Scottish Power bereavement support? My fat fucking arse!

[Justmuddlingalong]

Apparently Scottish Power have a designated team to help those of us dealing with the bills if a recently deceased relative, as is highlighted on their website.

Settling an energy account for someone who has died
We understand that when someone close to you dies, it can be a very difficult time. We’re here to help make the process of managing their energy account as easy as possible.

It amazes me that they can be so quick to take money that we owe them, but can drag their useless arses when it comes to refunding money they owe us.
The relative who's account I'm winding up is almost £300 in credit and despite being told the cheque would be issued within 14-21 days, here I am, still waiting, almost 3 months after initially contacting them. Im sick of emailing, attempting to get through by phone and being disconnected from live chat.
Twitter is also proving pointless, so here I am, ranting in an online post, highlighting what a shower of cunts Scottish Power are. Congratulations to them on making a tough time worse, the useless, money grabbing bastards that they are!

Oh, and Liverpool Victoria... you're not much bloody better.

Christ, that was cathartic. 😌

When my dad died, we sorted out everything else - bank, house, savings, council tax, pensions - before Scottish Power managed to settle the account. The water company was by far the quickest and easiest!

@Justmuddlingalong
I'm so sorry you are having such a horrible experience - but unfortunately I'm not surprised.
Different circumstances altogether - but a few years ago we agreed to allow Scottish Power to install Smart meters.
They managed to completely screw up our meter readings and bills, and I had to resort to contacting the CEO because their customer service was appalling.
Things got resolved in the end, but we switched to another provider as soon as we could.
They were an odious company then, and your post suggests nothing has changed.
I suggest you write to the CEO - his name and address is easy to Google, and also read up on when you can get Ofgem involved.
Good luck!

We’ve just taken over a house where the current supplier is Scottish Power. Honest to god, it’s been an absolute nightmare. 1 month later and I still can’t get anyone to look at a simple issue. I must have contacted them - or tried to - in excess of 20 times.

So I’m sorry you’re having problems, but I’m sadly not at surprised at all. They are the worst company I’ve had to deal with in years.

I managed to send quite a restrained email to the CEO.
I'm not holding my breath nor much hope, but I've tried. I'm so angry that a shit time's been made even shittier, by such poor customer service from Scottish Power.

Sorry to hear that. When dh died the companies that stood out as being very good at dealing with bereavement affairs were EE and the bereavement dept of HMRC (had to file tax returns on late dh behalf) You always remember who treated you well and who didn't (the police in my case unfortunately when she came and told me he'd died. A bit crap)

💐
That's true. Some people genuinely seem to want to help. Two companies who gave great customer service were Royal London Insurance and Bank of Scotland, both were so helpful and efficient.

Read with interest as I was on the phone yesterday to Scottish Power's Bereavement section (sorting out bills in DH's name)
But they have also mucked up our smart meter
So far (touch wood) I have found the companies I have had to speak to ok (they all have Bereavement sections which I didn't realise)
Toyota Finance were ok as soon as I got through - x2 separate times I was on hold for an hour !

We had to opposite problem with my dad's electricity supplier. They sent us a bill a year after he died. You can imagine how furious I was! Needless to say I didn't pay it.

Sorry for your loss, OP. This is a huge problem for some countries and i wish there was a website where you could check which the cunty ones are and try to move frail parents' accounts before they die, or you can be prepared to deal with them.

Surprisingly good after my father died were Sky. Handed me directly to one of their berevement specialists and it was very calm, smooth and competent. Glad to hear EE are good, my mum is with them so i won't need to switch.

Go straight to the Ombudsman. A neighbour in the next village was nursing a dying partner at home when their phone/internet/everything comms died. They relied on it for managing all the hospice nurses, medication orders, emergency doctor visits etc etc. The company kept failing to fix it. Neighbour called Ombudsman, and the NEXT DAY had a call from a senior director of the supplier, saying a team had been allocated to fix it all pronto. It was all sorted in 24 hours so they can move fast when needed.

I complained about Scottish Twatting Power to the ombudsman, took them to arbitration, received compensation. It wasn’t about the money, but a third party telling SP they did a shit job. That was cathartic.