My feed
Premium

Please
or
to access all these features

AIBU?

How can I owe them £40 quid?

37 replies

RedButtonhole · 01/03/2015 10:23

Opened mail from yesterday, letter from electricity company to say that I owe them £40.

They are going to be taking an extra £7 quid a week off my meter to cover this.

Doesn't sound like alot but it is to me, and i don't understand how I can have incurred debt, I have lived here since Sept 2012 and have always had a prepayment meter, before that I lived at my parents' so it's not an old debt being transferred over.

Can't phone them on a bloody Sunday, am out all day tomorrow and skint this week so can't really afford for them to whack £7 off the meter. They've not indicated when this will start happening either.

OP posts:
CrazyOldBagLady · 01/03/2015 10:31

When we moved house we ended up with a prepayment meter, and evetually found out that it was takung money from us to pay the previous tenants debt. Odd that this comes after 2 yrs however. You should call them for an explanation.

flanjabelle · 01/03/2015 10:34

Are you with n power? They have done this to me twice, no decent explanation except "there are many ways this. an happen, but it's too complicated to go into". The first time I fought and fought until they wiped it off, but the most recent one I haven't had the energy so have just ignored it. Fuckers.

SpottyTeacakes · 01/03/2015 10:34

Yeah that doesn't sound right at all. Are you sure you can't phone them today? I always call utility companies etc on a Sunday.

RedButtonhole · 01/03/2015 10:41

The letter says Monday-Saturday, the provide an emergency number which I assume I could phone today but from experience their customer service is shit and they'd tell me to ring back in the week. Will try anyway.

It's Scottish Power, I might have ignored it but they will take it off whatever I top up the meter with so I can't really just leave that to happen.

OP posts:
SpottyTeacakes · 01/03/2015 10:42

It's really unfair that they're just going to take it that's obviously a fair amount of electricity Angry

sockmatcher · 01/03/2015 10:45

They need to explain how its been accrued. I wouldn't pay til I understood how!

crazybaglady could you come back to your thread and update us please?!

Mostlyjustaluker · 01/03/2015 10:47

Ring them on Monday and ask them to explains and if you are not happy with their answer tell them you are not happy, ask to speak to a manger and tell them they 24 hours to resolve or you are going to contact Ofgem.

N power sent me demand letters threatening to take me to order for non payment for several hundreds of pounds when I had a prepayment meter. When I rang them they said if was because the had not received the money from the shop but they kept sending me threatening letters. After several weeks of ringing them I final I rang again and asked to speak to a manager and said if it is not resolved within a week I would ring Ofgem. 20 mins later a manager rang me back and I never had anymore issues.

FayKorgasm · 01/03/2015 10:47

That's unreal. I would refuse to pay it.

salthill · 01/03/2015 10:58

Yes but how can she refuse to pay it if she has a prepayment meter.

RedButtonhole · 01/03/2015 11:01

I would refuse to pay it, but I don't think I'm getting a choice if they are going to take it straight off when I top up.

Have just phoned them and got a recorded message saying they are closed till tomorrow. Will try the emergency number but I think its probably for power cuts and gas leaks.

Just noticed that at the very top of the letter it says "Your electricity prepayment meter will be reset".... why would they do that?

It also says at the bottom to call them if I have any questions about my new meter... But I don't have a new meter.

WTF

OP posts:
elfycat · 01/03/2015 11:02

I 'ran up a debt' of over £100 on a pre-payment meter. Some of the money I had paid had not been put against my account because of stupidity (not mine). I'd get it sorted with the company and 6 months later we'd be back to square one with this debt flagging up again.

I refused to pay until they proved how the meter had failed and eventually I must have got the right person to sort it.

CptJack · 01/03/2015 11:06

Good luck phoning NPower. I tried yesterday. The recorded message at the beginning of the call said 25-35 minute wait. 1 hour 40 mins later I had to give up (only coz the battery in the cordless phoned died)

ImperialBlether · 01/03/2015 11:11

Contact them on Twitter. They will staff that over the weekend. It sounds as though they've made a mistake, doesn't it?

salthill · 01/03/2015 11:11

They're obviously going to reset the meter so they can get their lousy £40. They don't even have to come into the house anymore to do this....bastards!

specialsubject · 01/03/2015 11:13

it is Scottish Power, says the OP. You can arrange a callback with them at a convenient time to save racking up huge mobile charges.

you should have had the meter reset when you moved in (always essential to clear previous debts from other occupiers) but it doesn't sound like that is the issue after two years. Guessing admin foul up as they are talking about a new meter, probably someone has typed in a wrong number and this isn't your issue.

anyway, get in touch and DEMAND a resolution, raise a formal complaint too to prevent fobbing off.

RedButtonhole · 01/03/2015 11:13

I think there must be a mistake, I don't understand how else I could possibly have debt with them when I've always pre-paid?

Might give twitter a try but they have ignored me on there before when I complained at having been cut off the phone after holding for an hour and a half just to find out my account number from them.

OP posts:
RedButtonhole · 01/03/2015 11:16

I don't have a clue if the meter was reset when I moved in... It's at 36 thousand and something just now.... Not sure if that's about right for two years. I have no other fuel so heating, hot water etc is all electric.

OP posts:
TheHobbit · 01/03/2015 11:16

Yes NPower did this to me to but the grand sum of £900!!! Am ignoring letters. Basically they said I've been underpaying for two years!! Its so stressful. I've moved over to Ovo which is so much better and it's a family owned company. Their service is outstanding

RedButtonhole · 01/03/2015 11:25

That's unreal Hobbit!

I feel lucky now that they're only chasing me for £40.

OP posts:
NeedsAsockamnesty · 01/03/2015 11:31

It happens all the time with a couple of companies and clients of mine.

Scottish power are IMO shockingly bad

RedButtonhole · 01/03/2015 11:51

Got no-where on the phone, but have tweeted them, will wait and see if they respond.

They have spelt my surname wrong on the letter Angry

OP posts:
Charlesroi · 01/03/2015 13:28

I'd write a recorded delivery letter if I were you.

  • Demand to know how they arrived at this figure. What's gone wrong?
  • Formally advise them that their intention to collect the alleged debt back at £7 a week will cause you hardship, so will they take it back at £1 a week until your dispute is resolved (if you can afford this).
  • give them a reasonable time limit to resolve this to your satisfaction, before you refer it to Ofgem

    Also do call them and tell them that you can't afford to pay the alleged debt back at £7 a week. Just make sure you back it up with a letter.
    Check the meter to make sure there's no debt on there (you can find out how to do this on line)

    I hate this about (poorly administered)prepayment meters. You think paying up front means not getting bills you can't pay don't you? It may just be that they didn't change the rate charged when they last put the prices up.

    I hope it's a mistake and you get it sorted.

Newsletters you might like

Discover Exclusive Savings!

Sign up to our Money Saver newsletter now and receive exclusive deals and hot tips on where to find the biggest online bargains, tailored just for Mumsnetters.

Log in to update your newsletter preferences.

You've subscribed!

Parent-Approved Gems Await!

Subscribe to our weekly Swears By newsletter and receive handpicked recommendations for parents, by parents, every Sunday.

Log in to update your newsletter preferences.

You've subscribed!

PeachyParisian · 01/03/2015 13:42

Call them first thing on Monday, make a detailed record of the phone conversation and if they do not resolve it, follow up in writing.

Keep a copy of everything you send and sent it recorded delivery. You cannot contact the ombudsman until 6 weeks after completing the energy suppliers complaints procedure in full.

Good luck!

RedButtonhole · 01/03/2015 14:49

Thanks, am going to try and find some time to phone them tomorrow and hope they don't keep me on hold for an hour and a half again... The longest I have break between 8am and 10pm is an hour.

I was just thinking the other day that I might be better going to monthly direct debit.... Not sure if that would made matters worse though.

On twitter they very helpfully suggested I use the message box on their website.... Which the never bother to respond to IME.

OP posts:
Fluffyears · 01/03/2015 17:12

The meter is not 'pre-payment' it is a psrmt meter set at a particular rate. It isn't intelligent enough to exactly count how much energy is being used. When they take a reading they check usage against payment and there will in 99.9% of cases there will be a discrepancy. I worked collecting these debts and it's a massive misconception that it's pre-payment and no debt can be accrued. Also you must akways provide readings when moving or changing suppliers. If no reading us supplied your supplier is within their rights to issue an estimated Bill whicj can be circa £800.

Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.