 |
|
|
|
|
Begin the morning by saying to thyself, I shall meet with the busy-body,
the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial. All these things
happen to them by reason of their ignorance of what is good and evil.
Marcus Aurelius April 26, 121 AD- March 17, 180 AD
-- Was Scottish Power operational at this time? -- |
|
Scottish
Power - Can Seriously Damage Your Wealth
|
|
| |
| Massive bills, not their fault! yeah right |
I moved into my house in march 2007, at the time the house was three years old. a four bedroom detatched property. However, only myself and my partner live here. the previous owners gas & elec was provided by scottish power so i decided to stay with them.
When i phoned to set up my account the girl on the phone said my payments would be set at £140 per month! this was based on the previous owners usage, a single man who travelled on buisness alot. I thought that is not right. I voiced my concern and she dropped the payment immediatly to £71.00 for both gas and elec.
I did not recieve a statement for the first quarter so by the time the second statement came in i had an outstanding balance of £89.92. when i called the boy on the phone said just leave it it will even out in the summer quarter, taking his advice i did just that.
when the summer quarter statement came in i was shocked to find that i now had an outstanding balance of £185.00. my payments would now increase to £174.00 as my total bill was £450. I called scottish power again and was told yes that was correct and that nothing could be done about the amount of the payments. She transferred me to energy efficency team which did no good as by my next statement my payments were increased again to £210!! I was miffed to say the least.
in all this time my bills were creeping up and up and up as were my direct debits, even though our usage went down considerably. I know this because it was a case of im cold so put a jumper on instead of the heating! i cant afford it being a student with only my parners wage coming into the house.
when my lastest statement arrived, it was a month late, i was being billed for four months instead of three. I almost had a heart attack when i opened it!
Electric- 18/12/07-4/4/08 £268.00
Gas- 21/12/07-4/4/08 £756.33
TOTAL £1035.51 INC VAT
to top it off my payments are put up to £274.50 a month!
Phoned straight away. They were adamant it was right. One person tried numerous excuses. This bill is going back to september, your last reading was then. i informed her that someone had read the meters a few weeks ago, after putting me on hold she told me your right they did but it could still be from sept. She also said that i should switch my heating off when i am out or at night because it costs more money for it to kick back in! WHAT? this lady is crazy. she asked me to check the serial number on my meter and told me yes it is the correct meter you are being billed for. after some time i told her i would just take the matter to enrgy watch.
I was then transferred to a lady in a department which deals with energy watch complaints. she told me my gas consumtion was enormous. she told me how to do meter checks and said she would call back the next day. Next day no phone call......
being in my last year of uni i havr alot on so i gave permission for my mum to help me deal with it when i couldnt. she phoned this girl back and when asked why i wasnt phoned she simply stated "i was too busy". She told my mum no more would be done for me as the meter checks i done came back fine. the only thing they would do is send someone out to check my meter for £89! Apparently the problem was my boiler and i should have a heating engineer come out (at my own expense) which i did.
the heating engineer came out, nothing wrong at my end. Monday morning straight back on the phone. The first rep i spoke to put me on hold, somehow i was able to hear another telephone call of a man giving his card number and security code, but they couldnt hear me. what a disgrace! i could have been anyone. i hung up when i realised and phoned straight back the next person i spoke to said that this was happening quite alot on the phones so be careful! anyway, she transferred me to the complaints department as there was an ongoing dispute.
straight away the girl in the comp. dept asked me to give her my serial number (which i had been asked to do the previous week). when i did she told me that she knew what was wrong. For almost 14 months i had been billed for the wrong type of meter! she rebilled my account i am now £300 in credit as opposed to £700 in debt (a £1000 differnce). my payments have been reduced to £90 a month and a cheque should reach me shortly.
i am sorry for the lenght of this but i do not want anyone to fall for their LIES!! if you think its wrong fight it all the way. its a weight off knowing i do not owe any money. However scottish power ave not heard the last of me, i have made dozens of phone calls and went to the expense of the heating engineer, also i have been under alot of stress because of this and as a result my uni work has suffered, missing a few deadlines due to worry! i will be writing an equally long letter to scottish power regarding this. watch out, dont be fooled!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
