Hi ☺
When we moved into our house nearly two years ago, Bellway had a gas and electric account with Scottish Power, and when we moved in we took over that account, I wouldn't have chosen Scottish Power myself as my parents have always been with British gas or npower and I knew these were good companies. Although I have since found out my parents went with Scottish Power briefly and had nothing but trouble with them!
When we first took over the accounts, Scottish Power sent me 6 letters with different account numbers all asking for money....call me stupid but I'm sure one for gas and one for electricity only comes to 2!I had to ring them to query which 2 account numbers were the correct ones, and they didn't seem to know so told me to just pick two....should have known by that that they weren't a good company but oh well.
Every month they sent a bill out for both accounts for £50 each, but when we discovered we could see the account online we realised they had been overcharging us as we were nearly £300 in credit on BOTH accounts...so £600 overall!! Again we rang them, and I was pregnant at this point but they refused to speak to hubby as it was in my name although I didn't need the stress. I was told that although the accounts were in credit, the money couldn't be used to pay future bills but they also couldn't give us the money. I admit I did get a bit stressed as the man I spoke to just kept telling me I didn't know what I was talking about etc and they couldn't refund us the money or use the money and I kept pointing out they had to give us it back as it was our money surely. I ended up ringing about three times and speaking to a manager before they agreed to send us cheques for the balance, and the bloke I originally spoke to was disciplined as the manager listened to the call and admitted that the way I was spoken to was unacceptable especially as I had kept cool and calm the entire time.
When the cheques were sent in the post they were sent to Mr instead of Mrs so the bank refused to accept them, so we had to ring Scottish Power again. This time I asked if I could give hubby permission to discuss the account as I didn't want the stress while pregnant. After speaking to hubby they agreed to take future bills off the credit balance on both accounts. However they also changed the account without telling us at this point as instead of paying monthly they changed it to paying quarterly and also stopped sending us bills.
I kept checking online to see if bills were being paid by the credit balance, and on three occasions despite being in credit the account said the bill hadn't been paid so I ended up paying them by bank card online which then made the credit balance increase.
A few weeks ago we got a 'final demand' letter in the post despite not receiving a bill, and I had already checked the account online and we are still in credit and it also showed that the bill had been paid using money from the credit balance. We rang Scottish Power and asked why we were getting final demand letters when we didn't owe them anything and also didn't even receive a bill and I was told that they would look into it.
A week later we hadn't heard anything back from them but received a final demand email so we rang them back again. This time the man told me that he couldn't see anything past November. It was July when I rang so I asked how I could see further than that online and also if there had been no bills produced since November how had I received a final demand... He didn't have an answer to this and just kept saying the account was in debit and he couldn't see past November (I feel I should point out that it was November when they sent the cheques out ). He agreed to investigate it further as I said I would pay the bill if it was correct but I wanted an explanation as to why the online account said we were in credit and showed more transactions than what they could see.
We also emailed screen shots of the online accounts to the customer service team as suggested to us by the customer service advisor.
A few days later I got a phone call from Scottish Power telling me I needed to pay the bills,I checked online again and it still said in credit so I asked again why there was a discrepancy and whether they could see past November now. They said no so I said I wanted to speak to a manager, it was at this point hubby took the phone and spoke to them. They agreed to freeze the account until everything was resolved, and we emailed the customer service team again. The advisor also asked us to take an updated meter reading so we did and he updated the account...we checked online and it had been updated and as it showed we had actually been charged too much money on the last bill they had refunded money into the account so our credit balance was even higher! A few days later we got another text off Scottish Power saying we needed to pay the bill so we rang back again and asked why we got that text when our account was frozen. We were told they couldn't discuss the account with us as the name had been changed on the account and neither of us gave the correct name so we had to ring another department to change the name back to then ring back and discuss the account. There was no reason for the name change and we still haven't found out why they had changed it! I was fuming by this point and told them if our account wasn't sorted out in the next few days I was going to take it further as we didn't need the stress with a newborn baby in the house. They said they would investigate it and the account was still frozen.
We then got a letter off Scottish Power telling us to pay...we rang back and hubby spoke to a manager (after being hung up on by a female customer advisor for saying he wanted to speak to a manager immediately ). The manager could see what we were looking at online and admitted there was a discrepancy and said he would make sure it was being investigated. At this point we went to citizens advice to ask if we could take it further and they rang Scottish Power and the woman they spoke to admitted that there is a fault with their system that is affecting lots of people not just us so the fault is definitely with them.
Yesterday we got another letter off Scottish Power again demanding money despite the account being frozen and nothing being resolved yet so hubby rang again and we were told it should never have been sent out as our account is frozen and they aren't sure when everything will be resolved.
Does this sound like a good company or good customer service?!?!
I have no problem paying bills that I actually owe but as the online records show I have been paying bills since November (and before obviously) and they can't see past November I don't want to pay anything until the discrepancy is resolved and both balances match up.
We just want to get it sorted, and we don't like how we have to keep ringing them up to try and get it sorted!!
We have now decided to switch companies but we have to resolve this issue first so if it isn't resolved this month we will be taking them to court.
Has anyone else had problems with Scottish Power?
Xxx
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