Scottish Power and SEG

EdTed

It seems that the only way to get outfits like this to do the right thing or even anything right, is by naming and shaming them on every forum possible. 

WillyWinkberg

Just to provide an update on my situation.  I have now taken my issue to the energy ombudsman after filing an official complaint to SP, which they didn’t respond to nor follow up after I gave them a reminder.  SP has uploaded their evidence to the ombudsman.  They uploaded evidence relating to accounts I had with them three years ago when Tonik went bust and I was transferred over to them.  I hope the ombudsman finds in my favour shortly as they owe me around £300 or so. 

[Deleted User]

WillyWinkberg said:

Just to provide an update on my situation.  I have now taken my issue to the energy ombudsman after filing an official complaint to SP, which they didn’t respond to nor follow up after I gave them a reminder.  SP has uploaded their evidence to the ombudsman.  They uploaded evidence relating to accounts I had with them three years ago when Tonik went bust and I was transferred over to them.  I hope the ombudsman finds in my favour shortly as they owe me around £300 or so. 

Who owes you £300: Tonik or SP?  The Energy Ombudsman cannot adjudicate on an issue relating to a failed supplier: it can opine on SP’s actions as a SoLR.

WillyWinkberg

[Deleted User] said:

WillyWinkberg said:

Just to provide an update on my situation.  I have now taken my issue to the energy ombudsman after filing an official complaint to SP, which they didn’t respond to nor follow up after I gave them a reminder.  SP has uploaded their evidence to the ombudsman.  They uploaded evidence relating to accounts I had with them three years ago when Tonik went bust and I was transferred over to them.  I hope the ombudsman finds in my favour shortly as they owe me around £300 or so. 

Who owes you £300: Tonik or SP?  The Energy Ombudsman cannot adjudicate on an issue relating to a failed supplier: it can opine on SP’s actions as a SoLR.

Scottish Power for my SEG payments.  This post is about SEG not Tonik.  I was referring to Scottish Power’s inability to retrieve my customer details correctly when I have complained to the ombudsman; they managed to retrieve something that goes back three years. You’d need to read my previous posts in this thread for the full picture.  Scottish Power owe me around £300 for SEG. 

eddy1

having similar nightmare process with Utility Warehouse.  panels and battery installed Feb 23, applied 11 march for seg payments. on application it states 5 weeks.  numerous emails and complaints, only to be told MPAN applied for on 9th July and would take between 2-4 weeks.  offered £25 good will payment, I refused.  Still awaiting response. Have put significant KWH back into grid.  They say it is due to volume of applications. How come some providers respond very quickly though. Very frustrated

CSI_Yorkshire

eddy1 said:

 They say it is due to volume of applications. How come some providers respond very quickly though. 

You've answered your own question.

Volume of applications vs number of staff.

RAB1967

I may be wrong, but I assume that Scottish Power are obliged to take part in the Smart Export Guarantee scheme. However, whilst they may have no option but to be part of the scheme, they appear to want to minimise the number of customers who are actually able to navigate their way through the application process. I wonder how many customers have become so frustrated by this process and Scottish Power’s lack of customer service that they have simply given up? Is this the aim of Scottish Power? In my case I was actually able to get set up on the scheme, and submit an export reading. However, if I though that was the end of my troubles with Scottish Power I was mistaken. I had to chase them for the payment, which in the end took almost 2 months to be received (I was told payment should be made within 2-4 weeks), and having received payment I found out they were paying me at the lower tariff (I should be getting 15p p/kw, having purchased the panels via Scottish Power). Now 6 weeks on from contacting them regarding this and having emailed and called half a dozen times I’m no further forward. It looks like they want me to give up on this and simply accept that I’m going to get paid at the lower tariff. I’ve been told this morning that they are still looking into this. I did ask why this was given that they have all the information showing that I purchased the panels through Scottish Power. Their answer was that I should call back in a fortnight! 

CSI_Yorkshire

RAB1967 said:

Is this the aim of Scottish Power?

No, it isn't.

There is a certain allowance for suppliers in the price cap to spend on customer service, billing, back office etc.  They don't want to spend more than this - and if they spend less then it's extra profit.

In the last year or so, if we base it on the comments here, there have probably been tens of thousands of relatively pointless calls to CS about trivial issues - this uses up the already limited resource.

SP have no motivation to minimise the number of SEG customers.

RAB1967

CSI_Yorkshire said:

RAB1967 said:

Is this the aim of Scottish Power?

No, it isn't.

There is a certain allowance for suppliers in the price cap to spend on customer service, billing, back office etc.  They don't want to spend more than this - and if they spend less then it's extra profit.

In the last year or so, if we base it on the comments here, there have probably been tens of thousands of relatively pointless calls to CS about trivial issues - this uses up the already limited resource.

SP have no motivation to minimise the number of SEG customers.

What do you define as a trivial issue? People being left waiting for months for a process to be completed that Scottish Power say should take 6-8 weeks? Waiting and having to repeatedly chase for receipt of a payment that should take 2-4 weeks to be received? Repeatedly having to chase to make sure that you are on the correct tariff? I’d be interested to know if you have actually had experience of applying for SEG with Scottish Power. People’s frustrations may seem trivial to you but not to them, so please don’t be so quick to judge.

CSI_Yorkshire

RAB1967 said:

CSI_Yorkshire said:

RAB1967 said:

Is this the aim of Scottish Power?

No, it isn't.

There is a certain allowance for suppliers in the price cap to spend on customer service, billing, back office etc.  They don't want to spend more than this - and if they spend less then it's extra profit.

In the last year or so, if we base it on the comments here, there have probably been tens of thousands of relatively pointless calls to CS about trivial issues - this uses up the already limited resource.

SP have no motivation to minimise the number of SEG customers.

What do you define as a trivial issue? People being left waiting for months for a process to be completed that Scottish Power say should take 6-8 weeks? Waiting and having to repeatedly chase for receipt of a payment that should take 2-4 weeks to be received? Repeatedly having to chase to make sure that you are on the correct tariff? I’d be interested to know if you have actually had experience of applying for SEG with Scottish Power. People’s frustrations may seem trivial to you but not to them, so please don’t be so quick to judge.

At what point did I say that your issue was trivial?  Don't put words in my mouth just to try arguing with them - there's a name for that sort of behaviour.

The hundreds and hundreds of comments that we saw along the lines of "why is my bill more than the price cap", "where is the free government money", "why has my direct debit changed" - that could be answered with 30 seconds of internet searching - these are the trivial issues that meant concerns which actually required some investigation, thought, or recourse to industry systems that are not public got missed in the noise or delayed.