Scottish Power Billing Block.

britishgoose01

They were ok for x amount of time, then when they put the prices up, they literally took the mick and soibled the price but our house is a bungalow and the prices were stupidly high. Contacted them, rude, incorrect information. We received no letters even though we changed all to post. We finally had enough and moved to Octopus energy so decided to contact them and they said we were in credit £1300 and they had deducted the final bill, its been a month. We were £50 behind as we got no letters or anything, 2 weeks later we got a letter from the bailifs for £50, insane. They owe us £1300, weve contacted and all they say is final bill has been taken from your credit however theres a Scottish power billing block, We asked what it was, they couldnt actually answer.  We were told we'd wait max 2 weeks, its been over a month and all they can say is many companies use the billing block.  Im not sure what to do, Ive complained at least 10 times, all they do is say we will send your complaint to the correct dept. 
Do i start legal action, do I contact the onbudsman?

CSI_Yorkshire

You need to work out the actual position first.

Just saying "they owe us £1300" isn't evidence.

It sounds likely that you had £1300 of credit but hadn't been billed for some of the energy (completely normal).  When they then actually accounted for that energy use, you would then not have £1300 in credit any more, it would have been spent (again, completely normal).

If that final bill was more than £1300, you wouldn't have had any credit left at all, you would have had a debt.  There are slightly different rules about changing supplier when you have a debt.

If you want to go to the Ombudsman, you need to have clear evidence that you can present for your case.  All they do is compare the evidence that each side presents.

[Deleted User]

Your credit of £1300 is valid for one day only and only then if actual meter readings have been used. On a switch the gaining supplier manages the whole process. It will agree switching readings which the old supplier uses to close your account. Under the terms of its Supply Licence, Scottish Power has 6 weeks from the date that your supply transferred to Octopus to raise a Final Bill. As you appear not to have reached this point yet, you cannot legitimately raise a complaint against SP. The supplier then has 10 days from the date that the Final Bill is issued to make a refund if any credit due.

Go to Court? As you have no idea how much credit you are owed, then what would you claim for?  Without a Final Bill, where is the evidence? A Court would also expect you to have followed the supplier’s complaints process in full (the supplier is allowed 8 weeks to reply). If you are still unhappy, then you can take your complaint to arbitration via The Energy Ombudsman: a process that might also take up to 8 weeks.

Edit:

Billing Block? This I think is SP speak for ‘your account has now been frozen pending receipt of transfer readings from Octopus’. SP would look a bit silly if they gave you £1300 back only to find that you were only due £300 when your account was brought up to date.

britishgoose01

CSI_Yorkshire said:

You need to work out the actual position first.

Just saying "they owe us £1300" isn't evidence.

It sounds likely that you had £1300 of credit but hadn't been billed for some of the energy (completely normal).  When they then actually accounted for that energy use, you would then not have £1300 in credit any more, it would have been spent (again, completely normal).

If that final bill was more than £1300, you wouldn't have had any credit left at all, you would have had a debt.  There are slightly different rules about changing supplier when you have a debt.

If you want to go to the Ombudsman, you need to have clear evidence that you can present for your case.  All they do is compare the evidence that each side presents.

I rang scottish power up, they confirmed we were over £1300 in credit. I asked when they would send us the final bill, she checked and said they had taken the final amount out of the the credit. We then then told they would be sending the £1300 via cheque, but she said there was a block on. I asked what the block was for, she was uncertain. I asked  again and she didnt know. She said she would ask the relevant dept, and it would be done within 2 weeks, multiple times calls and weve got no further. However we managed to get a letter online anyway confirming the credit we have. The online conversations have been saved. Octopus energy completed the swap over and and confirmed our final reading. Weve also had a scottish power guy come do a reading and we also sent a reading. 

CSI_Yorkshire

britishgoose01 said:

CSI_Yorkshire said:

You need to work out the actual position first.

Just saying "they owe us £1300" isn't evidence.

It sounds likely that you had £1300 of credit but hadn't been billed for some of the energy (completely normal).  When they then actually accounted for that energy use, you would then not have £1300 in credit any more, it would have been spent (again, completely normal).

If that final bill was more than £1300, you wouldn't have had any credit left at all, you would have had a debt.  There are slightly different rules about changing supplier when you have a debt.

If you want to go to the Ombudsman, you need to have clear evidence that you can present for your case.  All they do is compare the evidence that each side presents.

I rang scottish power up, they confirmed we were over £1300 in credit. I asked when they would send us the final bill, she checked and said they had taken the final amount out of the the credit. We then then told they would be sending the £1300 via cheque, but she said there was a block on. I asked what the block was for, she was uncertain. I asked  again and she didnt know. She said she would ask the relevant dept, and it would be done within 2 weeks, multiple times calls and weve got no further. However we managed to get a letter online anyway confirming the credit we have. The online conversations have been saved. Octopus energy completed the swap over and and confirmed our final reading. Weve also had a scottish power guy come do a reading and we also sent a reading. 

Have you had the final bill?

[Deleted User]

Weve also had a scottish power guy come do a reading and we also sent a reading. 

Both readings should be ignored if there is a switch in progress as the Final Bill has to be based on an industry calculated meter reading.

[Deleted User]

This is what the Supply Licence has to say about Final Bills. Note paragraph 27.18. I just wonder whether senior management is questioning how the OP has accrued £1300 worth of credit.

CSI_Yorkshire

[Deleted User] said:

I just wonder whether senior management is questioning how the OP has accrued £1300 worth of credit.

It's certainly easier to withhold credit than to refund in error and try to claim back later.  The OP's comment about having a bailiff's letter for £50 relating to the final bill stands out as a bit odd though.

jlfrs01

I think there are too many variables to really understand what's going on:

1/ The OP has said someone at Scottish Power confirmed their account was £1300 in credit and a cheque would be forthcoming

2/ Another Scottish Power employee told the OP their final bill had been deducted from this figure

3/ No figure has been offered up for the amount which has been deducted from the £1300

4/  What date did the switchover occur because there is no case to answer for Scottish Power until 6 weeks have elapsed which is how long they have to send the elusive final bill?

5/ There is the matter of the Bailiff's Letter for £50. If the OP's account was in credit to the tune of £1300, wouldn't SP simply offset the £50 owed against this rather than go to the expense and hassle of Court Action? Having gone into unarmed combat with utility companies in the recent past, to get to that stage usually takes many months with umpteen letters being sent. 

britishgoose01

jlfrs01 said:

I think there are too many variables to really understand what's going on:

1/ The OP has said someone at Scottish Power confirmed their account was £1300 in credit and a cheque would be forthcoming

2/ Another Scottish Power employee told the OP their final bill had been deducted from this figure

3/ No figure has been offered up for the amount which has been deducted from the £1300

4/  What date did the switchover occur because there is no case to answer for Scottish Power until 6 weeks have elapsed which is how long they have to send the elusive final bill?

5/ There is the matter of the Bailiff's Letter for £50. If the OP's account was in credit to the tune of £1300, wouldn't SP simply offset the £50 owed against this rather than go to the expense and hassle of Court Action? Having gone into unarmed combat with utility companies in the recent past, to get to that stage usually takes many months with umpteen letters being sent. 

sorry been busy at work.
Yes they confirmed there would be a cheque of 1300 this was on ....1sec.

 july just the credit was confirmed 1300

1st of august a letter confirming we were leaving, getting a refund of 1300

In conversations with scottish power on their app they said the account was closed july 23..didnt realise it had been so long, 

the final bill amount was £266.74 which has been adjusted to the account credit, another conversation was 2 weeks ago, they said it would take up to 10days  for a cheque which never came, (all said live chat)
They said there was a price guarantee when leaving, they didnt seem to understand what it was and couldn't explain it, they said they would put a complaint in, thats when  i got 1 through from another team saying no final bill had gone, yet it was correct 266 had gone as weve been noting the prices of how much is in credit. 
I dont think they have a clue whats going on.
On scottish power on the complaints made by them for me it just says were working on it. 
as for the bailifs thing we paid immediately, if we were at fault fine, there was no need for that, 
Scottish power is useless, incompetent, dont contact us, dont send us letters or anything through the post like I have asked them to multiple times, they dont communicate with customers or their own staff or departments properly. Worst company weve ever used 

Mstty

It may be the opposite and you are just a "bad" customer.

Let me explain you used Worst to describe a company which they may well be but are you a bad customer for not calculating your energy use regularly and providing actual readings and knowing you were moving to Octopus doing those final calculations yourself as a double check.

So I presume since you started this thread you have finally done all those calculations against the reading you gave to Octopus when they took over your account?

Have you logged a complaint logically not motionally with key dates and times and meter readings and events?