Share this:

UPDATE: Turns out this was neither my fault of Scottish Power – the previous owners had a new meter installed in May. When they moved they gave the meter reading from the sticker that had the Old Meter readings on it… It was still bad customer service though and I’m still expecting an apology.

A few days ago I got a letter from Scottish Power, the energy suppliers that the previous occupiers of my new home used and I chosen not to.
I’d switched to EDF Energy and was expecting a final invoice from Scottish Power so  I was expected a letter around this time.

So I was a bit surprised to see that they had worked out there was an excessive charge of over £300 pounds on it. So I tried to call them but their customer services line only operates from 9am-4pm – which is decidedly customer friendly if you are out at work and don’t get in till after 6.30pm!

So the very next day I phone them from work  with a new set of meter readings. It turned out that there had been a mistake with the Gas Meter reading and I was promised it had been corrected. (Given that I’ve only just moved in and had a new boiler put in two weeks ago using over £300 of gas in two weeks would have been insane – it’s just not possible to use that much Gas without having gassed the entire street!). It was all very nice and the lady on the phone was very helpful – but it was about to turn very nasty.

So another letter arrived this morning, great I though – the final revised bill. I knew I had a very busy day ahead of me so I put it to the bottom of my todo list for today. (in hindsight this was probably a really good thing as it would have really ruined my day otherwise!)

When I finally got around to looking at it around 2pm (I had a LOT of stuff to deal with today) I was just a bit flabbergasted that two days after I’d called them they had sent out a final demand letter (and yes it was dated AFTER I had spoken to them on the phone).

It even said the same thing as the first that they had tried to contact me again and had not heard from me – a day after I phoned them! It also stated that they had assumed I was happy with the final balance and would be collecting it soon and basically threatening me with a collection agency if I didn’t pay up. Now if there had been the possibility that they had sent this out before I had phoned them I would have just shrugged it off. They are of course just doing there job. However it was dated a day later.

As I have an important business teleconference at 2.30-4pm I try ringing them before it. However 25 minutes later I have to ring off and of course I don’t get another chance to call them today because of their insanely non-customer friendly service line times.

Now a LOT had already happened today and a few days ago so at this point. (All that could have turned out badly but had been sorted thanks to good customer service). To say I was a bit angry was a huge understatement. So I took that anger and focused it into writing what my father would call a ‘snotty’ letter.

In my letter I’ve now asked for all of their attempts to contact me, an apology and a revised bill by the end of next week. Oh and threatened to set my lawyers on them and write to their head office if I don’t hear from them. Tomorrow I’ll contact my bank and cancel the direct debits with them.

Lets see what next week holds – but I’m not going to go out of my way now to sort their mess out.

I’ve NEVER ever seen customer service which was so appalling bad . I can safely say that Scottish Power will NEVER have any of my business in the future.

If this all sounds a bit depressing then the story continues on a lighter and more positive note at How to do customer service properly

Advertisement