Sloppy Shower (Scottish Power)

Member Name: KirkcaldyDad

Product:	Scottish Power
Date:	17/10/03 (438 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: None that I can think of.

Disadvantages: Nonsense bills., Encourage debt to keep you., Rubbish web site.

We've used Scottish Power for electricity since we moved house many years ago. That was before all the competition stuff was set up - in the days when electricity came from an electricity supplier, gas came from a gas supplier, and you took what was on offer without question. All went well until competition came along.

So now it worked out cheaper overall to get gas and electricity from one supplier, and it was just a choice of which one. Scottish Power got our business, simply because our gas bill was higher than our electricity bill, and it was cheaper to buy gas from an electricity company than from a gas company - you know it makes sense!

So, like many others, we opted for making payments by direct debit of a fixed amount each month. That gave us a small discount, and supposedly made budgeting easier. We accepted their recommendation as to the direct debit amount and all went well for a while. Of course no-one really knew if our consumption matched our payments and you expect the balance to vary through the changing seasons.

So it all carried on. The meter readings went out, the bills came in, the direct debits went out and everyone was happy. Over the years we got a new heating and hot water system, double glazing, we acquired a tumble drier, the children grew and took longer showers, deeper baths, made bigger clothes more dirty.

One day I looked at the bill. It looked like we owed Scottish Power maybe three hundred pounds. Not the end of the world but I thought I'd better do something about it. So I called them. The conversation went something like this:

Me: I would like to increase my payments from £50 to £70.
Them: Oh, you don't need to be paying as much as £70.
Me: But I'm in debt to you.
Them: But it's winter - it will even out in the summer.
Me: But the debt's been getting bigger for the last couple of years.
Them: OK, we'll increase your p
ayments to £55.
Me: I'd prefer £70.
Them: Oh, you don't need to be paying as much as £70. There, I've set it to £55 and we'll see how it goes.

Needless to say, the debt grew. We had another few conversations like this, with them resisting increases to my payments.

KirkcaldyMum called and asked to make a one off payment to the account. They agreed to take £100 and card details were exchanged. No payment was taken.

Then they introduced internet access to the account. "Hooray," we thought. "We will be able to enter meter readings online, see exactly how much we owe, and even get another small discount on our bills." So we signed up.

How wrong we were! The Internet site is so badly designed that it is impossible to use. Once you find your way into the online account management bit and get logged in, you've forgotten why you wanted to go there. Instead of sensible menus and links, it's the kind of site where the most important link on each page seems to be embedded in the small-print of a paragraph of text.

When you do finally get to see your account it has a big headline number, something like "£256.45". Is that the amount they owe you, or the amount you owe them? Is it before or after your last direct debit payment. Does it take into account the last meter reading? No Idea! So you look at the bill detail page. The figure "£256.45" doesn't appear there anywhere. No, nowhere does it mention "£256.45"!! You go back to the account summary page - it still says "£256.45". Back to the detail page and it still seems to be a bunch of random numbers scattered around the page with no explanation as to how one is derived from any others. And "£256.45" isn't one of those numbers!

So you decide to enter a meter reading to get it all up to date and find out where you stand. Just have to read anoth
er few paragraphs to find the link to the relevant page, wait a minute or two as the page loads, and you are there. So your enter the readings and it gives you a nice helpful message saying that these readings will not be taken into account for another few days. Go back to the account page. Sure enough no new readings showing, so you are none the wiser.

Basically the whole online system is obviously just their old mainframe "green-screen" program with pages captured and splatted onto web pages.

So I'd had enough. Looked around and decided to switch both electricity and gas supplies to Virgin. Of course a new supplier will not take on the existing debt, so a side-effect of Scottish Power resisting to increase my payments over the years is that I have to come up with a lump-sum to clear that debt.

It seems to me that for many people this would be a very strong incentive not to change suppliers. I can't help having a suspicion that Scottish Power have a (possibly informal) policy of trying to ensure that customers owe them money, and not the other way around. On the surface this sounds quite public spirited, but many people who can keep up regular monthly payments will not be able to come up with a lump sum of maybe a few hundred pounds in order to switch to another supplier.

Even the switch has been a bit of a sorry story. Scottish Power split my single direct debit into two without telling me (one for gas and one for electricity), and the two parts didn't even add up to the previous total. I think this probably goes against the rules of the direct debit scheme. They carried on taking payment after Virgin had taken over my supplies. When I called them to question the closing electricity bill, they said I must pay the full amount despite the fact that they owed me money on the gas side.

To cap it all, my final bill arrived with a nice friendly letter saying that they had been listening to the
ir customers and had a new bill format. I can picture the meeting now:

Exec1: Our customers say they don't understand the numbers on their bills.
Exec2: Let's take a look. Ah yes, they are a bit confusing. What can we do about it?
Exec1: We could change the computer program so that the numbers make sense.
Exec2: No. That would take too long and be far too expensive. We've got shareholders and bonuses to think about. And look at what a mess those techies made of the web site. There must be a better solution.
Exec1: OK, I'll think about it over a round of golf.

Later.....

Exec2: So, did you have any ideas?
Exec1: Well, yes, I thought we could just send out blank pieces of paper. We get the money by direct debit anyway, so it doesn't really matter if the customers never see the numbers. But I talked to the lawyer (that was a fine lunch) and he says we must put some numbers on the bills. We gave it some consideration over another bottle, and we've got the solution.
Exec2: Well, let's hear it.
Exec1: We print the numbers on the back of the bill!
Exec2: The same numbers that don't make any sense when printed on the front?
Exec1: Yes!
Exec2: Absolutely Brilliant! Are you free for another 18 holes this afternoon? I think we deserve it.

On the golf course....

Exec2: By the way, who paid for that lunch with the lawyer?
Exec1: Oh, he insisted on paying.
Exec2: Great!
Exec1: But won't it just end up coming back to us on his invoice?
Exec2: Of course it will, that's why it's so great that he paid.
Exec1: Huh?
Exec2: Think about it. It shows up on our balance sheet as legal expenses, and there's still plenty in our entertainment budget!

THE END

Summary: