Kindly shared by L. Donnan
What happened
It all started in May2016 when 5 different transactions were made on the exact same day to my account as you will see in picture SP3. I have been with Scottish Power for 5 years and up till last year I was always in credit. I was contacted by Scottish Power in 2013 to say that I was paying too much a month and that they were going to reduce my monthly payments - I agreed to this, to my delight. So I continued to pay the amount they advised me to pay for the next 3 years. I do not use a lot of electricity as I work very long days at the hospital and I am barely even in my house. Therefore going onto my account online using the Scottish Power App and seeing that the amounts that they have charged accumulated up to £1250 - when I was nearly £500 in credit. I contacted them and they had no idea what had went on but ensured me that it would be dealt with and I would receive a callback within a day or 2. 1 month went by and I noticed that they put further charges onto my account - one charge was over £2000. Needless to say I was extremely stressed by this - there was no way that I was using that amount of energy. I had enough and decided to put the screenshots of my account onto Twitter and I received emails from Scottish Power immediately (clearly they didn’t want any of their customers finding out what they were up to). Scottish Power asked me to provide readings and this was carried out 3 times - but the advisors did not understand why the billing was so high for such a small house as I stay in a one bedroom flat. They then agreed after months of asking for an engineer to come out to check my meter reader, they sent one out. The engineer admitted that there was a problem with the meter and I should not be paying that amount of money for such a small house. After months of waiting - they have continued to charge me random amounts of money. When I last spoke to an advisor they said that there had been a problem with the IT side of it and it was a new system they were working with now but they would rectify my account. Its nearly been a year and I finally received an email from Karen Paget - an assistant to the Director, who admitted that they were in the wrong for calling me to say that they were reducing my monthly payments. They said that because they were wrong I was eligible for a refund. They then put the refund back on and fixed my account but the following day added 3 more charges - (all of different amounts) onto my account which then put me in debt of £1397. They then corrected that and my account was back in credit but then they made another 4 charges on one day and now my account is £1768. On the 14th November 2016 – then received a whopping £2872.33 onto my account which then brought the debt up to over £4000!! I have contacted Karen Paget again twice in fact but have had no reply or any advisors calling with me with regards to the complaint. The only call I have received is from Scottish Power Debt Collection Agency. They said that they are putting me on a new tarrif, which will be £274 a month and this will "help" clear my debt - the debt that they caused themselves - I was only doing what I was told by the company and now I am being penalised for their mistake and incompetence. I am not allowed to leave this provider until the debt is cleared and this is just so unfair. I am finding it very hard to cope with as I have never been in debt in all my life. In 2019 – they took me to court and gained a warrant in order to gain access to my property to fit a meter in. Even the person fitting it in said he couldn’t believe what was happening after I showed him the evidence. Now I put money in and every Monday they take money out to cover the debt. However they have started taking more money out and therefore leaving me with no electricity (which I thought was illegal). I come home from nightshift after working in a COVID ward as I work in respiratory and I can’t even have a shower because I have no electricity. I am getting to the point where I put money in and they just take it straight out. I contacted the ombudsman but they took the side of Scottish Power because they just lied. Conveniently, they went into my account and deleted all of the transaction history but luckily I have hard copies of them and stored on my computer. The reason I am at the point of despair now is that I put in £20 on Friday (13/02/21) and today (15/02/21) another £10. Then they cut me off this morning and then I put another £10 in and they are saying I only have £8.76 left.
What I wish had happened
They seen their mistake and fixed it. Took all of the estimated readings off and provided a smart meter in order to show the electricity usage.
Where this happened
On a mobile app - Scottish power
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