I’ve been recently having a lot of
problems with an energy company relating to a house that I own. The house
belonged to my Mum who died at the end of last year. I inherited the house and
have been using Scottish Power as the energy supplier.
The house itself has been empty for
many months while it is being refurbished, and therefore virtually no energy
has been used. The energy tariff I have been using - provided by Scottish Power
- has a very low daily standing charge, but a high unit charge.This means
that the bills should be very cheap, so long as not much energy is used at the
property.
Back in May I had reason to phone
Scottish Power and during the conversation the customer service representative suggested that
I have a smart meter installed. I wasn’t that interested, but she was so pushy (do
they get commission?!) that I ended up agreeing to having the new meter
fitted anyway, just to shut her up!
This was the start of all the
problems. As soon as the new meter had been
fitted, the final readings from the old meter were taken and sent to Scottish
Power.
But of course, these correct meter readings
were ignored.
The following month I received a large
bill from Scottish Power based on ‘estimated’ meter readings which didn’t take
account of the fact that my Mum had passed away, the house was empty, and
virtually no power had actually been used.
I phoned Scottish Power and asked them
to send a new bill based on the correct meter readings. They ignored me and
sent another demand for the incorrect amount.
Over the next month, I phoned them on
five separate occasions (each time having to wait at least half an hour ‘on hold’
to get through to them).
Each time I asked for a correct bill
to be sent based on the actual meter readings. Each time they ignored me and just kept
sending repeated demands to pay the large (incorrect) bill. These demands
had also started getting more sinister, mentioning debt collection agencies and
other implied threats.
After five phone calls to
their customer service team (all of them ignored) I emailed Scottish Power to
complain. And what happened? You guessed it,
they ignored my email as well, even though I am sure it was sent to the correct email
address.
This was now getting very stressful
and upsetting. After all, I was being threatened by a big energy company who
were trying to get me to pay a large amount of money (that I didn’t owe them)
and repeatedly ignoring all my phone calls and emails.
In fact it was only after 3 months of complete
hell that I finally resolved the issue and got the correct bill, and even then,
it was only after I had written to their head office threatening to take the
matter to the Energy Ombudsman.
What’s going wrong at Scottish Power?
I did a bit of detective work and
discovered that Scottish Power has seen a large increase in complaints over the
last two years. They received 2,813 complaints per 100,000 customers in the
third quarter of 2017, which is up from 2,212 at the beginning of 2016.
Scottish Power is also officially one
of the worst companies for resolving complaints within eight weeks (the point
at which the ombudsman steps in to help).
How to Complain to your Energy Company
Below is some useful advice if you are
having problems with Scottish Power, and many of these tips are just as
relevant if you are having problems with another energy company.
1. Complain directly to the company
First of all, make a formal complaint
to the company itself. Scottish Power's customer service team can be contacted
on 0800 040 7002 (free from a landline) or if you are a business customer then
call them on 0800 074 0062.
Alternatively, write to Scottish
Power, Customer Services, Freepost SCO5388, 320 St Vincent Street, Glasgow G2
5AD.
A little trick you could try is to
send a letter to the Chief Executive of the company marked "private and
confidential" - although this trick doesn’t always work as the energy
companies are getting wise to it. So it is also worth emailing them at the
direct email address.
It’s usually quite easy to work out
what their direct email address is. For example, the Scottish Power CEO is
called Keith Anderson and his direct email address is keith.anderson@scottishpower.com
If this doesn’t work, you could also
try contacting other senior directors at the company, such as Hamish Watson
(human resources director) at hamish.watson@scottishpower.com.
2. Start a fuss on social media
Complaining on social media can be very
effective because so many people get to see your complaint and the energy
company don’t want to generate bad publicity amongst potentially thousands of
people.
It’s very easy to find out the
Facebook and Twitter addresses of all the energy companies. For example,
on Twitter, Scottish Power can be found at @ScottishPower and their Facebook
address is Facebook.com/ScottishPower
3. Contact the Energy Ombudsman
If your complaint still hasn't been resolved
within eight weeks, then the final step is to make a formal complaint to the Energy
Ombudsman.
This is a free and impartial service
for energy consumers. It will investigate customer complaints and its decision
is binding, so Scottish Power would have to pay if the Ombudsman finds in the
customer's favour.
For more details call 0330 440 1624 or email: osenquiries@os-energy.org or write to Ombudsman
Services: Energy, PO Box 966, Warrington WA4 9DF.
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