Smart meters widely used in Spain can be hacked to under-report energy use, security researchers have found. Poorly protected credentials inside the devices could let attackers take control over the gadgets, warn the researchers. The utility that deployed the meters is now improving the devices' security to help protect its network. The discovery comes as one security expert warns some terror groups may attack critical infrastructure systems. Many utility companies are installing smart meters to help customers monitor and manage their power use and help them be more energy efficient. "We took them apart to see how they work," said independent researcher Javier Vidal who, with Alberto Illera, found the flaws in the smart meters. "We suspected there could be some issues with them and we wanted to check. "We feared the security would be easy to break and we confirmed that," he told the BBC. Network nodes BBC

I would like some advice about a situation that I've been trying to deal with for the past couple of months now. I had received a gas bill from Scottish Power (henceforth SP), for £26.07p, but I do not use gas at all in my home (we did have an old meter here but it has now since been removed, and I've lived here for 10 years now and have never used gas). I queried this charge and they told me they would look into it, which took a while for them to reply. While waiting for a reply about my complaint, I received a final demand for that bill, so I contacted SP again. This is when they told me that the charge was a standard charge (or something like that) and that I still owed them that money, at which point I started a complaint with them as I felt I did not owe them anything at all (because I've never ever used gas). They also gave me a number to call about getting the meter removed, which turned out to be complete rubbish as the number I was given only dealt with electricity meter removals, so I contacted SP again, and they admitted that error, and informed me that when someone wants a gas meter removed, the customer service advisor is meant to send an email to the group that remove gas meters. Scottish Power again were taking ages to get back to me, and for the guys to remove my meter too, and during that wait I had received another gas bill from them, this time for £52.29p, which is slightly over double the previous bill so I'm not sure if this amount includes the first charge, or if it does not. So I could potentially 'owe' (and I use owe in the loosest of terms because I feel I owe them nothing) them £78.36p. Shortly after that, my meter was removed. I contacted them and informed them of this, they said they would no longer be sending me any bills from the date the meter was removed, at which point I queried the legitimacy of the first two bills, they still insisted I owed them money for that. I tried asking Ombudsman for assistance but they told me they did not deal with standard charge problems. I am currently booked in to speak to CAB on the 19th sept, but I was hoping someone here might have some advice for me. Can anyone help me?

My friend who is a vunerable adult with certain mental health issues, recently awoke to the sound of people breaking in to his house. He text me and I rang him and he told me they had smashed in the porch doors and front door and were inside and he could hear them rooting around and having a laugh. He wouldn't go down and confront them, which I wish he had done as he could prove for sure they were in parts of the house that the gas meter isn't in. I phoned the police who turned up just after they had gone and my friend wouldn't answer the door. The police said the door was not broken and still locked. My friend told me that they had moved things from his porch into his hall and left a letter from Richburns in the middle of the hall floor. He agreed all the doors were locked when he finally went downstairs. He will not face up to the matter. He claims he had a bill of £1200 ish which was for only a year of gas - he only has a gas boiler as everything else is electric and they were only estimated readings and he was only 3 months behind - I have my doubts but I have not seen any of the bills. The real problem I have is, whilst I am aware that utility companies can and do enter into houses to change meters, they only had to go into the porch and change the meter in the cupboard out there. They had no earthly reason to enter the house. He has even found a key which looks like a lock picking skeleton key, again in his hallway. Unfortunately my friend is behind on many bills and I cannot help financially and have not the time to devote to sorting all his issues out - plus he is very abusive to me and makes a million and one excuses as to why he can't deal with it. He may be ill but I am not his whipping post! I am just about to email Keith Anderson of Scottish Power because I feel he needs to explain if they needed to break into his house when the meter was outside. Also, my friend said he signed up to gas with Sainsbury's years ago but this was sold over to Scottish Power but he never signed a contract with SP. Regardless of the rights or wrongs, it is a terrible thing for anyone to be awoken to the sound of people breaking in. I don't know if he got a Letter of Intent, as he just piles post up unread. He is also a clinical hoarder and so I feel these people should not have been rooting through stuff. Any advice as to how to deal with this would be great. Thanks.

hi everyone! i havent bought credit for my gas meter for about 2 years and have had no hot water or heating and the housing company (sanctuary) capped said meter because of this. strangely i now, according to the credit balance thingy on the meter it says i owe them 212 quid. just wondering what this 212 quid is for since i havent used the thing. could anyone explain why and where these charges have came from? the reason i havent topped the gas meter up is cos i couldnt afford it in the first place. i kept topping it but they kept deducting money and one day i walked for miles for a fiver top up and the damn thing took the whole fiver and i was left totally scunnered. no gas at all. i have heard from some other folks that there is a charge for simply "having the meter" - seems out of order to me! £212 . for nothing! any of you guys explain this to me? thanks folks! thanks again folks !

just looking to see if anyone has had this problem or any idea why its happening. long story short for near enough 2 years if i have say 70p left of normal credit i like to stick the key in for the emergency to be added so it doesn't run out if i forget which is likely i have 2 small kids running about. for the first year i lived here when i did that it added the 70p to the £5 so the balance would have been £5.71. now whether it be 70p 20p or 83p when i put the emergency in *poof* is disappears and only gives me the £5. finally got them to agree to a meter change after complaining every week for nearly 2 years hoping to sort it. nope, had 94p just there put the key in to add the emergency so it didn't cut off when id be doing the school run in the morning and again its only showing the £5. my 94p disappeared into thin air. haven't changed tariff, no T&C changes from them i feel sick at how much they've got from me over all this time. i've already fired off an email to the CEO as im fed up of dealing with the lackies on the phone and twitter. sorry for rambling tell me this shouldn't be happening

moved into a flat last year which had a prepayment meter for electric and gas and the supplier was British Gas. I didn't know this at the time as the letting agents didn't tell me they were prepayment meters until I was switching suppliers. I assumed it was a credit meter like I'd always used. I still decided to switch from British Gas (aka BG) to Scottish Power (aka SP) which had been my supplier for my previous flats. I arranged for SP to take over the supply of Electric and Gas. After about a month they'd switched over and SP sent a new electric key and Gas Card. I topped up the electric and gas with the BG key and Card once for both utilities in that time before switchover - not realising meters and keys might have debt on them from a previous tenant (only recently found this fact out!). I was talked through how to enable the new key and card and whilst on the phone I gave my electric meter reading to a SP advisor- he said it would wipe the credit already on the meter but that'd be it. I then happily topped up throughout the time I lived there and moved out after using SP for 6 months. I gave them my final meter readings and new address expecting them to just send a letter and saying both accounts were now shut. Instead I started receiving bills for over £200 for electric and £25 for Gas! The bills said I owed these amounts after being at the flat for just TWO MONTHS. I thought there must be some mistake this is prepayment meters and I topped up regularly when I needed to, kept top up receipts and never went into emergency credit. I rang SP's prepayment dept twice and they kept admitting it must be a mistake and they'd sort it out. They also said they'd disregarded my start meter reading for Electric as BG had given their own and they were using that instead. The start reading was higher then my final reading which seems to be the problem despite my readings being accurate. SP kept sending bills (and then a final demand complete with threat of a 'credit default'), then their 'debt recovery dept' rang twice and I said prepayment dept were 'sorting it' just like they told me. They'd clearly not bothered as then I get a letter from an LCS debt recovery agency. I ring them up (foolishly) speak to a very aggressive woman who wants personal details. I luckily don't give any except D.O.B. to 'prove that I am the correct person they're meant to be talking to'. Wish I'd not given that now. I said it's in dispute. A 'admin fee' of nearly £30 was also added and she claimed LCS hadn't added it but SP. I've since made a complaint to SP and yet this LCS sent a 2nd letter 'recommending to our client that your account be considered for legal proceedings'. From reading the forums I know these are mostly empty threats but it still worries me. I don't feel this debt is mine. All I can think of is either the previous tenant had debt on the meter already and I just naively didn't realise or SP put up their energy prices and didn't adjust the meter. I've never owed anything in my life and never had a £200 bill for electricity. Please can people help me with the following questions: - Are SP legally obliged to update the meter with current prices before they ask for any money? - I don't know if the prepayment meter logs all start and end electric rates so they could go back through records and prove that the readings I gave were correct? - If there was a debt on the meter should both BG or SP have been legally obliged to tell me this? Or the letting agent? - Should I ring BG and ask if there was a previous debt on the meter or would they not tell me as I'm no longer at the property and was only technically a customer of theirs for a month before SP took over? - Did I legally take over any 'debt' by using the BG key once in the meter? And after I used the new SP key shouldn't that have reset the meter? Or would debt still be on the meter regardless of a new key and new supplier? - Are credit defaults as serious as they sound? Will these affect my credit rating in future? And are they difficult to get off a credit report once applied? Can both SP AND LCS put a default on me or just SP as they're the original 'creditor'? As you can see I really don't have a clue what to do and don't want to pay a debt I feel is unjustified and wrong (especially if someone else owes it and not me) and I don't want to go to court. Any advice on what to do and say or what to find out would be great. I need all the help I can get. And sorry I've typed a lot but I wanted to explain my problem thoroughly.

I've had some issues with my Scottish Power prepayment key so went online to order a new one. I decided to look at my statement. When my landlord had the prepayment meters installed I was given the option of transferring my outstanding bills to the meters (both gas and electric), I opted to do that. Both outstanding balances were cleared over a year ago. My statement says that my gas is in credit by £124 and my electric is in credit by £360 ( after actual readings). When I tried to top up my account the key reported a fault and the money never credited to my meter. I have spoken to a 'customer service' advisor, I finally got through after 3 days of trying and she said regarding the credit that its not actually credit and that it will be recalculated when I get my next statement. I am confused as to why any credit would show up, and the fact that I am only paying for my gas and electric as its being used. Am I being informed correctly? is this money I could get refunded? Thanks in advance.

In Feb 2014 I transferred from First Utility to Scottish Power, having been told by "The Big London Energy Switch" that SP could handle readings from my electricity Smart Meter. It quickly became clear that they could not, we switched back to First Utility. Scottish Power had garbled our meter number, claiming we did not have the electricity Smart Meter! They also failed to agree transfer readings, resulting in a 74kWh overcharge where both companies charged for that block of electricity. They know what the correct meter readings were. After numerous complaints, which never get dealt with, a nd my wife spending several hours on the phone over the past four months, I am considering Court action. What is a reasonable amount to expect as compensation for the ongoing delay and incompetence?

Okay i just wanted to share a little success i have had in the last few weeks. I have had my credit card(opened 2006) in dispute with lloyds banking group for the past 18 months stopped paying 12 months ago due to the fact they could not provide me with a signed valid credit agreement. So last month i decided that i would ask if they would consider a full and final settlement for the debt as the account is still in dispute and that i wanted to put an end to this account once and for all. They sent me back saying only willing to accept 90% of the debt (£1980). So i left this and i decided to persue the fact the bank did not have a valid signed credit agreement, so i filled in their on-line complaints form and within 48 hours i get a phone call addressing the issues. The first thing the lady did for me was refund me £395 of unfair charges for when i informed them that i was in financial difficulty. The lady told me that the debt was in the process of being sold and the new company would write to me. Today out of the blue this same lady phoned me and informed me the debt would not be sold on(she never said it but she eluded to the fact we have no signed agreement) instead they have written the debt off and that they would send me a letter to confirm this within 5 working days and also she send me £60 compensation for the hassle. The amount will still show on my credit file but the bank or any other parties will not persue the debt. Success in removing a default... So after many searches on search engines about defaults on your credit file i came across a site that had a story about a man having his default removed because his lender could not provide the paperwork that they sent when issuing a default the strategy is really detailed and has had a lot of success. So my default for this particular account was for a bank account that went to a default because of it being £35 in un arranged overdraft and you can imagine the charges the bank whacked on. Any way so i sent the letter that was suggested back 3 weeks ago and on Friday i had a phone call from this bank and they informed me that the information that i requested could not be found in the archive and therefore the default will be removed and all negative markers from 2011 will be removed aswell. I have decided to share my story because i have seen so many posts where it is really black and white but my advice to anyone is read read read, knowledge is power. People may see this as avoiding the debt i owe and that is a normal opinion but the banks have a duty to follow the law and if they fail to keep the appropriate records/forms then we have the right to challenge the terms and conditions and the legality of any credit agreement. Thanks for reading

Hi guys. I'm new to this forum. Hope I'll be of some help to people in the future. Nevertheless, I have a question. But before the latter, here is my story: We bought a flat and called up N-Power to inform them that we were the new tenants and told them to continue providing our property with both gas and electricity for the time being until we settle and compare the prices thoroughly. In the early October 2013, our boiler broke down and on the 16th of October 2013 we found someone who could fit a new boiler for us. There were three people all together (one was an installer, one was a gas engineer and one was an electric engineer); before installing the boiler, the two engineers had to switch off the gas from the outside as they had to weld the new pipes, etc. Upon going outside they have discovered that the gas meter which was labelled with my flat number was incorrectly marked, they explained to me that my gas meter seems to be the box marked with flat number 10. They told me that they would need to work with fire in order to mend some pipes and thus switching off the correct gas pipe was a vital procedure. We did some tests. When they switched off the gas meter marked with No.19, nothing happened and gas still went through to our property. When they switched off the box marked as No.10, our gas switched off completely. They also showed me how the three boxes had their own pipes that were connected to three different floors; and how box No.10's pipe went right to my kitchen on the 2nd floor; very obvious. After installing the boiler I called N-Power the same evening in order to inform them of the situation; that was on 16th October 2013. The lady who I spoke to advised me that our property was most likely cross labelled and that it is a common mistake. She booked an engineer for an assessment of our meter box and so I can start being charged the correct price based on my actual usage; I provided N-Power with the meter reading for box No.10 on that day. Long story short, an engineer never came and I was lied to. Then the manager has rebooked the engineer for the 16th of January 2014, and I told him that I wish to see and speak to an engineer so that we can test our gas the same way we tested it with the gas boiler engineers; N-Power advised me that the engineer will have my mobile in case he wishes to contact me for further testing. The appointment date has gone, I got no notification at all and never saw any engineer. I waited until the 3rd of February and N-Power has not even sent me a letter to say sorry or to ring me and ask if everything has been sorted. I called them on that day. They informed me that an engineer attended the property. I got so angry and frustrated. The advisor told me that they need to take some payment from me as the sum is adding up. I told him, what sum? They do not even have an idea of what I am using. The advisor informed me that I should pay for box No.19; I argued this point as I did not want to pay for someone else's usage, so he proceeded to say that they would need to charge me a standard price of £190-£240 until they sort out the problem and then they would reimburse me the difference back; I obviously rejected this amazing offer. The guy who I spoke to said that an engineer came, did all the tests and said that the box which is marked with No.19 is the correct box. I do not believe that an engineer attended the property; this was confirmed when I called up in the end of April and/or beginning of May to get some dates for my record. Furthermore, I had to speak to a manager and we got to a conclusion that I won't pay for their services (both electricity and gas) until N-Power sorts out my problem; my complaint was escalated to a different department who deals with serious complaints. On the 1st of April of 2014, I received a letter from them saying that they are working hard to help me. I know that these are just automated letters sent out to make people shut up. It's now 1st of September 2014. I have lost my faith in N-Power and no longer willing to pay them a penny; I wish to move to a different energy provider. I can confidently say that this is and was the worst customer service I have ever received in my entire life, and in the future life if I am reincarnated. Shall I go to a small claims court with the above information? What could I claim for? I mean, stress, frustration; that won't help a lot would it? I want my bills to be abolished and I wish to move on to a different provider. I contacted the ombudsmen in May, and they're still dealing with my case. Any advice guys?

Hi guys. I'm new to this forum. Hope I'll be of some help to people in the future. Nevertheless, I have a question. But before the latter, here is my story: We bought a flat and called up N-Power to inform them that we were the new tenants and told them to continue providing our property with both gas and electricity for the time being until we settle and compare the prices thoroughly. In the early October 2013, our boiler broke down and on the 16th of October 2013 we found someone who could fit a new boiler for us. There were three people all together (one was an installer, one was a gas engineer and one was an electric engineer); before installing the boiler, the two engineers had to switch off the gas from the outside as they had to weld the new pipes, etc. Upon going outside they have discovered that the gas meter which was labelled with my flat number was incorrectly marked, they explained to me that my gas meter seems to be the box marked with flat number 10. They told me that they would need to work with fire in order to mend some pipes and thus switching off the correct gas pipe was a vital procedure. We did some tests. When they switched off the gas meter marked with No.19, nothing happened and gas still went through to our property. When they switched off the box marked as No.10, our gas switched off completely. They also showed me how the three boxes had their own pipes that were connected to three different floors; and how box No.10's pipe went right to my kitchen on the 2nd floor; very obvious. After installing the boiler I called N-Power the same evening in order to inform them of the situation; that was on 16th October 2013. The lady who I spoke to advised me that our property was most likely cross labelled and that it is a common mistake. She booked an engineer for an assessment of our meter box and so I can start being charged the correct price based on my actual usage; I provided N-Power with the meter reading for box No.10 on that day. Long story short, an engineer never came and I was lied to. Then the manager has rebooked the engineer for the 16th of January 2014, and I told him that I wish to see and speak to an engineer so that we can test our gas the same way we tested it with the gas boiler engineers; N-Power advised me that the engineer will have my mobile in case he wishes to contact me for further testing. The appointment date has gone, I got no notification at all and never saw any engineer. I waited until the 3rd of February and N-Power has not even sent me a letter to say sorry or to ring me and ask if everything has been sorted. I called them on that day. They informed me that an engineer attended the property. I got so angry and frustrated. The advisor told me that they need to take some payment from me as the sum is adding up. I told him, what sum? They do not even have an idea of what I am using. The advisor informed me that I should pay for box No.19; I argued this point as I did not want to pay for someone else's usage, so he proceeded to say that they would need to charge me a standard price of £190-£240 until they sort out the problem and then they would reimburse me the difference back; I obviously rejected this amazing offer. The guy who I spoke to said that an engineer came, did all the tests and said that the box which is marked with No.19 is the correct box. I do not believe that an engineer attended the property; this was confirmed when I called up in the end of April and/or beginning of May to get some dates for my record. Furthermore, I had to speak to a manager and we got to a conclusion that I won't pay for their services (both electricity and gas) until N-Power sorts out my problem; my complaint was escalated to a different department who deals with serious complaints. On the 1st of April of 2014, I received a letter from them saying that they are working hard to help me. I know that these are just automated letters sent out to make people shut up. It's now 1st of September 2014. I have lost my faith in N-Power and no longer willing to pay them a penny; I wish to move to a different energy provider. I can confidently say that this is and was the worst customer service I have ever received in my entire life, and in the future life if I am reincarnated. Shall I go to a small claims court with the above information? What could I claim for? I mean, stress, frustration; that won't help a lot would it? I want my bills to be abolished and I wish to move on to a different provider. I contacted the ombudsmen in May, and they're still dealing with my case. Any advice guys?

Hi, I signed up with Scottish Power and they took the wrong meter reading. They billed me for about £600 for the first month even though I hardly use any gas at all. Their customer service was rubbish which meant I eventually went to the ombudsman. The ombudsman agreed with Scottish Power to correct the opening reading and as it had taken a while to sort it was agreed that I would pay £40 a month until the real bill was cleared at which time I would get away from Scottish Power. Since February I have been paying the £40 a month without any issues until yesterday morning when I received a letter from a debt collector threatening to break into my house to turn off my gas. I am in bits about this. My husband is severely disabled and I am scared to go out and leave him alone in case someone breaks our front door in. Can Scottish Power just ignore the ombudsman? What have I done wrong? I cant afford to pay the £300ish that is left on my gas bill in one go and I don't know what to do.

Hi there, I need some advice regarding an outstanding bill we have received, there is no explanation of what these outstanding charges are for apart from a sum of £48.70, we are on a key meter at the minute so we can control our usage better and avoid bills piling up, we have no previous debt on the meter and are not in a contract yet when we decided to switch to a new supplier amazingly this debt was sudden raised how is this possible, the excuse we were told was to do with price fluctuations or something but how is this our fault. we pay what they charge at the time via our top up key at a paypoint, we have people collecting meter readings and so on, we are still currently using the Scottish power meter key to top up our electricity, We forgot to send off our meter reading to our new supplier when we switched I believe we have left it to late now, our account with Scottish power is now closed. They phoned us regarding the charges and I refused to pay them for these charges as there was no explanation for them, they also told me that my account was closed. We were told recently after yet another call they would now re-evaluate the charges by contacting our new supplier and calculating it from current meter reading. In my opinion charges like this are disgusting and dishonest this is the exact reason people use a (pay as you) go pre-payment meter to avoid sudden bills like this Sorry about the Rant I am just annoyed as i could do with out this at the minute. Any help would be appreciated Thanks Steve.

Gambling website Paddy Power admitted today that hackers stole the personal details of more than 600,000 customers in a cyber attack four years ago, and that it "suspected" the leak at the time but failed to warn those who may have been exposed to a greater risk of identity theft. The company revealed in a statement that it was aware of an attack on its computer system in 2010 and conducted an investigation that led to a suspicion that “some non-financial customer information may have been exposed”. However, despite the potential risks to its customers, it did not inform users of the breach. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/internet-security/11003685/Paddy-Power-hackers-stole-details-of-600000-users.html

Hi, I`m not sure if this is the right forum to be asking this but dont know where else to look. I have a parent (My mum) who is disabled with multiple sclerosis. since 2010 she has been in a care home as my Dad tool ill at this time and he was her main carer. He passed away in late 2010. My dad was her appointee and dealt with her benefits and when he passed this was transfered to me. He also had left a pension which should of paid my mum a lump sum of money and a widows pension on a monthly basis. I have tried to claim this on my mothers behalf but they refused blank saying I need to be her power of Attorney. I have no idea how to go about getting this as my mum did not appoint anyone when she was fit and able. I live in N. Ireland, (I`m not sure if its a different process for different parts of the UK?) Another question I have is if there is even any point in claiming the pension for her. Her care is trust funded and I am unsure if it will go straight to the trust to fund her care or wether she is allowed to keep a certain amount? I`ve read a few things that she may be able to keep £16,000 (which the lump sum for my fathers death is below). Also she had her own pension, it wasn`t for a great amount as she took the MS at a young age (early 30`s).. a letter came recently saying that her pot value was (£6000). I have read that in exceptional circumstances (IE permenant disablement) that it may be possible to take it as a lump sum. She is 54 now. I`m just not sure what to do, My mum has no savings and Ive seen her go down hill rapidly with the MS recently and I fear the worst should something happen.It would be a struggle atm for me to cover funeral expensis. Ideally I would like to get her this money and put it in an account should the worst happen someday. Lastly, is it possble for me to open one of those over 50`s funeral plans on my mums behalf, I have seen a few advertised and for a few pound a month they cover funeral costs. Sorry if my post sound morbid but recently seeing my mother deterioriate I have been thinking I need to plan for the worst Jack

Hello sorry this post is a bit long but it has been ongoing for a while I have been a pre paid customer of Scottish Power for approximately two years. Just before Christmas 2013 I broke my pre payment card. I phoned and after being on hold in excess of 45 mins I eventually spoke to an operator. He said he would send a new card in the post. I asked what I would have to do to change meter and pay by direct debit. He said it would cost me £62 and he would have to do a credit check. I agreed to both and he said my credit was A1. According to experian they searched me on 18th of December so everything was fine on this date. He said he would arrange to have my meter changed and call me back. He also set up a direct debit. After three days my new card arrived and instantly started taking £15 for credit. I phoned and after being on hold in excess of 45 mins I eventually spoke to an operator. He said that my meter was set to recover £15 a week to repay a £500 debit. He also told me that I had to pay my debts? I asked what tariff Iwas on and he said it was pre payment. He realized that this couldn't be correct. He would look into it and call me back. This to his credit he did. He explained that he could see money coming into my account and gas being used but for some reason the computer had not put the two together. He assured me he would sort this out but it would take him 10 days he would then re contact me to arrange changing my meter. I told him I was not happy and wanted to complain and that I didn't think I should be charged the £62 to change my meter. He said I would have to take that up with someone when he had sorted out the error. I would like to point out that at no time was I contacted about any arrears or offered a payment plan or means tested in any way. After 10 days nothing happened. I phoned and after being on hold in excess of 45 mins I eventually spoke to an operator. I explained the problem and he said that he had no idea why I had been told what the previous operator had said. He said that all the information was on the screen and he explained to me that for the first year I had paid in money but Scottish power had not taken it. There was therefore £485 in a black hole that he could see. He also said that for the second year they had taken my payments but during the whole two years they had not charged me for gas. He said he would put that right immediately and that my account would look strange. He said it would go from being £400 in credit to £500 in debit when he had charged me for gas but not to worry as we knew there was £485 in the black hole that he would recover. He arranged for a meter change for the afternoon of Feb 3rd 2014 as I would be home from work then and that he would waive the £62 fee. After this the meter seemed to take more money for debt. It remained at £15 but was much more frequent than once a week. I phoned and after being on hold in excess of 45 mins I eventually spoke to an operator. I informed her of the problems I was having and I was now struggling to pay other bills. And that I was incurring bank charges as a direct result. She said she would try and charge up my meter and put me on hold. After a while without reply she hung up. I decided that I would have to wait until the 3rd of February. When the 3rd of February arrived I had not received any notification so I phoned and after being on hold in excess of 45 mins I eventually spoke to an operator. She said that the meter appointment had been canceled on the 24th of January because no one lived at the address? I asked who had done this? She asked what I was expecting I told her I was expecting a change of meter this afternoon. She said the engineers worked till six oclock so why was I calling now? I reminded her of what she had just said but she denied saying it? She put me on hold while she looked at my account. She returned and told me the engineers had called that morning but no one was in. She said she would get them to call again and she would phone back at seven oclock to confirm they had been. Neither of these happened so I sent in a complaint. Then later that week. I phoned and after being on hold in excess of 45 mins I eventually spoke to an operator. I explained to her that financially things where desperate because of the excessive gas charges. She said I had overpaid by £74 and she would send this. After a few days. I phoned and after being on hold in excess of 45 mins I eventually spoke to an operator. I asked what was being done about my meter they said they would send an engineer to reset my meter. He came but said he was not resetting my meter Scottish power would have to reset my meter. He also said that Scottish power "do this all the time" and that they where "palming me off". All he could do was put £10 emergency credit on that I would be charged for any way. I phoned and after being on hold in excess of 45 mins I eventually spoke to an operator. She said he was wrong she told me to put my card in the meter and push a series of buttons. She asked what the meter was displaying? I told her it now said card invalid. So now I was short of money but couldn't get any gas anyway as my card was now not working. She told me to go to a shop on the other side of town she would give me a code number and they would give me a working card. I went to this shop but they said they did not deal with Scottish Power. She tried the code number anyway but the machine would not accept it. I phoned and after being on hold in excess of 45 mins I eventually spoke to an operator. He said he would send me a new card. After a week I had still not received my card. I phoned and after being on hold in excess of 45 mins I eventually spoke to an operator. He said he would send a new card and an engineer to reset the meter but I must be present. I asked why I needed to be present for the engineer when I wasn't present when it was originally increased before Christmas he said he would look into it and let me know? I left work early again to wait for the engineer who again put £10 credit on. The next day the new card arrived and seemed to work correctly. After this I transferred my account to British Gas. I was phoned by somebody asking why I was leaving Scottish Power. When I began to explain he told me to contact the Ombudsman. I found this strange that you would rather deal with the Ombudsman than spend 15 - 20 minutes listening to customer and trying to resolve his problems. I did pass my case to the Ombudsman but he informed me that they had not bothered to reply to him? He said he would base his decision on my statement alone. He has found in my favour but I have queried the amount. He has contacted them at least twice to ask you to suspend any further action. I was phoned by an operator to try and get me to pay the £500 that is showing on my account. After I explained to her what was happening she agreed that they had made a mistake and she would contact accounts to get my balance set to £0.00 and she would suspend any further action. Clearly she has not done this. I have made several phone calls and sent various emails/complaints all of which have been ignored. According to my online account I currently have eight complaints registered all of which have been ignored? This is only the complaints they have registered and does not take into account all the other communications that have been ignored (emails and phone calls). I am now receiving threatening letters from there debt collectors. I have also received a letter from Scottish Power that is clearly a demand for money as you can see the heading of the letter through the over-sized envelope window. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Also should the back billing agreement come into force?

Since 2002 I have had an EPA for my husband which states "to be my attorney for the general purpose of the Enduring Powers of Attorney Act 1985 with general authority to act on my behalf in relation to all my property and affairs" The only institution I am having trouble with is Natwest Bank. I do have online access to his account but they are refusing to change the address. I'm pretty sure the address they have is from 2008 which is where they are sending the post to - but they won't confirm this. The excuse is Data Protection! They tell me that the EPA only covers me for dealing with his account - they want a letter from him for the change of address. He can't do this - he has Bi-polar disorder, cancer and is undergoing chemotherapy. He can neither talk on the phone not hold a pen. Any advice or help would be great. Thanks

Can some one give me a bit of advice please, i have just taken over a public house and the previous tenants were using the property as a cannabis farm and were abstracting electricity, the police requested wpd to cut the power for safety reasons, the property had the power cut off from the under ground cable. my question is, will wpd charge me for re-connection and if so how much am i looking at:?:

Hello everyone, I was wondering if you guys could help me. This is my first time dealing with my own electricity bills, I moved into my flat in Feb and found out that Scottish Power provided the electricity (theres no gas in the flat), after being quoted 50 pounds a month I decided to stay with them as it was cheaper than most. About a month in I receive a letter stating I hadn't made my monthly cash plan, (I opted to pay via giro check) I thought it was odd as I hadn't even received a bill in the first place asking for my payment, I made the payment quickly as I didn't want a late payment on my record and affect my credit score. I rang up asking why hadn't I received a bill in the first place, they apologised and said that on their system it had been sent out, w/e. (Also bare in mind that the amount on the letter they were asking for was 61 pounds when I was originally quote 50 pounds) Another months rolls by and I still haven't gotten a bill for the April month, I rang up, again worried that a late payment would affect my credit score and was advised to use my old giro slip and make a payment. May comes around and still no bill for this month, I rang up again and was advised the same thing, to pay with the old giro slip. At this point I had another problem with scottish power that has since be resolved, (My account had been wiped for some reason) because of this problem decided to move providers, its switching on the 11th of this month (tomorrow, wooo). A week ago I receive a letter asking for 123.74 pounds for the months feb, march and april (even though i've paid it), when I looked closer at the details on the letter I find that its a different account number, a different name (one letter different) and addressed to an address that doesn't exist. (The address is basically mine but muddled around, the postman must have used his common sense and figured it was my letter and delivered it to me.) Everytime I ring up about this issue is that I never get a straight answer, no one knows why. The closest i've gotten to an answer was being switched to a department (I can't remember the name of the department) and being told his senior manager was going to take a look and ring me back as he has never seen anything like this. Alas, no one rang me back. I called up yesterday and was told that he can't find any previous payments of the 61 pounds i've been making, and insinuated that it was a problem on my end, something to do with my bank, even though I can look at my bank statements AND I have my receipts from when I made my payments at the post office via grio cheque. He put me on hold to speak to the debt team to see if they can find the payments, they can't. He told me that he was going to ring me back between 9 and 12 today (which I doubt) after he speaks to the debt team again. I don't know what to do guys, when I got off the phone I just started to cry, i'm sick of phoning up having to explain my situation again and been given different answers as to why this has happened. I should note that whenever I ring up, give them my REAL name, my REAL address and my REAL account number this other account pops up as well, so they are somehow connected. Part of me thinks that I should just wait when I submit my final metre reading tomorrow, and wait to see what they say in terms of how much I owe them then try and sort if out from there. Another part of me thinks I should ignore the letters asking for 123 pounds as it isn't even in my real name (one letter different) and addressed to an address that doesn't exist. What do I do?! I'm so worried that this is going to escalate to the point that bailiffs get involved even though I'm actively trying to sort it out!

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Since March I have been receiving letters from Scottish Power telling me I owe £2000 for a flat I have never lived in. These letters have been delivered to my mother's address, rather than my own. At first I did not take the letter seriously as I knew I owed them nothing. After the initial letter I received three duplicate letters telling me to pay up or face court action. I called Scottish Power who told me that the letters were not sent from them and that I should contact the police which I then did. I then received another letter saying court action has been taken and that they have obtained a warrant of entry. The letter states that they will enter my mother's property with or without permission to either cut off supply or install a prepayment metre. My mum isn't even with Scottish Power. I called again after receiving this letter to make sure they were not sent from SP, only to be told that they were in fact from SP. I was apologised to on the phone and told it was a mistake, that the false account would be deleted, however I was given no assurance that my mum's house would not be visited (the letter states this will be next week). I am very much concerned that someone from Scottish Power will arrive at my mother's and that I have nothing in writing to show them that they are wrong. I have emailed Scottish Power twice now with no reply. The only reassurance I received on the phone was that I would receive no more letters! What can I do to make sure my mother's house is not broken in to by SP??

Wonder what happened here ? http://www.scotsman.com/news/scotland/top-stories/power-restored-to-200-000-homes-after-blackout-1-3379065

hi around a month ago i received a letter from LCS claiming i owed Scottish power £250 for a unpaid gas bill from my previous address. they said the debt was from 20 dec 2013 to jan 2014, but i terminated my tenancy on the 9th of december oh and one other crucial point... . i NEVER had gas installed at my previous address it got installed after i moved out( council property) i contacted LCS who instructed me to contact my local council who i rented from and ask them to send proof of ending my tenancy, i have now done this twice but today i have received another letter threatening legal action within 10 days if i do not pay. can anyone help me with this? iam a genuine person and pay my bills but i will not pay this as i NEVER had gas at my previous address. thanks to anyone who could point me in the right direction.

After being with Scottish Power for over 3 years without any problems, I received a statement in September to inform me that, despite having paid the same amount (£69-70) a month for quite some time, my account was in debit by over £650 and that my direct debit would be £158 a month. This was very clearly wrong so I inspected the statement closely. It was then that I found the meter readings they had estimated for that bill had been swapped, leaving my night and day usage very different to those I was seeing on my meter. I tried to call them but was unable to get through I sent a detailed email, demonstrating the mistake and using their bill reading from the last statement to show how much it should have been with the unit prices given. I waited for several days to hear back but couldn't risk their new direct debit being set in motion before the matter was resolved so called again. The person I spoke to got rather upset by my tenacious attitude to my calculations being correct, even going so far as to tell me that I couldn't use the readings given in the bills Scottish Power had based all of their bills and charges on because they were only estimates. I calmly pointed out that, given the bill at an estimate and working out the extra amount up to the ACTUAL current readings would still be correct (being a maths teacher comes in handy sometimes you know!) I was told he would look into it and call me back the next day between 4 and 5pm. At 5:15pm I called them up again and spoke to someone who finally acknowledged that the readings had been changed, although he said it was quite some time back. To establish which reading was which I had to go through some procedures to get several spaced readings. I dutifully did this, calling back with my readings. He told me that, as the evening one showed movement of both readings, it wasn't good enough as it had to be only one. I pointed out that the other readings had only one moving but he wouldn't accept it and I had to go through the same procedure again with him phoning me. Once this had clarified the meters were the way I had said, an amended bill was sent through, illustrating the credit I expected to be in. I did not receive any new letter regarding my monthly payment I called them up and got verbal confirmation that my monthly DD would return to £69, which it did in October. This, I thought, was the matter resolved, although I was so disappointed with the way I had been treated and made to feel like I was at fault all the way through, not to mention the complete lack of apology from them for the distress and anxiety they had caused, that I looked into alternative suppliers. Imagine my surprise then to find they had changed my DD again this month, with no notice, and put it up to £93 (not a number quoted to me in any correspondence from them). As we have been living quite close to the edge this last few months, this could have taken quite a large impact on my financial situation, causing bank charges and return of payments. Would someone please give me some advice on what the best way to handle this is? I have cancelled my direct debit with the bank but don't trust their customer service to even listen before making judgement on whether I'm trouble. Is there someone higher up who would take this matter more seriously? If I hadn't been more than a little competent in understanding the maths behind how bills are put together I would have been forced to concede the advisors were correct and paid up £650+ that I didn't owe. I certainly wouldn't want this happening to anyone else if I can help it. Thanks

Hi We are landlords of a property and have been paying out for landlords home care with BG for a long time now. Since last year our boiler has been breaking down and just before christmas we were told by BG we need a Power Flush and a magabooster (what ever that is). We were told that if we did not get this done then any further breakdowns would cost us even though we pay monthly for our homecare cover. We received a quote from BG for just under £800. taking BG's advice and concerned about our tenant we had a power flush carried out by a 3rd party plumber which was much cheaper. This didn't resolve the boiler breaking again and this time we were told by BG that the power flush hasn't been carried out properly and we now need to replace our secondary heat exchanger which they quoted £600 for. We had the power flush carried out again and before we managed to change the heat exchanger the boiler died again this time not lighting the flame and has water leaking into the flame area. BG stressed this is due to the secondary heat exchanger needing replacing and again they do not think the power flush was done correctly. The secondary heat exchanger has now been replaced by a 3rd party due to BG's prices but when the 3rd party plumber went to fix this he noticed that a) the secondary heat exchanger was clogged up and no powerflush would have cleaned this but also that b) the primary heat exchanger is where the leak is coming from. It seems to have a hole in it. How does a heat exchanger produce a hole init?? We have done everything BG have asked for which so far has cost us time and just under £700. We are still no better off and have a tenant with no heating or hot water. We have called up BG again to get them to check the problem but are now concerned they will charge us for more bits as we did not go for their power flush. I am not sure where we stand with this as they have been telling my tenant that the parts are breaking due to the power flush which we are not convinced is the full problem. any advise would be greatful thanks