Has my GDPR been breached by energy provider?

[PoohneedsaPimms]

We moved energy provider recently due to years of appalling customer service.

Now the old provider have sent me their estimated final bill on Thursday 16/04 (we have paid most of it already but as they needed final readings from us we didn’t know exactly what the final amount due would be). They gave us a final date for this to be paid of 06/05.

Today we made a substantial payment and I have received both a text message and email, with my customer details included from a debt collector!!!! NB I am NOT in debt and never have been, ever.

Have raised a complaint with them today via social media.

Is this a GDPR breach as they have passed on my details and already admitted this should not have happened at this stage! I’m fuming!

Not a GDPR breach, it will be set out in their privacy notice that they may share your information under certain circumstances and the legal basis for doing so. You could challenge the legal basis if you believe that they shared it in error but you would also have to prove quantum if you want compensation

A few years ago we were with first utility and they sent a debt collector letter out after we disputed the final bill (which was wrong) we got the energy ombudsman involved and it turned out first utility had sent the letter themselves!

Not a Gpdr breach but they have sold your debt before the allocated time as dictated by them and I would go hell fire on this. If they have sold the debt, your credit file is going to be affected so demand once cleared your credit history with them is corrected.

Thanks all, have never experienced anything like this before.

As far as we’re concerned, we have paid them in good faith and as we were still awaiting confirmation of the final amount to be paid - it’s not a “debt” yet as we have not failed to pay and it’s due by 06/05?

Seems like they have escalated this to the debt collector before we’ve had a chance to confirm our final readings.

It’s Scottish Power by the way…

Scottish power are the WORST energy company - and the worst company apart from British Gas! - I’ve ever dealt with so doesn’t surprise me😩 they are absolutely useless and a nightmare to get anything right! 6 months after paying my final bill to them I got a debt collector letter stating I’d not paid my bills to Scottish power! When I rang Scottish power to ask which bill as I’d paid them all they wouldn’t discuss it with me as I no longer had an account with them!!!

😱 That is dreadful Nearly50omg, you have my deepest sympathy. We’ve had issues like a wrong meter allocated to our account and still thinking we had an old economy 10 system when we had got rid of our storage heaters etc years ago (old system was in the house when we moved in).

How did you resolve that with them in the end?