Here’s how ScottishPower does things: I closed my account when I moved.
They sent me my final bill – which hadn’t arrived (this is genuinely true – only this morning (9th Jan) I received a properly addressed, printed 1st class standard sized envelope from Wokingham postmarked 15th Dec so God knows what else is in a pile somewhere).
I now have a letter which arrived this morning (dated the 7th Jan) which says: “Court proceedings are now being instigated against you”.
Just been speaking to them, here’s the timeline: On the night of the 31st December, the first reminder was sent out. This run is generated AFTER the post has been sent out that day. The 1st Jan was a bank holiday, so post would not have been collected until Friday the 2nd. Then there was Sat/Sun, and the letter arrived on the morning of the 7th.
Meanwhile, at 01:39am on the morning of the 7th, the threatening letter was being printed. I tried to pay online as soon as I got the letter, but as others have found here, the payment system was down both on the web and automated phone system, so I had to phone ANOTHER number and hold to make a manual payment:
08453003949 07/01/2009 09:21:46 00:16:00 £0.36*
This means that they allowed THREE WORKING DAYS between generating the first reminder and the letter from a collections company. Their defence? “We use calendar days not working days when sending letters”. We also had an argument about “local rate” – I also said that I had to wait a long time in queue while they made money off me. He insisted 0845 was “local rate” in spite of an ASA adjudication over three years ago that stated companies should not refer to NGN (non-geographic numbers) as local rate (they aren’t).
] But that’s another matter. The only saving grace is that they were polite and apologetic (even in the face of some significant ranting from me!) and are going to send out a letter of explanation, apology, and confirmation of receipt of payment.
*As a footnote, I LOVE plusnet – having real-time call data and being able to say to companies “actually, I spoke to this person on this number at that time” is invaluable and has got me a few vouchers and credits after they deny ever having heard from me – love ya, Virgin Money – thanks for the wine, very generous and more than I was expecting!
