please help scottish power

[carlito71]

a man from scottish power arrived at door today with a bill for £3600.00 he advised bills had been sent and that best thing to do was get keycard installed phoned s/p and told that they had only started billing me from marc this year and have been in house for 7 years they said it is their fault for not billing me and they can only charge for last 2 years please can anyone advise

[mutzi]

Your post isn't 100% clear, what period does the £3600 relate to, the whole 7 years?

Read the bottom 2 sections of this page: energywatch: Billing Basics

Stay away from the keycard meter, they are more expensive to run. Don't pay extra for their mistakes.

[carlito71]

sorry for being unclear the £3600 is total amount that is due up until march of this year they seem to only go back to 2002 but have never been billed at all until recent bill

[gondukin]

I can't work out from your posts if the £3600 is for 7 years usage, 5 years usage or 2 years usage, please confirm!

[carlito71]

apologies again £3600 is total amount owed i am not sure myself if it is 7 or 5 years my house was a new house 7 years ago we have never received a bill until march of this year which i have not seen the first i knew was when man came to door with outstanding bill i then phoned s/p who said it was their fault as their records show that no bills had been sent from 2002 until march of this year when i said ive been in house from 2000 she said her records only show from 2002 she said her boss was not there and would contact me tomorrow i hope that is bit clearer as im still unsure of the whole situation myself will i owe 2years bills going back from now or what is the position thanks for any advice

[mutzi]

You will owe for the last 2 years only, they also have to be reasonable in repayment arrangements.

Look on the bright side you got 5 years free power

[carlito71]

just spoke to nice lady from s/p who said because it was there fault they would give me two years to pay off full amount instead of the normal 1year i said i had been advised by someone else at s/p that i would only be charged for previous 2years and she said she didnt know anything about that new law and she would put me through to her manager put me on hold then i got cut off will i phone back or wait to be contacted?

[gondukin]

It is not actually a legal requirment, but was introduced by the energy retail association. This info is taken from the energywatch website so you can spout it at them should you need to:

Question How many years back can they still bill me?
Answer It depends on your circumstances.
Companies must have a Code of Practice which covers how they bill consumers. As of July 2006, the main domestic suppliers (those who belong to the Energy Retail Association) agreed a new Code of Practice which stipulated that, where suppliers were at fault for not billing a consumer, they will not backdate (or backbill) more than two years. This drops to a one year timeframe with effect from July 2007.
You can find more information on the changes to the Code of Practice from the ERA's website, as well as the possible exemptions, here. Be aware that the guidelines apply to members of the ERA and their domestic consumers only.

They should usually allow you to pay the bill off over the same time it was accrued as well, so as you are being back billed two years they should give you two years to pay it off. You may not be able to switch supplier until you have cleared your bills though (should you wish to).

[carlito71]

update after being cut off decided to give energywatch a phone who could not have been anymore helpful the number phoned was in england explained situation he connected me through to glasgow to steven who was even more helpful after being told by s/p that they had billed me £3054.64 on march 2006 the code didnt come in until july so i am liable for full amount he said that they are just trying to get out of rebating my bill he put me on hold and contacted s/p himself and gave me ref no and his ext no so if i wasnt happy with what s/p said to contact him and he will deal with it.
so put through to s/p and told that the conversation i had with nice lady didnt happen the way i said it did she offered 3 years to pay and that when put on hold i hung up.also that normally i would be due a rebate but her records show that my sister phoned up to query bill in march 2006 as well, this woman nearly convinced me that my sister would phone up they also spoke to ******* my eight year old daughter about overdue bill after this statement she said that because i have contacted energywatch they now have 10 days to review my account before any action can be taken so you will from us in 2 weeks she has to be one of the most obnoxious woman i have had the pleasure of speaking to was not interested in what i was saying just what she had to say it aws as if what right did i have to go to energywatch its my fault that they hadnt billed me for five years!! so lets see what they say in two weeks

[gondukin]

The code of practice came in July last year, as in the quote I posted above. Let energywatch deal with it, if they can't resolve it go to the energy supply ombudsman as they have more teeth than energywatch.

[carlito71]

thanks very much gondukin ill let you know what happens when i here back from s/p

[Sol]

Scottish Power are atrocious at their administration.

Two years ago I stayed in a flat with a friend. We had the gas and electricity in both our names for about 4 months and always paid on time. Then we started to get bills in someone elses name. I immediately sent this back advising this person didn't live at my address.

Over a year and several phone calls and fax's later it was resolved AFTER I moved out the property. Due to their error they wanted me to pay over £800 which I refused as I had been in constant touch with them re this.

After complaining to Energywatch I got a deduction of around £180 bringing it down to about £600, which I still think is ridiculous to pay out for their mistake.

My advice would be to change to a different supplier, SP aren't the cheapest anyway.

[carlito71]

i know what you mean their customer relations aren't any better still waiting on them getting back to me after they said they had ten days to deal with it i am going to give them a phone tomorrow and if still not happy will phone energywatch back

[carlito71]

well eventually s/p got back to me with offer they agreed that they could only charge for last 2 years and nothing prior to this so bill was reduced to £1318.00 with the option to pay up over 2 years or 3 years so looks like it will be the 3 year option very happy with end result as i have saved £2500.00 i would recommend the use of energywatch to anyone who has problems after only 3 phonecalls to them everything has been sorted out.