A single mum 'broke down in tears' after being wrongly charged nearly £2,500 for her energy bills. Shannon McBarron, 18, faced being left in thousands of pounds of debt after being wrongly charged over two months.
The mum-of-one who lives in a small flat with her 15-month-old son complained on November 7 when she was charged a whopping £996 for her energy bill in October, putting her account £886 in debt. This caused her some confusion as her bill had never usually been more than around £45.
Shannon called her provider, Scottish Power, and was told that the issue had been sorted, but the next time she logged onto her account (November 10) the amount she owed had shockingly jumped to £2,496.75. This nightmare came after her son had been in hospital with her Universal Credit coming no where near to covering this.
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She told CheshireLive : "When seeing the bill on Sunday, I broke down in tears and called my mum who has had troubles herself with Scottish Power in similar circumstances regarding bills. I barely slept that night, not only because of being paranoid over my sick son, but also worrying that I wouldn't be able to take care of him if I was left with no money to pay for his basic needs for the month.
"I had never felt so panicked before. His father is in the navy and is the one to usually help me figure out the best solutions to financial and home issues, keeping me calm and helping me understand the jargon."
She added that she has had issues with the provider since moving into her Crewe flat and that she has spent months trying to resolve this. It included the incorrect address being logged with her account twice although she was told this would be easily resolved. As recently as two weeks ago her account was £81 in credit before this ordeal.
"I'm a single mum with a toddler living in a small council flat. After bills come out, we have just enough to get by to the next month," Shannon added.
On Monday (November 7), she contacted her bank and cancelled the direct debit before Scottish Power could take any money out of the account. She then contacted the energy company, managing to speak to someone after two hours of trying.
She was told the initial issue with the address had 'never been resolved'. She said this meant she had been charged both for her address and the incorrect address that had been mistakenly linked with her account.
She said: "Once I finally got through to them again and after the lovely lady I ended up speaking to investigated the issue, it turns out they never resolved the address issue from months prior. She said I had been paying the bill for my address as well as any debt from the other address.
"Once the other address stopped paying their bill it had all been charged to me. Hence the huge build up of debt that nearly left me and my son bankrupt.
"It's disgusting how nonchalant some of the staff are when it comes to handling situations like this. I have been talked down to as if I am somehow in the wrong and just complaining over a couple quid."
After the company was contacted by Cheshire Live, Shannon said they had been in touch again. They told her they had cancelled her account, including the incorrect debt, and created a new one for her.
She added: "It's just a shame that I wasn't the first and certainly won't be the last person this happens to."
A spokesperson for Scottish Power said: "We apologise for the frustration and distress Ms McBarron has experienced and are working to resolve the issue. This stems from the incorrect address being recorded when she moved to a new property, which led to her being billed for energy used at the wrong property.
"We have corrected the address we hold on the account and contacted Ms McBarron to confirm this. We requested a photo of her meter reading to calculate a new bill, likely to be much lower than the amount on her current bill. Once this has been submitted, we will issue the correct bill, based on energy usage at the right property, before discussing a payment as a gesture of goodwill."
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