Tony Hetherington is the Financial Mail on Sunday’s top researcher, taking on readers’ corners, uncovering the truth that lies behind closed doors and delivering victories for those left out of their own pockets. Below you can read how you can contact him.
Mrs SW writes: In 2019, Scottish Power installed a smart meter. We didn’t pay much attention to bills because the screen never worked.
We later switched to Eon and could not understand why the bills were so high, but Eon could not view the readings of the smart meters. We then switched to British Gas but had the same problems so in 2021 we returned to Scottish Power.
We went on holiday and only left the fridge and freezer running but came back to a large bill so my husband bought a check meter and discovered that the smart meter was registering three or four times the actual figures.
Tony Hetherington replies: Scottish Power had told you that smart meters don’t go wrong and wanted to charge you £270 to carry out a check, so your husband did exactly the right thing.
Misleading: the readings were much higher than the energy consumed
You then complained to Scottish Power but got nowhere so you went to Ombudsman Services. Despite the official-sounding title, this is actually a company based in Warrington in Cheshire, now renamed the Energy Ombudsman, which is paid by various companies, including car park operators, to make representations about customers who complain.
Ombudsman Services has told you: ‘Scottish Power has made no comment in response to your complaint.’
It ruled that Scottish Power must replace the faulty meter, recalculate your bills to 2019, issue an apology and credit your account with £150 for all the inconvenience and inconvenience.
So far, so good. But that decision by the Ombudsman’s Office was already a year ago. But when you contacted me, you still had not received a recalculated invoice. You said to me: ‘If the Ombudsman can’t get Scottish Power to resolve this, a year after the decision, what hope does anyone have?’
It’s a fair question, so I put it to Scottish Power, who promptly replied: ‘We are very sorry for overcharging Mr and Mrs W due to a faulty meter, and for the time it took to to solve this problem.’ Scottish Power said it was ‘working with’ the Ombudsman to resolve the issues, and had amended its bills to include a goodwill gesture.
There was nothing to explain the years-long delay, and even the adjusted bills were incorrect as they still included £60 wrongly charged for check meter work. I went back to Scottish Power, who revised the arithmetic again, with a statement saying it was your final bill, and showing you had over £800 in credit.
But then came another explanation. It was also called your final settlement. And £136 was asked. You called Scottish Power and you were sure nothing was owed, so you paid nothing. Then a text message arrived saying that you had to pay immediately or agree on a payment plan.
You went online to look at your account and sent me a printout showing a zero balance, meaning you can’t pay anything anymore. Then came the threat of legal proceedings and damage to your credit, with the ominous news that: ‘Your account has been passed to our escalated recovery team for attention.’ Pay or face legal proceedings, seizure of goods or a raid on your bank account, Scottish Power said.
This was harassment and almost seemed like a robbery by a major company. Spokespeople kept telling me they were sorry and that your account had been reset, but the demands and threats kept coming. The left hand had no idea what the right hand was doing, and the right hand didn’t care.
After weeks of this, the demands have now stopped. Scottish Power has apologized again. And you have switched to another supplier. But why do scandals like this keep happening, not just in one company, but day after day, week after week, at utilities across the country? And why has the Ombudsman not seen his decision from last year implemented, or is it as weak as it seems? The sector faces many complaints and questions, but provides few answers.
A fantasy of getting help from BA
PG writes: I booked four return British Airways tickets from London to Aberdeen, for £917.
Two days later I had to change the return flight from 2:30 PM to 8:30 PM. BA charged £200 for this.
When I made the change the BA app said the price for the evening return was £640, but when BA deducted the amount from my bank account I was charged £200 plus the original £917.
Flying low: Getting an explanation from BA was like pulling teeth from an unwilling animal
Tony Hetherington replies: After changing the time of your return booking, you expected to pay €640. Instead, you had to pay £917 for the original afternoon flights, with an additional £200 for switching to the evening flight, making a total of £1,117.
I suspected the statement would be in the fine print of your original booking, so I emailed BA’s press office and received immediate confirmation that the airline would investigate and get back to me.
Two weeks later nothing had happened. More than three weeks later, there is still silence at the British foreign airline. I even had a long but completely pointless online conversation asking for the press office phone number and being offered numbers for lost luggage, new bookings and so on.
Finally, BA’s customer advisor said to me, “I’m sorry, but there’s no contact number for the press office.” I was told I should send an email, but I had already done that twice without getting a response.
I emailed BA again and said we would publish your complaint. This time it worked. And as I suspected, the answer was simply that your original booking was for non-refundable tickets worth £917, and not flexible tickets that could be changed.
If BA had later applied the £640 price for the evening flights, it would have meant you would have received a refund even if you had made a non-refundable booking. An easy explanation in the end, but getting it from BA was like pulling teeth out of an unwilling animal.
If you believe you have been a victim of financial misconduct, please write to Tony Hetherington at Financial Mail, 9 Derry Street, London W8 5HY or email tony.hetherington@mailonsunday.co.uk. Due to the large number of questions, personal answers cannot be given. Only send copies of original documents. Unfortunately, these cannot be returned.
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