Confusing and frustrating experiences with Scottish Power website. What is new?

Why is it when I use the Scottish Power website trying to enter my meter readings it is always a confusing and frustrating experience? 

I transferred tariff at the end of May and my account still shows the old tariff name. In order to find out the actual costs for my new tariff it is like trying to find a needle in a haystack - I think I have found it by printing out 30 pages of price tables. And when I try to enter in my meter readings I must now go into several different screens. If you happen to enter a reading into the wrong screen the site allows you to do so but then rejects any subsequent readings made on the same date. I am also yet to find any way of contacting them except by telephone. And this from a company that states 86% of customers are satisfied with their online experience. One wonders what website these good folks are actually using!? 

And anyone that thinks I can just change supplier is wrong. Due to the type of heating I have I can have any electricity supplier I like as long as it is Scottish Power. In other words they can do anything they like and I am completely powerless to do anything. That is the privatised energy market in the UK for you. Wonderful isn't it?

#ScottishPower

Which costs more? The direct debit for electricity for a 6 bedroom town house, or a 2 bedroom tenement flat?

I have previously written about my issues with my energy supplier Scottish Power and the fact that I can realistically have any electricity supplier I like as long as it is Scottish Power.

Please see the story below...
http://cdbc81.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/change-power-supplier-what-if-you-cant.html

I know I am not alone in the old SSEB (South of Scotland Electricity Board) area in this position. I also know that I am not alone with other people in other areas of the UK being in similar positions with their old geographical electricity supplier. I have also written to my previous 2 Labour MPs on this subject receiving polite but dismissive replies, and am still awaiting for a reply from my current MP the SNP representative for Glasgow North East, Anne McLaughlin who I know and who I assisted in getting elected. However she has the honour so far of taking the longest time of any of them to reply. Hopefully her reply will be worth the wait but that remains to be seen.

Recently my monthly Scottish Power direct debit has more than doubled

I was somewhat dumbfounded to hear from Scottish Power last year stating that with immediate effect my direct debit would more than double from £44.00 to £98.00 per month.

I complained at the time having eventually got a reply and was advised that this was realistic given my electricity usage. Given that I have recently been reducing my electricity usage this was surprise to say the least but did not have the time to look into it due to other commitments.

Then in April this year I got a meter reading and thought surely this direct debit figure must come down. It didn't! My direct debit was raised to £103.00 per month.

This was a prompt, if I needed one, to look into things in detail.

Which of the following 2 properties do you think would have a higher electricity direct debit?

1. A 6 bedroom Glasgow West End townhouse. This is not my friend's property.

2. A 2 bedroom tenement ground floor flat, 2 of the windows in the building shown. This is not my tenement.

Which costs more? 
1. the direct debit for electricity for a 6 bedroom town house or 
2. the direct debit for electricity for a 2 bedroom tenement flat?

I checked with one of my friends who lives in a 6 bedroom town house in the west end of Glasgow who advised that they were paying £98.00 per month for gas and electricity with EDF. They do not have double glazing.

With me staying in a 2 bedroom tenement flat with double glazing the £103.00 was beginning to look rather ridiculous.

Therefore the answer to the above question is 2 i.e. the tenement flat.

My electricity usage has fallen, the unit costs have remained the same

Further investigation did indeed confirm my electricity usage has fallen, not increased over the last few years.

Also I discovered that the unit rates for charging had remained unchanged for several years.

Scottish Power are PROFITEERING at their customers expense

Therefore my only conclusion is that Scottish Power are operating on the principal that it is better for their 'valuable' customers money to be in their bank accounts rather than their own accounts so they can earn more money (also know as profiteering) for their share holders.

I would therefore advise anyone who can change electricity supplier from Scottish Power to do so without delay as they are not a company who you want to trust with your money. If I could change supplier without incurring a large additional change I would do so without delay.

If you cannot do this make a complaint as I have done, and ask for the vast overpayments which they are holding your behalf back. After all the money is nearly all ways better in your bank account than theirs.

Scottish Power customer service is lamentable at best

And this is nothing to do with their customer service which is lamentable at best for which I have just been advised that I am to receive a £73.00 refund for.

It illustrates the need yet again for energy companies to be brought back into public ownership rather than having big multi-national corporations profiteering at consumers expense for the supply of essential services.

Avoid dealing with this company if you can as it is profiteering at their customers expense

Essential services should be supplied by publicly owned companies not multi-nationals

If the market amongst energy suppliers actually worked to the customer's advantage then that would make things better. In my case I am unable to access that market thanks to the incompetence of the UK Government who privatised these utility companies in the first place and created the market in which they operate. The UK Government in their haste to raise a fast buck have failed and continue to fail their own people in this respect.

Change power supplier? What if you can’t without incurring a charge for several hundred pounds?

A favourite line of UK politicians in particular the Conservative and Liberal Democrat ones is that you can change supplier to save on your energy bills. This is backed up by ‘experts’ on the BBC, ITV and other main stream media outlets who always state that it is easy to change suppliers and should involve no charge. The latest of these ‘experts’ appeared on BBC Breakfast this morning (28.03.2014) and didn’t have a clue what she was talking about when faced with this problem.

The latest of these ‘experts’ appeared on BBC Breakfast this morning (28.03.2014) and didn’t have a clue what she was talking about when faced with this problem.

Due to the UK energy market not being a real market there are many people in my situation who cannot do this without incurring charges of hundreds of pounds. I was also told that there is no guarantee I would actually be able to get cheaper prices from another supplier anyway. 

there are many people in my situation who cannot do this without incurring charges of hundreds of pounds

This is due to the type of electric heating I have i.e. Scottish Power Comfort Plus White Meter where Scottish Power decide how much heating I get, although I can alter the settings additionally in each individual heater. Many people have Scottish Power White Meter (or Economy 7 in other areas) but this is different being operated using a time clock instead of the energy company, and therefore does not incur the same problem when changing supplier.

In reality I can have any power supplier I like as long as it is Scottish Power

Thus in reality I can have any power supplier I like as long as it is Scottish Power. I wrote to my MP about this and he told me I was making up my situation and of-course I could change supplier with no resultant charges (although the paperwork I sent to him from the 2 energy suppliers in question said different). 

My MP told me I was making up my situation and of-course I could change supplier with no resultant charges

My MP at that stage is now Lord Martin of Springburn and sits in the UK House of Lords, so he was well rewarded by being utterly incompetent at his job as speaker and MP too. I thought naively that Labour was meant to be the political party that tried to help, and also protect the most ill and most vulnerable. How wrong was I?

I have a long term illness which means I must live on benefits of £100 per week.

I have a long term illness which means I must live on benefits of £100 per week. How precisely am I meant to adequately heat my home on that meagre figure when I cannot benefit from the ability that I am told I have (but in reality I do not) of being able to shop around amongst energy suppliers for the cheapest tariff and therefore lower prices? My house is frequently cold from autumn right through to late spring which does nothing for my illness.