A single mum was left stunned after being hit with a bill for hundreds of pounds from her energy company. Jemma Mason, 32, from Stapleford, had been paying her gas bills to Scottish Power on a monthly pre-paid meter.
After deciding she wanted to switch to EON last month, she was then given a bill by her former energy company stating she owed them £435 - on top of what she had already been paying. She was told the debit had accrued between February and June of this year - all while she was topping up for her gas and paying a separate £140 monthly sum for her electricity.
Scottish Power has now admitted a mistake was made as they recieved a reading from the new supplier which was too high - the company has apologised to Ms Mason for the error.
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Ms Mason, who has a four-year-old daughter, said: "I was worried about them before I went with them - but I didn't listen, unfortunately. My mum's friend was asked to pay £800 when she was on a pre-payment plan. But I thought 'surely you can't get into debt like that with a pre-payment plan?'
"I switched to EON and then I got this bill for £435 and I thought 'that can't be right'. That's the reason why I was on a pre-payment plan, so I could avoid huge bills like that. It took me two hours to get through to them over the phone and I spoke to someone who was not helpful at all and just told me to make the payment."
The single mum, who works part-time, could not understand why she was being asked to pay so much. She says she could not afford to make the payment but was getting nowhere in trying to explain her problem to Scottish Power. She told Nottinghamshire Live she topped up her meter with £60 and then £30 straight away and had not used it a lot, apart from occasionally putting the heating on.
"I was getting four phone calls a day asking for money," she continued. "I tried to speak to them using the online chat feature, but that didn't work. I kept getting these letters telling me I needed to pay or they were going to forward it on to credit agencies. How could I have owed £435 in four months at the same time I was on a pre-payment plan?
"I told them that I couldn't pay them that much until I knew what the right amount is. I wasn't going to be left with enough money for me and my daughter."
It comes as experts have predicted a higher rise to the energy price cap in October. According to Cornwall Insight, the average gas and electricity bill in England, Wales and Scotland could reach as high as £3,615 by January.
A Scottish Power spokesperson: “In this case, when the customer switched from ScottishPower to a new supplier, we received a reading from the new supplier that was too high, which created an incorrect debt.”
“We have now inputted the correct meter reading details and cleared the debt. We have spoken with the customer to confirm this and apologised for not resolving this issue more quickly. As a gesture of goodwill, we have provided a £75 credit to their account.”
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