DCA Letter Following Dispute with Scottish Power

[jojonlp]

Hi,

 

I wonder if I couold ask for some help regarding our utility supplier Scottish Power

 

Last October we moved into our present home, once in we attempted to set up our

utilities online and we managed to get a favorable deal fixed for 12 months. However

Scottish Power cancelled both attampts to set these up online and gave no reason for this.

 

we contacted the Energy Ombusman who advised that there was little we could do

since we could not provide proof that Scottish Power had cancelled these arrangements.

Somehow the cancellation letters had been disgarded in the reorganisation following relocation.

 

What the Ombusman services did say though is that they would broker a deal

where we would be allowed to pay them back in an 'Affordable' agreement

and that the utility company would offer an apology and a slight concession on the bill.

 

This seemed acceptable and I duly contacted Scottish Power,

who were

a) Very off hand

b) Would not give us an affordable way of paying the amount back other than installing a meter.

 

We have never had the inflexibility of a meter and never been in debt at all

and as the problem was caused by them cancelling our agreements

and not answering our calls we thought that this was more than a little unfair.

 

we contacted the ombusman services and asked them to re engage

and re open the case since Scottish Power were not keeping their part of the agreement

which was to help us put in place an affordable solution.

 

Now it appears the Ombusman are just not answering our mails.

 

We are now trying to understand if there is anyone else we can contact to try to assist

and move things forward.

 

Any help or suggestions would be most welcome.

 

Citizens advice told us that they could not get involved because the Energy Ombusman was already involved.

 

The point is that they are not helping the situation and appear to now be ignoring our please for help here.

 

We will pay

we are just trying to get some sort of decent payment terms from Scottish Power

and just asking to be treated reasonably.

 

Many Thanks,

John.

[jojonlp]

Hi,

 

We have had an ongoing dispute with Scottish power since October last year.

We moved into our property which is owned by my partner and went online

and set up the direct debits etc for our utilities.

Scottish power cancelled these online agreements twice but gave no reason.

 

Then when we tried to call them we were left waiting on the telephone for long periods,

and often could not wait for them to answer,

 

This became an issue so we went to the ombudsman

they investigated but felt we could not provide enough proof that we had set up the online standing orders

or that we had tried to contact them.

 

The ombusman did very little other than just delay matters even more

in the end the ombusman attempted to close the issue

and I attempted to re open it but the obmusman clearly just started ignoring the letters/ communication.

 

In the end we contacted Scottish power a few weeks ago

and informed them that although we were not happy we would start to try to get rid of the otstanding amount.

 

We borrowed some money and managed to pay 200 off each of our utility bills only about a week ago,

with the full intention to pay more as soon as we get paid.

 

The new outstanding amount is currently 451 and Scottish power say they wont allow us

to set up a standing order to try to pay off more of it. Over the coming months.

 

Today we have received a letter from a DCA Grosvenor Legal Services

threatening that if we dont pay the full amount of 451 that we just don't have

a debt collection officer will attend the property within the next few days

to speak to us about the debt and conduct a pre disconnection survey of the property.

 

We are not sure how to respond to this and we are not fully aware of our rights

in granting access to these people if they turn up.

 

I have attached the letter we have received from the DCA.

 

Could you please give us some advice on how we should handle this from here on in.

 

Thanks,

John.

Edited August 20, 2014 by citizenB

[citizenB]

Thread moved to correct forum.

 

Can you please convert your image to pdf format as currently it is too tiny to read properly

[jojonlp]

Hi Citizen,

 

I have converted and re attached.

 

Many Thanks,

John.

 

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]52867[/ATTACH]

Edited August 20, 2014 by citizenB
personal information edited out

[citizenB]

I have unapproved your attachment for a few moments as you have left personal information on it. I will sort it out for you and post it back up.

 

Ok, all sorted.

 

One of the site team is pretty good with the Scottish Power situations.. I will leave a message for him.

Edited August 20, 2014 by citizenB

[jojonlp]

Thanks Citizen,

 

Best Regards,

John.

[rebel11]

Hi John

 

To summarize, 12 months ago you moved into a house, tried to set up direct debits which Scottish Power cancelled, they are now demanding 12 months of usage/payments? You can't pay that amount in the amounts demanded by Scottish Power. Is that correct?

[dx100uk]

can I just check a few things...

 

you had no previous debt to SP

 

the issues have simply come about because SP would not allow a DD to be setup when you moved in?

 

dx

[dx100uk]

darn beat me:lol:

[rebel11]

Bet you'd beat me over 100m these days:lol:

 

darn beat me:lol:

[rebel11]

Write a Formal Letter of Complaint, mark it as such. Explain what's happened (moved in 12 months ago, set up direct debts), how they have let you down (Scottish Power cancelled direct debits, poor customer service, failure to negotiate a fair discounted plan - it's there fault) and what you want them to do (discount the sum owed to an affordable amount).

 

Go to your bank ask them to provide proof that Scottish Power cancelled your Direct Debits and caused your current problem, send the proof with your email. The difficulty might be that you've already gone to the Ombudsman.

 

Send it to:-

 

Mr Keith Anderson

Chief Corporate Officer

Scottish Power

keith.anderson@scottishpo wer.com

 

Let us know how you get on.

 

[jojonlp]

Hi guys,

 

Sorry for the delay in responding.

 

We went to the bank and they said that they don't keep such records the agreements were done online at the Scottish Power website, SP are saying they have no record of them or any other conversations with us that's a lie I am sure but the ombusman failed to bring this out.

 

Whilst we could write a letter of complaint we could not supply the proof that we attempted to set up the DD. Should we still per sue the complaint letter angle?

 

You are quite correct we had NO previous debt to SP or any other utility company.

 

And yes the issues came about because they cancelled the DD's we setup with them online. I believe they have records to this effect but they are not admitting that.

 

Should we still write the letter of complaint?

 

What rights do we have if the DCA come to my address and attempt to gain entry in order to assess the meter etc.?

 

Thanks,

John.

[rebel11]

Hi jojonlp

 

You could send them both a SAR request, they have to send you all the data they have on the account, they have 40 days to comply, it will cost you £10 for each SAR request.

 

DCA's have no powers whatsoever, the post man has more powers.

Scottish Power would need to go to court to gain entry.

 

Get the ball rolling with the email, are there any circumstances that make you vulnerable?

 

7) DON'T BE BULLIED BY CREDITORS / DCA's CLICK HERE

8) IN DEBT DON'T PANIC CLICK HERE

 

 

Hi guys,

 

Sorry for the delay in responding.

 

We went to the bank and they said that they don't keep such records the agreements were done online at the Scottish Power website, SP are saying they have no record of them or any other conversations with us that's a lie I am sure but the ombusman failed to bring this out.

 

Whilst we could write a letter of complaint we could not supply the proof that we attempted to set up the DD. Should we still per sue the complaint letter angle?

 

You are quite correct we had NO previous debt to SP or any other utility company.

 

And yes the issues came about because they cancelled the DD's we setup with them online. I believe they have records to this effect but they are not admitting that.

 

Should we still write the letter of complaint?

 

What rights do we have if the DCA come to my address and attempt to gain entry in order to assess the meter etc.?

 

Thanks,

John.

[jojonlp]

Hi Rebel11,

 

Okay I will send them both a SAR, I have the address of the DCA but do you know what address I should send it to in SP I could not find their address in the Data Protection Public Register.

 

My partner suffers from depression and this is documented in her medical records, about 12 months ago she contracted Meningitis and was rushed into hospital. Her doctor warned her about stress and this situation has done nothing to ease that for her at all.

 

Many Thanks,

John.

[rebel11]

Hi jojonlp

 

Send the SAR request to Scottish Power at their registered office, send it Recorded Delivery.

 

Scottish Power Ltd.

Registered Office: 1 Atlantic Quay,

Glasgow G2 8SP

 

Send a SAR Request to your bank at their registered office, send it Recorded Delivery.

 

There is no benefit in sending a SAR to the DCA.

 

In your complaint state your partners personal circumstances and this situation is effecting her health.

 

Here is the OFT's guide on debt collection, there's info on 'vulnerable customers'.

 

http://www.gosportcab.hampshire.org.uk/OFT_Debt_Collector_Guidance_Oct_11_Rev.pdf

 

Hi Rebel11,

 

Okay I will send them both a SAR, I have the address of the DCA but do you know what address I should send it to in SP I could not find their address in the Data Protection Public Register.

 

My partner suffers from depression and this is documented in her medical records, about 12 months ago she contracted Meningitis and was rushed into hospital. Her doctor warned her about stress and this situation has done nothing to ease that for her at all.

 

Many Thanks,

John.

[jojonlp]

Hi,

 

I sent a letter of complaint and a SAR to Scottish Power, I didn't want to get into a fight with the bank at this time so I didn't do down this road right now.

 

That was 3 nearly 4 weeks ago and there has been no response from Scottish power at all?

 

The DCA has called me and left VM's on a couple of occasions but I never answer them.

 

 

We have also been making some payments although they really only amount to roughly

what we should be paying on utilities each month,

we really don't want to get too much further behind in payments.

 

Just wondered if I need to do anything else at this stage in terms of follow up?

 

Many Thanks,

John.

[rebel11]

They have 40 days, so they still have plenty of time to respond. After that you will need to send a chase letter giving them 7 days. Did you send the request Recorded Delivery?

 

QUOTE=jojonlp;4609843]Hi,

 

I sent a letter of complaint and a SAR to Scottish Power, I didn't want to get into a fight with the bank at this time so I didn't do down this road right now.

 

That was 3 nearly 4 weeks ago and there has been no response from Scottish power at all?

 

The DCA has called me and left VM's on a couple of occasions but I never answer them. We have also been making some payments although they really only amount to roughly what we should be paying on utilities each month, we really don't want to get too much further behind in payments.

 

Just wondered if I need to do anything else at this stage in terms of follow up?

 

Many Thanks,

John.

[jojonlp]

Hi Rebel11,

 

Yeah I did send both the letter of complaint and the SAR by recorded delivery,

so I guess I should just wait for the SAR 40 days to pass before I do anything?

 

What about the letter of complaint, should I do anything around that.

All I get at the moment are continued calls from the DCA which I am ignoring anyway.

 

Thanks,

John.

[jojonlp]

Hi,

 

Still nothing from SP regarding the letter of complaint or the SAR

 

 

I know as far as the SAR is concerned there is still more time to wait yet until the SAR date has passed,

I am surprised to find that there has been no response to the complaint though.

 

Do you know if they normally send their responses in a registered letter that needs to be signed for or would it normally just be a standard letter?

 

Since starting this thread my girlfriend who owns the house where the outstanding utilities are linked to, has been made redundant

She is a little afraid that the next thing might be a court order from SP or the DCA.

 

 

In this regard could we ask how this may play out,

when may they decide to take this action?

and who would it be that did it the DCA or SP?

 

Obviously we are not in the mood to make things easy for them in terms of trying to serve us with any court order

and we are just trying to understand how we need to handle things including the liklihood of being served a court order for the debt.

 

Many Thanks in advance,

Best Regards,

 

John.

[dx100uk]

only SP would ever do court

 

 

dx

[jojonlp]

Hi,

 

Just a quick update, we have still not heard anything from SP since we sent the SAR and letter of complaint about a month ago.

 

The DCA has left messages and of course as per previous experiences/information from here we are not talking to a 3rd party so we have never returned their calls or responded to their letters.

 

I am a bit surprised not to have heard anything at all yet from SP though.

 

Will keep you updated as we know more, thanks for all the reply's so far.

 

Thanks.

[jojonlp]

Hi All,

 

On Friday the 9th October we received the data from the SAR request that was sent to SP on the 27/8/2014.

Cannot remember what the timescales are that they have to respond in

could someone please clarify this for me, thanks.

Strangely though the date on the latter with the report says 15th September.

 

The actual report they have sent out does not explicetly show what I was hoping for in cast iron proof

we did set up a payment plan (which was done via a web based application twice and they had cancelled twice,

we believe they did this because they realised the terms were too favourable to us, costs were fixed for 24 months)

 

However what it does show was that in November 2013 they did receive a complaint through their website outlining

that we were appauled that the agreements setup on their website had been cancelled.

This is significant since when the Ombusman contacted SP they said in documented evidence that they had not had

ANY communication with us prior to the Ombusman getting involved.

 

The page that shows that we did talk to them prior to the Ombusman contact appears to have been altered

or has some of the text missing since for some reason it does not have the complete message

that came from our complaint after SP had cancelled our agreement the second time.

 

Also the tape recordings that they have sent via CD appear to outline that SP are continually lying about the fact that they are

 

a) Saying the were unaware that we had re opened the Ombusman case when in an earlier conversation

we can clearly be heard informing them that we were about to do that and them acknowledging

that we were then saying in a later recording that they were completely unaware that the case had been re opened.

 

b) The recordings also show that when we were trying to put in place a debt management settlement

and they kept moving the goal posts in terms of what we would be allowed to pay

 

It is a little difficult to convey everything that we are saying here

but what could be done is that I could set up a drop box and place everything into that for you to look at

although I do not want to tie you guys down with too much of this stuff you have already been great with the information

I have gleened from you all, many thanks for all the help.

 

The current position is that SP did not respond to my letter of complaint directly asking as you advised for a larger amount of compensation.

They have as above now sent the report from the SAR request.

There is still a mexican stand off in terms of they wont let us setup a direct debit

and we have been paying as much as we can afford right now at the Post office.

 

Could you please let me know what you think in terms of the next step.

 

Many Thanks,

John.

[rebel11]

Hi jojonlp

 

They had 40 days to respond to the SAR request, o.k. all the information isn't there. But you've got enough info from the SAR to go back to the Ombudsman. They are ignoring your emails, write to the Chief Ombudsman.

 

Write a Formal Letter of Complaint, mark it as such. Explain what's happened, how they have let you down and what you want them to do.

 

Enclose copies of the evidence the SAR has unearthed. Send it Recorded Delivery.

 

Send a copy to your MP. http://findyourmp.parliament.uk/

 

On your Formal Letter of Complaint write CC: XXXXXXX XXXXXX MP, xxxxxxxxx, xxxxxxxxx.

 

Send it to:-

 

Mr Lewis Shand Smith

Chief Ombudsman

Ombudsman Services

lshandsmith@ombudsman-services.org

 

No need post your stuff via Drop Box. Scottish Power pretty much do what they like, they don't get it, even after they get fined.

 

Scottish Power all sales, zero customer service:-

 

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/oct/11/scottish-power-ombudsman-bills-compensation

[jojonlp]

Hi Guys,

 

I have followed your recommendations and sent my complaint by reordered to David Blunkett (Our local MP) sent that on the 20th October, still have not got any reply from his office.

 

Also sent it by email to Mr Lewis Shand Smith, his office has just replied saying that they were not fully happy about the way the inquiry was carried out and as full and final settlement they would like to pay me £50 but oddly made no new reference to the issues I had raised about SP. Have not replied yet just wanted your take on this I am not really happy since I was hoping they would re open the inquiry in light of the new information and I had sent Mr Lewis Shand Smith a list on what I would like to see as a resolution and they have not responded to that either.

 

Many Thanks for your continued help.

Best Regards,

John.

[jojonlp]

Hi,

 

Could I have some more advice on how I should proceed, I was advised to send a letter of complaint to the Ombudsman again and also to my House of Commons politrician which is David Blunkett.

 

I have sent both and about a week ago the Mr Lewis Shand Smith Chief Ombudsman, who has replieed about 10 days after this (Ithought I had posted onto the site when he replied but I cant find the comment I left?). Mr Shand Smith advised that he had found diecrepencies with the way they had handled the case and the fact that they had not communicated clearly and in any sort of timely manner, he offered me a small payment of £50 to recitify their short-cummings but did not comment on anything lese from the latter regarding the complaints that I had with Scottish Power.

 

I have had absolutrely no reply from David Blunkett and the leeter was sent recorded deliver so I know his office recieved it. Just not sure where to go from here.

 

Could you also advise me how I can check if there is a duplicate thread in the site since I am sure I commented about 7 or 8 days ago and as I mentioned earlier could not find the thread.

 

Many Thanks,

John.