Hi, all!
This is my first post here, so please be gentle
I’m looking for a little advice as I’m seriously confused and trying to work out just what’s going on. A little background story..
I’m with Scottish Power, for better or for worse. They claimed that I owed money (even though I was adamant that I did not); after a lot of arguing, including threatening phone calls while I was bed-ridden and ill, I ended up having a prepayment meter fitted, which has been both the best AND worst thing that’s happened. When fitted originally it was set to £10 “debt/wk” on the meter; this was back in 2005. In October 2005 I was unemployed and only receiving benefits whilst looking for work. I contacted Scottish Power on other’s advice and stated that as I was only existing on benefits paying £10 a week was too much; they agreed to take that off. It was only a couple of weeks later that I checked as my electricity was STILL going down fast – I live alone and am rarely in to use anything - that it was in fact set to £3 per week, so not removed at all. I decided not to complain again and have the hassle of someone knocking on the door, so I let it be.
Quite some time later – 2006/2007 – I am employed, but the meter readers always call when you’re at work, as everyone knows! They drop a card through the letterbox asking me to call them and provide my R1 and R2 readings, which wouldn’t be a problem … but they’ve vanished from the meter entirely, leaving only R1, and Debt/wk is still £3. I’m puzzled and try to give the R1 reading to the company but they don’t want to know without both readings, and suggest I contact Scottish Power. I do just that – via mail – and in response I got a standard statement of what I owe to them still (oddly not taking into account the debt/wk on the meter, as they assume I’m not paying anything per week, I assume) and nothing more. As I’m quite busy I don’t take it any further, but sure enough, along come more missed meter readings – I realise now that dealing with it sooner would have been smarter but I’d been working so hard that I just didn’t have the time.
Now forward to 2007. I get another missed meter reading or two, the same thing as before, and I contact Scottish Power in writing – and get an entire list of ALL payments and rates and everything else since my account started with them, with no reference at all to my being missing one rate.
The last bill I got estimates I’ve used a lot less than I actually have, but looking at the amount I’ve paid in total it outweighs even double what the total would be if the correct Kwh rates were applied. However, since all of the readings are at one rate – and the lower of two possible rates - no doubt this would be argued by them as well. If indeed they ever actually sent a real reply to one of my letters. I don’t trust them on the phone as nothing can be proven at all – oddly they have “mislaid” some recorded conversations that may have shown error on their part in the past.
And now to confuse it even further – I notice in the last month that my electricity has been going down slower then usual. I checked tonight and the debt/week is now £0.00! This leads me to ask – how is this possible??? I know for a fact that no-one has had access to my property at all to access the meter to change anything, and checking the meter’s ppu and standing charge it’s nearly exactly what the latest increases would have brought my meter up to.
So I’m now left with the irony of potentially being in MORE debt than I started out with, having no proof that the debt/week was ever anything other than zero, and my meter seems able to change itself (as it’s not a key meter, but a card-meter – “Ampy” I think it’s called) which I wasn’t aware it could do – I’m deeply confused. I’ve tried on numerous occasions to contact Scottish Power and have had no relevant reply whatsoever (a number of times I’ve had no reply at all) and now really don’t know what to do.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
-Andy
Prepay meter with mind of it's own ... 
