Power failure: it takes 51 weeks to get a £129 refund
Ms E.D. writes: I am treasurer of a local Royal British Legion club with flats above it. I contacted ScottishPower in February last year when a tenant disappeared owing rent and I emailed meter readings. A month later a new tenant moved in. Last June, a different tenant rang to say the flat was being broken into and when I arrived a man produced a warrant issued on behalf of ScottishPower. He agreed there had been a mistake but when the new tenant got home from work he could not get into his flat and I had to call out a locksmith. I am still waiting for ScottishPower to pay the bill. IF YOU were paid by the hour for the time you have spent trying to get ScottishPower just to pay the Royal British Legion club for the damage it caused, then you would probably be worth a small fortune.
The contractor, who was breaking into the flat by drilling out the lock, had been given details of the previous tenant, who had vanished. ScottishPower knew this, but it seems its paperwork had not caught up with the facts. It instructed a local contractor to break in, remove the existing meter and install a pay-as-you-go meter.
Immediately after the forced entry, you telephoned ScottishPower repeatedly but could not get past its call centre. It was impossible to speak to the same person twice, so you had to explain what had happened over and over again. In the end, you had to get a locksmith out and pay him.
Then the fun really started. You complained in writing and on the phone up until last September – three months after the damage was done. But ScottishPower refused to discuss the matter with you because you were not the tenant. Even when the new tenant sent a helpful letter, the power company still ignored you.
Finally, in November, you found a sympathetic ear at ScottishPower’s headquarters. You were told a cheque for £129 would be on its way to reimburse you for the cost of the new lock, but the cheque never arrived. ScottishPower said it would issue a new cheque but that failed to arrive as well, so you contacted me.
When I stepped in you were immediately called by ScottishPower and told that the latest cheque must have arrived because it had been cashed in February. More weeks passed while ScottishPower checked with its bank and eventually admitted that your £129 had been sent to the new tenant. He assumed this was compensation for shutting him out of his home and he banked it.
That brought us up to last month, when ScottishPower told me it would not be asking for its money back from the tenant and it had issued a fresh cheque to you. Except, unbelievably, the fresh cheque never arrived. I went back to the company and found it had never been posted.
Finally, last Tuesday, your Royal British Legion club got its cheque, plus £50 on top to make up for the inconvenience. As you told me: ‘It doesn’t seem a great deal of money, but for clubs such as ours, run mainly by volunteers and goodwill, every penny counts.’
Quite right – but after 51 weeks of waiting, I still bet you wish you had been paid by the hour. 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.