ScottishPower has admitted they didn’t handle better during an IT upgrade. It was this mistake that led to a student living in Glasgow unnecessarily racking up a debt of £1,090. From December 2017 to July 2022, this debt had indeed piled up, the company later acknowledged. This was despite JL’s daughter living in a privately rented disability flat that had a prepayment electricity meter.
The prepayment meter dispute became more concerning when it let JL’s daughter go £5 into arrears. ScottishPower further compounded the wrong by increasing the amount owed through sending the debt to a collection agency. The debt collection firm started going after JL’s adult daughter for payment as recently as March 2023. Within 48 hours, JL had already contacted ScottishPower to register a complaint. She threatened them that, solely if needed, she could take the subject matter to Energy Ombudsman. ScottishPower did not respond to JL’s complaint at first.
Upon further investigation, ScottishPower determined that payments made by JL’s daughter and her flatmates had been incorrectly credited to a closed account under the landlord’s name. In this case, the credit balance on this specific account was £106. ScottishPower then took a bold step following this finding. They dropped all claims against JL, noting that they had forgiven the £1,090 debt last year.
ScottishPower has largely moved to address the issue in the meantime. The company has agreed to reimburse JL’s daughter £106. To compensate for the inconvenience experienced, they went further and paid a £250 goodwill payment.
“We have withdrawn all action and apologise for the inconvenience this has caused. We’ve issued a goodwill payment in recognition of the customer’s experience and can confirm there will be no adverse effect on her credit rating.” – A spokesperson for ScottishPower
ScottishPower had sold on the debt, classing that as bad debt written off, while the majority was to a third party. This action probably only increased the uncertainty and harm resulting from the purported debt. ScottishPower announced that they have made moves to ensure that similar mistakes do not occur in the future. They issued this statement after they had settled the case.