Scottish Power have given an incorrect final bill and refuse to use my smart meter data

4littleone

Can you please help, I moved in to my property in the evening of Friday 16th December 2022. I became the owner at 5 pm on that day.

SP were the existing supplier and remained my supplier for 8 days until 23rd December 2022. The bill they have sent me is impossibly high for that period. They are stating I used 358 Kwh's in less than 8 days.

I have tried disputing it since I first received it, I have called three times and each time been given different advice but the bills keep being sent to me with no change. I have a smart meter and it shows that my usage for that period was well below the billed amount of approx £139.
I have emailed multiple times but apparently they have named my account as "owner/occupier" so any emails I send are disregarded even though I quote the right account number and address!

I live alone in a small 2 bed with an air source heat pump and I work out of the house full time. My average daily use during their supply period was around £6 or 16Kwh's, even with standing charges this does not add up to anywhere near the bill they have presented me with.

 I believe they are charging me for part of the previous owners use. When I have called their customer services team, they state that an actual meter reading was taken on the 23rd December. It was not. I was there all day and anyone who wished to read the meter would have had to knock on the door to gain access. They also state an actual meter read was supplied on the 16th when I moved in but again, it wasn't and the smart meter shows a difference.

They are not following their complaints procedure at all, I am promised a booked call back and it doesn't happen, I keep receiving text messages, letters and emails from their debt recovery team stating that I have not made contact and I must pay or they will start recovery action.

If anyone has any ideas I will be forever grateful!

[Deleted User]

Hi,

did you contact SP when you moved in and give an entry reading?

Robin9

@4littleone  I have asked MSE to split your thread off please otherwise the replies to the OP and yourself will get confused

macman

Post the opening read on 16/12 and the closing read on 23/12. The bill calculation from that is very simple.

pochase

Did you give a meter reading to the new supplier on the day of the switch? 

This meter reading will be checked independantly and the final reading (same as the opening reading) will be send to the supplier you are leaving. The meter reading does not need to be the one you submitted.

Industry rules state that we're not even allowed to challenge a handover reading that's less than 250kWh (for electricity – or 150 cubic meters for gas) different from your real meter reading.

150M3 is almost 1700KWh of gas, so your 358KWh difference is well within the this, and you can't do anything about it.

As long as the final reading and the start reading at the new supplier are the same you are not losing anything anyway.

What you pay more to the old supplier you pay less to the new supplier.

4littleone

Post the opening read on 16/12 and the closing read on 23/12. The bill calculation from that is very simple.

The total usage from my smart meter read for the period is 128 Kwh's. Vastly different to what I am being charged for. Agree the calculation is simply but SP won't accept it, they are stating an actual person supplied a meter read on the 16th and then an actual person supplied a meter read on the 23rd and that is where they are taking their figures from. I have supplied a screen shot of my smart meter data and they are refusing to acknowledge or use it.

MattMattMattUK

Just to clarify, when you say "on your smart meter" do you mean the physical meter, or the IHD (the little gadget with the display that sits on the side in most people's kitchen)? Does your opening read agree with their opening read, eg. is the discrepancy in the opening read, closing read, or both?

4littleone

pochase said:

Did you give a meter reading to the new supplier on the day of the switch? 

This meter reading will be checked independantly and the final reading (same as the opening reading) will be send to the supplier you are leaving. The meter reading does not need to be the one you submitted.

Industry rules state that we're not even allowed to challenge a handover reading that's less than 250kWh (for electricity – or 150 cubic meters for gas) different from your real meter reading.

150M3 is almost 1700KWh of gas, so your 358KWh difference is well within the this, and you can't do anything about it.

As long as the final reading and the start reading at the new supplier are the same you are not losing anything anyway.

What you pay more to the old supplier you pay less to the new supplier.

No that doesn't add up. The final meter read figure is fine, it matches my smart meter read. The issue is the initial figure they are using, the difference between that and the end figure gives a usage of 358 Kwh. My smart meter shows I actually only used 128 Kwh's. So I am being asked to pay for energy I haven't used.

pochase

And as I have written you cannot appeal for a difference of less than 150 cubic meter of gas usage. It is part of the switch process an dyou have to accept the difference.

But both suppliers must use the same reading.

In your initial post you are saying the final bill is wrong, now you are saying the final bill is correct, but the initial reading is wrong?

When you say the smart meter shows a usage of 158KWh, do you maybe mean the IHD and not the smart meter?

TheElectricCow

When you moved in did you provide SP with a meter reading, and if so is that the same reading as what they’re showing it to be on the bill now?

And just for clarification, where exactly is your data for your usage for this period coming from? Have you worked this out from taking two different physical readings from the meter on the wall itself, or are you retroactively accessing the data via something like an In Home Display or smart meter connected app?

4littleone

Just to update on this; I started a complaint against SP and emailed them the download of the daily consumption from my SmartMeter (I used the Nrgy website to download all the readings).

It showed I used 158 Kwhrs of electricity as opposed to the 358 Kwhs they have been billing me for. 

I then received an email  on 28th Feb from their customer services team apologising for the errors, stating they have voided the final bill and that if I am happy with this decision I can close the complaint.

Unfortunately I am now receiving emails, texts and a debt recovery letter arrived yesterday for the same bill they have stated they have voided! So I have to go through the whole process again.