A minefield with meters led to epic power failure

J.H. writes: My daughter is having problems with ScottishPower after her divorce as the account was in her husband’s name. She asked for it to be changed to her name, but was told this could not be done without her ex-husband’s permission and he was just not interested. I started to help her change to a different supplier and then found the electricity meter was incorrectly connected so bills were all over the place. ACCORDING to your daughter, ScottishPower knew the electricity meter was misreading the difference between day and night rates. You then managed to get the company to fit a new meter and this produced a flurry of statements showing she was in credit by anything from £272 to £1,300.

But when your daughter asked for a refund, she was sent a fresh statement showing that instead of being in credit, she owed £139.

When she tried to press ahead with switching to a new supplier, ScottishPower blocked the transfer and would not discuss it because, of course, the ex-husband had not given permission.

I asked ScottishPower to investigate and the company says the old meter was actually charging too little, as it was permanently set to the cheap rate. Your daughter has not been billed for this. But to add even more confusion, when the meter was changed, it produced a range of false credits.

The bottom line is that both gas and electricity have now been switched to the new supplier. ScottishPower’s final bill is £74, but the company has told me: ‘By way of an apology, we have withdrawn the balance and will be issuing a further goodwill payment of £100.’