Billing Chaos

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Scottish Power Electric
★☆☆☆☆
1.2
5.0% of users recommend this

JaylynMead's review of Scottish Power Electric

“Billing Chaos”

★☆☆☆☆

written by JaylynMead on 13/03/2016

I was happily paying what I thought was my dual gas and electricity bill for 2 years. In July 2015 I settled my bill which was around £450 (after being £233 in credit the previous quarter) only to receive another bill straight afterwards telling me I owed them £659. Thinking this was a big mistake I contacted Scottish Power who told me due to a billing error they had omitted to charge me for gas for the past 14 months. I told them I dont have this type of money and it wasnt my fault as every quarter I had received a bill stating 'your dual gas and electricity bill is due' and wanted to remove me from quarterly payments to a payment plan to settle it. I was not happy with this suggestion and said I would pay it bit by bit as/when I could. I also asked them to apply the back billing policy which means that they cannot charge me for debts acrued over a year ago due to their error. After about 6 months I received an apology and £300 compensation - but during this period I had received non stop threatening letters and baliffs at my door.

Roll on to this year and my bill in November 2015 tells me I was in £450 credit at the last quarter but now I owe them £433!!! There is no way on earth I would have used this much gas. I live with my son in a 2 bedroom house, we are out all day, and the central heating is only on for a few hours in the morning and a few hours in the evening. I have electric cooker so it is only my heating and hot water I use gas for (and even then my son showers each morning with electric shower). To top it all charges from 18 months ago are again appearing on my bill and I can't find any proof that they paid me back the £300 compensation, despite SP telling me I have received it.

I have asked SP to send me a statement of actual charges and actual payments from the time I moved in (2011) as I am very doubtful I owe them anything, and most likely they owe me, but they are telling me they can only go back as far as when the £659 debt was accrued. Surely this is breaking the law regarding record keeping. I have passed this to the Energy Ombudsman to sort but again I am receiving threatening letters, letters stating my credit WILL be affected and I am waiting for the baliffs again.

Was is equally amazing is that on the past and projected usage of gas my gas for the whole year should be around £454 but SP will not comment on how they keep coming up with bills for gas of over £400/quarter.

I had to send 4 complaint emails to SP's Chief Exec Office before anyone even responded. Their excuses amount from not receiving any emails - until I pointed out that I had put a 'read receipt' on each email so I know when they were read, to evading the rest of the complaint.

If anyone wants to complain I would suggest you forget the complaints procedure and start fighting SP from the top down. This company breaks the law in every which way it can. They are employing over 400 staff now purely to reduce the amount of complaints.

My advise to anyone wanting a review on SP is to steer well clear and check the websites for the appaulling reviews they receive.

Dont become a latest statistic in SP's current 253,000 complaints!

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