Isn’t £1,528 credit enough?

J. R. writes: An elderly couple who are friends of mine have been trying for months to get Scottish Power to sort out their bills. They are both over 80 and totally confused and worried. They have been told their direct debit is to increase to £ 221 a month, yet they have not had a proper bill for several years. From what I can make out, Scottish Power has not been charging them for electricity. In December last year they were told they were £1,528 in credit.

YOU have done a grand job, helping your friends. Judging by my mail bag, no utility company can claim top marks for administration, and Scottish Power is certainly no exception.

After I asked staff what had gone wrong with your friends’ bills, they admitted the whole problem went back t o 2012, when they mistakenly used the same meter reading for both day and night meters, and then carried the mistake forward to every bill that followed. Scottish Power told me: ‘ We corrected the meter readings in December, but did not clarify any overcharges at that point – this was an error on our part.’

The firm has issued an apology and says it collected £597 incorrectly.

This has been credited back to your friends’ account, and Scottish Power has added £100 by way of saying sorry.

If you believe you are the victim of financial wrongdoing, write to Tony Hetherington at Financial Mail, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TS or email tony.hetherington@mailonsunday.co.uk. Because of the high volume of enquiries, personal replies cannot be given. Please send only copies of original documents, which we regret cannot be returned.