Scottish Power Still Chasing For Paid Off Debt!!!

[steptoes]

Hi everyone

I used to be a customer of Scottish Power until I saw the light and now they are still trying to chase me for a debt that has already been paid off.

When I was first with them there came a time where I was struggling to keep up payments on the gas and electricity accounts and so fell behind. I paid off as much as I could and so the following month I also had to pay off what was carried over from the previous months non payment. This carried on for a few months until finally I had a debt of £400 which I think may have been split between the two accounts. I stuck my neck out one month and decided to pay off what they were telling me that I owed which was £400.

This was in 2005 and I think that the main reason I wanted it paid was so that I could change energy supplier. Shortly after paying off my debt I was then sent a new bill for over £1000, I asked SP what all this about and they said that it was a debt from a previous bill, ugh? I explained to them that all of my unpaid bills with them had been rolled over to the following bill, just as it would with the likes of BT and 7 Trent etc. They told me that this was not the case and that I needed to pay the bill in full. I told them they were having a laugh and that there was no way I could pay this off and so I agreed to pay off as much as I could every month. Eventually I ended up having pre-payment meters fitted for both gas and electric just so that they wouldn't take me to court and have my supply cut off. Paying off our pre-payment meters was like throwing money away in slot machines, I was always spending money on them.

Some time later I had a British Gas sales rep come to my door trying to get us to change over to them, I told the guy that I'd be more than happy to this but seeing as I was supposed to have an outstanding debt with SP that I wouldn't be able to. I told him the same story and he told me that he knows of someone else in another street by me who had the same thing done to them by SP, a new bill just pops up out of knowhere. I filled out the forms for BG and every now and then BG would send account transfer forms to SP, everyone one of them were turned down by SP as expected. Then out of the blue I had a letter from SP telling me that they were sad to see me go and that's when I found out that my electricity account had now been approved for transfere to BG, debt paid off I thought! Shortley after I was sent a bill for about £350 from SP telling me that the debt was outstanding from the electricity account that needed to be paid NOW! I left this alone until they finally threatened court action so I had to pay it off in full as I couldn't afford even more debt.

In April 2007 I had another sales rep at my door, this time from nPower. Not happy with BG prices and still trying to get away from SP I agreed to move over to them. When my account was set up with NP in May my payment cards/token came through the door and very shortly after they both went missing (I have 4 kids), so that I wasn't without gas and electric I carried on using the old SP card for the gas and the key for the electric from BG. By August 2007 I noticed that the debt on the gas meter was now down to about £40, I was so glad, the next time I put the card in the debt showed as ZERO. In Septemeber 2007 I was sent a bill from SP for £145.98 for unpaid gas, I quickly phoned them and told them of the situation that I had still been paying into my SP account through the card since I moved from them in May so if anything it should be NP chasing me for the debt and not them, they replied by saying that they had no record of payments been made. I said told them that on a per-payment meter there was no way that I could get gas unless I paid money into it but they were having non of it, there was still £145.98 outstanding. They told me that I had to find out where the money had gone to myself but in the meantime they still wanted the £145.98 paid to them NOW! I got in touch with NP and told them the whole story. They were very helpful and insisted that it is down to energy suppliers to chase for outstanding monies owed between themselves and isn't done by the customer, they told me that they do this all of the time. They were even able to tell me what energy suppliers had been at my address for the last 10 years and the exact dates of change over, I was impressed. I wa stold to leave this with them and they'd sort it out for me.

Having thought that everything had now been sorted I got another letter from SP a couple of weeks ago still demanding a payment of £145.98 that they claim is still outstanding. So I got on the phone to them again, this time I wasn't so calm. They told me that any outstanding monies has now been sorted between themselves and NP but that there is still the supposed debt of £145.98 to pay. This is what I can't understand, they say there was an original debt of £145.98, now that they have collected oustanding monies from NP there is still a debt of £145.98, surely this means that the original debt would have been more than £145.98 that they claim?

I had another letter today this time from SPM Collections demanding payment for £145.98, what am I supposed to do?

I'm now starting to think that the other supposed debt of over £1000 in 2005 was also made up too.

[Conniff]

They told me that I had to find out where the money had gone to myself

Assuming you were using Paypoint, then only the power company know where the payments are, even Paypoint don't so you wont be able to find out.

If you are a customer who has used PayPoint to make a payment and you have a query relating to your bill, account or service, please contact your bill issuer or service provider. PayPoint will always try to answer all queries received, but we do not hold customer account details as payments are passed directly to your bill issuer or service provider.

[steptoes]

Yes it was paid through PayPoint, the excuse was that all payments went through Siemens and then transfered to the power supplier. I was even asked to produce reciepts for all payments to prove that I'd paid, who on earth keeps receipts for pre-pay meters?

[noggsy]

Its always a problem when you use the incorrect card for PPMs - BUT it is down to the suppliers to sort out the problem,not you, invariably they will end up crediting eachother. Providing you give the information as to which card you used and give the account details to the companys in question, they should resolve it. In your case if it has got as far as a DCA I would be talking to Energywatch to take up the matter on your behalf. Good Luck

[steptoes]

Originally Posted by noggsy

Its always a problem when you use the incorrect card for PPMs - BUT it is down to the suppliers to sort out the problem,not you, invariably they will end up crediting eachother. Providing you give the information as to which card you used and give the account details to the companys in question, they should resolve it. In your case if it has got as far as a DCA I would be talking to Energywatch to take up the matter on your behalf. Good Luck

I did leave it down to them to sort it out after being told by my new supplier nPower to do so. I gave detailed information about everything that went on, even the date the first payment was made to nPower back in September.

It hasn't got as far as DCA yet other than SPM collections but as far as I am aware SPM is just another department that belongs to SP itself. I've already posted my problem on the Watchdog website and waiting for a reply but nothing yet.

To be honest I'm not even sure that they have a clue what's going on, like I said before, they claim that there was a debt of over £1000 and this was after I paid them off and now even though they say that moneis that went missing last year have now been settled between them and my new supplier they are still claiming the original amount is still unpaid.

[noggsy]

I sympathise, anything out of the ordinary tends to confuse the suppliers, all you can do I think is keep arguing and then claim compo off them when they finally do sort it