A PENSIONER has told how he was harassed by an energy giant over an unpaid bill – despite him being with a different provider.
Terry Donnelly says he was hounded with more than 50 stern letters demanding he cough up £566 before debt collectors came knocking.
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The 66-year-old, from Liverpool, moved into his apartment and immediately cancelled the existing account with Scottish Power.
He set himself up with Octopus – but a month later was told he owed Scottish Power the hefty sum.
With nowhere left to turn, Terry, a retired surveyor, contacted his local MP and eventually managed to get the debt wiped.
And while Scottish Power has apologised to Labour’s Paula Barker, Terry himself says he hasn’t had a word.
He said: “It’s just been an absolute nightmare.
“They’ve stopped sending the bills now but they still haven’t said sorry to me.”
Terry said he received his first letter in December 2019 and was then consistently delivered them for the next two years.
“I didn’t particularly want to be with Scottish Power so I swapped to Octopus, and that was all fine until Scottish Power kept sending me bills,” he said.
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“I kept calling them up and telling them ‘look, I’m with Octopus’.
“By March of 2020 it got so bad that I sent them a cease and desist letter so they would stop sending me bill – but it kept going on.
“I kept ringing them up saying ‘stop it, stop it, stop it’.”
Terry said the stress almost drove him to contemplate suicide.
“They would just not stop,” he added. “They sent debt collectors and everything.
“I was begging them, absolutely begging them to stop.
“I suffer from PTSD and depression and I told them all that but they kept going – it was harassment.
“They totally ignored me and everyone, including the ombudsman.
“They ended up saying that I owed them £566 – but I didn’t owe them because I had been paying Octopus.”
It’s just been an absolute nightmare.
Terry Donnelly
Eventually, Scottish Power stopped contacting Terry after he approached his local MP, and it apologised for the “stress caused to the constituent”.
A spokesperson confirmed the provider had been correctly billing “the occupier”, and blamed Octopus for the mix-up.
They added: “We understand Mr Donnelly’s frustration and have apologised for any distress caused; however, we have billed the property correctly.
“While Mr Donnelly understood his energy supply had transferred over and an account set up with Octopus, the electricity supply remained with Scottish Power as Octopus didn’t register his electricity meter as it should have done.
HOW TO CHALLENGE YOUR BILL
Before you dispute your bill, you need to know your rights.
If you pay by direct debit, then this monthly amount should be “fair and reasonable”.
If you don’t think it is, you can complain to the company in the first instance.
If you’re not happy with the outcome you can take it to the independent Energy Ombudsman to dispute, but there are a few steps before you get to that stage.
Your supplier must clearly explain why it’s chosen that amount for your direct debit.
If you’ve got credit on your account, you have every right to get it back – although some experts recommend keeping it there through the summer, so your bills don’t go up in the winter when you use more energy.
Your supplier must refund you or explain exactly why not otherwise and the regulator, Ofgem, can fine suppliers if they don’t.
If you are disputing a bill, taking a meter reading is a must.
You can usually get in touch with your provider by email, letter or telephone, but keep a record of contact that you make so you can reference it later if need be.
Charities like Citizens Advice have template complaints letters you can use to help with the process.
“Following contact from Mr Donnelly’s MP, we’ve worked behind the scenes with Octopus to resolve this.
“Octopus has now paid the outstanding balance on Mr Donnelly’s Scottish Power account and has been asked to correctly process the transfer of supply.
“Once complete, Mr Donnelly’s Scottish Power account will be closed.”
A spokesperson for Octopus said: “We are aware of Mr Donnelly’s case – his account suffered from a technical error, which we resolved as soon as we found out that Scottish Power were still sending him bills.
“At the time, our Head of Operations got in touch with him to explain what had happened and that we had refunded his charges with us, paid his bill with Scottish Power and completed his switch to Octopus Energy.
“He was very happy with the service he had received and he’s now on one of our cheapest fixed tariffs, backdated to last year so as to benefit from the lower energy prices available then.”
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