Scottish Power and the Ghost Account

Decent_Customer

Good afternoon,

I’ve been having some trouble from Scottish Power for a couple of years now and just after some advice if possible please. It’s a bit of a story so I’ll try and be brief.

In 2021 I moved in to my new flat for which Scottish Power were already supplying the gas and electric. I called them and provided my details as the new tenant.

For reasons unknown, they set up two accounts in my name at the same address. One of these (MY account, which was on a favourable tariff) I paid the direct debit on time every month without issue. The OTHER account (billed on their standard tariff) was somehow racking up hundreds of pounds over the coming months.

I identified the problem after a few months and contacted them about it, they said they’d sort it but never did.

This situation went on for almost over two years until I left my flat in April 2024 and closed MY account which was in credit.

Scottish Power took the liberty of taking the credit of MY account, subtracting it from the balance of the OTHER account and have been chasing me for it ever since. The outstanding balance is around £2,300. Where they’ve got this from I don’t know as I only provided regular meter readings for MY account.

I complained to the Energy Ombudsman who have made in my opinion a fair ruling as you’d expect. SP have not complied with this, but have told the Ombudsman that they have and the Ombudsman have washed their hands of the case.

SP don’t know my current address, but they have somehow obtained the address of my retired in-laws who are getting harassing demanding letters from debt collection agencies, and most recently from a solicitors firm called Moriarty Law advising me they are looking to take legal proceedings against me. They’ve also registered various defaults and late payment markers against me which has destroyed my near perfect credit rating.

I’m really worried that I’ll have some kind of court ruling against me when all I’m trying to do is resolve the issue but SP won’t help me.

Just finally, I’ve sent SP around thirty emails asking for them to resolve the issue and contact me, but no-one has ever replied.

If you’ve made it this far, thank you. Any advice would be much appreciated.

MikeyPGT

SP truly is a shocking company!  Try outing them on social media they do (or did) at least have humans monitoring their account and when I was suffering with them did at least seem willing to dig around a bit and get to the root of the problem.

FreeBear

Decent_Customer said: I complained to the Energy Ombudsman who have made in my opinion a fair ruling as you’d expect. SP have not complied with this, but have told the Ombudsman that they have and the Ombudsman have washed their hands of the case.

SP don’t know my current address, but they have somehow obtained the address of my retired in-laws who are getting harassing demanding letters from debt collection agencies, and most recently from a solicitors firm called Moriarty Law advising me they are looking to take legal proceedings against me. They’ve also registered various defaults and late payment markers against me which has destroyed my near perfect credit rating.

I’m really worried that I’ll have some kind of court ruling against me when all I’m trying to do is resolve the issue but SP won’t help me.

You need to inform SP and Moriarty Law of your current address. If they don't have a current address for you, they can issue court papers to the last known address (your old flat), and get a judgement by default. Whilst it is possible to get a judgement set aside, it is expensive and lengthy process.

Should SP and/or ML be daft enough to issue proceedings (to your current address), you'll have plenty of opportunity to file a defence and even lodge a counter claim of your own. With the prior EO judgement in your favour, that should be enough to prove your case.

Decent_Customer

MikeyPGT- Sorry to hear you suffered with them too, they're really so unpleasant to deal with and I'm sorry to say it's taken its toll on me. Thanks for the advice.

FreeBear- Thank you for the advice, I'll call the debt collection agency later and explain the situation, at least they might be able to bounce it back to SP if there's a decent level of mitigation.

Arunmor

Send Moriarty your Ombudsman ruling too.  

FreeBear

Decent_Customer said: I'll call the debt collection agency later and explain the situation, at least they might be able to bounce it back to SP if there's a decent level of mitigation.

I'd suggest doing everything in writing (email or by post). That way, you have a paper trail that you can produce should it ever end up in court. Outfits like Moriarty Law can be slippery little [redacted] and can quite easily deny ever having a telephone conversation. Emails are not so easy to deny, and by post, costs them money (and time) to respond.

If you feel compelled to use the telephone, try to record the conversation (you don't need their consent). There are apps you can use on most smart phones.. Once the call is finished, save a copy to disk and burn a CD or two for good measure.

Decent_Customer

That's all very helpful thank you. I'll definitely correspond by email only. I had this last year with Three where they denied some details they told me over the phone- never again!

Exasperated77

I am also having serious issues with SP. (alleged debt on a payg meter, which became "advances" after ombudsman intervened. unfortunately in my case ombudsman believed SP and ruled against me. in my experience ombudsman are useless).
ask at your citizens advice if they have an energy expert (I know Edinburgh has) and talk to them. another option (I've taken) is contact your MP. 
SP are certainly not good at honesty. but you at least have ombudsman believing you. 
you can do a freedom of information request from SP, they must comply. insist on ALL information, including recorded phone calls, emails, letters, and insist on all correspondence including those made on your behalf (if citizens advice called/emailed SP on your behalf) and all correspondence between ombudsman and SP regarding your case. this information is only available for about 2 weeks, so make sure you have the means of saving it (I have it saved on laptop and on a separate flash drive).
if you are a council tenant, get your housing officer involved. its all extra pressure.
I am investigating my options now, which in my case is looking like court, that may be your option too.
victims definitely need more help and more protection from rogue companies. I intend to push my MP to raise it further.
good luck. I've been trying to get the truth from SP for over two years now, it's been a huge drain on my mental health. I have been sitting on the freedom of information for months, unable to actually work through it without losing the plot. now I know they have been dishonest, and that I have proof, I am starting to work my way through the information proving their dishonesty, but it is a hard slog 

FreeBear

Exasperated77 said: you can do a freedom of information request from SP, they must comply. insist on ALL information, including recorded phone calls, emails, letters, and insist on all correspondence including those made on your behalf (if citizens advice called/emailed SP on your behalf) and all correspondence between ombudsman and SP regarding your case. this information is only available for about 2 weeks, so make sure you have the means of saving it (I have it saved on laptop and on a separate flash drive).

A FOI request is the wrong tool - FOI requests can only be used with public bodies, and it would exclude any personal information.

The correct procedure is issuing a Data Subject Access Request -  But this may not include all the information you might hope for.

Gerry1

Adverse publicity can often produce speedy and effective results.

Try alerting the BBC Radio 4 programmes You & Yours and Moneybox, both of which have featured energy companies quite a lot recently.  Also agony aunts such as Katie Morley in the Telegraph and Anna Tims in The Guardian.

Just copying in the CEO of SP (look up the info on the ceo email website which is a dot com) may even be sufficient.  They hate adverse media publicity.

HillStreetBlues

Gerry1 said:

Adverse publicity can often produce speedy and effective results.

Try alerting the BBC Radio 4 programmes You & Yours and Moneybox, both of which have featured energy companies quite a lot recently.  Also agony aunts such as Katie Morley in the Telegraph and Anna Tims in The Guardian.

Just copying in the CEO of SP (look up the info on the ceo email website which is a dot com) may even be sufficient.  They hate adverse media publicity.

Good idea, go down the Angry of Mayfair route.