email, SP just respond to say they cannot deal with a question such as "What is the complaints reference number" by email. 

So I had to undergo a second web chat. They still refused to give me a complaints reference number, until I had gone through the whole 1.5 hours discussion once more, which I refused to do.

So that means I cannot escalate my issue and I cannot complain to OfGem. Success for SP!

Anyone else?

pochase

Seems there are direct phone numbers for raising a complaint

QrizB

Other MSErs also think SP customer service are awful.

Write to them (snail mail) with your complaint and get a free Certificate of Posting from your Post Office.

8 weeks later you can go to the Ombudsman (not Ofgem, they don't handle individual customer complaints).

MarkDirac

pochase said:

Seems there are direct phone numbers for raising a complaint

Thanks pochase. Yes, but it's not effective to use the phone:

1. Scottish Power warn you off by telling you you'll be hanging on for ever (effectively).
2. With a corporate like Scottish Power, you need to have a written record.

And as I say, if you take up their invitation to email them (as you have helpfully posted above) they quickly respond to say they will not deal with you by email, and to web chat instead.

MarkDirac

QrizB said:

Other MSErs also think SP customer service are awful.

Write to them (snail mail) with your complaint and get a free Certificate of Posting from your Post Office.

8 weeks later you can go to the Ombudsman (not Ofgem, they don't handle individual customer complaints).

Thanks Qriz. Snail mail is perhaps a slow but reliable way to progress - good suggestion

We are all aware that corporates' customer service is almost always dreadful, and a waste of time - that's a fact of life in modern Britain. But I am asking here about Scottish Power making their life easier by actively obstructing customers being able to complain.

diystarter7

I have no experience of making a complaint about SP but since Covid almost every single large organisation is taking a lot lot longer to get through online/phone/email and all of them blame Covid.

The thing with gas/electric suppliers is they know most people won't move and even if they do they don't seem to care ATM.

However, keep on at it and often you come across a very helpful member of staff and that often makes up for the delays etc.

MarkDirac

diystarter7 said:

I have no experience of making a complaint about SP but since Covid almost every single large organisation is taking a lot lot longer to get through online/phone/email and all of them blame Covid.

The thing with gas/electric suppliers is they know most people won't move and even if they do they don't seem to care ATM.

However, keep on at it and often you come across a very helpful member of staff and that often makes up for the delays etc.

Thanks diy. I wasn't posting here about time to make complaints, but rather specifically about Scottish Power actively obstructing the possibility of following through with a complaint al all.

pochase

I think it leaves a black mark for the support agent so they actively discourage it.

I raised complaint this morning with EDF and had to state three times that I want to raise a formal complaint before they gave me a number. Thereafter I was asked twice if they can close it again.

MovingForwards

I ended up emailing the CEO and my complaint was passed to a higher complaints team. When they messed up I emailed the CEO again. Eventually everything got resolved and I had several bills credited.

They're not the easiest company to deal with.

MarkDirac

Deleted_User said:

Or you could raise a complaint using Resolver. Which is another way to get a record of your complaint (in this case, together with responses to it), so that you can escalate if necessary. And no snails required

Thanks Feral for flagging up Resolver. Life is becoming too complicated. All I wanted was electricity. I do not want to initiate another service, just in case I end up having to deal with customer service at Resolver as well.