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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? -- |
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Scottish
Power - Can Seriously Damage Your Wealth
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| Pull the plug on Scottish Power |
Having bought my first house at the end of last year I was contacted by Scottish Power to register as a customer with them as they had been the supplier for the previous owners. I didn?t really consider who was the best utilities supplier as I had more important things to sort out, so I signed up with them. This was to prove to be a big mistake, a very big mistake.
All things were going well until one day a man arrived at the door to sell me the services of Southern electric. The information he provided seemed very good and I felt that they could offer me a better deal than Scottish Power. So I signed the contract and my meter readings were taken and all I thought I had to do was, well, nothing, safe in the knowledge that Southern Electric would contact Scottish Power to organise the transfer and provide them with my final meter readings.
So the change-over happened in February and I started to get bills from Southern Electric but I noticed that Scottish Power were still collecting my direct debits from my bank account. At this point I decided to contact them. I was informed that it could take up to 6-8 weeks for the meter readings to come through to them from Southern Electric and until they did they couldn?t close my accounts with them. I thought that was a reasonable explanation.
8 weeks or so later I contact them again as they were still billing me and so were Southern Electric. They then said that the readings for my gas account were with them and that the account was now closed. It wasn?t until I questioned them about my final bill that they said my account was in credit due to them continuing to debit my bank account. When I asked why they hadn?t sent me a cheque for the amount owed they said that they only contact customers if it is a considerable amount like ?£100 or more?. Well, I am not rich, not as rich as these rip-off companies anyway so to cut a long story short they were not going to pay me back my money until I chased
THEM to ask for it!
Anyway, I then get onto the subject of the electric account and they tell me that they haven?t received my final reading yet from Southern Electric and that ?it could take 6-8 weeks?. At this point I am getting quite annoyed and state that the 6-8 weeks has long gone and demanded to know what the problem was. The passed the buck and said it was Southern Electric?s problem. I then contacted Southern Electric whom informed me that they had already forwarded the meter reading but would re-send them.
After a few more weeks I had heard nothing from Scottish Power, so I called them. I had to explain, yet again why I was phoning and what the problem was. The ?Customer Service? member said ?it can take 6-8 weeks for the meter readings to come through?. With those words I was ready to throw my mobile phone across the room, but instead quite politely I asked them to cut the crap and do something about it. After some more heated discussion they agreed to take the readings from me that were recorded by Southern Electric when I signed their contract and would close my electric account with those figures and would send me a final bill. Well, by my reckoning they owed me a good £50.
I waited, and waited and eventually got a bill through. However it was not a bill saying they owed me money, it was a bill charging me for electricity that I haven?t yet used, even to this day! They had the completely wrong meter readings, probably made up by throwing darts or something. Did my blood boil, yes it did. I could feel another phone call coming on. This time they were a little more accommodating in that they quickly acknowledged the mistake and they read out the proper readings to me (So this goes to show that they DID have them). I was now promised a new bill and I assumed the problem would be over.
But no??..
I never received a new bill. I phoned them today and I can honestly say that I have never gotten so angry wit
h a company in my life. Looking back in a calmer state I do feel slightly sorry for the woman who unfortunately had to endure my ramblings but I was furious when I AGAIN explained why I was phoning and all the stuff that had gone on over the previous 4 months and her reply was ?well it can take 6-8 weeks for the readings to come through?. I put it to her that THEY were the ones who read the readings to me during my previous contact with them and how could she explain why now they didn?t seem to have them. There was no explanation. When I threatened to contact ?EnergyWatch? she was quick to suggest that she put me through to their customer complaints department. My argument was, whoever answers the telephones should be able to deal with problems like this so what good is it to speak to another person in another department.
I did agree and finally got to speak with someone who seemed to have a better understanding of how to deal with a problem like this and actually had something productive to say. However, they still maintain that they do not have accurate meter readings to close the account and will not accept my readings. How they are going to resolve this matter (apparently) is to calculate what they think is my average daily usage using reading that they had before I changed to Southern Electric and readings I provided today. This may or may not mean I am fully paid back the money they owe me and I will not be holding my breath????
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