UK Edition
Scottish Power billing fiasco: here are some of the firm's unbelievable blunders
Energy firm Scottish Power has been fined £18million after an investigation by Ofgem, the energy regulator, found it "failed to treat customers fairly" when dealing with calls, billing issues and complaints.
Telegraph Money first highlighted the giant firm's billing chaos in late December, when we asked if Scottish Power was "the new nPower" - Britain's worst business for service and accuracy of billing.
And in the months that followed, readers' feedback suggested it was as bad if not worse than its rival. Huge bills, often months or years late and wildly inaccurate, were only one aspect of Scottish Power's incredible litany of bungles.
The firm sent threatening letters and meter-reading requests even when customers had repeatedly pointed out mistakes. In one case, a reader spent several months trying to persuade the firm that he was not dead.
Nor has there been obvious improvement over the years.
Earlier this month, we detailed how one reader received a bill for £50,489.61 from the energy firm after a glitch led to “round the clock” billing.
Sally Bonner, 37, was one of Scottish Power's customers to be wrongly threatened with a visit from debt collectors - because of the firm's own mistakes.
Only after Telegraph Money became involved did it apologise, issuing a £200 “goodwill gesture” for the error.
Another reader, Lucy McKay, got in touch after Scottish Power mistakenly took over her neighbour's supply instead of hers.
The 27-year-old was receiving demands from both Scottish Power and nPower as a result of the bungle.
Despite repeated "investigations" into the mess, neither nPower nor Scottish Power could explain how the original mistakes arose.
Even after our involvement, Ms McKay, no longer a customer of either firm, continued to receive meter-reading requests.
One of the earliest Scottish Power cases we detailed was from Telegraph Money reader, Carol Hammond, who in late 2014 has been chasing the firm for a bill for over six months to no avail.
She said: "Every month I am told that I will be sent a bill – it never arrives. I have asked if I can pay money to cover the gas and been told no."
Scottish Power apologised for the error and resolved the issue.
Another, Peter Brice (who is pictured below with his wife, Shelia) was locked out of his account for nearly a year after changing from paper billing to online.
Mr Brice, who contacted the ombudsman and switched to another supplier, was given £100 "goodwill gesture" by the firm. Scottish Power also apologised.
In May last year, we exposed a new low in customer service standards from the energy firm after it insisted one of its loyal customers was dead.
Robert Cleeves, a retired sales manager from Chester, spent two months trying to convince Scottish Power that he had not died, before contacting this newspaper to seek help.
After is wife died, Mr Cleeves emailed Scottish Power to remove her name off the account but later that month he received two bills, one addressed to “the executors of Mr and Mrs Cleeves” and the other addressed to him with a new account number.
After this newspaper intervened Scottish Power apologised and amended the account details, as well as paying a £50 goodwill gesture to Mr Cleeves.
Our consumer champion Jessica Gorst-Williams regularly reports on other errors, including demanding £600 from a 92-year-old reader as a result of its own IT failures.
Every week the Telegraph Money postbag and email inbox is full of complaints from customers who have had poor service and billing issues from Britain’s energy firms, prompting us to launch our "Energy Shambles Watch" campaign in July 2014.
We will continue to expose the bad practices of those firms supplying the UK with gas and electricity.
Why did Ofgem fine Scottish Power?
Ofgem, the energy regulator, said that Scottish Power “failed to treat customers fairly”
Up to £15million of the £18million penalty is to be paid to vulnerable ScottishPower customers that were affected by the poor service, with the remainder going to charity.
- 100,000 ScottishPower customers in line for compensation after £18m Ofgem fine
- Compare energy tariffs across the market
Around 100,000 customers could be in line for the compensation payments, worth up to £150 each.
Millions of customers were left facing long call waiting times and late bills as the company struggled to bring in a new IT system, resulting in more than 1m complaints between June 2013 and December 2015.
Dermot Nolan, chief executive of Ofgem, said: “Scottish Power let its customers down during the implementation of a new IT system. When things went wrong, it didn’t act quickly enough to fix them.
“This created frustration and worry for many customers, who also wasted a lot of time trying to contact the supplier by phone.
“The £18million payment sends a strong message to all energy companies about the importance of treating consumers well at all times, including while new systems are put in place.”
Scottish Power apologised "unreservedly" to affected customers and blamed issues on an £200million upgrade to its IT systems which caused a range of technical issues.
Neil Clitheroe, chief exeutive office of energy retail and generation at ScottishPower, said: "I gave a guarantee that no customer would be left out of pocket by these issues and we continue to compensate customers who have been affected.
"Additional customer service advisors were added and we extended our opening hours to the longest in the industry in order to improve our customer service levels."
“We know we need to do more and we will continue to work hard to deliver further improvements, and ensure that our customer service standards return to being amongst the best in the industry.”
He added that its new IT system was now fully in place and that service performance had significantly improved since its implementation.
Are you owed compensation?
In response to the find from Ofgem, Scottish Power is setting up a “Consumer Redress Package” to give £15million back to vulnerable customers affected by problems with its IT systems.
It is identifying potential vulnerable customers through its 'Priority Services Register' scheme and those in receipt of the 'Warm Home Discount'.
It will then contact those customers had problems (either a complaint or late bill) caused by the firm’s IT systems between 1 April 2014 and 31 March 2016.
It’s estimated that 100,000 customers will get an average of £150 back from the energy firm.
If you think you may be owed money, but don’t hear from Scottish Power within the next few weeks then contact the company by phone, email or post.
Have you had a billing error or poor customer service from an energy firm? Tell us your story: Tara.Evans@Telegraph.co.uk