Scottish Power

[Kiln]

I am absolutely fuming with Scottish Power. Firstly when I moved to them they were supposed to take over my Gas and Electric, but for some reason failed to switch to Gas...in hindsight this was lucky. Fast forward a year and a couple of mins ago I've moved house. Since moving I've received numerous letters and e-mails stating that I owe them around £180. The thing is, I was on a prepayment meter! I have phoned them twice. Both times they've said "Oh that's odd I'll have a look" and come back saying "I don't know what's happened but I'll stop letters being sent etc. Phone back in 3 weeks"

Today I had an e-mail saying I have to pay or they'll start adding collection charges, they gave a link to the site to pay, a couple of phone numbers to set up a payment plan etc....I phoned again, and due to Coronavirus they've closed all phone lines except for emergencies (fault with gas/electric)

AIBU to assume that this will affect my credit score etc?

It seems that it's going to escalate via an automatic computer generated program, and I'm unable to stop this.

What can I do? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Contact the energy ombudsman by email or recorded letter the details are online. I had to do this with British Gas who were charging for a non-existent meter and after a year of phone calls actually did nothing except for threatening to cut me off . It only took one letter and they got it sorted. It didn't appear on my credit file but this was 10 years ago

Not sure why it posted a bottle of gin but have a drink on me you probably need one

You may be able to contact them by email. I have in the past when had trouble with meter readings etc. Was either via my account or a contact us bit at bottom of page. From what I remember wasn't easy to find. I will have a wee look.

[email protected]

Thank you for the suggestions, I'll follow them up

I'm a bit 'hmmm' about them. I've just moved to a house with a smart meter (Scottish Power). I was with Scottish Power before and it took them WEEKS to manage to bill me at the new place, even though I told them all about the move, and, oh yes, they'd just move the account etc etc.

My first monthly bill was £187. For a two bedroomed terrace with no heating upstairs and downstairs only on sporadically (manually controlled). I'm awaiting this month's bill and then I'm switching as fast as I can...

OMG, your OP gave me palpitations! We had an horrendous few years with Scottish Power saying DD owed them anything from £800 to £3k - every bill was different. She moved into a tiny one bedroom flat, worked long hours and was on prepaid like you. How on earth they could come up with a £3k bill for 8 months we'll never know. Had to go to ombudsmen in the end. It was sorted out and they gave her a cheque for £25 as compensation. We thought that was that. 18 months later - they started up again!

Thanks for sharing your experiences, they seem dreadful, I definitely won't be used them in future!

They are the BANE of my life!

I got a refund of £82.62 and put the cheque in the bank a couple of months later. A week later I got a bill for £82.62!

Even after this took months to resolve I still have constant problems with them.

I HATE them. Useless and incompetent. Think yourself lucky the call centers are closed they are hopeless. I then tried the online chat and one guy said “you do know if the house is empty you are still responsible for the electricity”. Well since I’ve been paying it for 10 years that would be YES!

God I won’t sleep now thinking about them.

They misread my meter and it’s costing me bloody loads to put right now. So cross with them! Want to switch but can’t afford to pay them off in one go so hopefully we’ll pay it off over summer when we’re not using so much energy...

They did exactly the same to us, after moving. Same responses to trying to query it too.

It was eighty odd pounds owing, prepayment electric meter also.

I just paid it in the end, even though we were not exactly flush with cash at the time.

Life is too short and phone calls are too expensive to keep subjecting myself to clueless arseholes for an hour plus at a time.

I saw it as a fee payable to get the POS bastards the fuck out of my life.

My consolation, they will never receive my custom EVER again. They lost more than eighty pounds in the long run. Fuck them, fuck them with a dildo dipped in chilli sauce and sharp sand.

In my opinion they are the worst company ever. We have been trying to sort out a problem with them for the last 4 years! Went to the ombudsmen who ruled in our favour and Scottish Power still didn't sort it out. You phone them up, they say it will be escalated but nothing is done.
I even emailed chief executive but hot nothing back!

Oh your bringing back memories for me. I hate Scottish power. When I moved into my last house I was with them.
They are so incompetent. I could ring get through and be promised someone would call me back to try and resolve my issues alas no call back. I was hounded with incorrect bills. I just could not get through to anyone who could help.
I went to the ombudsman in the end and after a few more moths it finally got resolved. I will never ever use Scottish power and I tell all friends and family not to use them either.

It took them 3 YEARS to sort out my bills from me switching to them. On economy 7 and I noticed that they had recorded my day readings as night and vice versa on the first bill. Phoned them up, explained the issue and was told it would be sorted. When they finally did sort it out after numerous phone calls and complaints, they said I owed them the extra £400 as I'd been underbilled! Cue another complaint. They called me while I was driving, obviously got no answer and then sent an email saying I had agreed to a 5 year payment plan (nope as I had been considering moving) and a £50 goodwill gesture. Phoned them back and told them where to stick their "goodwill gesture", pointed out that, if I charged a lower price to one of my customers because I couldn't tell the difference between 2 different products, I wouldn't expect that customer to pay the extra because it was my mistake they had been undercharged. Pointed out that I had repeatedly told them they were putting the meter readings the wrong way round. Charge got dropped.
Fast forward to last year. I was struggling with my bill and had honed them to discuss my repayment options. Explained my health issues had been behind it. Due to how rude they were, I got upset to the point I couldn't talk and had to hang up. They responded by calling an ambulance on me which resulted in my front door being broken. Ambulance staff were pissed off at Scottish Power for calling them for no reason. When I called a couple of days later, I was told they had switched me to a different plan and credited my account with £30. I pointed out that, due to their actions I was now living in an unsafe building. Not their problem, they had solved the problem and the person I had been speaking to who had called for the ambulance had thought I was having a stroke so was fully justified!
I'm shortly switching supplier. My front door is still not safe as I can't afford the work that needs to be done.

Good grief! I've also sent an e-mail to the CEO, I hold little hope of him responding but seeing as phone lines are down I thought I'd log it with them.

I'll be contacting the Ombudsman shortly. I did consider just paying it but I just can't bring myself to do it.

I HATE Scottish Power. They are incompetent and never make notes of phone calls, discussions or agreements. They cocked up massively at our old house then suddenly sent a bill for over £800. We ended up going to the ombudsman but still had to pay about £500.

I'd rather rub my nylon knickers together for static electricity than use them again.

@Jasmin82 this is exactly what they did to me! So annoying

@iklboo lol! Why did you have to pay anything though?! £500 is ridiculous!

They'd done similar to a PP - mixed up meter readings. Still makes me fume.

I'm now wondering if that's what they are doing at my place - it used to be Night Storage heating but is now ordinary. I do seem to be paying a HUGE amount for them, despite rarely having the heating on, so I wonder if they're billing me the wrong way round...

Will go off and investigate..

@Zaphodsotherhead I had to check it myself a few times as they were insisting they were right. I spot checked readings during the day/night and called them. They swapped the readings to the correct value and whacked me a massive charge

They are the worst company I have ever encountered. I had a similar experience. In my experience the only way to get things resolved is officially to 'raise a complaint' with them, having written evidence of this, the waiting the length of time after this (I think it is 8 weeks) to make an Ombudsman referral. After mines reached the Ombudsman it was very quickly resolved. I asked for reimbursement for my time and effort too (I think I got fifty quid as a good will or something). They are absolutely awful.

Ps. We are now with Octopus. They are excellent. Highly rated in the Which guide too.

Useless bloody company. I was with them a few years ago
Caused no end of problems and were incompetent. Paid them off and vowed never to have anything more
To do with them.

Also tale of woe with SP. took 2 years to sort out correct meter number, address, meter readings after we moved house. Curiously we had had no issues with them at the old address,, but they couldn't seem to sort out our move, despite endlessly telling them all the meter numbers, readings at each address for over two years. We got random bills for all mixed up combinations of both addresses readings and meters. We only got it resolved via the Ombudsmen in the end, with a refund /write off of a years worth of bills if i recall

My advice is keep records of everything, write a record of every time they/you contact ,who said what etc as you will need that.