Scottish Power Problems

[emtink12]

Just wondering wether anyone else has had porblems with Scottish Power? We have a token meter yet scottish power are claiming we owe them over £500??? How can we owe them that? My mom is having the same problem they say she owes over £200.. she also has a token meter. When i phoned them up they said if i had of stayed with them i could of payed it off slowly but now that i have moved to a new supplier they want all the money.. Bayliffs are suposed to be coming to my home next week.. what do i do? I really dont think that i could owe them that money. Having a token meter means pay as you go, dosent it??

[Beakerzoid]

Hah....don't get me started on the ineptitude of Scottish Power! When we moved house we were lumbered with them as the last occupants used them. I wanted the token meters removed and was told I would have to pay £150 per meter to remove them. Now, not having that kind of money lying around I explained that was ridiculous, only to be told that I would 'get it back after 6 months'! (Bizarrely Powergen didn't charge me to remove them at all).

 

So, stuck with token meters we arrange for them to be reset before we moved in. This was done, and we bought our first credit on the friday we moved (spending the last of our cash in the process). The electric went in fine, the £20 of gas creditied £4.50!!!

 

A phone call to their inept, patronising support team revealed that the meter had a £500 debt on it! Naturally I kicked off - £4.50 would last, maybe, a day - which means that with 3 days before we had any more cash we would be without heating (and with two kids - one under 1 - that was not an option in March).

"If you buy some more we will be able to re-credit your account!"

"I have no money to buy more - can you not send someone to clear the debt off?"

"We need to wait until the payment details have come on our systems!"

"How long does that take?"

"About 3 days!"

"3 days for an internet message to transmit?"

"If you credit some more to the meter we can arrange for the debt to be ...."

"What part of I HAVE NO MORE MONEY do you not understand? Can you put me through to someone who will listen to what I am saying?"

"Sorry, there is no-one else here who ca..."

"NO ONE ELSE? Are you alone in the building?"

 

Morons!

 

That was only the start of our torturous 5 weeks with the ineptitude of Scottish Power.

 

There followed various lies ("We have credited your card with an additional £30. When you next buy some credit it will automatically add this on." - never saw the credit until they physically sent a cheque out.) We had to call their customer services 6 times over that period, spent many a day without gas, and made it clear to them that if they stopped the transfer of supply, or delayed it in any way, I would take action against them.

 

When we were in the transferal process they had the audacity to send out a "Why are you leaving" letter, inviting us to stay with them and continue recieving their great "benefits"! I returned the form with a rather abrupt letter!

 

The full details of my experiences were sent to Energywatch, the regulatory watchdog for gas and electric.

 

I'd suggest contacting them yourself to resolve this dispute you have with them, because I would not take their claim that you owe them at face value.

 

energywatch website is at http://www.energywatch.org.uk/

[mojo1]

Just wondering wether anyone else has had porblems with Scottish Power? We have a token meter yet scottish power are claiming we owe them over £500??? How can we owe them that? My mom is having the same problem they say she owes over £200.. she also has a token meter. When i phoned them up they said if i had of stayed with them i could of payed it off slowly but now that i have moved to a new supplier they want all the money.. Bayliffs are suposed to be coming to my home next week.. what do i do? I really dont think that i could owe them that money. Having a token meter means pay as you go, dosent it??

 

I'd contact CAB if I were you, I didn't think bailiffs had authority unless apointed by the courts. Get some legal advice, if they think you are more than happy to let it go as far as court then they will more than likely take another look at your situation and either the problem will miraculously disappear or they will find that you were on the wrong tariff and still bill you, either way you will have your answer.

[jonnybegood1]

I'm having a few problems with Scottish Power myself!

When I moved into my council property in November 2012 The electricity supply was with Scottish Power, there was a post pay meter in the property and the supply was up and running. I called them to set up an account and was told they needed to send me a card so I could credit the meter. I explained that the meter didn't need a card and the supply was already on, to which they replied 'Oh, well it shouldn't be...' I had to provide the meters serial number which wasn't on their system for this address so they decide to send an agent out to 'check and replace' the meter. They thought that the previous tenants had installed a meter from another property to get free electricity (crazy so and so's). The agent visited, said the meter was ok and he would reiterate that to Scottish Power.

I was moving to NPower who were going to install a new meter anyway so I left it at that. Received my 1st correspondence from Scottish Power informing me I was now on their monthly cash plan and needed to pay £54, I paid it and used my electricity, moved to Npower no problem. Npower sent an agent who came and installed a brand spanking new meter. I have since received my final bill from Scottish Power saying I owe them a further £51.87! How on earth have I used £105.87 worth of electricity in less than 4 weeks?! I called them and was told that since I provided all the readings thats what they'd used to calculate the bill. The previous tenants paid no electricity bills for 7 years, I was told this by Scottish Power themselves and have seen the bill they sent for the previous tenant and it totalled £7000

Surely if they had illegally installed a meter it may not have been running correctly? It may have been clocking up more than was actually being used? Since the meter has now been replaced and probably recycled do I have a leg to stand on?