Gas and electric complaint

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Inchy
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Gas and electric complaint

Post by Inchy » Wed Jul 03, 2019 10:14 pm

Ombudsman is shut so next best thing is here

Six months or so ago I left Scottish power for npower. Anyway I’ve had several emails saying the below
B14FB476-595A-48F6-A328-06C798DCDE3C.jpeg
B14FB476-595A-48F6-A328-06C798DCDE3C.jpeg (53.46 KiB) Viewed 1319 times
and clearly I have just ignored them as they say I am all sorted.

Anyway today I got 44 quid taken out my account. 10 days ago I got an email saying I am 44 quid in debit, which I didn’t read because I don’t always check my emails.

I rang Scottish power asking how they could access my account 6 months after leaving. They said your bill was estimated and if you had read your online account you would see that. I said I read your email which said everything was sorted so didn’t bother. Anyway back and forth, I asked for manager, they promised call back then hung up just before 10 (time contact centre closes)

Should I contact the ombudsman?

martin_p
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Re: Gas and electric complaint

Post by martin_p » Wed Jul 03, 2019 10:20 pm

Inchy wrote:Ombudsman is shut so next best thing is here

Six months or so ago I left Scottish power for npower. Anyway I’ve had several emails saying the below
B14FB476-595A-48F6-A328-06C798DCDE3C.jpeg
and clearly I have just ignored them as they say I am all sorted.

Anyway today I got 44 quid taken out my account. 10 days ago I got an email saying I am 44 quid in debit, which I didn’t read because I don’t always check my emails.

I rang Scottish power asking how they could access my account 6 months after leaving. They said your bill was estimated and if you had read your online account you would see that. I said I read your email which said everything was sorted so didn’t bother. Anyway back and forth, I asked for manager, they promised call back then hung up just before 10 (time contact centre closes)

Should I contact the ombudsman?
I’d check whether you owed them the money first. Did you take meter readings when you switched? Did the £0.00 bills you’d had mention they were estimates? Not having read your emails won’t be much of a defence I’m afraid, just as having an unopened bill sat on the mantelpiece isn’t.

Claretmatt4
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Re: Gas and electric complaint

Post by Claretmatt4 » Wed Jul 03, 2019 10:20 pm

It's a racket these days. I was overcharged to the tune of £40 a month for a year by economy energy despite the records showing I was £600 in credit! I asked why they didn't reassess my DD as I was in credit and but they never replied, so I left them. They then continued to take my direct debit out a month too long until I cancelled the standing order.

They went into admin shortly after and I've still not had my credit returned to me.

Absolute shambles and completely unregulated.

elwaclaret
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Re: Gas and electric complaint

Post by elwaclaret » Wed Jul 03, 2019 10:21 pm

Inchy wrote:Ombudsman is shut so next best thing is here

Six months or so ago I left Scottish power for npower. Anyway I’ve had several emails saying the below
B14FB476-595A-48F6-A328-06C798DCDE3C.jpeg
and clearly I have just ignored them as they say I am all sorted.

Anyway today I got 44 quid taken out my account. 10 days ago I got an email saying I am 44 quid in debit, which I didn’t read because I don’t always check my emails.

I rang Scottish power asking how they could access my account 6 months after leaving. They said your bill was estimated and if you had read your online account you would see that. I said I read your email which said everything was sorted so didn’t bother. Anyway back and forth, I asked for manager, they promised call back then hung up just before 10 (time contact centre closes)

Should I contact the ombudsman?
I would just accept it. I tried taking npower to court over a bill equivalent to a detached house with family of four, when in reality at the time I was alone in a one up one down pre-divorce fought them all the way to court despite precious little advise or help from any of the help that you are supposed to get and it ended up costing me four grand instead of £2,000. Courts are debt collectors for corporations, they are not there to see justice done in such matters. You won’t win, sorry to say.

Inchy
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Re: Gas and electric complaint

Post by Inchy » Wed Jul 03, 2019 10:25 pm

martin_p wrote:I’d check whether you owed them the money first. Did you take meter readings when you switched? Did the £0.00 bills you’d had mention they were estimates? Not having read your emails won’t be much of a defence I’m afraid, just as having an unopened bill sat on the mantelpiece isn’t.

I’m all online, no paper bills. All emails for 6 months say the above until I was sent one 10 days ago and charged. I should have just cancelled my direct debit so they couldn’t charge me.

You can’t just take money from peoples account without fair warning. Fortunately I can afford it but imagine if that 44 quid had knocked me into overdraft and further charges? Fortunately i don’t have to worry about that but I have been in positions in life where that would have crippled me for a month
Last edited by Inchy on Wed Jul 03, 2019 10:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Devils_Advocate
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Re: Gas and electric complaint

Post by Devils_Advocate » Wed Jul 03, 2019 10:26 pm

Ombudsman will ask you to go through their manager/complaints process before they will pick up the case for you so I would try and resolve with the company's first.

It may be down to Npower as much as Scottish Power as the Change of Supply read is agreed between the industry and the two suppliers but initiated by the new supplier.

Id check with Npower what reading they have opened your account to and then check this is what Scottish Power are now billing you too.

Key things are that your opening read for moving in to the property is accurate and any subsequent change of supply reads are used correctly by both suppliers as the end and start readings respectively. If that is the case then somewhere along the line you've used the energy so owe the money

duncandisorderly
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Re: Gas and electric complaint

Post by duncandisorderly » Wed Jul 03, 2019 10:29 pm

Pay the forty quid. I know it's not what you want, but you can't take it any farther than that in all honesty. Just pay it and be done.
Arguing the case will cost you more in time and stress than you need/want/deserve. They are all *****, so be a hero if you want, but you'll end up paying it anyway,.

Inchy
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Re: Gas and electric complaint

Post by Inchy » Wed Jul 03, 2019 10:31 pm

duncandisorderly wrote:Pay the forty quid. I know it's not what you want, but you can't take it any farther than that in all honesty. Just pay it and be done.
Arguing the case will cost you more in time and stress than you need/want/deserve. They are all *****, so be a hero if you want, but you'll end up paying it anyway,.

I’m off work tomorrow, not much planned and fancy a row. Il give it a blast and see if I can get it back.

What are the odds that I will see any of it back?

martin_p
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Re: Gas and electric complaint

Post by martin_p » Wed Jul 03, 2019 10:37 pm

Inchy wrote:I’m all online, no paper bills. All emails for 6 months say the above until I was sent one 10 days ago and charged. I should have just cancelled my direct debit so they couldn’t charge me.

You can’t just take money from peoples account without fair warning. Fortunately I can afford it but imagine if that 44 quid had knocked me into overdraft and further charges? Fortunately i don’t have to worry about that but I have been in positions in life where that would have crippled me for a month
But they gave you ten days warning, you just didn’t read it. That’s what their complaints dept or even an Ombudsman would say.

If you’re online with your new supplier as well then you should be able to compare final v starting readings to make sure they’re the same.
Last edited by martin_p on Wed Jul 03, 2019 10:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.

duncandisorderly
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Re: Gas and electric complaint

Post by duncandisorderly » Wed Jul 03, 2019 10:37 pm

Inchy wrote:I’m off work tomorrow, not much planned and fancy a row. Il give it a blast and see if I can get it back.

What are the odds that I will see any of it back?
Kick up a stink and you might well do, so if you've nothing better to do then go for it!
It honestly sounds to me like par for the course. Cancel anything and they take one more bit, be it gas, electric, Sky, netflix or whatever.

That said, you are spot on about the direct debit potentially leading you into debt. It hasn't (which is good!), but make it sound like it has if you are going to ring them. Turn the screw, if you have the time.

beddie
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Re: Gas and electric complaint

Post by beddie » Wed Jul 03, 2019 10:47 pm

Inchy, I would exhaust their complainst procedure before it moves on to the Ombudsman.

Pimlico_Claret
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Re: Gas and electric complaint

Post by Pimlico_Claret » Wed Jul 03, 2019 10:48 pm

Always underestimate your usage when you change suppliers , pay less per month than you use so that you hold the balance at the end of your contract. I change suppliers every, 12 - 18 months, once owed nearly £300 to one company, they never asked for it.

Inchy
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Re: Gas and electric complaint

Post by Inchy » Wed Jul 03, 2019 10:49 pm

martin_p wrote:But they gave you ten days warning, you just didn’t read it. That’s what their complaints dept or even an Ombudsman would say.

If you’re online with your new supplier as well then you should be able to compare final v starting readings to make sure they’re the same.

After 5 months of the email Above I could easily justify the fact I have spammed their emails (which I haven’t)

I am now wondering how ludicrous I can make this. The 44 pound has put me into debt, nat west want another 40 for being in debit. I now live on the streets picking up scraps outside parkview chippy, which has shut! But I’m too bitter to realise that and I’m just eating old fag buts next to the bin outside thinking they are scraps

beddie
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Re: Gas and electric complaint

Post by beddie » Wed Jul 03, 2019 10:51 pm

Inchy, I forgot to add presumably you didn't cancel your DD, they wouldn't then have been able to take your money.

Inchy
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Re: Gas and electric complaint

Post by Inchy » Wed Jul 03, 2019 10:55 pm

beddie wrote:Inchy, I forgot to add presumably you didn't cancel your DD, they wouldn't then have been able to take your money.
No I didn’t but I have now. When I was complaining before they hung up at 10pm I asked for Scottish powers bank account number and sort code, plus the 3 digit number on the back of their card so I could retrieve my money. She didn’t entertain that

Inchy
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Re: Gas and electric complaint

Post by Inchy » Wed Jul 03, 2019 10:58 pm

I don’t know what a Scottish power call centre employee gets paid but if I waste enough of their time to cover the 44 quid that will feel like some small victory. Even though it will cost my time as well.

I could easily end up sectioned over this

Blackrod
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Re: Gas and electric complaint

Post by Blackrod » Wed Jul 03, 2019 11:02 pm

You left Scottish Power to join NPower. NPower are the second worst company I have ever dealt with. Dreadful. Frying pans and fires spring to mind.

Paul Waine
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Re: Gas and electric complaint

Post by Paul Waine » Wed Jul 03, 2019 11:12 pm

Inchy wrote:I’m off work tomorrow, not much planned and fancy a row. Il give it a blast and see if I can get it back.

What are the odds that I will see any of it back?
Hi Inchy,

I left Scottish Power about 2 years ago. I was owed money on both gas and elec bills. They got my credit right on one of them, but not the other. They used to have 2 separate departments, one dealing with gas the other with elec. If they are still doing the same... it is all too easy for them to get something wrong.

You can get it sorted, but you've got to be comfortable with checking your readings at the time of the transfer. As above, your opening reads for your new supplier should match with your closing reads for Scot Power. These should not be estimates - they should both have the same actual read.

Did your gas/leccy require you to submit your own reads? Mine have been like that for a long time. I just take photos on my mobile, input these reads and keep the photos until the bill is sorted. (It's as easy as taking a photo - and only deleting when the phone memory is full.... not extra work),

If you've got time tomorrow it's worth looking through the bills and your meter reads. These days, I think we all have on-line accounts, so you can access all the records that way. You don't need to keep paper copies.

It will be easy to get sorted. I'd recommend not getting "wound up" about it - that way only you lose (speaking from experience...).

Of course, if you opening reads with new supplier match the revised reads with Scot Power then it maybe that they are correct to charge you - even though you weren't expecting it.

Good luck with it.

Paul Waine
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Re: Gas and electric complaint

Post by Paul Waine » Wed Jul 03, 2019 11:19 pm

Inchy wrote:I don’t know what a Scottish power call centre employee gets paid but if I waste enough of their time to cover the 44 quid that will feel like some small victory. Even though it will cost my time as well.

I could easily end up sectioned over this
Scot Power call centre staff are, my guess, on minimum wage. You may well tire of speaking with them before you have "spent" their cost of employment. Go easy on them, it's not their fault it's the systems they are given to use.
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Croydon Claret
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Re: Gas and electric complaint

Post by Croydon Claret » Thu Jul 04, 2019 6:46 am

Contact your bank and get them to refund your money under the Direct Debit guarantee due to it being an unauthorized amount. It's an established procedure

Then the onus is on Scottish power to do all the chasing
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Re: Gas and electric complaint

Post by tim_noone » Thu Jul 04, 2019 8:57 pm

I'm of the Opinion All utility companies will fleece their customers. And as for Direct Debits giving a third party access to your account is asking for trouble.

Greenmile
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Re: Gas and electric complaint

Post by Greenmile » Thu Jul 04, 2019 9:18 pm

As Croydon says, your best bet is to put in a Direct Debit indemnity claim. Your bank should refund you pretty much straight away, but bear in mind they can take that money back if the leccy company successfully argue it’s due to them.

On a related note, cancelling a DD with your bank won’t always prevent companies from taking your money - if they’re still owed money or providing you with a service, they can reinstate the DD via AUDDIS.

martin_p
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Re: Gas and electric complaint

Post by martin_p » Thu Jul 04, 2019 9:48 pm

Croydon Claret wrote:Contact your bank and get them to refund your money under the Direct Debit guarantee due to it being an unauthorized amount. It's an established procedure

Then the onus is on Scottish power to do all the chasing
I think he’ll have difficulty claiming it’s an unauthorised amount given they’d emailed him a bill well in advance.

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