How can my house be using ‘industrial’ amounts of power?
Probes a world of scams and scandals
Ms L.J. writes: I joined ScottishPower for my electricity in March 2017, paying £190 a month by direct debit and supplying monthly meter readings. In March last year, they asked for weekly readings and said I was not paying enough. They increased my monthly payments to £600. I have a house, not a business, and I am sure I cannot be using electricity costing £600 a month, but ScottishPower never gives me a bill.
SCOTTISHPOWER told me that your initial payments were based on two meter readings provided between March and September 2017, followed by just one reading in 2018 and quarterly readings since then. The figures at the end of 2018 showed bills of more than the £190 you had been paying, and the increase in March last year was aimed at covering arrears as well as current charges. That said, even ScottishPower estimates that your month-on-month usage should be about £400. The company is investigating what appliances you are using. Mysteriously, you have been told you are using ‘an industrial amount’ of power at night, yet you have told me that all you use then is a dishwasher three times a week.
You have also told me about far more meter readings that you have supplied, but unfortunately, because of the staff situation at ScottishPower during the lockdown, I have not been able to get answers about these. However, the company has told me that paper bills have been sent regularly by normal post, though you do not seem to have received a single one.
The outcome is that ScottishPower has told me: ‘We have advised Ms J that her recorded electricity use does appear out of sync with what she says she is using it for, and will visit her property to review this as soon as current working restrictions are lifted.’
Separately, last week another ScottishPower customer, Mr B, complained that he was being asked to pay more than £7,000 because he had allegedly paid nothing since 2013. This was the year the company suffered a serious computer error that saw some customers’ direct debits turned into credits.
Officials have now denied that the debt arose because of its computer mistakes, and the Energy Ombudsman has gone over the figures and confirmed the debt. It appears to have arisen because Mr B supplied meter readings but still received estimated bills, and contested the amounts by cancelling his direct debit.
ScottishPower has now said that if Mr B confirms he is no longer in any dispute with the company, it will not expect a big cheque but will work with him to organise a payment plan.
And finally, there is good news for Mr S, who heads a charity that clashed with ScottishPower over bills that threatened its very existence. I reported how the company first cut the charity’s monthly payments to just £1, then demanded £6,529 in arrears. This was followed by a claim that the charity owed £24,367, and a warning that its monthly payments would rocket to £1,596 in May.
This really is a case involving the company’s remarkable 2013 computer error. It has now told me: ‘Mr S has not received the quality customer service we pride ourselves on, and we are truly sorry for the distress and inconvenience caused.’
ScottishPower has scrapped all its charges from 2013 to April last year, leaving just over £1,300 due – and as a goodwill gesture, even this has been cut in half. A good outcome.