Scottish Power**VICTORY**

[allan1983]

I need someone who knows a bit about scottish power, and how they operate.
Its with regards to an electricity account, on a prepay meter if that makes any difference.

[pjdudley69]

Can you post more detail as to what the problem is?

[allan1983]

Ill go as far as saying our usage of electricity has more than doubled over the past 6 weeks or so, and were not doing ANYTHIN any differently.
The only thing thats changed is the meter. They swapped the 'obsolete' card meter for a new key meter.

[buzby]

They have to disclose the cost to you per KwH, but I wouldn;t be surprised if your power bill increased - you were probably undercharged on the card meter, but are paying the true cost on the Keymeter. They might be adding any underpayiment on the old meter to the new, but only they can tell you.

[Battleaxe]

Yep that is what they are doing. I was listening to Radio Five the other morning and this was being discussed about the prepaid meters, but you have to be advised what rate they are charging you at. They were also discussing that these prepay meters are imposed on the those who can least afford them. We pay our bills quarterly, never monthly DD. Do you have to have prepay meter? Maybe I should miond my own business. it is the most expensive way to pay for your power and you are paying it up front before you even use it.

I bet you have been hit for underpayment and with the increases in prices, this is what has happened.

[allan1983]

To answer all these points, we are(or were till i stepped in and paid it off separately) being charged for an 'underpayment' ( not really our fault i dont think, but thats what Scottish Power are telling us)
I also know their price per KwH. Its 10.36p.
My problem is potentially an electrical fault one more than a consumer issue, but i wondered whether anyone had dealt with a key meter, and it be faulty?

Maybe I should miond my own business. it is the most expensive way to pay for your power and you are paying it up front before you even use it.

I know this, but in the past we had felt that it was the easiest way for us personally to pay.
The meter is getting swapped to a standard meter on the 25th of January, so we'll see how things go then.

[buzby]

Whilst nothings is fault-free, they key meters have a pretty good record, and only have to be calibrated (by law) every 5 years. Digital meters go to 10, and by far the biggest complaint is not in the recording of consumption, but some error in the coding of any 'outstanding' debt. Apart from the fact the SP are one of, if not the most expensive provider of power - no wonder a Spanish company is trying to buy them out!

[allan1983]

Ok. 2 points.
1. I thought SP were one of the cheaper companies?
2. Even though ive a)haggled the 'debt' down by 50%, b) paid the other 50% onto a credit card, c) asked for it to be recovered at the minimum rate prior to paying it separately, its still showing on the meter as being on there, and its still going down gradually ie. we're still paying it!!
I rang them as recently as this morning, and got told i need to top it up again for the message about the debt being paid to get to the meter. (personally, i think thats B.S.)

[buzby]

1) Scottish Power are one of the 'legacy' power suppliers, and along with Scottish Gas (British Gas elsewhere) have the highest standard tariff. Only when dual-fuel deals kick in do they get close, but there might have been a promotional deal that gave you a better rate than the stnadard tariff. I don;t know where you are based, but if you were a 'native' SP customer for your electric and never changed, and ditto for Gas, there are far better deals around. Even the Advertising Standards Authority criticised BG for saying they offered a great deal, when they didn't!

2) As to the meter - it IS true, it needs an updated data reload which it gets from the key after a top-up takes place. This is the only way the meter is updated on what it is supposed to charge and what the various charging options are. The old card meters couldn't do this, and a visit was required to update them, but the new Key's have enough memory to permit the data to be refreshed, so it wasn't BS

[allan1983]

I dont mean the actual concept was BS, but ive now topped up 3 times, from the same vendor too as they said this would help, and its been a week...
The debt is still there right now.

[buzby]

I wouldn't top up again then, especially until they've clarified that the Key will be correctly loaded with the new data they originally promised!

[allan1983]

which is a good idea, but then the debt will DEFINITELY still be there.
I guess now you can see my problem though?

[buzby]

But I thought you explained that they said the reprogramming had alreadyt been released to the key, hence their suggestion you do a top-up and upload the revised key? If they've 'forgotten' to release the key instruction, then they've got to explain to you why it didn't happen.

[fbnts]

We have a card meter for gas and a key for electricity which are being swapped next week cos British gas have us by the danglies!

But, I know when our meter was fitted it was not correctly showing the debt so they told me it would update next time I top up.

This happened and the little receipt that the retailer gave me stated at the bottom that an update had been transfered or something to that effect.

Tom

[martinpar]

I thought SP were one of the cheapest too. I have a card meter for my elec which was forced on me as a result of them billing me incorrectly and me refusing to pay. I have never had a correct bill, nor have any two bills actually made sense together. I would be interested to know how your 'bills' look when you get them. My prepayment statements look like bills and always just add the cost of electricity used during the quarter so it looks like a huge bill which never gets paid. I got a letter recently telling me they might not have programmed in the last increase and asking me to check it for them and tell them if it's wrong!!

Apart from anything else, once they finally corrected the amount owed from before I started the prepayment meter it would seem that I probably repaid the debt several months ago. I am about to go through all the bills and corrections and statements to demand what I think will be a considerable refund and that they replace my meter with a normal one.

Their accounting is a total shambles but I thought this was offset by their good price. I thought it was significant that when I had someone touting for business on the doorstep recently the one company he didn't have an illustration of the savings over was Scottish Electricity.

[buzby]

Originally Posted by martinpar

Their accounting is a total shambles but I thought this was offset by their good price. I thought it was significant that when I had someone touting for business on the doorstep recently the one company he didn't have an illustration of the savings over was Scottish Electricity.

Well at least that hasn't changed. If you arte located outside Scotland, your pricing may be better, but as they were the monopoly provider for Central & Southern Scotland (with Scottish Hydro coverining everything north of Perth) it was a cost and expensive cartel. For those Scottish consumers who have NEVER changed from their default suppliers, EnergyWatch were advising saving of 30% or more were available if punters switched!

[Battleaxe]

We switched from Scottish Power twelve months ago. We founf that Southern offered us a far better deal with dual fuel. have just paid the electricity bill for the previous 3 months £124.00 and the gas bill has arrived £121.00. We checked the readings and everything is spot on. I am guessing that the next quarter the price increase will kick in, so it will be interesting to see what it is. Our duel fuel bill for the last twelve months has been £841.00. We do try to conserve fuel usage, but this is still lower than £1754.00 a year when we were with Scottish Power. More than 50% saving including the price increases.

It certainly pays to shop around to get those savings.

[martinpar]

Obviously, as soon as I get my meter back to normal I will have to shop around. It would be nice to get a correct bill! I once had a bill of 1000 for one quarter. This is when I was using about 150 in a quarter.